Every Man In His Humour Annotated Classic Edition

Author : Ben Jonson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330663837
Total Pages : 78 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (638 download)

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Download or read book Every Man in His Humour written by Ben Jonson and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-03 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Every Man in His Humour: A Comedy, in Five Acts The question, how far learning is essential to form a great poet, is fully answered by the example of Shakespeare - and how far it tends to spoil one, is equally shown in that of Ben Jonson. The former was well known to have small Latin, and less Greek - the latter was a scholar, and a ripe and good one. Jonson's erudition taught him to regard the ancients as perfect models for imitation. - Nature was the goddess of Shakespeare's idolatry: of the ancients he knew little, except through the medium of translation - be steered his course without rule or compass, but he dipped his pen in the human heart. A servile adherence to the canons of criticism repressed Jonson's poetic fervour; hence he is often correct only, when he might have been great. His writings have an air of antiquity that belongs not to any of his contemporaries. He crowds his page with Greek and Roman authors, without accommodating them to the manners of his age and country. Careless of future fame - indifferent to the award of posterity, Shakespeare - "For gain, not glory, wing'd his eager flight, And grew immoral in his own despight;" since none of his dramas were printed during his life-time, but through the medium of stolen and surreptitious copies; and must consequently have perished, but for the player-editors, who published the first authorized edition of them in a complete form: whereas Jonson was the careful corrector and supervisor of his own writings: - he knew the press to be the only channel through which they could be transmitted to posterity; and he contemplated its award with that complacency which belongs to superior genius. In this respect, he resembles Milton: like him he was content to forego present fame and reward - to suffer privation and poverty, in the hope that future ages would hasten to be just. And the hope, in both instances, has been amply realized. The works of Milton require no comment here; those of Jonson are duly appreciated: to the antiquary, the scholar, and the man of taste, they are a never, failing source of reference and delight. But Jonson, however devoted to antiquity, is not always in company with the ancients. He is an amusing and faithful chronicler of the manners and customs of his own times. In humour, he is superior to all his contemporaries, Shakespeare alone excepted; and, though he display not those bright scintillations of wit that sparkle through the pages of that great poet, he may justly compare with him, in exact and forcible delineation of character, and in exhibiting those lights and shades that pass over the human mind, and which can only be caught by the master's eye. He is the poet of humours - his characters are drawn from the middle and lower ranks of society, and in this hit great merit consists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.