Ben Jonson’s poem “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” was originally a song in his play Epicoene: Or, the Silent Woman. Likely first performed in 1609 during the reign of King James I, the play was published in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson in 1619. While it was not immediately successful, the play stands as one of his most famous of the English Renaissance and in the canon. Sung by Clerimont’s page in the first scene of the play, this song foreshadows some of the important events and themes of the play. Epicoene revolves around a dispute over an inheritance. Rather than leave an inheritance for his nephew, the rich and disagreeable Morose instead decides to remarry to pass his estate on to his wife. Morose’s nephew Dauphine plots with his friends—including Clerimont—to trick his uncle. He decides to use a young boy dressed as a woman and called Epicoene to deceive his uncle into marrying her. When Epicoene nags and bothers Morose into wanting a divorce, Dauphine reveals the plot on the condition that he will ultimately be given his inheritance. The poem serves as a reflection of one of the key thematic concerns of the play.

In the poem, the speaker of the poem uses these verses to outline his distaste and distrust of overly made-up women and his preference for natural and chaste women. In his opinion, the artifice of makeup disguises the blemishes of both their face and their sexual fidelity. This poem addresses themes of standards of beauty, women’s sexuality and fidelity, and appearances versus reality.

Poet Biography

Born in June 1572 in London, England, Ben Jonson was a popular poet, playwright, and critic during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Shortly before his birth, his minister father died and his mother remarried a bricklayer. Jonson was an educated man, having attended St. Martin’s parish school and Westminster School, where he came under the influence of classical scholar William Camden. He may have attended Cambridge University for a short amount of time but left to work as an apprentice bricklayer before serving in the military.

After his time in the military, Jonson became an actor and playwright in Philip Henslowe’s theater company the Admiral’s Men, who performed at The Rose theatre. Soon, his reputation as a playwright outpaced his abilities as an actor.

In 1594, he married Anne Lewis. Not much is known about their marriage, but they had at least three children, a daughter and two sons, all of whom died in childhood. Jonson wrote one of his most well-known poems, “On My First Son,” as an elegiac remembrance for his elder son who died of bubonic plague.

Jonson’s theatrical career was filled with both successes and failures. One of Jonson’s early plays, The Isle of Dogs—performed in 1597 and written with Thomas Nashe—caused offense. The play was suppressed and Jonson was briefly jailed and charged with lewd and mutinous behavior. His first great play, Every Man in His Humour, was performed in 1598. A 1616 production of the play featured William Shakespeare in a lead role.

Shortly after, Jonson killed a man in duel. He was tried for murder, but his charges were reduced by pleading “benefit of the clergy.” By proving he could read and write in Latin by reciting Bible verses, Jonson only spent a few weeks in prison while forfeiting goods and being branded on his left thumb. During his time in prison, Jonson converted to Catholicism despite Queen Elizabeth’s Protestant rule.

Jonson engaged in a controversy in the later Elizabethan theater era. Commonly called The War of the Theatres, Jonson was part of a satirical battle against John Marston and Thomas Dekker based on artistic differences and personal rivalries. Thomas Dekker termed this conflict “Poetomachia,” after one of Jonson’s plays. Jonson and Marston eventually reconciled and collaborated on later plays.

Under King James 1, Jonson received royal favor and patronage. Yet in 1603, he was questioned by the Privy Council about topical allusions in multiple works, including the political themes of corruption in the Roman Empire in Sejanus. He was again briefly jailed.

The height of Jonson’s career was between 1605 and 1620. Written and performed during this time, Epicoene—of which “Still to be neat” is a part—was a failure and only gained admiration and popularity when John Dryden and Samuel Pepys championed it during the Restoration. During King James I’s reign, Jonson pursued a prestigious career writing masques for James’s court. The Satyr (1603) and The Masque of Blackness (1605) are among his most famous. During this time, Jonson often collaborated with architect Inigo Jones.

In 1616, Jonson was granted a substantial pension of 100 marks a year and became essentially England’s first poet laureate. As a result of such high commendations, Jonson published a folio of his work in his lifetime: The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. His inclusion of his plays was a first which was met with some ridicule by other writers and thinkers of his day, yet such an inclusion elevated the dramatic form to the same quality and seriousness as other forms of writing, like poetry.

During this fruitful time in his career, Jonson had a large circle of admirers and friends called the Tribe of Ben. These men were largely Cavalier—supporters of King James I—poets who sought to follow Jonson’s artistic philosophy and style. They met at taverns and were guided by Jonson’s “rules of conviviality” written in Latin. Members included the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and more.

As earlier noted, Jonson had a relationship with William Shakespeare, though the quality of their relationship is debated. Jonson wrote on his opinions of Shakespeare. In the publication of Shakespeare’s first folio in 1623, Jonson wrote a preface to the reader and a eulogy of Shakespeare that both praised and lightly criticized Shakespeare as a natural, and thus uneducated in the classical styles Jonson so admired. He called Shakespeare a genius who “hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke” (Jonson, Ben. “To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare,” Poetry Foundation).

When King Charles I came to the throne in 1625, Jonson lost his favored role and royal patronage; his works during this time are not considered to be his best. Jonson died in Westminster on August 8, 1637. A tremendous crowd of mourners attended his funeral and Jonson was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Following Shakespeare, scholars regard Jonson as one of the most influential writers of the period. Jonson wrote poetry and plays while originating the field of literary criticism. A prolific poet in a neoclassical style, he also wrote epigrams to and about friends, family, his book, and contemporaries like Shakespeare and John Donne. Jonson’s most recognizable poems include “To Penhurst,” “On My First Son,” and “Song: To Celia (Drink to me only with thine eyes).” While he had some success with tragedies like Sejanus during his dramatic career, he was largely known for his comedies. His most well-known plays include Epicoene; A Silent Woman, The Poetaster, Volpone, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair, and Every Man in His Humour.

Poem Text

Still to be neat, still to be dressed,

As you were going to a feast;

Still to be powdered, still perfumed;

Lady, it is to be presumed,

Though art's hid causes are not found,

All is not sweet, all is not sound.

Give me a look, give me a face,

That makes simplicity a grace;

Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;

Such sweet neglect more taketh me

                      Than all th'adulteries of art.

They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.

Jonson, Ben. “Still to be neat, still to be dressed.” 1616. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“Still to be neat, still to be dressed” is a poem written as if spoken by a gentleman to a woman who is dressing. Stanza one focuses on the speaker’s description of the woman and her process. In Line 1, he notes all of the cosmetic grooming she must do, like getting neatly dressed. To the speaker, she looks as if she “were going to a feast” (Line 2). In her continued preparatory routine, she still needs to apply her make-up and perfume. In a direct address to the “Lady” (Line 4), the speaker voices his concerns about her appearance as he “presume[s]” (Line 4) she is being deceptive. He believes that she uses this art of cosmetics to hide a flaw. As a result, this artifice “is not sweet” or “sound” (Line 6).

In the second stanza, the speaker offers the lady an alternative by directly appealing to her to “[g]ive” (Line 7) him a distinctive look. Instead of the look she is applying, he asks her to instead adorn herself with “simplicity” and “grace” (Line 8) in her natural features. He lists examples of this simplicity and grace: a loose, less form-fitting dress and “free” (Line 9) hair. Such “sweet neglect” (Line 10) is more appealing to the speaker than “all th’adulteries” (Line 11) of cosmetics. The speaker concludes with a warning: While make-up may be more appealing to the eye and his lusty sensibilities, such shallow focus does not make his heart love her as a respectable and chaste woman.