Jonson says he wrote his "Poetaster" to ridicule Marston, the dramatist, who previously had libelled him on the stage. In addition to Marston, Jonson appeared himself in the play as Horace, together with Dekker and other men in the theatre. It was but natural, then, for commentators to centre their attention on those parts of the play where Marston and Horace were prominent. But there is an underplot to which very little attention hitherto has been given, and it is hardly likely, if Jonson was writing a comedy in order to satirize living persons and contemporary events, that his underplot would be altogether free from topical allusions. It may be well, then, to relate the story of the underplot, and, if possible, to try to show its significance. Julia, who is Caesar's daughter, lives at Court, and she invites to the palace her lover, Ovid, a merchant's son, and some tradesmen of the town, with their wives; then she contrives, unknown to her father, for these plebeians to counterfeit the gods at a banquet prepared for them. An actor of the Globe reports to one of Caesar's spies that Julia has sent to the playhouse to borrow suitable properties for this "divine" masquerade, so that while the sham gods are in the midst of their licentious convivialities Caesar suddenly appears, led there by his spy, and is horrified at the daring act of profanity perpetrated by his daughter. "Be they the gods!" he exclaims, "Oh impious sight!... Profaning thus their dignities in their forms, And making them like you but counterfeits." Then he goes on to say: "If you think gods but feigned and virtue painted, Know _we_ sustain our actual residence, And with the title of our emperor Retain his spirit and imperial power." And then, with correct imperial conventionality, he proceeds to punish the offenders, locking up his daughter behind "iron doors" and exiling her lover. Now, Horace--that is to say, Jonson--is supposed by the revellers to be responsible for having betrayed the inspirer of these antics. But this implication Jonson indignantly repudiates in a scene between Horace, the spy, and the Globe player, in which Horace severely upbraids them for their malice: "To prey upon the life of innocent mirth And harmless pleasures bred of noble wit,"