Pejman Yousefzadeh

Brian Vickers:

In the summer of 1619, two writers evaluated Ben Jonson’s character and career in contrasting terms. Anthony à Wood, in his biographical dictionary of distinguished Oxford alumni, summarized the reasons why Richard Corbett of Christ Church “and other poets of this University did in reverence for his parts” propose him for an MA Degree:

“His own proper industry and addiction to books, especially to ancient poets and classical authors, made him a person of curious learning and judgement, and of singular excellence in the art of poetry.”

At much the same time, William Drummond, Laird of Hawthornden, near Edinburgh, having had Jonson staying with him after his epic walk from London to Scotland, noted this about his guest:

“He is a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and scorner of others, given rather to lose a friend than a jest, jealous of every word and action of those about him (especially after drink, which is one of the elements in which he liveth) … . He is passionately kind and angry, careless either to gain or keep, vindicative, but if be well answered, at himself.”

The Informations to William Drummond, never intended for publication, are the most valuable biographical source for Jonson’s life and opinions about literature. Yet they are not always reliable. Having given his guest ample quantities of wine, Drummond recorded Jonson’s obiter dicta, punchlines in a conversation which the host may have guided, as Boswell sometimes did with Dr Johnson, with a mischievous intent. Drummond asks: “What think ye of Master Shakespeare?” Jonson replies: “That Shakespeare wanted art” – quite the opposite of what he was to write in his verses for the First Folio. Drummond’s critique of Jonson’s egoism may be excessive, yet the final sentence is perceptive about Jonson’s emotional extremes (“passionately kind and angry”), his lack of concern about earning or saving money, and his “vindicative” nature, a word “used here in its more positive Latin sense, ‘eager for judgement’ on all matters, including himself”.