of the
origin of this 'poetomachia' are far from clear, and those who have
written on the topic, except of late, have not helped to make them
clearer. The origin of the "war" has been referred to satirical
references, apparently to Jonson, contained in "The Scourge of
Villainy," a satire in regular form after the manner of the ancients by
John Marston, a fellow playwright, subsequent friend and collaborator
of Jonson's. On the other hand, epigrams of Jonson have been discovered
(49, 68, and 100) variously charging "playwright" (reasonably identified
with Marston) with scurrility, cowardice, and plagiarism; though the
dates of the epigrams cannot be ascertained with certainty. Jonson's
own statement of the matter to Drummond runs: "He had many quarrels with
Marston, beat him, and took his pistol from him, wrote his 'Poetaster'
on him; the beginning[s] of them were that Marston represented him on
the stage."*

*The best account of this whole subject is to be
found in the edition of 'Poetaster' and 'Satiromastrix' by
J. H. Penniman in 'Belles Lettres Series' shortly to appear.
See also his earlier work, 'The War of the Theatres', 1892,
and the excellent contributions to the subject by H. C. Hart
in 'Notes and Queries', and in his edition of Jonson, 1906.

Here at least we are on certain ground; and the principals of the
quarrel are known. "Histriomastix," a play revised by Marston in 1598,
has been regarded as the one in which Jonson was thus "represented on
the stage"; although the personage in question, Chrisogonus, a poet,
satirist, and translator, poor but proud, and contemptuous of the common
herd, seems rather a complimentary portrait of Jonson than a caricature.
As to the personages actually ridiculed in "Every Man Out of His
Humour," Carlo Buffone was formerly thought certainly to be Marston,
as he was described as "a public scurrilous, and profane jester," and
elsewhere as "the grand scourge or second untruss [that is, satirist],
of the time" (Joseph Hall being by his own boast the first, and
Marston's work being entitled "The Scourge of Villainy"). Apparently we
must now prefer for Carlo a notorious character named Charles Chester,
of whom gossipy and inaccurate Aubrey relates that he was "a bold
impertinent fellow...a perpetual talker and made a noise like a drum in
a room. So one time at a tavern Sir Walter Raleigh beats him and seals
up his mouth (that is his upper and net