Ben Jonson (originally Benjamin Jonson /?d??ns?n/; c. 11 June 1572 – 6 August 1637) was an English playwright, poet, and literary critic of the seventeenth century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Foxe (1605), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedy (1614), and for his lyric poetry; he is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I.Jonson was a classically educated, well-read, and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual) whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642).
The quotation on his gravestone is ambiguous. It reads "O Rare Ben Jonson", which can be taken literally, but it can also be taken to be the Latin phrase "Orare Ben Jonson (Pray for Ben Jonson)".
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His most famous play, "Volpone", has been filmed several times in several languages, as well as used as the basis of several free adaptations, but oddly enough, it has yet to be filmed as Jonson actually wrote it - in Elizabethan blank verse; this despite the fact that Jonson was one of the most famous English dramatists of his time. It has, however, been presented as a videotaped performance on American television.
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He was a personal friend of William Shakespeare, and wrote a sonnet praising him in the 1623 published edition of Shakespeare's complete works.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Volpone
2003
TV Movie play
Poetic Inspirations
2000
Documentary poems
Adventures from the Book of Virtues
1996
TV Series poem "Truth" - 1 episode
Il volpone
1988
play
A hallgatag hölgy
1983
TV Movie
Au théâtre ce soir
1978
TV Series play - 1 episode
Volpone eli Kettu
1977
TV Movie play "Volpone"
L'alchimiste
1974
TV Movie
Volpone
1974
TV Movie
Hora once
1973
TV Series 1 episode
De Alchemist
1971
TV Movie
Volpone
1970
TV Movie play
Festival
1969
TV Series writer - 1 episode
Teatro de siempre
TV Series 1 episode, 1968 play "Volpone" - 1 episode, 1967
Volpone
1967
TV Series play - 3 episodes
The Honey Pot
1967
play "Volpone"
Volpone oder Der Fuchs
1966
TV Movie play
Primera fila
1965
TV Series play - 1 episode
Camera Three
1964
TV Series play "The Alchemist" - 1 episode
Volpone
1964
TV Movie play
The Alchemist
1961
TV Movie play
Play of the Week
1960
TV Series play - 1 episode
World Theatre
1959
TV Mini-Series play - 1 episode
Der Alchimist
1959
TV Movie play
Volpone
1958
TV Movie play
Teledrama
1957
TV Series play - 1 episode
Volpone
1948
TV Movie play
Don Simón de Lira
1946
play "Volpone"
The Desperadoes
1943
poem "To Celia" - uncredited
Volpone
1941
play
Tiburón
1933
play "Volpone"
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
Indian Summers
2015
TV Mini-Series lyrics - 1 episode
Pride
2014/I
lyrics: "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes"
Midsomer Murders
2010
TV Series lyrics - 1 episode
The New World
2005
lyrics: "Melt Earth to Sea"
The Sopranos
2002
TV Series lyrics - 1 episode
När karusellerna sover
1998
TV Series lyrics - 1 episode
Sense and Sensibility
1995
"The Dreame"
Number 10
1983
TV Mini-Series lyrics - 1 episode
Upstairs, Downstairs
TV Series music - 1 episode, 1974 writer - 1 episode, 1974
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
1972
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" - uncredited
The Onedin Line
1971
TV Series lyrics - 1 episode
Carry on Screaming!
1966
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only With Thine eyes" - uncredited
The Little Shop of Horrors
1960
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1616 - uncredited
The Moon Is Blue
1953
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" - uncredited
Let's Make It Legal
1951
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes"
Belle Le Grand
1951
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" - uncredited
The Inspector General
1949
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1780? - uncredited
The Time of Their Lives
1946
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1616 - uncredited
Ghosts on the Loose
1943
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" - uncredited
The Desperadoes
1943
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1616 - uncredited
Get Hep to Love
1942
lyrics: "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" - uncredited
Smilin' Through
1941
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1616 - uncredited
Northwest Passage
1940
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1780? - uncredited
Bad Little Angel
1939
lyrics: "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes"
Wanted: No Master
1939
Short lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes"
Housemaster
1938
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" - uncredited
Lloyd's of London
1936
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1616 - uncredited
I Love to Singa
1936
Short lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" - uncredited
Day of Reckoning
1933
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" - uncredited
Alexander Hamilton
1931
lyrics: "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1780? - uncredited
Captain Applejack
1931
lyrics: "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" - uncredited