ABSTRACT
MERES in 1598 named Jonson in his list of the nine poets who were “ our best for tragedy ”. We have no tragedies of Jonson but Sejanus (1603) and Catiline (1611). All others were destroyed by the author. Of the tragic work to which Meres alludes not a line remains. Only by accident does Jonson refer to the fact that he ever wrote a tragedy previous to Sejanus, when he lets slip in the preface that it was so far the best of his efforts in that kind.
