Histriomastix (play)

Histriomastix or The Player Whipped is a late Elizabethan play, written by the satirist John Marston and acted in 1599.

It was previously thought that the play was likely acted by the Children of Paul's, one of the companies of boy actors active at the time; but more recent research suggests that Histriomastix was performed at the 1598–9 Christmas revels of the Middle Temple.

[1] (Plays acted at the Inns of Court could take an approach opposite to that of the professionals, maximizing rather than minimizing the number of roles to make room for enthusiastic amateurs.

)[2] The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 31 October 1610 and printed anonymously in the same year by George Eld for the publisher Thomas Thorpe.

[3] The play is a moral allegory about human nature that shows through a series of symbolic scenes how society is led into war and destruction through pride, greed, and sloth.