The turne aboue ground, Robins sprawling kicks, Did euer any eare ere heare him speake Is nothing but a mincing capreall. He dreames on toe-turnes, each gallant hee doth meete Prayse but Orchestra, and the skipping art, You shall commaund him, faith you haue his hart Euen capring in your fist. A pall, a hall, Room for the Spheres, the orbes celestiall Will daunce Kemps ligge. They'le reuel with neate iumps O wits quick trauers, but sauce ceo's slow Good faith 'tis hard for nimble Curio. Yee gracious orbs, keepe the olde measuring, All's spoyld if once yee fall to capering. Luscus what's play'd to day? faith now I know I set thy lips abroach, from whence doth flow Naught but pure Juliet and Romio. Say, who acts best? Drusus, or Roscio? He writes, he railes, he iests, he courts, what not This quotation is not only a favourable specimen of Marston's powers, but is also interesting on account of its literary allusions. He is fond of the phrase "Cimmerian night," and "Cimmerian darkness," which occurs more than once, and has been imitated by Milton. "Prayse but Orchestra, and the skipping art," is an allusion to a rare poem by Sir John Davis, entitled "Orchestra, or a Poeme of Dauncing," first printed in 1596. A little after he alludes to Kemp's Jigge. Mr. Dyce supposes that this was "a ludicrous metrical composition after the play was over, either spoken or sung by the clown, and occasionally by dancing and playing on the pipe and tabor"; and that the Jig called Kemp's Jigge, concerning which there are several entries in the Stationers' books, was merely called Kemp's' because that celebrated buffoon had rendered them popular by his acting, and probably by flashes of extempore wit" (see the Rev. A. Dyce's introduction to Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder, p. xx), and that it was to one of such entertainments that Marston alludes in this passage. Shakespeare's tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, which was now popular, had been acted a few years previously, and was first published in 1597, 4to. At the end of the satires are the following lines addressed "To euerlasting obliuion," in which we can hardly suppose the writer to have been serious in wishing that "Obliuion might deuoure him quick," as he certainly had a good opinion of his own powers, and was envious of notoriety: Thou mighty gulfe, insatiant cormorant, My earnest prayers, which doe importune thee I with this sharpe, yet well meant poesie, Will sleepe secure, right free from iniurie, After these lines there is a prose address "To him that hath perused me," signed "Theriomastix," which closes the volume. Marston is a bold and energetic, but rugged writer, which latter quality was perhaps rather affected than otherwise to give force to the lashings of his satires, as he wrote with more melody and felicity of expression in his plays. Warton, in his Observations on Spencer, remarks of these Satires, that though "containing many well drawn characters, and several good strokes of satirical genius, yet they are not upon the whole so finished and classical as Bishop Hall's"; vol. iv, p. 396, 8vo ed. There is great strength and vigour in his descriptions, but still mingled with a coarseness bordering upon vulgarity; and he is well pourtrayed by the author of The Returne from Parnassus : : Methinks, he is a ruffian in his style Cuts, thrusts, and foins, at whomsoever he meets, Tut, what cares he for modest close-couch'd terms Cleanly to gird our looser libertines ? Give him plain naked words, strip'd from their shirts, That might beseem plain-dealing Aretine. Campbell, who alone of all our collectors of poetry has thought Marston worthy of admission into a Selection of British Poets, hardly alludes to his Satires, and quotes only from his Comedies, which he calls "somewhat dull" while Mr. Collier is inclined "to place him very high among Shakespeare's contemporaries," and says that "his dramatic works would quite as well bear republishing as those of Massinger or Shirley." And Drake, in his account of the writers of Shakespeare's time, observes of Marston, that "all his dramas give evidence of great wealth and vigour of description, of much felicity in expression, and of much passionate eloquence; nor are his characters raw or indistinct sketches, but highly coloured and well supported." In another particular also, the difference in opinion respecting this author is very remarkable; for while Langbaine praises him as "a chaste and pure writer, avoiding all that obscenity, ribaldry, and scurrility, which too many of the playwrights of that time and since, have made the basis of their wit, to the great disgrace and scandal of the stage: and that whatsoever even in the spring of his years he presented upon the stage, in his autumn and declining age he needed not to be ashamed of": whilst Langbaine thus praises his chaste purity, Warton says of him, "It is Marston's misfortune that he can never keep clear of the impurities of the brothel. His stream of poetry, if sometimes bright and unpolluted, almost always betrays a muddy bottom. The satirist who too freely indulges himself in the display of that licentiousness which he means to proscribe, absolutely defeats his own design. He inflames those passions which he professes to suppress, gratifies the depravations of a prurient curiosity, and seduces innocent minds to an acquaintance with ideas which they might never have known." Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet., vol. iv, p. 396. We fear that on an impartial examination of his writings, it will be found but too true, that he is more deserving of the latter character than the former, and that what Langbaine says of him is far from being merited or supported by his works. Of the life of Marston little seems to be known with any certainty. Neither the time nor place of his birth, nor the period of his death are fixed with any degree of exactness. One account informs us that he was a student in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and that when he quitted that university, he was entered at the Middle Temple in London, of which society he was appointed lecturer in 1592, and is supposed to have died in London in 1634, and to have been buried in the church belonging to the Temple. While another says, that there seems to be little reason to think he was of Oxford; but certain from his works that he was of Cambridge, where he was contemporary with Bishop Hall. Wood, who is generally speaking very accurate, in his account of Marston is extremely unsatisfactory, and in fact was quite ignorant which John Marston of those that he describes of that name was the poet: but rather leans to the opinion that he was of Corpus Christi College. Marston appears at one time of his life to have been on terms of intimacy and friendship with Ben Jonson, and dedicated to him in flattering terms his play of the Molcontent in 1604; and also wrote some complimentary verses to that author prefixed to the first edition of Sejanus in 1605; but he was afterwards at variance with him, and in his Epistle to the Reader prefixed to his Sophonisba in 1606, makes some strong allusions to Jonson for his pedantry in translating long orations from Sallust and other classical authors into English blank verse. The cause of this misunderstanding between them is not known, but it appears to have continued through the remainder of their lives, and is alluded to by Mr. Gifford in his edition of Ben Jonson's works, vol. i, p. lxxii. Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that he had fought several times with Marston, and that the latter's father-in-law, a clergyman, wrote his plays, while Marston wrote his father-in-law's sermons; from whence it has been supposed that Marston, late in life, entered into the church, and this supposition has been rendered more probable from the circumstance of the existence of a sermon preached at St. Margaret's in Westminster, February 6th, 1642, by John Marston. Ben Jonson is believed to have satirized both him and Decker in his Poetaster, 4to, 1601. Marston was the author of eight plays, all printed in 4to, between the years 1602 and 1607, six of which were afterwards collected and published in one volume, 12mo, 1633, and dedicated to the Lady Viscountess Falkland. Besides these dramatic efforts, he was the author of "The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image, and Certaine Satyres," 16mo, 1598, and "The Scourge of Villanie. Three Bookes of Satyres," 16mo, 1598 and 1599. Both these works were reprinted by the Rev. John Bowle in 1764. Ant. Wood was ignorant that Marston wrote "The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image," which is omitted in the list he has given of his works. He was also the writer of a Masque, entitled "The Lorde and Ladye of Huntingdons Entertainment of theire right noble mother, Alice, Countesse Dowager of Darby, the first night of her Honor's arrivall at the house of Ashby," which is now preserved in the library at Bridgewater house, with a dedication, in his own hand writing, to Alice, Countess of Derby. A fac-simile of this dedication is given in Mr. Collier's privately printed catalogue of the library at Bridgewater house, p. 193, and the whole Masque is given at length in Nicholls' Progr. James I., vol. ii, p. 145. It was first printed by the Rev. J. H. Todd from the original manuscript at Bridgewater house. Lord Huntingdon was the eldest son of Francis, Lord Hastings, and became afterwards fifth Earl of Huntingdon in 1604, and died in 1643. Lady Huntingdon was Elizabeth, youngest of the three daughters and coheirs of Ferdinando Stanley, Earl of Derby, and died in 1633. There is another manuscript of Marston's in the British Museum, entitled "The Argument of the Spectacle presented to the sacred Maiestys of Great Brittan and Denmark as they passed through London." This was first noticed by Isaac Reed in his edition of Dodsley's old plays; and since then by Mr. Collier in his Poet. Decam., vol. ii, p. 315; and in the first volumne of The Crypt, p. 33, where it is printed at length. It was written on the occasion of a visit from the King of Denmark to James I. in 1606. It is very short, and with some propriety is chiefly in Latin, being composed for the entertainment of a foreign Prince, who was ignorant of the English language. Marston is also said to have written another work, still in manuscript, "The New Metamorphosis, or a Feaste of Fancie, or Poetical Legendes, 1600," 4to, of which an account is given by Mr. Haslewood in his edition of Drunken Barnabie's Journal, 1820, vol. i, p. 76, but we do not think this |