Ben Johnson (1572-1637) was an English playwright, poet, actor and literary critic whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He is generally regarded as the second most important English playwright during the reign of King James I after William Shakeshpeare. His major works include the plays Every Man in His Humour, Volpone, Bartholemew Fair, The Alchemist, and so on, as well as the poems 'To Penhurst', 'On My First Sonne', and so on. The poem 'To Celia' is today considered to be Johnson's best, and one of the finest poems of the English Renaissance. It is the third of the three songs addressed to Celia that appear in the collection The Forest.