Part 17 (1/2)

Jonson, it is true, tells Drummond that he had written his _Poetaster_ against Marston. (According to his declaration in the 'Apologetical Dialogue,' there is nothing personal in the whole _Poetaster!_ 'I can profess I never writt that piece more innocent or empty of offence.') However, we form our judgment in this matter from the clear, well-marked, and indubitably characteristic traits of the play, as well as from the results of modern criticism, which are fully in harmony with those traits. Everything points to the figure of Ovid being a mask for Marston. Jonson perhaps chose the name of Ovid for him because he, too, had written _Metamorphoses_. Besides the before-mentioned _Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image_, it is not improbable that Marston is the author of the ma.n.u.script preserved in the British Museum:--_The New Metamorphosis; or, A Feaste or Fancie of Poeticall Legendes.

The first parte divided into twelve books. Written by I. M., gent._, 1600. Ovid--Marston--in the _Poetaster_, is described as the younger son of a gentleman of considerable position. He is dependent on a stipend allowed to him by his father. After having absolved his studies, he is to become an advocate, but secretly he devotes his time to poetry. The father warns him that poverty will be his lot if he does not renounce poetry. Ovid senior makes the following reproach to his son (which probably has reference to Marston's first tragedy, _Antonio and Mellida_):--'I hear of a tragedy of yours coming forth for the common players there, called _Medea_. By my household G.o.ds, if I come to the acting of it, I'll add one tragic part more than is yet expected to it.... What?

shall I have my son a stager now? an enghle for players?... Publius, I will set thee on the funeral pile first!'

All this harmonises with the few facts we know of Marston's career, who is said to have been the son of a counsellor of the Middle Temple, who was at Corpus Christi College at Oxford, and who was made a _baccalaureus_ there on February 23, 1592. In comparison with Crispinus and Demetrius, Ovid is but mildly chaffed; and this, again, is in accord with the relations which soon after arose, in a very friendly manner, between Jonson and Marston. It is scarcely to be thought that, if Marston had been derided as Crispinus, he would already have composed, as early as 1603, his eulogistic poem on Jonson's _Seja.n.u.s_, and dedicated to him in 1604, in such hearty words, his own _Malcontent_.

From some pointed words in the libel composed by Crispinus against Horace, Gifford concludes that the former must be Marston, because we meet with these pointed words in some satires and dramas of Marston. We, on our part, go, in these controversial plays, by the main and most prominent characteristics; and these show that Crispinus is Shakspere, and Ovid Marston.

The latter even once says (_Scourge of Villanie_, sat. vi.) that many a one, in reading his _Pigmalion_, has compared him to Ovid.

In order to make out Crispinus to be guilty before Augustus, strong language is required. For this purpose, Jonson may have used the way and manners of Marston, and applied some of his newly coined graphic words. But this proves nothing for the ident.i.ty of characters.

The libel also contains a pointed word of Shakspere--'retrograde'--an expression little employed by the latter, and which is hurled as a reproach against Parolles, the figure which in all likelihood is to represent Jonson; Helena (act i. sc. 2) says to him, that he was born under Mars, 'when he was retrograde.'

The remark in _The Return from Parna.s.sus_ that few of the University can pen plays well, smelling too much of that writer Ovid and that writer _Metamorphosis_, has, in our opinion, also reference to John Marston whose first dramatic attempts--although he, like Jonson, may be called a 'University man'--do not admit of any comparison with those of Shakspere.

23: Demetrius repentingly admits that it was from envy he had ill-treated Horace, because 'he kept better company for the most part than I, better men loved him than loved me; and his writings thrived better than mine, and were better liked and graced.'

24: The little word 'clutcht' for a long time 'sticks strangely' in Crispinus' throat; it is only thrown up with the greatest difficulty.

In _Hamlet_ (act v. sc. i, in the second verse of the grave-digger's song) we hear, 'Hath claw'd me in his _clutch_. In the original song, which is here travestied, the words are, 'Hath claw'd me with his crouch'.

