“Address to Public Council”: The Additions to Marston’s The Malcontent, the King’s Men’s Repertory, and Early Modern Theatrical Economics

ohn Marston’s The Malcontent (printed 1604, written 1602–4) seems to offer one of the most clear-cut explanations in all of early modern drama as to why jmultiple texts of a single play exist. It also seems to give unusually clear information about who was responsible for this textual variation. The title page of the play’s third edition, containing the text, known as QC, that is substantively different from the texts of the first two quartos, reads “THE / MALCONTENT. / Augmented byMarston. / With the Additions played by the Kings / Maiesties servants. / Written by Ihon Webster” (see fig. 2 below). Further, in the play’s metatheatrical Induction, William Sly, Henry Condell, and Richard Burbage have the following exchange: