We have discussed a good portion of the literature of Ben Jonson. However, the most memorable piece of his writings is a song titled To Celia which was first published in 1616 in his book The Forest. It is a poem by Ben Jonson which was composed into a song by an anonymous music composer and it became an instant hit and remained a hit for a long period till present times. Recently, the song was used as a duet in the movie Emma which was released in 2020. The movie Emma is based on Jane Austin’s novel Emma. Jonson’s song was also used by George Eliot in her novel The Mill on the Floss in which she refers to the Song To Celia being sung by the character Stephen Guest. Famous English classical singer Laura Wright performed the song for her album The Last Rose which was released in 2011.

The tune of this Ben Jonson’s song was used by Sir Rabindra Nath Tagore, the Nobel laureate of India for his Bengali poem ‘Kabatar Bhebechinu’. Earlier, Sir Walter Scott borrowed the tune of ‘Drink to me Only with thine Eyes’ for his song ‘County Guy.’

This song remained a huge hit for centuries. Initially, the sources of this song were not clearly known but during the 20th century, it became common knowledge that the source for this song is a classical erotic epistle by Philostratus the Athenian. However, Jonson’s song is not a direct line-to-line translation. Rather, Jonson chose specific passages to translate into English so that he may create his original poem out of the classical work.

This poem remained a huge success for centuries and can be considered as the best work of Ben Jonson who is also known as the first Poet Laureate. We will conclude our discussion of Ben Jonson with this song and will now discuss other major authors, playwrights, and poets of the Jacobean and Caroline era in the upcoming video as we continue our efforts to help students preparing for UGC NET English, GATE English literature, PGTRB English, SET English literature, TGT PGT English and other competitive exams. Stay tuned with the Discourse. Thanks, and Regards!

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