Sejanus: His Fall | Page 6

his
epitaphs. An interesting sidelight is this on the character of this
redoubtable and rugged satirist, that he should thus have befriended and
tenderly remembered these little theatrical waifs, some of whom (as we
know) had been literally kidnapped to be pressed into the service of the
theatre and whipped to the conning of their difficult parts. To the
caricature of Daniel and Munday in "Cynthia's Revels" must be added
Anaides (impudence), here assuredly Marston, and Asotus (the
prodigal), interpreted as Lodge or, more perilously, Raleigh. Crites, like
Asper-Macilente in "Every Man Out of His Humour," is Jonson's
self-complaisant portrait of himself, the just, wholly admirable, and
judicious scholar, holding his head high above the pack of the yelping
curs of envy and detraction, but careless of their puny attacks on his
perfections with only too mindful a neglect.
The third and last of the "comical satires" is "Poetaster," acted, once
more, by the Children of the Chapel in 1601, and Jonson's only avowed
contribution to the fray. According to the author's own account, this
play was written in fifteen weeks on a report that his enemies had
entrusted to Dekker the preparation of "Satiromastix, the Untrussing of
the Humorous Poet," a dramatic attack upon himself. In this attempt to
forestall his enemies Jonson succeeded, and "Poetaster" was an
immediate and deserved success. While hardly more closely knit in
structure than its earlier companion pieces, "Poetaster" is planned to
lead up to the ludicrous final scene in which, after a device borrowed
from the "Lexiphanes" of Lucian, the offending poetaster,
Marston-Crispinus, is made to throw up the difficult words with which
he had overburdened his stomach as well as overlarded his vocabulary.
In the end Crispinus with his fellow, Dekker-Demetrius, is bound over
to keep the peace and never thenceforward "malign, traduce, or detract

the person or writings of Quintus Horatius Flaccus [Jonson] or any
other eminent man transcending you in merit." One of the most
diverting personages in Jonson's comedy is Captain Tucca. "His
peculiarity" has been well described by Ward as "a buoyant
blackguardism which recovers itself instantaneously from the most
complete exposure, and a picturesqueness of speech like that of a
walking dictionary of slang."
It was this character, Captain Tucca, that Dekker hit upon in his reply,
"Satiromastix," and he amplified him, turning his abusive vocabulary
back upon Jonson and adding "An immodesty to his dialogue that did
not enter into Jonson's conception." It has been held, altogether
plausibly, that when Dekker was engaged professionally, so to speak,
to write a dramatic reply to Jonson, he was at work on a species of
chronicle history, dealing with the story of Walter Terill in the reign of
William Rufus. This he hurriedly adapted to include the satirical
characters suggested by "Poetaster," and fashioned to convey the satire
of his reply. The absurdity of placing Horace in the court of a Norman
king is the result. But Dekker's play is not without its palpable hits at
the arrogance, the literary pride, and self-righteousness of
Jonson-Horace, whose "ningle" or pal, the absurd Asinius Bubo, has
recently been shown to figure forth, in all likelihood, Jonson's friend,
the poet Drayton. Slight and hastily adapted as is "Satiromastix,"
especially in a comparison with the better wrought and more significant
satire of "Poetaster," the town awarded the palm to Dekker, not to
Jonson; and Jonson gave over in consequence his practice of "comical
satire." Though Jonson was cited to appear before the Lord Chief
Justice to answer certain charges to the effect that he had attacked
lawyers and soldiers in "Poetaster," nothing came of this complaint. It
may be suspected that much of this furious clatter and give-and-take
was pure playing to the gallery. The town was agog with the strife, and
on no less an authority than Shakespeare ("Hamlet," ii. 2), we learn that
the children's company (acting the plays of Jonson) did "so berattle the
common stages. . .that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose-quills,
and dare scarce come thither."
Several other plays have been thought to bear a greater or less part in
the war of the theatres. Among them the most important is a college
play, entitled "The Return from Parnassus," dating 1601-02. In it a

much-quoted passage makes Burbage, as a character, declare: "Why
here's our fellow Shakespeare puts them all down; aye 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 bewray his credit." Was Shakespeare then
concerned in this war of the stages? And what could have been the
nature of this "purge"? Among several suggestions, "Troilus and
Cressida" has been thought by some to be the play in which
Shakespeare thus