Morphew, leprosy, and the date of Marston's 'Antonio and Mellida.' (terms contained in play by English dramatist John Marston)

Dramatist John Marston's play 'Antonio and Mellida' contains a notorious crux in Act 4, scene i where the surviving quarto prints the final lines, lines 24-28 in a peculiarly garbled form. A suggested translation by Marsten is posited, and if the playwright's familiarity with the translation is accepted, then his play in the form that the 20th century possesses must be dated roughly in the middle of 1601. If this is the case, there is no longer much doubt that Marston's debt in the two 'Antonio' plays was to dramatist William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and not the other way around.