Books by John Marston

Keith Sturgess was formerly Emeritus Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Lancaster and Director of the Nuffield Theatre. He is author of a dozen original plays and now lives in Greece where he works as a full-time writer. He has also published several editions of Elizabethan/Jacobean plays and books on the reconstruction of Elizabethan playhouses and has directed a number of productions of plays of the period. John Marston (?1575-1634) began to write satirical verse and plays for the new professional children's companies, playing at private indoor theatres. His quarrel with Jonson resulted in his portrayal as Crispinus in The Poetaster, but the two became friends again. He collaborated with Jonson and Chapman on Eastward Ho! (1605) which got the playwrights into trouble with the king. But from 1609, he was ordained deacon and then priest and his involvement with provocative drama ceased.