Ben Jonson: a bit of a misery-guts?

A friend once told me that they preferred Shakespeare over Ben Jonson because Jonson was too miserable. When I pointed out that there isn't a lot in the world that can be described as more miserable than two teenagers killing themselves out of grief and lovesickness, or an entire royal family ending up dead because the late king's ghost outs the current king as a murderer, they said that they didn't mean in Jonson's plots, but his outlook on life.

What, I assume, they were talking about, was Jonson's constant satire and, perhaps, cynicism towards the world around him, shown particularly through the differences between Shakespearean and Jonsonian comedy. Where Shakespearian comedy was very definitely based in and around the idea of the "festive", and invariably involved romance, characters whose developments and interactions dominate the plot, and dealt with the problems of family and relationships, Jonson's plays set out to comment on the world around him. Jonson attacked the popular taste for "romantic" comedies, and focus on one central 'intrigue', with his characters being very typical, and usually having a dominant 'humour' that moves them.

But does this mean that Jonson, as Knapp puts it, "liked almost nothing that he saw" (here for link to article)? Or is he simply being realistic about the faults in the world? According to Cicero, Comedy should be "an imitation of life, a mirror of custom and an image of the truth", and Sidney maintains that it is "an imitation of the common errors of our life". In his plays, Jonson plays on this definition to comment on the social situations of the time.

Take, for example, Bartholomew Fair. Jonson seeks to portray all of the "evils of London" in one play, showing each of the Fair-goers to be just as false as those who participate in the Fair themselves. The Puritan Zeal-of-the-land Busy, Bartholomew Cokes, and Justice Adam Overdo all think that they can out-wit the temptation of the Fair and can make judgements about it and its inhabitants with no consequences, but are, in fact, the definite 'losers' of the plot, unable to adjust to and use the ever-changing, ever-moving atmosphere of the Fair for their own gain. Jonson comments on the state of London, and the faults of those in society who make blind judgements on others. Similarly, in Volpone, he uses the morally-void setting of Renaissance Venice to show the dangers of mercantile capitalism and to show that, ultimately, evil brings about its own destruction.

It seems to me that, whilst Jonsonian comedy may not include the joviality, the fool-playing for the simple sake of fool-playing, the romance, or indeed the magic of some Shakespearean Comedies, it is much more 'realistic', for want of a better word, and much more adherent to the classical 'rules' for comedy. Jonson attempts to mirror everyday life, without the idealising or romanticising that Shakespeare does so well. Not a misery-guts, but simply attempting to make moral comments on the state of Britain at the time.