author
John Marston
d. 1634
A sharp-tongued voice of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean stage, this writer is remembered for fierce satire, verbal energy, and darkly inventive drama. Best known today for plays such as The Malcontent, he helped shape the bold, abrasive style of early 17th-century English theater.
3 Audiobooks
The Works of John Marston. Volume 2
by John Marston
The Works of John Marston. Volume 3
by John Marston
The Works of John Marston. Volume 1
by John Marston
About the author
John Marston was an English playwright, poet, and satirist baptized in 1576 and buried in 1634. He studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was later connected with the Middle Temple, but his reputation was made in literature, first through biting verse satire and then through a run of striking plays for the London stage.
His writing is known for its intensity: packed language, sharp mockery, and a taste for moral corruption, court intrigue, and emotional extremes. Among his best-known works are The Malcontent and The Dutch Courtesan, and he is often grouped with the great dramatists of the Jacobean period.
Marston's literary career was relatively brief, and he later entered the church, a turn that makes his life especially interesting given the provocative edge of his earlier work. Even so, his plays and poems have lasted because of their originality, restless intelligence, and unmistakable voice.