When Quadratus declares (II. 1), "Epithalamiums will I sing," we are reminded of the frequent allusion to Jonson's Epithalamiums in Satiromastix.1 In the last act Quadratus is made to use "real," one of the "new-minted epithets " so ridiculed by Marston in The Scourge of Villanie,2 and he promises to present in a play "a subject worth thy soul; the honour'd end of Cato Utican." Mr. Fleay thinks, "possibly this is the play of Cæsar and Pompey afterwards finished by Chapman, but not acted." 3

1 See above, p. 120.

2 See above, p. 8.

3 Chronicle of the English Drama, II. 76.

XI.

THE RETURN FROM PARNASSUS AND TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

In our discussion up to this point we have found no evidence that Shakespeare was involved in "The War of the Theatres." The Return from Parnassus, a play "Publiquely acted by the students in Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge" (as we are informed by the title-page of the quarto edition, 1606) contains one of the most interesting references to the quarrel of Marston and Jonson, for upon the passage have been founded many of the stories of the alleged enmity and quarrels of Ben Jonson and Shakespeare. The Return from Parnassus was performed at Christmastide, 1601-2, as is shown by internal evidence.1

1 Professor Arber has reprinted the quarto edition (1606) of this play in The English Scholar's Library, No. 6. Prefixed to the text is a short discussion of the date at which the play was written. Professor Arber's results may be summarized as follows (references are to pages of the reprint): 1. The play is the last of a series of three plays by the same author (p. 5). 2. It was written and represented in Elizabeth's reign (p. 28). 3. It was written and represented subsequent to 11th August, 1600. On this date Belvedere, or the Garden of the Muses, the work attacked pp. 9, 10, was entered at the Stationers' Hall. 4. It was written for a Christmastide performance at St. John's College, Cambridge (pp. 4, 5, 42, 64, 66). As Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th March, 1603, we are of necessity shut up to a choice between the Christmastides of 1600-1, 1601-2, 1602-3. 5. Internal testimony establishes the writing of this play, for a first representation, in the Christmastide of 1601-2, 44 Eliz., possibly for a New Year's Day, which in 1602 (modern reckoning) fell on a Friday. The dominical letter is stated (p. 37) to have been C, which gives January 1, 1602, for the date. The dominical letter of 1601 was D, which explains the play upon the letters C and D in the reply of the Page to Sir Roderick (Act III. Sc. 1, p. 37), "C the Dominicall letter: it is true craft and cunning do so dominere; yet rather C and D are dominicall letters that is crafty Dunsery." 6. This date, 1601-2, is corroborated by the allusion to

We know, from the passage with which we are especially concerned, that the play as we have it was written after the performance of Poetaster, to which there is direct allusion. There is in the play much criticism of poets of the time, including Jonson and Marston, but with this we are not concerned. We are interested, however, in the following passage (IV. 3) :

Kempe (to Burbage). Few of the university pen plaies well, they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talke too much of Proserpina and Juppiter. Why heres our fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe, I and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent fellow, he brought up Horace giving the Poets a pill, but our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him beray his credit.1

What was the "purge" given by Shakespeare to Ben Jonson? The natural answer is "a play." But, what play? The only play of Shakespeare's that it is at all possible to suppose was the "purge" is Troilus and Cressida, and there is

the siege of Ostend and the Irish Rebellion, both of which were at that time in progress (pp. 43, 50, 52). 7. This play was registered for publication at Stationers' Hall on the 16th October, 1605, and appeared in print with the date 1606. Mr. Fleay gives, in his Chronicle of the English Drama, II. 349-55, an interesting account of The Return from Parnassus, and an interpretation of the various characters. In regard to the date he says: "There is abundance of evidence in this play that fixes the date to 1601 or thereabouts" (p. 349). "The siege of Ostend had commenced, Nash was deceased, etc., but the conclusive datum lies in the examination of Immerito, from which we learn that the dominical letter was C, and that the last quarter of the moon was on the fifth day at 2 h. 38 m. in the morning. This fixes the date as January, 1602-3, and if confirmation be needed we find it in what Momus says in the Prologue, What is here presented is an old musty show, that hath lain this twelvemonth in the bottom of a coal-house"" (p. 354). The statement of Momus may be taken as showing that the play, although written in 1601-2, was not acted until 1602-3. The dominical letter of 1603 was B, which does not accord with the statement in the play.

