Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Born in London in 1573, Ben Johnson would be no stranger to tragedy. His Protestant father--who had been imprisoned and deprived of his estate during the Catholic reign of Mary Tudor--had died only a month earlier, and his mother, left penniless and with no means of supporting her young son, was forced to marry a bricklayer. But despite these tragic beginnings, it was for his humor that Ben Johnson would be known. At Westminster school, the scholar Camden recognized Johnson's exceptional literary gifts and took the young man under his tutelage. Though Johnson never received a university education, Camden's instruction proved more than adequate. He became one of the most learned men of Elizabethan times and eventually received honorary degrees from both universities. Perhaps in remembrance of his father, Johnson enlisted with the English supporters of the Protestant Hollanders who were defending their religious and political libert