本·琼生——其人其作

Ben Jonson——His life and Works

本·琼生(Ben Jonson)是一位几百年来遭到一般读者冷遇的剧作家。谈起文艺复兴时期的英国戏剧,人们首先想起的是莎士比亚,其实琼生在这个阶段的作用是不可估量的,在莎士比亚生活的那个时期,他的声望就没有琼生的高。莎士比亚在死后他的成就才被人们认可,而琼生在1616年,他才46岁的时候就被冠以“桂冠诗人”,同时早在这之前他就获得了“戏剧家”、“假面剧作家”和“学者”等称号。所以我们有必要在没有偏见的情况下对琼生本人和他的作品进行研究,对他在文艺复兴时期的作用和影响做公正的评价。本文力图对琼生的生平和他的作品做一个较为详细的介绍。对琼生的性格和一些作品也略加点评。

Ben Jonson is an unlucky author who has been ill-treated by the common readers for hundreds of years. William Shakespeare is generally viewed as the leading wit of English Drama during the Renaissance. But Ben Jonson is acknowledged to be the most well known dramatist among all the contemporaries and successors of Shakespeare, and his influence and reputation is enduring and extraordinary. Shakespeare was evaluated and gained broad acceptance posthumously, on the contrary Jonson was reputed dramatist, poet laureate and writer of masques in his lifetime. This paper attempts to present an overall description of his life and brief outlines of his works. And the author ventures to make some comments on his characters and some of his work.