Ben Jonson was commonly regarded during his lifetime and the century following his death as a writer whose powers were equal, if not superior, to those of Shakespeare. By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, his reputation had sharply declined: while Shakespeare was increasingly venerated as a type of original genius, Jonson was contrastingly seen as a writer of patchy and derivative talents, excessively devoted to the authors of antiquity and to the social minutiae of his age, anxiously resentful of his great and 'gentle' rival. This popular, formalized contrast of the two men's characters and abilities profoundly affected the subsequent reputations of both Shakespeare and Jonson. In his new collection of biographical, critical, and historical essays, Ian Donaldson challenges many long-held and recent assumptions about the nature of Jonson's personality and creative achievement, offering fresh readings of his life and art.

Ben Jonson was the greatest of Shakespeare's contemporaries. In the century following his death he was seen by many as the finest of all English writers, living or dead. His fame rested not only on the numerous plays he had written for the theatre, but on his achievements over three decades as principal masque-writer to the early Stuart court, where he had worked in creative, and often stormy, collaboration with Inigo Jones. One of the most accomplished poets of the age, he had become - in fact if not in title - the first Poet Laureate in England. Jonson's life was full of drama. Serving in the Low Countries as a young man, he overcame a Spanish adversary in single combat in full view of both the armies. His early satirical play, The Isle of Dogs, landed him in prison, and brought all theatrical activity in London to a temporary - and very nearly to a permanent - standstill. He was 'almost at the gallows' for killing a fellow actor after a quarrel, and converted to Catholicism while awaiting execution. He supped with the Gunpowder conspirators on the eve of their planned coup at Westminster. After satirizing the Scots in Eastward Ho! he was imprisoned again; and throughout his career was repeatedly interrogated about plays and poems thought to contain seditious or slanderous material. In his middle years, twenty stone in weight, he walked to Scotland and back, seemingly partly to fulfil a wager, and partly to see the land of his forebears. He travelled in Europe as tutor to the mischievous son of Sir Walter Ralegh, who 'caused him to be drunken and dead drunk' and wheeled provocatively through the streets of Paris. During his later years he presided over a sociable club in the Apollo Room in Fleet Street, mixed with the most learned scholars of his day, and viewed with keen interest the political, religious, and scientific controversies of the day. Ian Donaldson's new biography draws on freshly discovered writings by and about Ben Jonson, and locates his work within the social and intellectual contexts of his time. Jonson emerges from this study as a more complex and volatile character than his own self-declarations (and much modern scholarship) would allow, and as a writer whose work strikingly foresees - and at times pre-emptively satirizes - the modern age.

With origins as far back as the 14th Century, Westminster School is one of the oldest in the country with a long tradition of scholarship - and outstanding results, both in academic and public life. Over the centuries, Westminster has stood apart from other prominent schools. Firmly grounded between Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, it has remained curiously unswayed by the influence and ethos of figures such as Thomas Arnold and the Victorian public school tradition, combining a distinctive evolution with the retention of much of its unique character. A great many of the school's former pupils are famous names. At one time, some of those pupils were uncontrolled outside school hours and notoriously unruly about town, but always encouraged to question, challenge and debate - and above all to respect genuine scholarship. They rank among this country's most distinguished thinkers, writers, theologians, scientists, politicians, artists and musicians. Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Richard Busby, John Locke, Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Lord Mansfield, Charles Wesley, Warren Hastings, Jeremy Bentham, Henry Mayhew, A. A. Milne, John Spedan Lewis, Richard Doll and Tony Benn are the individuals the authors recognise as 'loyal dissenters', at once respectful of peers, staff and principles, yet unafraid to forge their own direction.