John Marston’s Histriomastix and the Golden Age

John Marston’s H istriom astix and the Golden Age George L. Geckle In spite of its title, Histrio-Mastix; Or, The Player whipt is not primarily concerned with either players or the War of the Theaters, as has been frequently argued.1 Rather, as recent scholarship has urged, the play is “about the decay of a common­ wealth” and was “written by Marston for the Middle Temple’s Christmas revels of 1598/9.”2 It is essentially “a study of the breakdown of an unspecified but clearly English society, and each of its six acts presents one phase of the process: Peace, Plenty, Pride, Envy, War, Poverty. The deterioration is traced and made specific by presenting in each act various scenes which illustrate the theme of the act.”3 The play is at the same time an “allegorical dramatization of two Renaissance common­ places. The first is the idea that the fortunes of society are gov­ erned by a continuous cycle. . . . The second thesis offers a way out of the cyclical trap through learning. . . .”4 My argu­ ment, however, is that in his allegory Marston presents a vision of the Golden Age, followed by the stages through which it turns to an Age of Iron, and then a renewal of the Golden Age through the return of Astraea. Further, in each act crucial choric commentary is presented by the key human figure in the drama, the scholar-poet Chrisoganus. I So far as I have been able to discover, no modem scholar has ever thought to comment upon Chrisoganus’ name, which is symbolic of his role in Histriomastix. The name, a transliter­ ation of a Greek word, means begotten of gold or golden-bom.5 It is quite possible that Marston discovered the name in Juvenal’s 205 206 Comparative Drama Satire VI, which satirizes the ways of women, as, for example, “solvitur his magno comoedi fibula, sunt quae/ Chrysogonum cantare vetent” (lines 73-74).6 That Marston knew Juvenal in some detail is evident from frequent allusions in his own satires, and Juvenal’s Satire VI is specifically referred to in The Scourge of Villanie (1598) in Satires II, III, IX, and XI.7 Moreover, in Histriomastix women are satirized in Act III for the Pride which follows the Plenty of Act II. As Juvenal says: “prima peregrinos obscaena pecunia mores/ intulit, et turpi fregerunt saecula luxu/ divitiae molles” (VI. 298-300).8 Marston dramatizes the effects of “obscaena pecunia” in the persons of Perpetuana, Fillisella, and Bellula, the respective wives of Velure the merchant, and the nobles Philarchus and Mavortius.9 The women first discuss the values of various gems with a jeweller and then turn to a tailor and tirewoman: Bell. Well Goldsmith, now you may begone.—Taylour, lie have a purfled Roabe, loose boddied-wise, That shall enjoy my jewells maydenhead. Tay. The loosest bodies are in fashion most. Prep. We better know what likes us best, then you, Let me have flaring fashions, tuck’t and pinn’d That powerfull winds may heave it all a huffe, Bell. True measure of my body shalbe tane, Plaine dealing is the best when all is done, That fall [i.e., “fell,” or “cruel”] Pride taught us when we first begun. Fill. lie have a rich imbost imbrothery, On which invaluable pretious Roabe, He hang the glorious brightnesse of my Globe. Mistresse Pinckanie is my new ruffe done? Pine. Beleeve me Madam tis but new begun.10 The satire here is obvious, for we have a human dramatization of the main personifications of the act, Pride and her attendants, Vaine-glory, Hypocrisie,H and Contempt (p. 268). The ladies, whose very names are symbolic,12 are treated as harshly by Marston as Juvenal treats women in his Satire VI. Their de­ gradation is obvious when we note that the solicitous tirewoman has a name which derives from Italian “pinca,” which means “a womans quaint, or priuie parts.”13 In her last speech Fillisella says, “Come, let’s have a play” (p. 273), and as the ladies leave, Chrisoganus enters with Posthast the hack poet and Sir Oliver Owlet’s Men, the Players George L. Geckle 207 Gulch...