JOHN MARSTON is supposed to have been of a family settled at Aftcot, in' the county of Salop*1. Wood imagines him to have been the same John Marston who was a student of Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and was admitted B. A. Feb. 20, 1592.† He was a poet who acquired, and very deservedly, a considerable reputation, and is said to have died in the former part of King Charles the First's time, aged about 60 years § He was the Author of (1.) "The "Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and Certaine Satires, 1598." 66 (2.) The Scourge of Villanie. Three Bookes of Satires, 1599. Both these works were reprinted in 1764. And Mr. Warton, in his Observations on Spenser's Pairy Queen, vol. I. p. 59. says of these Satires, that they "contain many well-drawn characters, and several good strokes There was a respectable family of the name of Marston settled at Slauston in Leicestershire, from the register of which parish Nichols has given large extracts, but several leaves being torn out (from 1572 to 1612) the baptism of a John Marston does not occur in it. Thomas Marston, son of John Marston, was baptized 9th May, 1569. O. G. 1 Oldys Mss. Notes on Langbaine. Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. 1. p. 332. + Among the Oxford verses on the death of Q. Elizabeth there is a copy signed "John Marston ex æde Christi." O. G. In the 34th of Elizabeth's reign, John Marston was chosen reader of the Inner Temple, and this I take to be the poet who in the passage cited from the "Return from Parnassus," is accused of throwing about" Ram-alley Meditations." Ram Alley is one of the avenues from the Temple to Fleet Street. O. G. 3 Oldys. §. That he was living in 1633, we have the evidence of W. Sheares the Bookseller, who collected and published six of Marston's plays in that year he says, in the Dedication to Lady Falkland: "Whatsoever even in the spring of his years he hath presented upon the private and public theatre, now in his autumn and declining age he need not be ashamed of; and were it not that he is so far distant from this place he would have been more careful in revising the former impressions, and more circumspect about this than I can." C. "of satirical genius; but are not upon the whole so "finished and classical as Bishop Hall's, the first part "of which were published about a year before these." Marston sometimes assumed the name of Kinsayder ; but why he did so*, and from whence he adopted it, do no where appear †. Under this fictitious surname, he is satirized in The Return of Parnassus, A. 1. S. 2. "What, Monsieur Kinsayder, lifting up your leg, "and pissing against the World? put up, man, put up "for shame." "Methinks, he is a ruffian in his style, "Cleanly to gird our looser libertines? "Give him plain-naked words, stripp'd from their 66 shirts, "That might beseem plain-dealing Aretine: Ay, there is one, that backs a paper steed, "And manageth a pen-knife gallantly, "Strikes his poinado at a button's breadth, Brings the great battering ram of terms to towns; * In his Scourge of Villanie he gives a hint at one reason. "Shall Matho raise his fame By printing pamphlets in another's name, And in them praise himself, his wit, his might, All to be deem'd his country's lanthorn-light, Whilst my tongue's tied with bonds of blushing shame, In his play of "What you Will," he speaks of himself under his assumed name. 66 Bishop Hall and Marston seem to have been upon bad terms, and the former wrote an epigram upon Pigmalion's Image," of the latter in which he played upon Marston's nom de guerre. "The dog was best cured by cutting and kinsing." &c. Marston, replying to it, points out the conceit. C. 5 "And at first volley of his cannon shot, "Batters the walls of the old fusty world." When The Malcontent was first published Marston lived in friendship with Ben Jonson, to whom he dedicated it. He, also, wrote some complimentary verses to that author, which are printed before the first Edition of Sejanus in 1605. The good correspondence between them, however, was afterwards broken; but the cause of it remains unknown. In the next year, 1606, the play of Sophonisba appeared, and in the Preface is the following passage plainly levelled at the play he had just before applauded: "Know that I have not labour'd in this "Poem to relate any thing as an Historian, but to enlarge every thing as a Poet. To transcribe Authors, quote Authorities, and translate Latin prose Orations "into English Blank Verse, hath in this subject been "the least aim of my studies." 