company. If Chrisoganus is Jonson, and it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that he is, then Posthast is not Shakespeare, because Jonson was writing for the Chamberlain's men at the very time at which Chrisoganus was rejected by Posthast's company. Apart from this consideration there are other difficulties to be disposed of before we can believe that Posthast is Shakespeare. What we are told of Posthast agrees in almost no particulars with what we know of Shakespeare. We shall have to prove the identification on the principle lucus a non lucendo, or invent a new principle, that burlesque proceeds by contraries. Of course, the latter might, in exceptional instances, be the case, but only when there was special reason for such treatment of a subject or person. On this principle, then, we might explain the fact that Posthast is a "gentlemanscholar" as referring to Shakespeare, who was neither the one nor the other. Posthast is carefully distinguished from the actors, whereas Shakespeare was an actor. While the evidence is, to say the least, unsatisfactory for any identification of Posthast with Shakespeare, the facts in the case apply almost without exception to the career of Anthony Monday. When Posthast sings ex tempore and Landulpho blushes at the “base trash" sung, we are reminded that Anthony Monday was notorious for having sung ex tempore and having been hissed off the stage, facts which we learn from the author of The True Reporte of the Death and Martyrdom of Thomas Campion, 1581. What evidence has been found for the identification of Posthast is given by the critics referred to, Simpson, Mr. Fleay, and Professor Wood. We are especially concerned with Histriomastix only so far as it affects Jonson, and thus enters into "The War of the Theatres." 1 Histriomastix, II. 1. 209. 2 ibid., II. 11. 304, 322. IV. EVERY MAN OUT OF HIS HUMOUR. CARLO BUFFONE, a satirical representation of Marston in Every Man out of his Humour, is Jonson's reply to Marston's representation of him as Chrisoganus in Histriomastix. Jonson had, by his former plays, made enemies, against whom he wrote Every Man out of his Humour,1 a play performed in 1599 by the Chamberlain's company at the Globe Theatre. Daniel, whom Jonson ridiculed as Master Mathew in Every Man in his Humour, appears again as Fastidious Brisk, but it is Marston, as Carlo Buffone, who now occupies the chief place in the satire by being the object of the most severe attack. When the play was published Jonson prefixed to it a brief description of each character. Carlo Buffone is said to be A public, scurrilous, and profane jester; that, more swift than Circe, with absurd similes, will transform any person into deformity. A good feast-hound or banquet-beagle, that will scent you out a supper some three miles off, and swear to his patrons, damn him! he came in oars, when he was but wafted over in a sculler. A slave that hath an extraordinary gift in pleasing his palate, and will swill up more sack at a sitting than would make all the guard a posset. His religion is railing, and his discourse ribaldry. They stand highest in his respect whom he studies most to reproach. Jonson was so bent upon lashing Marston that, at the end of the Induction, Carlo is described by Cordatus as follows: 1 That the play provoked criticism by its personal satire is clearly indicated by this note in the quarto: "It was not neare his thought that hath published this, either to traduce the Authour: or to make vulgar and cheape, any the peculiar and sufficient deserts of the Actors: but rather (whereas many censures flutter'd about it) to give all leave, and leisure, to judge with distinction." He is one, the author calls him Carlo Buffone, an impudent common jester, a violent railer, and an incomprehensible epicure: one whose company is desired of all men, but beloved of none: he will sooner lose his soul than a jest, and profane even the most holy things, to excite laughter; no honourable or reverend personage whatsoever can come within the reach of his eye, but is turned into all manner of variety, by his adulterate similes. Jonson satirizes other persons, but he makes no other such violent and abusive attack as this on Marston. Carlo appears in the opening scene and gives advice to Sogliardo about becoming a gentleman. After a disparaging speech to Sogliardo about Macilente (Jonson), whom he had not observed before, Carlo turns to Macilente with "I am glad to see you so well returned, Signior," to which Macilente, who had heard what Carlo had said about him, replies, "You are! gramercy good Janus." Carlo says of Macilente, "An you knew him as I do, you'd shun him as you would do the plague." Thus at the outset the antagonism and hostility between Carlo and Macilente are set forth prominently, and to Carlo's remark on leaving, Macilente says to himself : Ay, when I cannot shun you, we will meet. Neither his fortunes nor his parts deserve it : And to your back will turn the tail and sting At the close of Act I. Cordatus says of Carlo that “he stood possest of no one eminent gift but a most fiend-like disposition, that would turn charity itself into hate, much more envy, for the present." The abuse of Carlo, that has been quoted, might be applied to others besides Marston, but when Puntarvolo addresses Carlo as "thou Grand Scourge, or Second Untruss of