In act iv. Planet’s reflections on the arrogant Old Brabant are clearly directed against Jonson.
Collier in his Memoirs of Edward Alleyn (p. 154) printed a letter of Marston to Henslowe; but, as “the whole letter is manifestly a forgery, having been first traced in pencil, the marks of which are in places still visible” (Warner’s Catalogue of Dulwich Manuscripts and Muniments, p. 49), this relic is of no interest. Another letter, addressed to Lord Kimbolton by a “John Marston,"[28] is printed in Collier’s Shakespeare[29] (i. 179, ed. 1858); but as it was written in 1641, the writer could not have been the dramatist, who died in 1634. Among the additional MSS. (14,824-6) in the British Museum is a poem entitled The New Metamorphosis,
or a Feast of Fancy or Poetical Legends ... Written by J. M., Gent., 1600, which has been, not very wisely, ascribed to Marston. I must confess that I have only a superficial acquaintance with this poem; but, as the work fills nearly nine hundred closely-packed pages, I trust that my confession will not be severely criticised. After the title-page is a leaf containing the arguments of books i.-vi.; then comes a new title-page An Iliad of Metamorphosis or the Arraignment of Vice, followed by a dialogue between Cupid and Momus. Six lines headed “The Author to his Book” follow the dialogue, and then comes “The Epistle Dedicatory,” consisting of a couple of lines—
“To Momus, that same ever-carping mate,
And unto Cupid I this dedicate.”
After the commendably brief epistle come two lines which inform us that—
“My name is French, to tell you in a word;
Yet came not in with conquering William’s sword.”
(Marston’s name was certainly not French; it was a good old Shropshire name.) The prologue begins thus:—
“Upon the public stage to Albion’s eye
I here present my new-born poesy,
Not with vain-glory puft to make it known,
Nor Indian-like with feathers not mine own
To deck myself, as many use to do;
To filching lines I am a deadly foe,” &c.
Presently the poet indulges in his invocation:—
“Matilda fair, guide you my wand’ring quill!”