India, Feb. 10 -- In 1603, a Renaissance dramatist wrote a moving poem about his only son, who died of the plague at the age of seven. The poem calls his "lov'd boy" the "child of my right hand, and joy," and his father's "best piece of poetry." From Hamnet, the Oscar-nominated film that has just informed the world that Shakespeare lost a young son, you might be tempted to think this poet was Shakespeare. But he wasn't. The poet was Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's friend and contemporary.

Why not make a film about Jonson and his son, since we know so much more about Jonson's life than we do about Shakespeare's, and we know that Jonson's son Benjamin actually did die of the plague? Because Jonson is now nowhere near as well-known as Shakespeare...