What You Will: 'We all have problems, and we must solve them together or we die alone''

by John Marston

John Marston was born to John and Maria Marston n�e Guarsi, and baptised on October 7th, 1576 at Wardington, Oxfordshire. Marston entered Brasenose College, Oxford in 1592 and earned his BA in 1594. By 1595, he was in London, living in the Middle Temple. His interests were in poetry and play writing, although his father's will of 1599 hopes that he would not further pursue such vanities.

His brief career in literature began with the fashionable genres of erotic epyllion and satire; erotic plays for boy actors to be performed before educated young men and members of the inns of court.

In 1598, he published 'The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and Certaine Satyres', a book of poetry. He also published 'The Scourge of Villanie', in 1598.

'Histriomastix' regarded as his first play was produced 1599. It's performance kicked off an episode in literary history known as the War of the Theatres; a literary feud between Marston, Jonson and Dekker that lasted until 1602.

However, the playwrights were later reconciled; Marston wrote a prefatory poem for Jonson's 'Sejanus' in 1605 and dedicated 'The Malcontent' to him.

Beyond this episode Marston's career continued to gather both strength, assets and followers. In 1603, he became a shareholder in the Children of Blackfriars company. He wrote and produced two plays with the company. The first was 'The Malcontent' in 1603, his most famous play. His second was 'The Dutch Courtesan', a satire on lust and hypocrisy, in 1604-5.

In 1605, he worked with George Chapman and Ben Jonson on 'Eastward Ho', a satire of popular taste and the vain imaginings of wealth to be found in the colony of Virginia.

Marston took the theatre world by surprise when he gave up writing plays in 1609 at the age of thirty-three. He sold his shares in the company of Blackfriars. His departure from the literary scene may have been because of further offence he gave to the king. The king suspended performances at Blackfriars and had Marston imprisoned.

On 24th September 1609 he was made a deacon and them a priest on 24th December 1609. In October 1616, Marston was assigned the living of Christchurch, Hampshire.

He died (accounts vary) on either the 24th or 25th June 1634 in London and was buried in the Middle Temple Church.

80 pages, Paperback

Published June 14, 2019

About the author

John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. His career as a writer lasted a decade, and his work is remembered for its energetic and often obscure style, its contributions to the development of a distinctively Jacobean style in poetry, and its idiosyncratic vocabulary.

Reviews

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly bonkers but full of fun. The plot is, to be kind, tenuous, involving a widow attempting to remarry, a bunch of inept suitors and some pages who tangle the story up, but there are some hilarious scenes and funny characterisation.

Read as part of the REP online readathon of the repertoire of the late Elizabethan/early Jacobean Children's Companies.

[Jiang Yuqi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult read. There’s no plot there’re only VIBES. In the first read half of the time I have no idea why people in conversations change their topic so suddenly and the vocabulary is difficult than usual so I have to pause and look up in OED to ensure I understand them right. Like…it’s so post-modern???? Is fun from time to time tho. Sorry Marston. I may change the rating to 4-star when I re-read.

Edit: I re-read it. I appreciate Marston’s courage in addressing “difficult issues” such as sexual abuses between males. Therefore 4 stars.

[mattie · Rating 3 out of 5]

baffling to read but actually a lot of interesting stuff going on especially re clothes and gender… was a bit of a struggle but I appreciated it by the end so 3 stars but I suspect it could potentially bump up to 4 stars on a reread