The Poetaster

by Ben Jonson from 1601

About

Jonson's 1601 comical satire — part of the 'War of the Theaters' — attacks rival playwrights (Marston and Dekker, thinly disguised) through a plot set in Augustan Rome, where the poet Horace (Jonson's self-portrait) exposes literary pretenders before Augustus. The play is dense with classical allusion and literary in-jokes that were transparent to its original audience; for modern readers it functions both as literary satire and as a fascinating document of the theatrical rivalries that shaped early modern English drama. Dekker's immediate response, Satiromastix, is the other side of the same quarrel.

Comedy Satire Elizabethan Sardonic Absurden

The Poetaster

Characters: 47
Words: 22.6k
Acts: 5
Duration: ~2 hr 50 min

Characters

#CharacterPlayerLines

1

Tuc

—

143

2

Cris

—

136

3

Hor

—

119

4

Tib

—

75

5

Ovid

—

64

6

Chloe

—

60

7

Caes

—

55

8

Gal

—

46

10 sections

22.6k words

#TitleWords

Act I

1

Act I Scene 1—Scene draws, and discovers OVID in his study.

1.8k13:33

Act II

2

Act II Scene I. A Room in ALBIUS'S House.

2.5k18:45

Act III

3

Act III Scene I.-The Via Sacra (or Holy Street).

4.9k37:04

Act IV

4

Act IV Scene I.-A Room in ALBIUS'S House.

1.9k14:10

5

Act IV Scene II.-A Room in Lupus's House.

2361:46

6

Act IV Scene III.-An Apartment in the Palace.

1.5k11:36

7

Act IV Scene V.-A Street before the Palace.

1981:29

8

Act IV Scene VI.

2611:57

9

Act IV Scene VII.-An open Space before the Palace.

7835:52

Act V

10

Act V Scene I.-An Apartment in the Palace.

8.5k63:25

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