The Alchemist

THE greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first literary

dictator and poet-laureate, a writer of verse, prose, satire, and criticism who

most potently of all the men of his time affected the subsequent course of

English letters: such was Ben Jonson, and as such his strong personality

assumes an interest to us almost unparalleled, at least in his age.

Ben Jonson came of the stock that was centuries after to give to the world

Thomas Carlyle; for Jonson's grandfather was of Annandale, over the Solway,

whence he migrated to England. Jonson's father lost his estate under Queen

Mary, "having been cast into prison and forfeited." He entered the church, but

died a month before his illustrious son was born, leaving his widow and child in

poverty. Jonson's birthplace was Westminster, and the time of his birth early in

1573. He was thus nearly ten years Shakespeare's junior, and less well off, if a

trifle better born. But Jonson did not profit even by this slight advantage. His

mother married beneath her, a wright or bricklayer, and Jonson was for a time

apprenticed to the trade.