Christmas, His Masque (extract)
Why
Gentlemen,
doe
you
know
what
you
doe?
ha!
Would
you
ha'kept
me
out?
Christmas,
old
Christmas?
Christmas
of
London,
and
Captaine
Christmas?
Pray
you
let
me
be
brought
before
my
Lord
Chamberlaine,
i'le
not
be
answer'd
else:
'Tis
merrie
in
hall
when
beards
wag
all:
I
ha'seene
the
time
you
ha'wish'd
for
me,
for
a
merry
Christmas,
And
now
you
ha'me;
they
would
not
let
me
in:
I
must
come
another
time!
A
good
jest,
as
if
I
could
come
more
than
once
a
year;
Why,
I
am
no
dangerous
person,
and
so
I
told
my
friends,
o'the
Guard.
I
am
old
Gregorie
Christmas
still
Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson (born June 11?, 1572, London, England—died August 6, 1637, London) English Stuart dramatist, lyric poet, and literary critic. He is generally regarded as the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I. Among his major plays are the comedies Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone (1605), Epicoene; or, The Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614). Ben Jonson died in Westminster on August 8, 1637. A tremendous crowd of mourners attended his burial at Westminster Abbey. He is regarded as one of the major dramatists and poets of the seventeenth century.