From about 1599-1601, a rivalry emerged between Jonson and the playwrights John Marston and Thomas Dekker dubbed Poetomachia, or War of the Theatres. Scholars agree that "The Poetaster, or His Arrangement," portrays all three playwrights in the characters of Horace, as Jonson, Crispinus as Marston, and Demetrius Fannius as Dekker. The term poetaster refers to a poet of inferior verse, so it is no surprise that the play is a scathing attack on the talent and artistry of Jonson's rivals.
