The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Jonson, Ben. "Inviting a Friend to Supper." Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets (W&W Norton, 1974).

Note that all parenthetical citations refer to the line number in which the quotation appears.

Ben Jonson is perhaps best known for his work as a playwright during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. He is often credited with having perfected the genre of English comedy, writing with a signature witty style that often dramatized the lives of England's lower classes at a time when plays tended to portray nobility and royalty. Jonson is often considered the second-most influential dramatist under James I, after his fellow playwright, actor, and friend William Shakespeare.

Jonson's poetry, like his plays, expresses a similar penchant for witticisms and quippy wordplay, but both his drama and his poetry are deceptively simple. In fact, much of the praise for Jonson's work is due to his ability to tackle major social and political issues within a seemingly straightforward plot line. "Inviting a Friend to Supper," one of Jonson's epigrams, subscribes to this very pattern, as it uses the occasion of a dinner invite to comment on the goings-on at the English court.

"Inviting a Friend to Supper" is addressed to nobody in particular, but is widely believed to be directed at William Herbert, early of Pembroke. Herbert was Jonson's most loyal and consistent patron, and as such Jonson wrote a number of poems to flatter and celebrate him. William Herbert was the son of Mary Sidney Herbert and the nephew of Philip Sidney, who at the time of Jonson's writing was already celebrated as an exemplar of literary skill and courtly decorum (Philip Sidney died in 1586). A good portion of Jonson's work concerns itself with the Sidney-Herbert family legacy.

The poem begins with the speaker extending an invitation to his modest household for supper. He tells the addressee that without his presence, the supper will be worthless. He assures the guest that the menu will be pleasing and palatable, promising foods like olives, eggs, wine, and fowl. He will have a servant read to them from the books of antiquity, he says, and dessert will consist of fruit, cheese, and Canary wine. He assures his guest that they will enjoy themselves without over-indulging, and will regret nothing about the meal the next morning.