Satiro-Mastix; or, the Vntrussing of the Humorous Poet

"Satiro-Mastix;" by Thomas Dekker is a late Elizabethan stage play. It was also involved in the Poetomachia or War of the Theatres. In Satiromastix, Horace (Jonson) is represented as a social hanger-on and toady, desperate to establish himself as an independent moralist but fearful of being held responsible for his judgments. We know his writing is corrupt, not because it is bad writing but because he himself is dishonest; his verse is concocted to exploit social possibilities, though he represents it as an essential part of a well-regulated state….