the Time" (II. 1) we have Marston pointed out beyond question as appears from the following considerations : 66 1 Owing to mistaken ideas concerning Dekker's connection with "The War of the Theatres," Carlo Buffone has been thought by some critics to be Dekker. There are some conflicting statements on this subject in Mr. Fleay's Chronicle of the English Drama. Mr. Fleay says (I. 97): “I thought that, if anything was settled in criticism, it was the identity of Crispinus [Poetaster] and Carlo Buffone with Marston." This statement is correct, but in another passage (I. 360) we are told that "Carlo Buffone, 'the Grand Scourge or Second Untruss of the Time' is Dekker; Marston, author of The Scourge of Villany, being the first Untruss"; on page 363 it is stated that the characters in Cynthia's Revels are some of them repeated from those in Every Man out of his Humour, “ Anaides (Dekker) from Buffone," but neither identification here is correct, for Anaides, like Buffone, is Marston, in spite of the statement on page 364, "The description of Anaides (II. 1) identifies him with Carlo Buffone (Dekker).” On page 368 Mr. Fleay says: "The description of Demetrius [Poetaster] as a rank slanderer, etc., is conclusive as to his identification with Buffone and Anaides." 66 Finally, note that Demetrius as much as Crispinus affected the title of Untrusser, neglect of which fact has led to the common mistake in making Marston Carlo Buffone" (p. 369). We find the statement made (II. 71) " Hence his [Jonson's] abuse of Marston; but not as Carlo Buffone, the Grand Scourge or Second Untruss of the Time (Hall being the first); for Carlo was Dekker." On page 75 "Anaides is acknowledged to be Marston" although in the statement quoted above it is said that "Anaides (Dekker)" is repeated from Buffone. In a letter to the writer Mr. Fleay says: I changed my opinion about Buffone when I had written about half of it [Chronicle of the English Drama] and meant to correct the Dekker bits when revising for press, but the printer did not keep to the time promised in sending proofs and I had to correct many while in the country away from my bookshelves. . . . The statements I. 360, I. 363, II. 71 are certainly wrong; you are right, Carlo Anaides: Second Untruss. The point I missed was that Dekker appears first in Poetaster. This belongs to you." Dekker was not attacked until Jonson knew that Satiromastix was being written and that Dekker had been "hired" to write it. Dekker has no claim to the title "Grand Scourge or Second Untruss of the Time," although he did, in 1601, "Untruss" the Humorous Poet." Jonson had no quarrel with Dekker in 1599 when Every Man out of his Humour was written, in fact, Jonson was in that year collaborating with Dekker in the writing of plays. Henslowe's Diary contains records (pp. 155, 156) of payments made to Jonson and Dekker jointly Aug. 10, 1599, and to Jonson, Chettle, Dekker, and "other Jentellman" Sept. 3, 1599. Critics who have found Dekker involved in the "War," at its close have assumed, apparently = Marston The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and Certaine Satyres, by Marston, was entered in the Stationers' Register May 27, 1598; The Scourge of Villanie, by Marston, was entered Sept. 8, 1598; Virgidemiarum, by Hall, was entered March 30, 1598;1 Seven Satyres applied to the Week, by Rankins, was entered May 3, 1598. In the Stationers' Register Marston is the third satirist, but priority of entry does not necessarily mean priority of publication, so that Marston's Satires may not have been third in date of publication. Be that as it may, the Satires of Rankins were comparatively unimportant, and attracted little attention compared to the more pretentious works of Hall and Marston, both of whom were "Scourgers of the time, Marston calling his book The Scourge of Villanie, while Hall called his Virgidemiarum.2 Marston was certainly the second "scourge" whatever position we assign him as a satirist. In his Prologue Hall boldly announces :— I first adventure, follow me who list without a particle of proof, that he was involved in it from the beginning, and that therefore, whenever we find in Jonson's plays a character satirizing Marston, we will find another character representing Dekker. We need quote here only one instance of such criticism. Dr. Robert Cartwright says: "Carlo Buffone, 'Thou Grand Scourge,' is of course Marston.... Fastidious Brisk is consequently Dekker." Shakespeare and Jonson, Dramatic versus Wit Combats, p. 16. 1 Hall published his Satires in two parts: in 1597 Virgidemiarum, Six Bookes ; First Three Bookes of Toothlesse Satyrs: 1. Poeticall; 2. Academicall; 3. Morall; in 1598 Virgidemiarum: the Three Last Bookes of Byting Satyrs. 2 Virga was a rod or switch, and was used of the rods with which the lictors scourged criminals. Virgidemia is a comic word meaning a harvest of rods or stripes. The name of Hall's work is thus equivalent in meaning to that of Marston's. 3 There were English satirists before Hall. Such satires as Hake's Newes out of Paules Churchyarde, 1567, Gascoigne's Steel Glass, 1576, and Lodge's A Fig for Momus, 1595, were well known before Hall wrote. Other satirists, earlier than Hall, might be mentioned. 4 Hall may be entitled to some sort of priority, as his work was the first English satire in the general manner of Juvenal. |