The Malcontent by John Marston - Come down, thou ragged cur, and snarl here

What do I want to say about John Marston’s The Malcontent (1603, maybe 1604)? It is unusual. Marston is unusual, with a distinct poetic and dramatic sensibility. No one else could have written it. The Duke of Genoa has been tossed out by an usurper, so he infiltrates the court disguised as Malevole, the Malcontent of the title, not exactly a courtier, not exactly a jester, but given license by the usurper. It is as if Diogenes (the dog man) was somehow an attendant of Alexander. PIETRO [current Duke]: Come down, thou ragged cur, and snarl here. I give thy dogged sullenness free liberty; trot about and bespurtle whom thou pleases. MALEVOLE: I’ll come among you, you goatish-blooded toderers, as gum into taffeta, to fret, to fret. I’ll fall like a sponge into water, to suck up, to suck up. Howl again. I’ll go to church, and come to you. (I.2, 16) A nice example of Marston’s original language, including his taste, that Jonson mocked in The Poetaster, for obscure words with a pleasing…