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About
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey THE ALCHEMIST: Audience Guide
Benjamin Jonson was born on July 11, 1572, two months after his father’s death.
Two years later, his mother remarried a master bricklayer. Jonson, who was
classically educated, well-read and cultured, began his schooling at St. Martin’s
Lane and was later afforded the opportunity to study at Westminster School by
a family friend. During this time, he formed a bond with one of his masters,
William Camden, who was an antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer
of arms. Camden’s broad-ranging scholarship and guidance of Jonson lasted
until Camden’s death in 1623. Once Jonson left the Westminster School, he was
expected to attend the University of Cambridge, but was obligated to fulfill an
apprenticeship with his bricklayer stepfather. After his apprenticeship ended,
Jonson traveled to the Netherlands and volunteered as a soldier with the English
regiments.
Jonson married a woman named Ann Lewis in 1594 at the Church of St. Magnus-
the-Martyr. The pair had a tumultuous marriage and they lived separate lives for
five years. The couple had three children, only one of whom lived to adulthood.
Their first child, Mary, died in 1593 at six months of age, and their second child,
Benjamin, died of the bubonic plague in 1603 at the age of seven. Their only
remaining son, also named Benjamin, died at the age of thirty-two.
Jonson’s classical training was clear in his writing, which emphasized form and
style over rhyme and meter, and mimicked classic literary qualities of simplicity,
restraint, and precision. Jonson welcomed the newly crowned King James I and
adapted his work to fit the new aesthetics and forms introduced during James’
reign. With his flourishing career as a leading playwright of the age, Jonson
reaped the benefits that came with patronage from the wealthy aristocrats and
nobles. Under James’ reign, Jonson wrote numerous masques specifically for
the court and was given an annual pension. For these reasons, many scholars
consider him to be the first Poet Laureate. For a brief period, Jonson worked as
an actor, but it was readily apparent that he lacked the necessary skills and talent
in this field, and that he was far more valued as a playwright.
Despite the great favor he garnered from the court, Jonson was notoriously in and
out of trouble throughout his career. His work often came under sharp scrutiny
and he had an infamous appetite for controversy—personal and political, artistic
and intellectual. In 1597, while working with The Admiral’s Men, a play he
co-wrote with Thomas Nashe, The Isle of Dogs, caused such an upset that it was
immediately suppressed. Arrest warrants were issued for both playwrights as well
as members of the acting company, and Jonson was jailed while his counterpart
escaped. Only a brief year later, Jonson was arrested again; this time for the death
of the actor Gabriel Spenser, who he killed in a duel. Jonson pleaded guilty
to manslaughter and gained leniency by reciting a brief Bible verse, forfeiting
“goods and chattels” and being branded on his left thumb. In 1598, Jonson
wrote and produced what his contemporaries considered to be his greatest
success: Every Man in His Humour.
The height of Jonson’s career came in the fifteen-year span between 1605 and
1620; a period notable for the abundance in which his plays were being written
and produced to great acclaim. Unfortunately, like the works of countless
Renaissance dramatists, many of Jonson’s works do not survive.
After the death of King James I in 1625, Jonson’s favor quickly diminished and
he found himself an outsider in the court which had so eagerly supported him
in the past. Toward the end of his life, Jonson was faced with numerous artistic
and personal setbacks, many stemming from his damaged reputation. His health
began to fail and he suffered
several strokes throughout the
1620s. At the time of his death,
Jonson was working on a new
play called The Sad Shepherd;
it was never completed. He
died on August 6, 1637.
Jonson will forever be
renowned as an exceptional
playwright, poet, and literary
critic; second only to William
Shakespeare.
