The Poets' Cold War: Dekker, Marston, and the Prologue to Volpone

Abstract

Recent commentators on the “Poetomachia” have stressed its ludic and commercially-driven aspects. By the time Volpone appeared in 1605, they claim, any animosity on Jonson's part towards his former adversaries Dekker and Marston had faded away. After all, in 1604 he had collaborated with Dekker on London's entertainment for James I, and Marston had written flatteringly of Jonson in The Malcontent. This note presents evidence that in fact the enmity lingered long after Jonson formally declared his retreat from the quarrel in Poetaster. Editors of Volpone have not previously noticed that when, in the Prologue, Jonson boasts of having written the play without the aid of a “journeyman”, this alludes to Marston and Dekker. In Poetaster, Jonson repeatedly describes the Dekker character, Demetrius, as “journeyman” to the gentlemanly Crispinus (a representative of Marston), and Dekker picks up on this when replying in Satiromastix. Jonson insulting Dekker by calling him Marston's “journeyman” is typical in several respects: he habitually applies the language of craft and commerce to his literary enemies in a contemptuous way (he represents Dekker in Poetaster as a mere hack, without Horace-Jonson's exalted sense of vocation); and in his “Poets' War” plays, he portrays Dekker as Marston's subordinate.