The Poetaster Or His Arraignment

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Book Jungle, 2008 - 312 pàgines
Johnson coined the term poetmaster, which he defined as "an inferior poet with pretensions to artistic value". Ben Johnson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. He is known for his satirical plays such as Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. Johnson was a great reader and lover of controversy. Johnson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. In 1616 he received an annual pension, making him the first Poet Laureate of England. Poetmaster (1601) satirizes both John Marston, who Johnson believed had accused him of lustfulness, probably in Histrio-Mastix, and Thomas Dekker, against whom Johnson's animus is not known. Dekker responded with Satiromastix, subtitled "the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet." The final scene of this play offers a caricature that is recognizable as Johnson boasting about himself and condemning other poets, criticizing actors' performances of his plays, and calling attention to himself in any available way. The war of the authors ended peaceably with Johnson and Dekker collaborating on a pageant welcoming James I to England in 1603,

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Sobre l'autor (2008)

Born in 1572, Ben Jonson rejected his father's bricklaying trade and ran away from his apprenticeship to join the army. He returned to England in 1592, working as an actor and playwright. In 1598, he was tried for murder after killing another actor in a duel, and was briefly imprisoned. One of his first plays, Every Man Out of His Humor (1599) had fellow playwright William Shakespeare as a cast member. His success grew with such works as Volpone (1605) and The Alchemist (1610) and he was popular at court, frequently writing the Christmas masque. He is considered a very fine Elizabethan poet. In some anti-Stratfordian circles he is proposed as the true author of Shakespeare's plays, though this view is not widely accepted. Jonson was appointed London historian in 1628, but that same year, his life took a downward turn. He suffered a paralyzing stroke and lost favor at court after an argument with architect Inigo Jones and the death of King James I. Ben Jonson died on August 6, 1637.

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