The Works of John Marston. Volume 3

The third volume of John Marston's theatrical output gathers his collaborations and standalone works from the height of Jacobean drama. The centerpiece, "Eastward Ho" (written with Chapman and Jonson), is a sharp comedy that ruthlessly examines what happens when ambition overreaches. A goldsmith's daughter dreams of marrying above her station; an apprentice pursues reckless pleasure; a knight courts poverty disguised as wealth. Marston paints a vivid London where merchants, apprentices, and social climbers collide, their schemes and pretensions laid bare with wit that still cuts four centuries later. The play's audacity got its authors briefly imprisoned for daring to mock Scottish favorites at court. Here is early modern theatre at its most vibrant: profane, politically dangerous, and endlessly entertained by the follies of upward mobility.