MARSTON (John), an English dramatic writer, who lived in the time of James I. Wood says he was a student in Corpus Christi college, Oxford; but we neither know his family nor the time of his birth. He contributed eight plays to the stage, which were all acted at Black-friars with applause; and one of them, called the Dutch Courtesan, was once revived since the Restoration, under the title of the Revenge, or a Match in Newgate. There is no account when he died; but we find his works were published after his death by Shakespeare, and may thence reasonably conclude that it happened about the year 1614. He was a chaste and pure writer; avoiding all that obscenity, ribaldry, and scurrility, which too many of the play-wrights of that time, and indeed much more so in some periods since, have made the basis of their wit, to the great disgrace and scandal of the stage.