So confident was Ben Jonson of his dramatic powers, that he ended a play presented before Queen Elizabeth with the words 'By God 'tis good, and if you lik't you may!' Unfortunately for his great talent, as Mr Bamborough says, 'he had the misfortune to live and work at the same time and in the same field as a genius acknowledged by the world as supreme - William Shakespeare'. Thus he has been overshadowed: but if he is seldom acted, his robust comedies still have enormous life when put on the stage. Beyond that, his work has great attractions for the student, because he wrote with discipline (though freely), in a great tradition, bridging the gap between the classical writer on the continental model, and the more extravagant English playwright. His lyrics are still welcomed, his masques full of delight, his longer poems by no means negligible and his critical remarks invaluable.

J. B. Bamborough was the Principal of Linacre College, Oxford.