The Latest Breaking News from Ben Jonson

Poem of the week: A Sonnet to the Noble Lady, the Lady Mary Wroth by Ben Jonson

A strategically flattering tribute to a pioneering female writer is lifted by authentic warmth and admiration

The Guardian - UK · Apr 7, 2025

‘He contains the whole of literature’: is Dickens better than Shakespeare?

After rereading the entire works of the great Victorian novelist during the pandemic, Peter Conrad became convinced – whisper it – that Dickens is an even greater writer than that other British literary giant, the Bard

The Guardian - UK · Mar 2, 2025

Now gen AI has stopped telling us to glue cheese to pizza, it’s bland as a margherita

Despite fewer silly glitches, you now get an executive summary of the world, with all interesting complications removed

The Guardian - UK · Jan 25, 2025

Shakespeare’s First Folio: State Library of NSW takes the Bard’s ‘radical’ 400-year-old book out of the vault

Half of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost without it – and it is now among the most valuable books in the world

The Guardian - AU · Dec 5, 2023

Exhibits and collectors editions mark 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio

On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, rare originals are being displayed and publishers are offering collectors editions, including one that sells for $1,500

The Independent UK · Oct 23, 2023

Around 1600, speeches in English plays suddenly got shorter – and no one knows why

A speech in a play by Shakespeare or one of his contemporaries can be as short as a word or as long as several hundred, or anything in between. But what is the most common length?

The Conversation · Apr 27, 2023

‘My eyes filled with tears, my voice shook’: Simon Callow on coming face to face with Shakespeare’s First Folio

As the Swan of Avon celebrates his birthday on Sunday, the actor pays tribute to a ‘miraculous’ book that rescued plays such as The Tempest and Macbeth from oblivion

The Guardian - UK · Apr 23, 2023

Did William Shakespeare invent the word ‘playwright’?

Letters: Charles Nicholl on the tantalising possibility that the dramatist wrote a poem that features the earliest known use of the word

The Guardian - UK · Mar 27, 2023

Ben Jonson work from 1603 may contain ‘lost’ Shakespeare sonnet, say experts

Exclusive: To the Deserving Author, found in the playbook of Jonson’s Sejanus: His Fall, is signed by ‘Cygnus’

The Guardian - UK · Mar 23, 2023

Imagine a time when Shakespeare played a very second fiddle to Ben Jonson

Richard Cohen’s Making History returned me to the childhood ecstasy of leafing through my first encyclopaedia

The Guardian - UK · Mar 18, 2023