^ Hall published his ^Satires in two parts : in 1 59;^ Virgidemiarum, Six Bookes ;
First Three Bookes of Toothlesse Satyrs: i. Poeticall ; 2. Academicall ; 3. Moral I ;
in 1598 Virgidemiarum : the Three Last Bookes of By ting Satyrs.
2 Virga was a rod or switch, and was used of the rods with which the lictors
scourged criminals. Virgidemia is a comic word meaning a harvest of rods
or stripes. The name of Hall's work is thus equivalent in meaning to that of
Marston's.
'There were English satirists before Hall. Such satires as Hake's Newes out
of Paules Churchyardcy 1567, Gascoigne's Steel Glass ^ 1576, and Lodge's A Fig for
MomuSf 1595, were well known before Hall wrote. Other satirists, earlier than
Hall, might be mentioned.
* Hall may be entitled to some sort of priority, as his work was the first Eng-
lish satire in the general manner of Juvenal.
48 THE WAR OF THE THEATRES.
Virgidemiarum became popular ; and as Marston's work, simi-
lar in nature, appeared so soon after, it is probable that Hall's
lines were remembered and applied to Marston, who was recog-
nized generally as ** the second English satirist '* or ** the
Second Untruss." In calling Carlo the " Grand Scourge or
Second Untruss of the Time,'' Jonson was using an appellation
which, to the audience, was almost as definite as the name
Marston would have been.
