Every Man in His Humour

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Standard Publications, Incorporated, 2008 - Drama - 292 pages
Ben Jonson coined the term poetmaster, which he defined as an inferior poet with pretensions to artistic value. Ben Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. He is known for his satirical plays such as Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. Jonson was a great reader and lover of controversy. He had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. In 1616 he received an annual pension of 100 marks making him the first Poet Laureate of England. "Every Man in His Humour¿ was Jonson¿s first dramatic success produced in 1598. The comic play tells the story of an intercepted letter, which enabled a father to follow his supposedly studious son to London, and there observe his life with the gallants of the day.

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About the author (2008)

Born in 1572, Ben Jonson rejected his father's bricklaying trade and ran away from his apprenticeship to join the army. He returned to England in 1592, working as an actor and playwright. In 1598, he was tried for murder after killing another actor in a duel, and was briefly imprisoned. One of his first plays, Every Man Out of His Humor (1599) had fellow playwright William Shakespeare as a cast member. His success grew with such works as Volpone (1605) and The Alchemist (1610) and he was popular at court, frequently writing the Christmas masque. He is considered a very fine Elizabethan poet. In some anti-Stratfordian circles he is proposed as the true author of Shakespeare's plays, though this view is not widely accepted. Jonson was appointed London historian in 1628, but that same year, his life took a downward turn. He suffered a paralyzing stroke and lost favor at court after an argument with architect Inigo Jones and the death of King James I. Ben Jonson died on August 6, 1637.

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