The Malcontent

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The Malcontent is a play written by the playwright and satirist John Marston in around 1603. It was first performed by the boy players of the Blackfriars theatre company, and was later taken over by the King's Men, the adult playing company for which Shakespeare worked, and performed at the Globe Theatre. The King's Men production featured a new induction, written by John Webster, and several new scenes, probably written by Marston himself. These additions may have been necessary because the original play was too short for the King's Men's purposes: the boy company plays tended to involve more musical interludes than those of the adult companies, and so be less long.

The induction to this revised version is a metatheatrical one, in which the play's actors and its onstage spectators comment on the drama that is to follow and discuss the 'bitterness' of its satire.

The Malcontent was the first tragicomedy to be written in English. It tells the story of the deposed duke Altofront, who has adopted the alter ego of Malevole, a malcontented parasite, in order to try to regain his lost dukedom. Malevole is an angry satirist-figure, who attacks the corruption and decadence of the court he lives in. The play has often been read as a critique of the court of James I and the immorality of his courtiers.

The play was one of Marston's most successful works, and is still performed today.

[edit] References

Philip J. Finkelpearl, John Marston of the Middle Temple. Anthony Caputi, John Marston, Satirist.