ABSTRACT
Ben Jonson is declared to have died intestate. There was nothing else to clear up behind Jonson – no wife, children or dependants make their appearance. The consolation of Jonson's work in King Charles's calvary was a peculiarly appropriate posthumous use of a writer who had ever loyally tried to serve this most misguided of monarchs and men. Additionally Jonson had always loathed and fought against Puritanism, both in its personal and political implications. Jonson's assumption of the vatic role opened a great gap between theory and practice into which he both fell and was pushed – but still asserting to the end the dignity of the office and his inalienable right to it. Jonson's was a nature that hardened young and there remained a static quality about him. His powers grew, but his attitudes were fixed.
