The amazing chance discovery of a manuscript hidden among papers in an ancient family archive is shedding new light on the legendary career of William Shakespeare’s biggest rival, the poet and playwright, Ben Jonson.
 
As portrayed in the new Hollywood Shakespeare movie Anonymous, out in cinemas this Friday 28th October, Jonson was the leading wit of his time and lived a life full of notoriety and intrigue. Weighing in at just under 20 stone, he famously completed a walk from London to Scotland in 1618 but because his own account of the journey was destroyed in a fire at his house a few years later, no direct record of the trip has existed… until now.
 
Thanks to funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) the researchers from The University of Nottingham and The University of Edinburgh are now examining the anonymous 41-page journal in a major research project which will reconstruct a large missing piece of the colourful jigsaw of Ben Jonson’s life story. Dr James Loxley, Head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Julie Sanders, Head of the School of English Studies at The University of Nottingham, are working with a postdoctoral fellow, Dr Anna Groundwater to unlock the meanings and significance of this intriguing document.
 
The 7,500-word handwritten manuscript was found by James Loxley among papers in the archives of the Aldersey family of Aldersey Hall in Cheshire in 2009. Jonson is historically believed to have walked to Scotland alone but the title of the newly-discovered document, ‘My Gossip Jonson’s foot journey and mine into Scotland’ says otherwise. The identity of the previously unsuspected travelling companion may remain a mystery, depending on what further detective work reveals, but the manuscript is hugely significant as the only surviving first-hand account of the legendary journey.
 
The researchers have won a large grant from the AHRC to transcribe the account for inclusion in a new Complete Works of Ben Jonson by Cambridge University Press, due out next spring. A separate annotated edition of the manuscript with newly-commissioned essays on cultures of travel including other literary walks of the time will be published in 2014.
 
Professor Julie Sanders from The University of Nottingham’s School of English Studies, said:
“It’s exciting to think of Jonson at the forefront of a tradition of literary walkers that comes right up to date with figures like Iain Sinclair and Will Self. His encounters with the regional and cultural geographies of England and Scotland had a profound impact on what he went on to write afterwards and the manuscript allows us new insight into his work and the society of his time as a result.”
 

ENDS

Notes for Editors
AHRC Media contact: Jake Gilmore, Communications Manager, 01793 416021; j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk  

More information from: Prof Julie Sanders, School of English Studies, on +44 (0)115 846 7040 julie.sanders@nottingham.ac.uk

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes hundreds of research awards ranging from individual fellowships to major collaborative projects as well as over 1,100 studentship awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.