On My First Sonne

by Ben Jonson

• Benjamin Jonson was a very famous dramatist, writer and poet. • He lived at the same time as William Shakespeare, and the pair actually knew each other. Shakespeare’s theatre company produced several of Jonson’s plays, and Shakespeare acted in one of them (‘Every Man in his Humour’).

• However, Ben Jonson doesn’t seem to have been a huge fan of Shakespeare’s. • He was once told that Shakespeare had never blotted (i.e. crossed out) a line of text that he had written; in response Mr Jonson said “Would he had blotted a thousand...”

• Ben Jonson was born in 1572 in Westminster, London. • However, he claimed that his family were originally from the Scottish Borders. • He was sent to school by his parents and became very well read. • His first job was as a bricklayer.

• In his lifetime, Ben Jonson killed two men. The first he killed in the Netherlands in single combat; the second was an actor that he killed in a duel. • As punishment, Jonson was made to relinquish his ‘goods and chattels’ and was branded on his thumb.

• Ben Jonson married some time before 1594. • We don’t know for sure who his wife was, but there are records of a woman named Ann Lewis marrying a man named Ben Jonson around this time.

• Ben Jonson’s eldest daughter, Mary, died in 1593. She was six months old. • Ten years later his son, Benjamin, also died of plague at the age of seven. • A second son, also named Benjamin, died in 1635.

• Jonson is said to have had a vision of his first son’s death in a dream. • "he saw in a vision his eldest son (then a child at London) appear unto him with the marke of a bloodie cross on his forehead as if it had been cut with a sword” • Houses affected by the plague were marked with a red cross.

• The Black Death is thought to have been caused by a disease called Bubonic Plague. • It is believed to have started in Asia in the 14th century, where it is estimated to have killed a third of the population of China. • Outbreaks occurred until as late as the 20th Century.

• The total number of plague deaths is estimated at 75 million. • 30 – 60% of Europe’s population were killed by plague. • In 1340 the world’s population is thought to have been around 443 million; in 1400 this had gone down to between 350 – 374 million. • The outbreak which killed Ben Jonson’s son in 1603 killed 38,000 Londoners.

• They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in ... ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura … buried my five children with my own hands … And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world. • —The Plague in Siena: An Italian

• Victims of plague would have swollen glands which leaked blood and pus. • They may also have suffered terrible pain from their skin decaying while they were still alive (this would have looked like black spots – hence the name ‘black death’). • Victims would have died within around 4 – 7 days.

• People were understandably terrified of the plague and didn’t understand the cause. • Some took to selfflagellation as punishment for their sins.

• Others blamed groups of people – lepers, Jews and people with skin conditions were often singled out.

• Nowadays, the plague is easily treatable with everyday antibiotics.