Ben Jonson

1572/3-1637. Dramatist, scholar, poet. One of the major rivals of William Shakespeare and representative of the Comedy of Humours. Apart from his work for the professional theatre companies, Jonson wrote for the court (some say that he even was the first poet laureate). In the 17th century the court commissioned him to write court masques. While Shakespeare was considered irregular, messy and chaotic (and in dire need of "improvement") during the time of the Restoration, Ben Jonson advanced to the status of model dramatist, because he kept to the (pseudo-)Aristotelean unities. There was even a school of writers which called itself "the sons of Ben".