Theater History, Textual Provenance, and Lostness: The Case of Satiromastix

Abstract: For any play staged both indoors and outdoors, modifications had to be made, as John Marston's The Malcontent Blackfriars-Globe conversion (registered in three quartos) illustrates. With Thomas Dekker's Satiromastix , which is according to its 1602 title page similarly a "dual code" play, a single quarto was issued. This essay investigates the provenance of this text, and proposes that, once we identify markers of amphitheater (Globe) and, conversely, hall (Paul's) performance, we should divorce "play" from "text," distinguishing between a flexible company entity (play) and the text with performance provenance that emerged from the printing house. Dekker's play, I argue, is extant in its Globe format (Q), the text either designed or adapted for amphitheater performance. Given this partial "lostness," in a necessarily speculative discussion I consider what the conversion process may have consisted of, drawing on what Q might yet reveal, despite textual loss. I conclude that, while the quarto stands (in) for Satiromastix as a stage play, this surviving text could only have been performed at the Globe. As such, the Children of Paul's version is lost.