BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON
Among the contemporaries of Shakespeare, Ben Johnson is the most commanding name in the history of English drama. He has shown his talent in both comedies and tragedies though he is remembered for his comedies. In the Prologue to his most popular play, Every Man in His Humour, he clearly explains his objective to present no thrilling, romantic episode, but to sport with human follies.
LIFE AND WORKS OF BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
The great Italian dramatist Terence has employed in his comedies Jonson’s theory of humour with highly dramatic effectiveness. But the difference lies between both in the handling of this theory of humour. What Jonson purposes in his comedy of humour are to bring out the imbalance in the human temper due to the lack of proportions of this humour.
THE PLAYS BY BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
In his well-known play Every Man in His Humour, Ben Jonson introduces several characters who somehow suffer from the excess of humour. His three main characters in the play –Kitely, Old Knowell and Downright, all suffer from the excess of humour. Kitely suffers from an excessive amount of suspicion while Old Knowell is a victim of too much inquisitiveness. Again Downright’s choleric nature causes his oddity. Jonson’s main intention is to portray men not as mere human beings, surrounded with social forces, but as creatures enslaved in the hands of obsession or ruling passions.
COMEDIES BY BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Ben Jonson’s three best-known comedies are Volpone or The Fox, The Alchemist and Epicoene, or The Silent Woman.
VOLPONE BY BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Volpone is a sharp and ruthless analysis of a man obsessed with his love for money and boldness. The opening lines in the opening scene is a key to the whole comedy where Volpone greets the day and simultaneously greets his gold. He even goes as far as to attribute sainthood to his gold when he orders his servant Mosca that he wants to see his saint (gold) by opening the shrine (treasury). At this Mosca is seen to draw aside the curtain and reveal a number of riches like gold, plates, jewels and such.
WORKS OF JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Volpone stimulates the avarice of men to increase his wealth. He pretends to be at the point of death and his “suitors” hypocritically sweeten his last moments with rich presents with the expectation that he will leave his riches to them. The temptation of these suitors furnishes the story of the play by showing to what infamous depth avarice can lead a man to.
THE ALCHEMIST BY BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
The Alchemist is a satire on the follies, vanities and vices of mankind, most notably the element of gullibility. The play deals with gullibility on one side and quackery on the other. Jonson however founded the play on the medieval idea of the philosopher’s stone. But it also applies to the patent medicines and gets–rich–quick schemes of our day. It refers to the quackery with which Ben Jonson was more familiar. The Alchemist is no doubt a fine specimen of the best English drama and has some remarkably good passages and is the most readable of Jonson’s plays.
EPICOENE BY JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Epicoene or the silent woman is a prose comedy exceedingly well constructed and full of life, full of unexpected and fun-filled situations. The humour lies in the chief character of the play Morose, an old codger, who suffered from the horror of noise. He deliberately lives in a narrow street that doesn’t permit carriages to enter. Morose keeps his doors padded, plugs the keyholes, and puts mattresses on the stairs. He even goes as far as to make everybody in his house go about in thick stockings and answer him in signs; dismisses a servant who wore a squeaky boot.
WORKS OF BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
He not only disinherits his nephew Eugenie but also to make sure he doesn’t get any money resolves to marry. He confides in his barber Cutbeard, who neither speaks unless someone speaks nor knick his scissors as he works. Cut beard (secretly in alliance with Eugenie) tells him of Epicoene, a rare silent woman. Her silence delights him and immediately decides to marry her.
WORKS OF JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
However immediately after their marriage, Morose realized they have cheated him. The woman finds her voice immediately after marriage and creates chaos by arranging a loud dinner party. Morose flees for his life. He goes for a divorce but couldn’t bear the loud arguments of the lawyers. At last, his nephew comes to his rescue. He offers to release him of his noisy wife and her friends if Morose agrees to give him five hundred pounds a year. Morose instantly agrees to anything and accordingly he signed a deed. Then comes the surprise when Epicoene removes her wig and there comes out a boy in disguise.
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Ben Jonson’s comedy of humour stands in sharp contrast with the romantic comedy of Shakespeare or his predecessors or contemporaries. The comedies of Jonson are more natural, and realistic contradicting Shakespeare’s idealistic, romantic and imaginative comedies.
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
The influence of Jonson’s comedies of humour on subsequent English comedies is clearly detectable. Jonson’s comedy of humour has also influenced the comedy of manners, the anti–sentimental comedy and the purpose comedy. Hence, Jonson’s contribution to English drama is great. Therefore, he can very safely be placed just after Shakespeare in the domain of Elizabethan drama.
WORKS OF BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
However, Jonson has failed to show success in the field of tragedy. His two well-known tragedies –Sejanus (1603) and Cataline (1611), modelled on the classical drama lack the uniqueness of Shakespeare’s art.
WORKS OF JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Besides being a playwright Ben Jonson is also known as a good poet, and the few poems written by him, are well-remembered pieces in English poetical literature.
WORKS OF BEN JOHNSON
BEN JOHNSON’S COMEDY OF HUMOR VS ROMANTIC COMEDY OF SHAKESPEARE
Ben Jonson has also shown his mastery in English prose and his contribution to the prose literature of his time is clearly seen in the use of prose in his plays.
