Ben Jonson When Pigs Fly

Introduction: Unpacking the Phrase "Ben Jonson When Pigs Fly"

At first glance, the phrase "Ben Jonson when pigs fly" appears to be a whimsical, almost nonsensical collision of a historical figure and a classic idiom. It invites a smile, conjuring an image of the stern, satirical Jacobean playwright Ben Jonson (1572–1637) looking skyward as swine take to the air. However, beneath this absurd surface lies a rich opportunity to explore two distinct but fascinating layers of cultural meaning: the enduring power of a common idiom and the formidable legacy of one of England’s greatest dramatists. This article will dissect this curious phrase not as a historical quotation—for Jonson never wrote it—but as a conceptual bridge. It serves as a lens to understand Jonson’s world of satire, his critique of human folly, and why the notion of "pigs flying" remains the ultimate shorthand for the impossible. We will journey from the literal meaning of the idiom, through Jonson’s life and works, to see how his artistic mission was, in many ways, to expose the "flying pigs" of his own society—the credulous beliefs, rampant greed, and social pretensions that he saw as patently absurd yet widely accepted.

Detailed Explanation: The Idiom and The Man

The Enduring Power of "When Pigs Fly"

The idiom "when pigs fly" is a universal, proverbial expression used to declare that a particular event or condition will never happen. It belongs to a family of impossibilist phrases, including "when hell freezes over" or "on the thirtieth of February." Its humor and effectiveness stem from the vivid, grotesque imagery of a heavy, earthbound creature suddenly acquiring the ability to soar. This violation of natural law makes the hypothetical scenario so fundamentally impossible that it becomes a definitive negation. The phrase is typically used in response to an unlikely proposition or an over-optimistic prediction. For example, if someone says, "I’ll apologize to him," a skeptic might reply, "Yeah, when pigs fly." It’s a linguistic tool for emphatic skepticism, rooted in a shared understanding of biological and physical reality.

Ben Jonson: The Satirist of Jacobean England

To connect this idiom to Ben Jonson is to engage with a man whose life and work were dedicated to scrutinizing and mocking the follies of his contemporaries. Jonson was a contemporary of Shakespeare, but where Shakespeare often explored the profound depths of the human psyche, Jonson was the master of the satirical surface. He was a classicist who believed in the rigor of ancient Greek and Roman comedy, and he applied its principles to the messy, vibrant, and often corrupt society of early 17th-century London. His plays—such as Volpone, The Alchemist, and Every Man in His Humour—are not fairy tales but surgical operations on human vice. Jonson’s targets were greed, gullibility, social climbing, and pedantry. He populated his stages with characters whose beliefs and ambitions were so warped, so detached from reason and morality, that they might as well have been expecting pigs to fly. His satire worked by holding up a mirror to society, showing audiences their own absurdities in exaggerated, often grotesque, relief. Therefore, the conceptual link is this: Jonson spent his career documenting and ridiculing the societal equivalents of "flying pigs"—the widely held, profitable, yet utterly baseless notions that people clung to.

Step-by-Step or Concept Breakdown: From Idiom to Artistic Mission

Deconstructing the Impossible: The first step is to understand the idiom’s function. "When pigs fly" is not merely about impossibility; it’s about obvious impossibility. It relies on a consensus reality. This consensus is what Jonson constantly challenged in his work. He asked his audiences: Why do you accept the "obvious" truths of your world—that wealth equals virtue, that a title makes a man noble, that a quack’s promises are sound?
Jonson’s Satirical Method: Jonson’s process was methodical. He would identify a dominant "humour" or obsession in society (e.g., the obsession with gold in Volpone). He would then construct a plot where characters, driven by this single, overpowering folly, engage in increasingly elaborate and ridiculous deceptions. The audience watches these characters—like the gullible Corbaccio and Corvino in Volpone—believe the impossible (that an old man is dead, that a beautiful woman will marry a monster) because their greed has blinded them to reason. They are, in effect, waiting for their own pigs to fly.
The Audience’s Role: A crucial step in Jonson’s art is the complicit audience. The humor is not just in the characters' folly but in the audience’s superior knowledge. We, the spectators, see the deception unfolding. We know the "pigs" (the characters' beliefs) are not going to fly. The catharsis comes from recognizing our own potential for similar self-deception. The phrase "Ben Jonson when pigs fly" thus becomes a meta-commentary: to believe the lies in a Jonson play is to