66 Ben also many years afterwards spoke of Marston with some degree of acrimony*; he said to Drummond Regarding this quarrel Mr. Gifford in his Life of B. Jonson speaks thus conclusively, I. lxxii. "The Satiromastix appeared in 1602; the Malcontent was probably written in the following year, as two editions of it were printed as early as 1604. This play Marston dedicated to Jonson, in terms that do the highest honour to his friend as they seem to be expressly selected for the purpose of confuting the calumnies of Decker. Nor was this all, for in the epilogue to this play he thus adverts to his "liberal and cordial friend" and his meditated Tragedy. Then, till another's happier muse appears, Till his Thalia feast your learned ears, To whose desertful lamps pleas'd fates impart, Receive this piece, which hope nor fear yet daunteth : He that knows most, knows most how much it wanteth." In the succeeding year, 1605, Marston again addresses his "most worthy friend," as one whose work (Sejanus,) would " even force applause from dispairful envy :" yet the critics affirm that in 1606, when this Poet published his Sophonisha, he attacks him upon the score of this very tragedy, which is here declared to be unrivalled. Not a shadow of offence appears on the side of Jonson; yet because Marston changed his language, therefore, say the commentators," it is probable that Ben's natural arrogance and self of Hawthornden, that "he fought several times with "Marston, and that the latter wrote his father-in-law's 66 preachings, and his father-in-law his comedies*." Marston was the Author of the following Plays: (1.) Antonio and Mellida: A History. Acted by the Children of Paul's. 4to, 1602.† (2.) Antonio's Revenge: The Second Part. As it hath beene sundry times acted by the Children of Paul's. 4to, 1602. (3.) The Insatiate Countess; A Tragedy. Acted at White Fryers. 4to, 1603. 4to, 1613. 4to. 1631. (4.) The Malcontent, 4to, 1604. Another Edition in 4to. in the same year ‡. (5.) The Dutch Courtezan. As it was play'd in the Blacke Friars, by the Children of her Majesties Revels. 4to. 1605 §. As it hath bene (6.) Parisitaster; or, The Fawne. divers times presented at the Blacke Friars, by the Children of the Queenes Majesties Revels. 4to, 1606. sufficiency had lessened their friendship, since we find Marston casting some very severe glances at his Sejanus and Catiline." As Cataline was not in being till 1611, no glances could be cast at it in 1606; for the rest, if Marston did not know his own mind it seems hard to blame Jonson for it; since whatever might be the demerits of Sejanus they could not be greater in 1606, than when he praised it two years before. In a word, if this play be meant, it will be diffi cult to acquit Marston of the basest flattery or the meanest revenge." C. *It has been conjectured that late in life, Marston became a preacher himself; and a Sermon is in existence" preached at St. Margaret's, in Westminster, Feb. 6, 1642, by John Marston." C. An incident in Act II. of this " History," is either founded upon a story in " the merrie conceited Jests of George Peele," or the story upon the incident-probably the former. The earliest date of Peele's Jests has not been ascertained. C. Although not printed until 1604, it should seem from an addition to note 54, that the Malcontent was written in 1600. § This Comedy was alluded to in the year following its publication in a tract entitled "The Blacke Yeare," 1606,-" Others have good wits but so critical that they arraign other men's works at the tribunal seat of every censorious Aristarch's understandinig, when their own are sacrificed in Paul's Church-yard for bringing in the Dutch Curtezan, to corrupt English conditions, and sent away Westward for carping both at Court, City, and Country." C. (7.) The Wonder of Women; or The Tragedie of Sophonisba. As it hath beene sundry times acted at the Blacke Friers. 4to. 1606. (8.) What you will. 4to. 1607. All these, except The Insatiate Countess and The Malcontent, were printed in 12mo. 1633. He was also, the Author of "The Argument of the "Spectacle, presented to the sacred Majestys of Great "Britain and Denmark as they passed through "London." In MS. in the British Museum, No. 18. A. 31. * The following Epigram is printed in The Scourge of Folly, by John Davies, 12mo. N. D. p. 105. To acute Mr. John Marston. Thy Malecontent, or Malecontentednesse, Thou need'st not then her timely change repent. Among the Duke of Bridgewater's MSS. is an unpublished Masque, by Marston, entitled "The Lorde and Ladye of Hunting"don's entertainment of theire right noble mother Alice Coun"tesse Dowager of Darby, the first night of her honor's arrivall "at the house of Ashby," from which the Rev. H. J.Todd has given large extracts in his edition of Milton. See preliminary notes on the Arcades. O. G. The following from Fitzgeoffrey's Affania, Lib. II. refers to Marston's claim to be the second English Satirist, Bishop Hall being considered the first. AD JOANNEM MARSTONUM. Gloria Marstoni Satirarum proxima primæ, Nec te pæniteat stationis, Jane, secundus, Cum duo sint tantum, est neuter at ambo pares. C. |