John Marston, Moralist

This essay examines the activity through which the appropriations of William Barksted’s Hiren, the Fair Greek entered the dialogue of The Insatiate Countess. The essay argues that Hiren is a more substantial source for The Insatiate Countess than has been supposed, that The Dumb Knight and The Turk also draw from Hiren, and that Barksted’s narrative verse displays a tendency to use phrases previously deployed by John Marston. The essay considers the implications of these claims and suggests that one explanation for the striking verse register of The Insatiate Countess is that it features Marstonian diction shorn of Marstonian self-consciousness.

Download Full-text

“Worthy my blood”: Inheritance, Imitation, and Gendered Familial Emotions in John Marston’s Antonio Plays

Renaissance and Reformation ◽

10.33137/rr.v37i1.21284 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 37 (1) ◽

pp. 110-135

Author(s):

Megan Elizabeth Allen

Keyword(s):

John Marston ◽

Familial Relationships ◽

Political Ideologies ◽

Family Breakdown

Examining the Antonio plays by John Marston, I argue that the metaphors used to portray familial emotions reveal the ideologies that underpin both excessive and normative versions of familial relationships; these metaphors reveal the pressures placed on family emotions by economic and political ideologies. While critics have traditionally read instances of family breakdown in plays as moments that violate kinship norms, I argue that such moments of violence are caused by ideologies associated with inheritance structures which underpin descriptions and experiences of normative familial emotions. A travers l’examen des pièces de théâtre d’Antonio de John Marston, je soutiens que les métaphores employées pour représenter les émotions familiales font apparaître les idéologies qui sous-tendent tant des versions excessives que des modèles normatifs pour lees relations familiales. Ces métaphores révèlent la pression que font subir aux émotions familiales les systèmes de pensée économiques et politiques. Alors que les critiques ont traditionnellement lu les exemples d’éclatement familial dans le théâtre comme des moments violant les normes de la parenté, je soutiens que de tels moments de violence sont causés par des systèmes associés aux structures d’héritage qui sous-tendent les descriptions et les expériences des émotions familiales normatives.

Download Full-text