25: The following allusion in _The Poetaster_ (act iv. sc. 3) also has reference to _Twelfth Night_:--'I have read in a book that to play the fool wisely is high wisdom.' For Viola (act iii. sc. i) says:--

This fellow 's wise enough to play the fool; And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit...

As full of labour as a wise man's art.

There are several indications in _The Poetaster_ pointing to Shakspere's _Julius Caesar_ which had appeared in the same year (1601). Not only does Horace say to Trebatius that 'great Caesar's wars cannot be fought with words,' but he also corrects Shakspere, who makes Antony (act iii. sc. 2) speak of Caesar's gardens on this side of the Tiber, by putting into the mouth of Horace (act iii.

sc. i) the words:--' On the far side of all Tyber yonder.' In this scene, where the two Pyrgi are examined, there are some more allusions to _Julius Caesar_. Even the boy, whose instrument Brutus takes away when he is asleep, is not wanting. In _The Poetaster_ it is a drum, instead of a lyre (the drum in _All's Well that Ends Well_). And are the following words of the same scene no satire upon act i. sc. 3 of _Julius Caesar_, where Casca and Cicero meet amidst thunder and lightning?

2 _Pyrgi_. Where art thou, boy? where is Calipolis?

Fight earthquakes in the entrails of the earth, And eastern whirlwinds in the h.e.l.lish shades; Some foul contagion of the infected heavens Blast all the trees, and in their cursed tops The dismal night-raven and tragic owl Breed and become forerunners of my fall!

Casca dwells especially on the 'bird of night.'

26: The y, in Pygmalion, seems to us not without cause to be changed by Marston into an i.

27: The number of metaphors used by Shakspere in 'Venus and Adonis,'

which Marston travesties, is strikingly large.

28: A few instances may here be given of the coa.r.s.eness with which Dekker pays back Jonson for his personal allusions. In _The Poetaster_, Crispinus is told that his 'satin-sleeve begins to fret at the rug that is underneath it.' In _Satiromastix_, Tucca cries out against Horace (Jonson):--'Thou never yet fel'st into the hands of sattin.'

And again:--'Thou borrowedst a gowne of Roscius the stager, and sentest it home lousie.' Crispinus, in _The Poetaster_, is derided on account of his short legs. In _Satiromastix_, Horace is laughed at for his 'ambling' walk; wherefore he had so badly played mad Jeronimo's part. Jonson is reproached with all his sins: that he had killed a player; that he had not thought it necessary to keep his word to those whom he held to be _heretics_ and _infidels_, and so forth. His face, which, as above mentioned, had s...o...b..tic marks, is stated to be 'like a rotten russet apple when it is bruiz'd'; or, like the cover of a warming-pan, 'full of oylet-holes.'

He is called an 'uglie Pope Bonifacius;' also a 'bricklayer;' and he is asked why, instead of building chimneys and laying down bricks, he makes 'nothing but railes'--'filthy rotten railes'--upon which alone his Muse leans. ('Railes' has a double meaning here: rails for fencing in a house; and gibes.) He is told that his feet stamp as if he had mortar under them--an allusion to his metrics, as well as to his ambling walk.

29: Shakspere was already then the proprietor of a house--New Place, in Stratford. In this scene Horace also asks Crispinus:--'You have much of the mother in you, sir? Your father is dead?' John Shakspere, the father, died in the year when _The Poetaster_ was first performed--in September, 1601.

30: _Twelfth Night_, act iii. sc. 2. _Sir Toby_:--'Let there be gall in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen.'

31: Here Crispinus threatens Horace with the 'purge' (a word that may be used as a noun or a verb), which, in _The Return from Parna.s.sus_, is mentioned as having been administered by Shakspere to Jonson. It is highly probable that the reconciliation between Crispinus and Horace, which is described in the beginning of _Satiromastix_, had taken place between Shakspere and Ben Jonson, and that, during this period of peace, the performance of _Seja.n.u.s_ occurred, in which Shakspere actively co-operated. After that, traces of hostility only are to be discovered between the two poets.

Even when Horace, in the 'Satiromastix,' has again broken the peace, the gentle Crispinus says to him:--