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                      The English Dramatists

                           JOHN MARSTON

                         VOLUME THE FIRST




                             THE WORKS

                                 OF

                           JOHN MARSTON

                             EDITED BY

                        A. H. BULLEN, B.A.

                         IN THREE VOLUMES

                         VOLUME THE FIRST

                  [Illustration: Printer's logo]

                               LONDON

                           JOHN C. NIMMO
               14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.

                           MDCCCLXXXVII




_Two hundred copies of this Edition on Laid paper, medium 8vo, have
been printed, viz., 120 for the English Market, and 80 for America.
Each copy numbered as issued._

_No. 30_




                                 TO
                 AN OLD FRIEND AND FELLOW-STUDENT,

                        _CHARLES H. FIRTH,_

                           These Volumes

                   ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
                          BY THE EDITOR.




                             PREFACE.


Marston's Works were edited in 1856 by Mr. Halliwell (3 vols. 8vo.)
for Mr. Russell Smith's _Library of Old Authors_. I yield to none
in my admiration for the best and the most accurate of living
Shakespearean scholars; but I am sure that Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps,
who in his _Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare_ has set so
singularly high a standard of excellence, would be the first to
acknowledge that his edition of Marston's Works needs revision.

In the present volumes I have done my best to regulate the text, which
is frequently very corrupt; but I am painfully conscious that I have
left plenty of work for future editors.

A valuable edition of Marston's poems was published in 1879, for
private circulation, by Dr. Grosart. I have availed myself freely of
the results of Dr. Grosart's biographical researches; and I am
indebted to his edition for the text of the _Entertainment_ in vol.
iii.

Dr. Brinsley Nicholson, whose recently published edition of Reginald
Scot's _Discovery of Witchcraft_ met with the enthusiastic
welcome that it deserved, has helped me liberally with advice and
suggestions; and I have to thank Mr. P. A. Daniel, whose scholarship
is as sound as it is acute, for his kindness in reading my
Introduction.

In deference to friendly criticism, I have prefixed to each play a
brief summary of the plot.

_18th March 1887._




                        CONTENTS OF VOL. I.


                                                       PAGE

         PREFACE                                        vii

         INTRODUCTION                                    xi

         FIRST PART OF ANTONIO AND MELLIDA                1

         ANTONIO'S REVENGE: THE SECOND PART OF
           ANTONIO AND MELLIDA                           95

         THE MALCONTENT                                 193




                           INTRODUCTION.


When other poets were repeating Horace's boast, "Exegi monumentum,"
&c., John Marston dedicated the first fruits of his genius "To
everlasting Oblivion." In much of Marston's satire there is an air of
evident insincerity, but the dedicatory address at the close of _The
Scourge of Villainy_ is of startling earnestness:--

                                 "Let others pray
     For ever their fair poems flourish may;
     But as for me, hungry Oblivion,
     Devour me quick, accept my orison,
     My earnest prayers, which do importune thee,
     With gloomy shade of thy still empery
     To veil both me and my rude poesy."

Those lines were printed in 1598. Six and thirty years afterwards the
poet was laid in his grave, and on the grave-stone was inscribed
"Oblivioni sacrum." But prayers cannot purchase oblivion; and the
rugged Timon of the Elizabethan drama, who sought to shroud himself
"in the uncomfortable night of nothing," will be forced from time to
time to emerge from the shades and pass before the eyes of curious
scholars.

It was established by the genealogical researches of that acute and
indefatigable antiquary, Joseph Hunter,[1] that John Marston belonged
to the old Shropshire family of Marstons. The dramatist's father, John
Marston, third son of Ralph Marston of Gayton (or Heyton), co. Salop,
was admitted a member of the Middle Temple in 1570; married Maria,
daughter of Andrew Guarsi[2] (or Guersie), an Italian surgeon who had
settled in London, and had married Elizabeth Gray, daughter of a
London merchant; migrated to Coventry; was lecturer of the Middle
Temple in 1592.

The