Editing Ben Jonson (section)

==Career==
By summer 1597, Jonson had a fixed engagement in the [[Admiral's Men]], then performing under [[Philip Henslowe]]'s management at [[The Rose (theatre)|The Rose]].{{sfn|Ward|1911}} [[John Aubrey]] reports, on uncertain authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor; whatever his skills as an actor, he was more valuable to the company as a writer.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bowers|first1=Fredson T.|title=Ben Jonson the Actor|journal=Studies in Philology|date=July 1937|volume=34|issue=3|pages=392–406|jstor=4172372}}</ref>

By this time Jonson had begun to write original plays for the Admiral's Men; in 1598 he was mentioned by [[Francis Meres]] in his ''Palladis Tamia'' as one of "the best for tragedy."{{sfn|Ward|1911}} None of his early tragedies survive, however. An undated comedy, ''[[The Case is Altered]]'', may be his earliest surviving play.<ref>{{cite book|last=Miola|first=Robert S.|year=2012|title=The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|chapter=The Case Is Altered, Introduction}}</ref>

In 1597, a play which he co-wrote with [[Thomas Nashe]], ''[[The Isle of Dogs (play)|The Isle of Dogs]]'', was suppressed after causing great offence. Arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were issued by Queen [[Elizabeth I]]'s so-called interrogator, [[Richard Topcliffe]]. Jonson was jailed in [[Marshalsea Prison]] and charged with "Leude and mutynous behaviour", while Nashe managed to escape to [[Great Yarmouth]]. Two of the actors, [[Gabriel Spenser]] and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned. A year later, Jonson was again briefly imprisoned, this time in [[Newgate Prison]], for killing Spenser in a [[duel]] on 22 September 1598 in Hogsden Fields<ref name=Hawthornden/> (today part of [[Hoxton]]). Tried on a charge of [[manslaughter]], Jonson pleaded guilty but was released by [[benefit of clergy]],{{sfn|Ward|1911}} a legal ploy through which he gained leniency by reciting a brief Bible verse (the [[neck-verse]]), forfeiting his "goods and chattels" and being branded with the so-called Tyburn T on his left thumb.{{sfn|Ward|1911}}

While in jail Jonson converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of fellow-prisoner Father [[Thomas Wright (writer)|Thomas Wright]], a [[Jesuit]] priest.<ref name="ID2008">{{Cite ODNB |last=Donaldson |first=Ian |year=2008 |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |location=Oxford, England |chapter=Benjamin Jonson (1572–1637) |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/15116|title-link=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography }}</ref>

In 1598 Jonson produced his first great success, ''[[Every Man in His Humour]]'', capitalising on the vogue for humorous plays which [[George Chapman]] had begun with ''[[An Humorous Day's Mirth]]''. [[William Shakespeare]] was among the first actors to be cast. Jonson followed this in 1599 with ''[[Every Man out of His Humour]]'', a pedantic attempt to imitate [[Aristophanes]].{{non sequitur|date=December 2023}} It is not known whether this was a success on stage, but when published it proved popular and went through several editions.{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}

Jonson's other work for the theatre in the last years of Elizabeth I's reign was marked by fighting and controversy. ''[[Cynthia's Revels]]'' was produced by the [[Children of the Chapel]] Royal at [[Blackfriars Theatre]] in 1600. It satirised both [[John Marston (playwright)|John Marston]], who Jonson believed had accused him of lustfulness in ''[[Histriomastix (play)|Histriomastix]]'', and [[Thomas Dekker (writer)|Thomas Dekker]]. Jonson attacked the two poets again in ''[[Poetaster (play)|Poetaster]]'' (1601). Dekker responded with ''[[Satiromastix]]'', subtitled "the untrussing of the humorous poet".{{sfn|Ward|1911}} The final scene of this play, while certainly not to be taken at face value as a portrait of Jonson, offers a caricature that is recognisable from Drummond's report – boasting about himself and condemning other poets, criticising performances of his plays and calling attention to himself in any available way.{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}

This "[[War of the Theatres]]" appears to have ended with reconciliation on all sides. Jonson collaborated with Dekker on a pageant welcoming [[James I of England|James I]] to England in 1603 although Drummond reports that Jonson called Dekker a rogue. Marston dedicated ''[[The Malcontent]]'' to Jonson and the two collaborated with Chapman on ''[[Eastward Ho!]]'', a 1605 play whose anti-Scottish sentiment briefly landed both Jonson and Chapman in jail.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gossett|first1=Suzanne|title=Marston, Collaboration, and 'Eastward Ho!'|journal=Renaissance Drama|date=2004|volume=33|pages=181–200|jstor=41917391|series=New series|doi=10.1086/rd.33.41917391|s2cid=191392739}}</ref>