followed in the same year by a blood-curdling tragedy, the ‘Wonder of Women, or the Tragedie of Sophonisba,’ 4to. ‘What you will,’ a comedy, 1607, 4to, contains some sarcastic allusions to Ben Jonson. ‘The Insatiate Countess,’ a tragedy, was published in 1613, 4to, with Marston's name on the title-page. It was reprinted in 1631, and in most copies of that edition Marston's name is found; but in one copy (belonging to the Duke of Devonshire) of ed. 1631 the authorship is assigned to the actor, William Barksteed, and the ‘Insatiate Countess’ was not included in the 1633 collective edition of Marston's plays. A couple of lines from this tragedy are found in Barksteed's ‘Myrrha,’ 1607; and there are many passages of graceful poetry that bear no resemblance to Marston's authentic writings. The explanation may be that Marston, when he entered the church, left this work unfinished, and that it was afterwards taken in hand by Barksteed. It is to be regretted that the text of the ‘Insatiate Countess,’ which has much poetry and passion, is frequently corrupt and mutilated. Plot and underplot are taken from the fourth and fifteenth ‘Tales’ of Bandello, pt. i.; both tales are given in Painter's ‘Palace of Pleasure,’ Nos. 24 and 26.
In two indifferent anonymous comedies, ‘Histriomastix,’ 1610, and ‘Jack Drum's Entertainment,’ 1616, Marston's hand is plainly distinguishable. His share in the former may be slight, but for the latter (written about 1600) he was largely responsible. Among ‘Divers Poetical Essays,’ appended to Robert Chester's ‘Love's Martyr,’ 1601, is a poem by Marston. He also wrote some Latin speeches (Royal MSS., 18 A, xxxi. Brit. Mus.) on the occasion of the visit of the king of Denmark to James I in 1606; and an entertainment (Bridgewater House MS.) in honour of a visit paid by the Dowager-countess of Derby to her son-in-law and daughter, Lord and Lady Huntingdon, at Ashby. ‘The Mountebank's Masque’ (first printed in Nichols's Progresses of James I, iii. 466), performed at court in February 1616–17, was assigned by Collier on insufficient authority to Marston. Some of the songs are much in Campion's manner. Portions of the masque are found in Quarles's ‘Virgin Widow,’ 1649. Collier, in ‘Memoirs of Edward Alleyn’ (p. 154), prints a letter of Marston to Henslowe, but Warner (Cat. of Dulwich MSS., p. 49) shows it to be a forgery. The letter of ‘John Marston’ to Lord Kimbolton, printed in Collier's ‘Shakespeare,’ ed. 1858, i. 179, was written in 1641—seven years after the dramatist's death. A wearisome manuscript poem, ‘The New Metamorphosis … Written by J. M., Gent., 1600’ (Addit. MSS. 14824–6), of some thirty thousand lines, has been uncritically assigned to Marston. A mot of Marston is recorded in Manningham's ‘Diary’ under date 21 Nov. 1602, and in Ashmole MS. 36–7 is preserved a couplet by Marston on George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, ‘made some few months before he was murthered.’
Marston's works were collected in 1856, 3 vols. 8vo, by J. O. Halliwell; and by the present writer in 1887, 3 vols. 8vo. The satires and poems, 2 vols. 4to, are included in Grosart's ‘Occasional Issues.’
[Memoirs by Halliwell, Grosart, and Bullen; Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iv. 762; Painter's Palace of Pleasure, ed. Jacobs, I. lxxx, lxxxiii, lxxxviii–ix; Fleay's Biog. Chron. of English Drama; art. by A. C. Swinburne, Nineteenth Century, October 1888; K. Deighton's Marston's Works, Conjectural Readings, 1893.]
MARSTON, JOHN WESTLAND (1819–1890), dramatic poet, born at Boston, Lincolnshire, on 30 Jan. 1819, was son of the Rev. Stephen Marston, minister of a baptist congregation in the town. In 1834 he was articled to his maternal uncle, a London solicitor; but although he was not inattentive to the duties of the office, and obtained a fair knowledge of law, literature and the theatre had much greater attractions for him. His evenings were devoted to the theatre, and becoming acquainted with Heraud, Francis Barham, and other members of the mystical group which at that time gathered around James Pierrepont Greaves [q. v.], he contributed to Heraud's magazine ‘The Sunbeam,’ and upon obtaining release from his articles, himself became editor of a mystical periodical entitled ‘The Psyche.’ The school had remarkable affinities with the contemporary, but entirely independent, movement of New England transcendentalism, but was in comparison a very feeble growth. Among its chief supporters were some wealthy ladies near Cheltenham, always ready to equip missionaries in the cause, and on their liberality Marston, who had given up the profession of law without fully adopting the profession of literature, for a time depended. Through them he made the acquaintance of Eleanor Jane Potts, eldest daughter of the proprietor of ‘Saunders's News Letter,’ who had retired to Cheltenham. She was not, as has been stated, a member of the Earl of Mayo's family. A warm and durable attachment on both sides was the consequence, which resulted in marriage in May 1840, notwithstanding the strongest opposition on the part of the lady's family. Marston idealised and inverted his love story in his first play, the
