Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 2.djvu/397

 .] This "Comical Satire," as the folio terms it, was produced in 1601, and acted, like Cynthia's Revels, by the children of the queen's chapel. It was printed in quarto the following year, with this motto from Martial,

and again, in folio, in 1616. The Poetaster was frequently performed at the private theatre in Black Friars, where it seems to have been a favourite. The actors were the same that appeared in the preceding drama, with the exception of Wil. Ostler and Tho. Marton. Of the last I can give the reader no information; but Wil. Ostler, who probably played the part of Julia, rose to considerable eminence in his profession, and was subsequently addressed by Davies as "the Roscius of his times," in a prosing epigram which concludes in this singular manner:

"But if thou plaist thy dying part as well "As thy stage part, thou hast no part in hell."