Sons of Ben were followers of
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
in
English poetry and
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
in the first half of the seventeenth century. These men followed Ben Jonson's philosophy and his style of poetry. Unlike Jonson, they were loyal to the king.
Sons of Ben were the dramatists who were overtly and admittedly influenced by Jonson's drama, his most distinctive artistic achievement. Joe Lee Davis listed eleven playwrights in this group:
Richard Brome
Richard Brome ; (c. 1590? – 24 September 1652) was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.
Life
Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's ''Bartholomew Fair'', ind ...
,
Thomas Nabbes
Thomas Nabbes (1605 – buried 6 April 1641) was an English dramatist.
He was born in humble circumstances in Worcestershire, was educated at as a King's scholar at the King's School, Worcester (1616–1620), and entered Exeter College, O ...
,
Henry Glapthorne
Henry Glapthorne (baptised, 28 July 1610 – c. 1643) was an English dramatist and poet, baptized in Cambridgeshire, the son of Thomas Glapthorne and Faith ''née'' Hatcliff. His father was a bailiff of Lady Hatton, the wife of Sir Edward Co ...
,
Thomas Killigrew, Sir
William Davenant,
William Cartwright,
Shackerley Marmion,
Jasper Mayne,
Peter Hausted,
Thomas Randolph, and
William Cavendish.
The term, or the alternative "Tribe of Ben," was a self-description by some of the
Cavalier poets who admired and were influenced by Jonson's poetry, including
Robert Herrick,
Richard Lovelace, Sir
John Suckling, and
Thomas Carew. Jonson and his followers congregated at London taverns, especially the Apollo Room in the ''Devil Tavern'', near Temple-Bar. Above the mantelpiece in this room Jonson inserted a marble slab engraved with his ''Leges Conviviales'', or 'Rules of Conviviality'. These were Jonson's rules for the group. Written in Latin, they were modelled on Horace and Martial. Translations were reprinted throughout the following century.
See also
*
Jacobean era
References
* Davis, Joe Lee. ''The Sons of Ben: Jonsonian Comedy in Caroline England.'' Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1967.
* MacLean, Hugh (ed.). ''Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets''. New York, Norton, 1974.
Literature of England
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