Excerpt from Catalogue of an Exhibition of Selected Works: Of the Poets Laureate of England The duties of a poet laureate do not seem to have been clearly defined. Charles gave his letters patent to Jonson in consideration of the good and acceptable service done vnto vs and our said father by the said Benjamin Johnson, and especially to encourage him to proceede in those services of his witt and penn, which wee have enjoined vnto him, and which we expect from him. Jonson found more to do than most others in his position, owing to the climax of popularity of the masques which were made and performed for the Court and the houses of the nobles, and the scenery was as gorgeous and varied as the scenery of the play house proper was poor and unchanging.1 As a masque writer he gave lasting worth by sheer poetic force to an unreal and artificial genre. At first an annual New Year's Ode was written by the laureate and, set to music, was, like the masques, performed in the king's presence. Shadwell, of his own accord, added an annual Birthday Ode. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.