John Marston

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Marston (born October 7, 1576 in Coventry , † June 25, 1634 probably in Hampshire ) was an English playwright and writer .

Life

Marston was the son of a lawyer, studied philosophy and theology at Oxford University and became a preacher after successfully completing his studies . His first works, an erotic poem and a volume of Satires , both published in 1598, were condemned by religious authorities, but also attracted attention. He then began writing for the theater and wrote a number of satirical comedies , tragic comedies , and melodramas between 1599 and 1608 that were quite popular.

He was involved in a literary feud with Ben Jonson , who in turn exposed him to ridicule , especially in The Poetaster (1601). Some critics also suspect that Jonson may have meant Marston with the character of Carlo Buffone, who is portrayed in his satirical comedy Every Man out of his Humor (1599) as a foul and vulgar buffoon.

Later, however, there was again a reconciliation and cooperation between the two authors as part of a joint co-authoring.

Marston was jailed twice in 1605 and 1608 for politically offensive passages in his or those plays he co-authored. He entered the Church in 1609, was ordained a clergyman, cared for a parish in Hampshire from 1616 to 1631, and likely died in Christchurch in 1634 .

Literary work

Title page from Marston's The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image (1598)

Alongside Ben Jonson, Marston was considered the most vicious playwright of his time. He began his literary career in 1598 with the erotic Ovid minor poem The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image and Certaine Satyres and The Scourge of Villanie , a collection of sharp-tongued satires that he published under the pseudonym W. Kinsayder. His first works quickly became known and widely recognized, but were burned by executioners by order of the Bishop of Canterbury.

Marston then turned to the stage in his literary work a year later. With Ben Jonson he got involved with his co-authorship of the Histrio-mastix, which was written in 1599 (first printed in 1610) and later on the Satiriomastix , written in 1602 . In particular, the figure of Chrisoganus, a pedantic scholar, designed by Marston in Histrio-mastic , was generally accepted by the contemporary public as a caricature by Jonson. In his play The Poetaster, which was first performed in 1601, he in turn responded with a satirical allusion to Marston in the form of Crispinus, a would-be poet and plagiarist who is forced to spit out grandiose, boastful phrases by taking pills, and thus solved the so-called " war of the theaters ”, which Marston ended in 1604 with a dedication of his work The malcontent to Jonson.

Marston's tragedies and tragicomedies are often characterized by particular atrocities and by a gloomy portrayal of social conditions, in which interpersonal relationships are primarily characterized by malice, whereby virtue is doomed to ineffectiveness and destruction. The most important creation of Marston is his figure of Malevole, a disempowered duke, in The malcontent . He lives in disguise at his own court and hurls his bitter satirical comments and insults into the world. As in Marston's other plays, there are parodic allusions to passages in Shakespeare's works, in this case Shakespeare's Hamlet .

In his vicious and negative portrayal or description of society, Marston is considered a representative of the dark Jacobean drama , which is characterized by violence and hopelessness.

Together with Ben Jonson and George Chapman , Marston wrote the comedy Eastward Ho in 1605 , which thematizes the difference between urban and rural life. The satirical allusions to the opportunistic supporters of the newly crowned King James I led to the imprisonment of the three playwrights.

Marston left his last play The insatiate countess unfinished because he suddenly withdrew from the theater and was ordained a priest for reasons that have not been handed down.

Works

  • Antonio's revenge . Bradock, London 1602
  • The dutch courtezan . Purfoote, London 1605
  • Eastward Ho! . Aspley, London 1605
  • The history of Antonio and Mellida . Bradock, London 1602
  • Histrio-mastic or the player whipt . Bradock, London 1610
  • The insatiate countess . Snodham, London 1610
  • Jack Drum's entertainment . Pollard, London 1657
  • Lust's dominion or the lascivious queen . Pollard, London 1657
  • The malcontent . Simmes, London 1604
  • Parasitaster or the fawne . Purfoote, London 1606
  • What you want . Eld, London 1607
  • The wonder of women or tragedy of Sophonisba . Winded, London 1606

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See e.g. B. George Wyndham (Ed.): The Poetry of William Shakespeare. Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi 1996, ISBN 81-7156-587-5 , Introduction, S. Lxi. However, this assumption is no longer unanimously held in today's secondary literature. See in more detail the comments and evidence in the edition of the biblioteca virtual universal by Every Man out of his Humor from 2008, p. 8 f., Available online as a PDF file at [1] . Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  2. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian : The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 3rd edition, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 270. In contrast to other sources, the Encyclopædia Britannica gives London as the place of death. See the entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica , online John Marston British dramatist . Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  3. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian : The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 3rd edition, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 270. See also the entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica , online John Marston British dramatist . Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian : The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 3rd edition, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 270. See also the information in the Encyclopædia Britannica , online John Marston British dramatist and War of the theaters . Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  5. ↑ Cf. on the parodies of Shakespeare's works the information and examples in the entry in the Theater Database , online JOHN MARSTON (1576-1634) . Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  6. ↑ See the information in the Encyclopædia Britannica , online John Marston British dramatist . Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  7. ↑ See Bernhard Fabian : The English literature. Volume 2: Authors. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 3rd edition, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04495-0 , p. 270 f.
personal data
SURNAME Marston, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English playwright and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1576
PLACE OF BIRTH Coventry
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1634
Place of death Hampshire