Happy Birthday, Ben!

Ben Jonson, born this day in 1573, a contemporary and in his day peer of Shakespeare and John Donne... An orphan, victim of religious persecution (his Protestant father was executed by Mary), a soldier for the Protestant cause in Holland and by all repute a formidable swordsman, a man of fiery temper who killed another playwright in a duel and nearly hanged for it (his dramatic genius was his salvation (the play Every Man In His Humor is said to have freed him)), who lost several children to childhood deaths (including the son he called 'his best piece of poetry'), an immensely popular poet and playwright who courted prison for his political views and yet was a poet at the Stuart court, who reigned supreme among English writers long after Shakespeare had died until his own death at the age of 64...

The Hour-Glass

Consider this small dust, here in the glass,
        By atoms moved :
Could you believe that this the body was
        Of one that loved ;
And in his mistress' flame playing like a fly,
Was turned to cinders by her eye :
Yes ; and in death, as life unblest,
        To have't exprest,
Even ashes of lovers find no rest.