SOURCE: Carlson, Leland H. “Martin Marprelate: His Identity and His Satire.” In English Satire: Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, January 15, 1972, pp. 3-42. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1972.

In the following lecture, Carlson provides an overview of the Marprelate tracts, reviewing the conclusions of previous scholars and assessing the plausibility of sixteen candidates as the author of the works.

The mystery of Martin Marprelate's identity has persisted for almost four hundred years. It goes back to October, 1588, just three months after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Although Martin's satire is well known, his identity remains an enigma, since he used the pseudonyms of Martin Marprelate, Martin Junior, and Martin Senior. Pseudonymous and anonymous works are exceedingly numerous, as I discovered in consulting the nine volumes of Halkett and Laing, where I found approximately 66,500 entries. There are many good reasons why people use pseudonyms, but...