Ben Jonson's son
There are things in life that are hard to bear. That is a very simple, even obvious, statement, but if we take the words literally, they point at experiences which are appalling to contemplate. What a parent may feel on the death of a child is one of those experiences - the sense of a loss so intimate, so personal, and so irreparable is hard to imagine. In 1603, Ben Jonson and his wife lost their seven year old son...