In 1601 the playwright produced "Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love," a sort of stepping stone towards his subsequent masterpieces. The play was part of the so-called Poetomachia, or War of the Theatres, between Jonson and playwrights John Marston and Thomas Dekker. The character Cynthia represented Queen Elizabeth, and the play was marked by violence and controversy in reflection of the queen's final reigning years.