1 The passage is given here as it is in the quarto, reprinted by Professor Arber. Professor Ward interprets the first mention of Ben Jonson's name as being in the nominative case. The context shows that it is an object of "puts down" and not

a subject. Professor Ward's statement is: The actor Kemp says - - with some

truth - that our fellow, Shakespeare, aye, and Ben Jonson too, puts down all the University play-writers." A History of English Dramatic Literature, II. 152.

evidence which seems to point to this play as in some way connected with the quarrel between Marston and Jonson. The sub-play in Histriomastix is Troilus and Cressida, in which occur the lines:

Thy knight his valiant elbow wears,
That when he shakes his furious speare
The foe in shivering fearful sort

May lay him down in death to snort.1

In Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (I. 3) is the line :

When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws.

The apparent play on Shakespeare's name in Marston's line coupled with the fact that it occurs in a parody of a play called Troilus and Cressida makes the line of Shakespeare seem a reply. That it is so is by no means certain, for Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida is a play about the date of which there is considerable doubt. Henslowe mentions a play, by Dekker and Chettle, called "Troyeles and creasse daye," 2 and this increases the difficulty of deciding whether Marston parodied Shakespeare's play. The play which Henslowe mentions has. not come down to us.

1 Histriomastix, II. 272–275.

26 Lent unto Thomas Downton, to lende unto Mr. Dickers and harey cheattell, in earneste of ther boocke called Troyeles and creasse daye, the some of iii, aprell 7 daye 1599." Henslowe's Diary, p. 147.

1599, in earneste of a

"Lent unto harey cheattell and Mr. Dickers, in pte of payment of ther boocke called Troyelles and cresseda, xxs., the 16 of Aprell 1599." Ibid., p. 148. "Lent unto Mr. Dickers and Mr. Chettell, the 26 of maye Boocke called the tragedie of Agamemnon the some of xxxs." Ibid., p. 153. "Lent unto Robarte Shawe, the 30 of maye, 1599, in full paymente of the Boocke called the tragedie of Agamemnone, the some of iii£, vs., to Mr. Dickers and harey chettell." Ibid., p. 153.

"The Tragedie of Agamemnon" is clearly the same play as "Troyeles and creasse daye." Collier says in his note that the title Agamemnon "is interlined over the words 'Troylles and creseda.'" Ibid., p. 153.

As the present form of Histriomastix is of date 1599,1 the parody of Troilus and Cressida which it contains may have reference to this play of Dekker and Chettle. If this is the case, there is no connection between the line of Marston and the line of Shakespeare. The assumption that there is a connection between the two lines has led to the conclusion that in Shakespeare's play Thersites is Marston, and since we are told that Shakespeare gave Ben Jonson a "purge," it has been concluded that Ajax is Jonson. Mr. Fleay supports the theory that Troilus and Cressida was the "purge," and says:

The "armed Prologue" [Poetaster] is very important. He appears in 'confidence,' and is unquestionably alluded to in the "armed Prologue" to Troylus and Cressida, who does not "come in confidence.” It is then in this play of Shakespeare's that we must expect to find the purge that he gave to Jonson in return for the pill Jonson administered to Marston (cf. Return from Parnassus, IV. 3); and whoever will take the trouble to compare the description of Crites in Cynthia's Revels (II. 1) with that of Ajax in Troylus and Cressida (I. 2) will see that Ajax is Jonson: slow as the Elephant, crowded by Nature with "humors,” valiant as the Lion, churlish as the Bear, melancholy without cause (compare Macilente). Hardly a word is spoken of or by Ajax in II. 3, III. 3, which does not apply literally to Jonson; and in II. I he beats Thersites of the "mastic jaws" (I. 3, 73, Histriomastix, Theriomastix) as Jonson "beat Marston (Drum. Conv., II).

Thersites in all respects resembles Marston, the railing satirist. But, it will be objected, Troylus and Cressida was not acted. It was not staled, indeed, on the London stage, but in 1601 the Chamberlain's men travelled and visited the Universities (see Hamlet in my Life of Shakespeare), and I have no doubt acted Troylus and Cressida at Cambridge, where the author of The Return from Parnassus saw it. The "purge" is from II. 3, 203, "he'll be the physician that should be the patient." When the Chamberlain's men returned to London at the close of 1601, Jonson, Marston, and Shakespeare were reconciled, and Troylus was not produced on the public stage.2

In this passage Mr. Fleay tries to prove that Troilus and Cressida was the "purge" by adducing proof that Ajax was

1 See above, p. 32.

2 Chronicle of the English Drama, I. 366.