The Malcontent

work by Marston

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June 30, 2026

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The Malcontent is a play by John Marston, written around 1604. It is considered a revenge tragedy but subverts the genre, as the wronged hero regains power through cunning rather than by killing his tormentors. The play is known for its wild language and its exploration of sexual and political disgust, creating a disorienting experience for the audience through a mix of parody and seriousness. Marston, a vigorous satirist of the Shakespearean era, used the play to critique the perceived iniquities of a lascivious court. The term "malcontent" itself refers to a discontented person, often one who harbors a grudge due to a sense of grievance or thwarted ambition, or one who actively opposes an established order.123

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English literature
Other Jacobean dramatists
His tragicomedy The Malcontent (1604) is remarkable for its wild language and sexual and political disgust; Marston cuts the audience adrift from the moorings of reason by a dizzying interplay of parody and seriousness. Only in the city comedies of Thomas Middleton was Jonson’s moral concern with…
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His tragicomedy The Malcontent (1604) is remarkable for its wild language and sexual and political disgust; Marston cuts the audience adrift from the moorings of reason by a dizzying interplay of parody and seriousness. Only in the city comedies of Thomas Middleton was Jonson’s moral concern with…
Read More

John Marston
…whose best known work is The Malcontent (1604), in which he rails at the iniquities of a lascivious court. He wrote it, as well as other major works, for a variety of children’s companies, organized groups of boy actors popular during Elizabethan and Jacobean times.
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…whose best known work is The Malcontent (1604), in which he rails at the iniquities of a lascivious court. He wrote it, as well as other major works, for a variety of children’s companies, organized groups of boy actors popular during Elizabethan and Jacobean times.
Read More