Patient Grissil and Jonsonian Satire

It has generally been assumed that the relationship between Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton’s Patient Grissil and Ben Jonson’s Every Man Out of His Humour is limited to the similarity between episodes where the characters Emulo and Brisk recount duels in which they have participated. In fact, in another of its subplots Patient Grissil responds to the satirical agenda of Jonson’s play, questioning in the disaffected scholar Laureo the motivation, the wisdom, and the capacity of the individual who criticizes the powerful.