ABSTRACT
In 1625, Ben Jonson lost King James. In 1628 he became somehow involved with the authorities in connection with the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham. From 1626 to 1631, for four years, there was no mask at Court. Jonson told Drummond in 1618 that often he had been obliged by necessity to devour his books. The books burned in 1623 were, therefore, less regretted than certain unpublished works of his own which also perished. Little is known of the obscure interrogation to which Jonson was submitted as a sequel to the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham in 1628. Apparently the whole affair was due to a misunderstanding. There were many people in the country who felt that the life of Buckingham who, in 1626, had avoided impeachment only by the dissolution of Parliament, was in justice forfeit to the nation.
