16th Century : Ben Jonson

"Benjamin Jonson (1572 –1637) was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. He is best known for his plays Volpone and The Alchemist, his lyrics, his influence on Jacobean and Caroline poets, his theory of humours, his contentious personality, and his friendship and rivalry with William Shakespeare." (wikipedia) You should at least know Ben Jonson's Volpone, or the Fox and his elegy “To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.”

• Biography
• Works
  • Summaries of Plays
  • Volpone (1606)
    • Summary
    • Characters
    • Themes
    • E-text
      • Project Gutenberg
  • "To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.”
• Overview of Jacobean Era
  
  
  
  

• From Volpone

  MOS: He ever liked your course sir; that first took him.
  I oft have heard him say, how he admired
  Men of your large profession, that could speak
  To every cause, and things mere contraries,
  Till they were hoarse again, yet all be law;
  That, with most quick agility, could turn,
  And [re-] return; [could] make knots, and undo them;
  Give forked counsel; take provoking gold
  On either hand, and put it up: these men,
  He knew, would thrive with their humility.
  And, for his part, he thought he should be blest
  To have his heir of such a suffering spirit,
  So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue,
  And loud withal, that would not wag, nor scarce
  Lie still, without a fee; when every word
  Your worship but lets fall, is a chequin!--
  [LOUD KNOCKING WITHOUT.]
  Who's that? one knocks; I would not have you seen, sir.
  And yet--pretend you came, and went in haste:
  I'll fashion an excuse.--and, gentle sir,
  When you do come to swim in golden lard,
  Up to the arms in honey, that your chin
  Is born up stiff, with fatness of the flood,
  Think on your vassal; but remember me:
  I have not been your worst of clients.

• From "To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare.”

  TO draw no envy, Shakespeare, on thy name,
  Am I thus ample to thy book and fame;
  While I confess thy writings to be such
  As neither man nor Muse can praise too much.
  ’Tis true, and all men’s suffrage. But these ways 5
  Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise;
  For seeliest Ignorance on these may light,
  Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right;
  Or blind Affection, which doth ne’er advance
  The truth, but gropes and urgeth all by chance;