Marston at his best

 

'I up do plough

The hidden entrails of rank villainy,

Tearing the veil from damned Impiety.

Quake, guzzle dogs that live on putrid slime,

Scud from the lashes of my jerking rhyme.'

From the Proem to The Scourge of Villainy

 

'His appetite is as unsatiable as the grave: as far from any content as from heaven. His highest delight is to procure others' vexation, and therein he thinks he truly serves heaven; for 'tis his position, whosoever in this earth can be contented is a slave and damned; therefore does he afflict all in that to which they are most affected. The elements struggle within him; his own soul is at variance within herself; his speech is halter-worthy at all hours. I like him...'

Pietro on the hero of The Malcontent

 

'MENDOZA: The duke is in the forest next the sea… kill him, hurl him in the main, and proclaim thou sawest wolves eat him.

MALEVOLE: Um, not so good…'

Forward planning in The Malcontent

 

'Fried frogs are very good, and French-like, too.'

Malevole recommends the best aprodisiacs

 

'Love? Hang love:

It is the abject outcast of the world.

Hate all things, hate the world, thyself, all men.

Hate knowledge, strive not to be over-wise:

It drew destruction into Paradise.

Hate honour, virtue, they are baits

That 'tice men's hopes to sadder fates.

Hate beauty: every ballad-monger

Can cry his idle foppish humour.

Hate riches...'

Quadratus’s life-coaching in What You Will