On the 28th of September 1599 Henslowe notices in his diary that he lent "unto Mr Maxton, the new poete, the sum of forty shillings," as an advance on a play which is not named. Another hand has amended "Maxton" to "Mastone." The earliest plays to which Marston's name is attached are _The History of Antonio and Mellida. The First Part_; and _Antonio's Revenge. The Second Part_ (both entered at Stationers' Hall in 1601 and printed 1602). The second part is preceded by a prologue which, in its gloomy forecast of the play, moved the admiration of Charles Lamb, who also compares the situation of Andrugio and Lucia to Lear and Kent, but the scene which he quotes gives a misleading idea of the play and of the general tenor of Marston's work.
The melodrama and the exaggerated expression of these two plays offered an opportunity to Ben Jonson, who had already twice ridiculed Marston, and now pilloried him as Crispinus in _The Poetaster_ (1601). The quarrel was patched up, for Marston dedicated his _Malcontent_ (1604) to Jonson, and in the next year he prefixed commendatory verses to _Sejanus_. Far greater restraint is shown in _The Malcontent_ than in the earlier plays. It was printed twice in 1604, the second time with additions by John Webster. _The Dutch Courtezan_ (1605) and _Parasitaster, or the Fawne_ (1606) followed. In 1605 _Eastward Hoe_,[2] a gay comedy of London life, which gave offence to the king's Scottish friends, caused the playwrights concerned in its production--Marston, Chapman and Jonson--to be imprisoned at the instance of Sir James Murray. _The Wonder of Women, or the Tragedie of Sophonisba_ (1606), seems to have been put forward by Marston as a model of what could be accomplished in tragedy. In the preface he mocks at those authors who make a parade of their authorities and their learning, and the next play, _What you Will_ (printed 1607; but probably written much earlier), contains a further attack on Jonson. The tragedy of _The Insatiate Countesse_ was printed in 1613, and again, this time anonymously, in 1616. It was not included in the collected edition of Marston's plays in 1633, and in the Duke of Devonshire's library there is a copy bearing the name of William Barksteed, the author of the poems, _Myrrha, the Mother of Adonis_ (1607), and _Hiren and the Fair Greek_ (1611). The piece contains many passages superior to anything to be found in Marston's well-authenticated plays, and Mr A. H. Bullen suggests that it may be Barksteed's version of an earlier one drafted by Marston. The character and history of Isabella are taken chiefly from "The Disordered Lyfe of the Countess of Celant" in William Paynter's _Palace of Pleasure_, derived eventually from Bandello. There is no certain evidence of Marston's authorship in _Histriomastix_ (printed 1610, but probably produced before 1599), or in _Jacke Drums Entertainement, or the Comedie of Pasquil and Katherine_ (1616), though he probably had a hand in both. Mr R. Boyle (_Englische Studien_, vol. xxx., 1901), in a critical study of Shakespeare's _Troilus and Cressida_, assigns to Marston's hand the whole of the action dealing with Hector, with the prologue and epilogue, and attributes to him the bombast and coarseness in the last scenes of the play. It will be seen that his undoubted dramatic work was completed in 1607. It is uncertain at what time he exchanged professions, but in 1616 he was presented to the living of Christchurch, Hampshire. He formally resigned his charge in 1631, and when his works were collected in 1633 the publisher, William Sheares, stated that the author "in his autumn and declining age" was living "far distant from this place." Nevertheless he died in London, in the parish of Aldermanbury, on the 25th of June 1634. He was buried in the Temple Church.