Jonson Ben - Ben Jonson: a life

BEN JONSON

IAN DONALDSON

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Ian Donaldson 2011
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First published 2011
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Library of Congrees Control Number: 2011934698

Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
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ISBN 9780198129769

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FOR GRAZIA

THIS book has been greatly delayed but also (I hope) appreciably enhanced by another undertaking with whichtogether with my friends David Bevington and Martin Butler and an international team of editorsIve been simultaneously engaged over the past decade and a half, and which is also now approaching completion: The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson. Ive learnt much from this large collaborative exercise, and am grateful to all members of the editorial team for the illumination they have (wittingly or unwittingly) provided for this present study of Jonsons life. Particular debts to these editors are acknowledged in the text or end-notes of this book, but some special acts of kindness must be mentioned here. James Loxley has generously allowed me to quote from a hitherto unknown document which he discovered in the Cheshire and Chester archives relating to Jonsons walk to Scotland, which he and Julie Sanders are currently preparing for publication. He and Tom Cain have commented helpfully on early chapters of the book. David Bevington and Martin Butler have aided and encouraged the present work in more ways than I can easily describe or repay. Professor Butler has read the entire typescript with a sharp eye, making many suggestions for improvement, and rescuing me from errors. I thank him warmly for this help, and both these colleagues for their friendship and support.

I am grateful for the encouragement and advice offered in the earliest stages of my work by Kevin Sharpe, Alvin B. Kernan, the late Jonas A. Barish, the late J. B. Bamborough, and the late Samuel Schoenbaum, as well as by two authors of earlier studies of Jonsons life, David Riggs and David Kay; and by members of a class on Ben Jonson in his Age I was privileged to run at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, in 1988. Ian Britain and Park Honan offered helpful comments on individual chapters, and Peter Rose kindly reviewed a late draft of the entire manuscript. I am indebted to other friends who have offered help, information, and support: Nick Alfieri, Anne Barton, Kate Bennett, Jonquil Bevan, Mark Bland, Michael Brennan, Karen Britland, the late Derek Britton, Christopher Burlinson, Colin Burrow, Graeme W. Clarke, David Colclough, Katherine Craik, Richard Dutton, Robert C. Evans, John Frow, Ian Gadd, Eugene Giddens, R. D. S. Jack, David Jaff, Peter Jones, the late Sir Frank Kermode, John Kerrigan, Arthur Kinney, James Knowles, Hester Lees-Jeffries, David Lockie, the late D. F. McKenzie, Rosalind Miles, John Morrill, Lena Cowen Orlin, Michael OSullivan, John S. Richardson, the late Tony Tanner, James Tulip, the late Stephen Wall, Henry Woudhuysen, and the late Iain Wright. I owe special thanks to Richard Holmes for his encouragement and good counsel.

My enjoyment and understanding of Jonsons life and writings have been constantly extended by the students Ive had the pleasure of teaching at four universitiesthe Australian National University, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Melbournewhile writing this book. I thank them warmly and collectively for all I have learnt from our discussions. I am particularly indebted to the work of my former Cambridge doctoral students Gabriel Heaton, Tom Lockwood, and Andrew Lynn, on which I gratefully draw in this book.

This book was originally commissioned by the late Kim Scott Walwyn, an inspirational editor. I am deeply grateful for her initiative and trust, and sad that she is not here to see the book in its final state. Her colleagues and successors at Oxford University Press have been unfailingly helpful and supportive. Sophie Goldsworthy has maintained a close eye on the books progress; Andrew McNeillie has spurred me forward during critical stages of rewriting; and Jacqueline Baker has offered encouraging guidance throughout the final period of composition. I thank them all most sincerely, as I do the books assistant editor, Ariane Petit, its copy-editor, Jackie Pritchard, and its picture editor, Sandra Assersohn.

My greatest debt is to my wife, Grazia Gunn, to whom this book is lovingly dedicated.

Despite my best efforts, some copyright holders remained untraced at the time this book went to press. If you hold or administer rights for images published here, please contact the publisher. Any errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Frontispiece. Ben Jonson, by Abraham van Blyenberch, c.1617

National Portrait Gallery, London

William Drummond of Hawthornden. Anonymous painting on wood, 1623.

Edinburgh University Library

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Hawthornden Castle in 1842, painted in 1844 by Sir William Allen

Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh/The Bridgeman Art Library

Camden, scholar and antiquary, by Marcus Gheeraerts the younger, 1622

The Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford: photo by Photographic Survey, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, c.1596, after Marcus Gheeraerts the younger

National Portrait Gallery, London/The Bridgeman Art Library

portrait of 1591), in the 1635 edition of Donnes Poems

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (Douce D 38)

Elizabeth I as Iris: the Rainbow portrait, c.1600. Attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts