'Shall I… act part of Malevole’: A reception history of The Malcontent, 1604-1650

The Malcontent, arguably John Marston’s best play, is widely anthologized, performed, and studied, but almost nothing is known of its early reception after its initial success in 1603–4, so that it seems as if it might have vanished without trace. This essay offers a number of hitherto unnoted references to the play in the period 1604–1665, mostly discovered using the database EEBO-TCP, which together give a better framework for connecting together the play’s other scattered traces. They show allusions to the play by satirists, other playwrights, clergymen and poets, in particular Richard Brathwaite. Taken together, these allusions show that Marston’s best play was not a mere nine days’ wonder, but did capture contemporary imaginations for years, indeed decades, afterwards.