<p>Episode 198:</p><br><p>As Ben Jonson was writing ‘The Poetaster’ in 1601 the Elizabethan age was drawing to a close.&nbsp;&nbsp;Elizabeth would live until March 1603, but by 1601 any hope of a natural heir was long past and her court and councillors were playing a waiting game and with different degrees of secrecy were trying to manipulate the situation over the accession to their own advantage.&nbsp;&nbsp;Jonson, I’m sure, had an eye and an ear on those politics, but the comedy he was writing was more concerned with the politics of the theatre than those in the court.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the previous episode on ‘Cynthia’s Revels’ and in my episodes on Thomas Dekker, that you can still find on the podcast archive, I have touched on ‘the war of the poets’ and this episode on ‘The Poetaster’ will bring these matters to a close.&nbsp;&nbsp;Although it’s not essential you might find listening to those earlier episodes useful, if you have not done so already, before listening to this one.</p><br><p><br></p><p>The early performance of the play and it’s place in the ‘war of the poets’</p><p>The print history of the play</p><p>The theme of the role of the poet</p><p>A short synopsis of the play</p><p>The caricature of John Marston</p><p>The Poetaster and Satiromastix</p><p>The feud as fuelled by the rivalry between playing troupes</p><p>The poet as councillor and companion to the monarch</p><p>The exposing of the poetasters</p><p>The change in title</p><p>Reference to the Essex rebellion</p><p>The attempted censoring of the play</p><p>The epilogue</p><p>The end of the ‘Poetomachia’</p><br><p><br></p><p>Support the podcast at:</p><p><a href="http://www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com</a></p><p><a href="http://www.patreon.com/thoetp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/thoetp</a></p><p><a href="http://www.ko-fi.com/thoetp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.ko-fi.com/thoetp</a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>