Rare Ben Johnson - my poem of London Pride

They said he was crossed how they said he was crossed

And rare Ben Johnson gave not a stuff

He sang of the spirit of London's Great Fair

Neat Bartholemew Place cuz Ben Johnson was there

His Earth Goddes is Ursula the great starry Bear

She is at the heart of his masterpiece play - Bartholemew Fair

Ben Johnson could shovel it on by the barrow

His silly daft Fool is a Squire  called Sir Bartholmew Cokes who is from Harrow

And all the traders and students and harlequins are there

And stagecrew and painters worked hard to set up Bartholemew Fair

It's rough, tough and crude in this play and they have not a care

Actors and audience all love the fun of this master playwrights Fair!!

(and perhaps Big Ursula also served up the light refreshments)

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And later of loss and of heartbreak Ben Johnsonshared

His son, who was his only child  died at the age of seven

|I think that was after he wore Bartholemew Fair

And he called his son in his farewell sonnet

'the best poem I ever made'

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We now have Big Ben and the  Elizabeth Tower

And the Elizabeth Railway

And London's best flower

Is our Pride deep inside and I shall move on from Ben

(and my next poem, when I get round to it shall be about a true London woman that I have read about. Her name was Fat Beth, she was an underworld queen and I believe she was related to big Ursula in Ben Johnsons brilliant Play Bartholmew Fair.

We all have own own notions of who or what Big Ben is. When I think of Big Ben in the Elizabeth Tower I think of the true Londoner Ben Johnson. In his lifetime another master playwright Christopher Marlowe recognised Ben Johnson's genius by addressing him as 'rare Ben Johnson')