Parasitaster, or The Fawn

Parasitaster, or The Fawn is an early Jacobean play, written by the dramatist and satirist John Marston in 1604, and performed by the Children of the Queen's Revels in the Blackfriars Theatre.

The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 12 March 1606, and published later that year, in two separate states: the Epistle in the second states that it is a corrected version of the first, by the author. An apparent allusion in IV,i, 310 to the bloody execution of Sir Everard Digby[1] on 30 January 1606, indicates that Marston revised the play after that date.[2]

The play tells the story of Duke Hercules, who disguises himself as a flattering courtier, the Fawn, in order to infiltrate the court of Duke Gonzago and observe the behaviour of his son Tiberio, who has been sent to Gonzago as an ambassador. In the process, Hercules observes the lechery of Gonzago's courtiers, who are all embroiled in seedy sexual adventures, and the vanity and stupidity of Gonzago himself, who is a pompous old windbag. At the play's conclusion, Hercules holds a symbolic Court of Cupid, in which all the foolish courtiers are arrested for their crimes against love and good sense.

It is often assumed that Duke Gonzago was intended as an unflattering portrait of King James I, although it is not known whether the king took offence at this portrayal.

A parasitaster is one who pretends to be a parasite or sycophant. Marston coined the term, following the example of Ben Jonson's coinage of the term poetaster for an inept and pretentious versifier, in his play of the same name.

Notes
  1. Digby was drawn and quartered for his role in the Gunpowder Plot.
  2. Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 433.
gollark: I should really learn more TeX, on that note.
gollark: Typing is far superior.
gollark: I try to avoid writing things by hand.
gollark: Meh.
gollark: "Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex." (28 letters) "Jived fox nymph grabs quick waltz." (28 letters) "Glib jocks quiz nymph to vex dwarf." (28 letters) "Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow." (29 letters) "How vexingly quick daft zebras jump!" (30 letters) "The five boxing wizards jump quickly." (31 letters) "Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz." (31 letters) "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs." (32 letters)These 8 are shorter and mostly better (stolen blatantly from Wikipedia).

References
  • Caputi, Anthony. John Marston, Satirist. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1961.
  • Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
  • Finkelpearl, Philip J. John Marston of the Middle Temple. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1969.


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