ABSTRACT
Ben Jonson seems at first glance to be the master of the plain statement, the single-minded vision. His manner is robust and dogmatic. Moreover, the concentrated satiric vision of the main plot is countered by the lighter, more inconsequential subplot of Sir Politic Would-be, whose seeming irrelevance may be the most important thing about him. The apparent solidity of each individual work may be one reason why Jonson's art has, all too often, elicited respect rather than excitement. He seems, simply, a bit too organized. One of the surprises of reading the Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth is to discover how often the Wordsworths – who seem, in the nature of their interests and achievements, to be as far from Jonson as they could be – read and discussed his work.
