John Westland Marston was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 dramatist.

Born in Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...

, Marston wrote several plays

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

, including Strathmore and Marie de Méranie. His son, the poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

  Philip Bourke Marston

Philip Bourke Marston

Philip Bourke Marston was an English poet.He was born in London. His father, John Westland Marston , wrote verse dramas, and was a friend of Dickens, Macready and Charles Kean. Philip's godparents were Philip James Bailey and Dinah Mulock...

(1850–1887), was blind from the age of three wrote four volumes of verse in the manner of the Pre-Raphaelites; they include Songtide (1871) and Wind Voices (1883).

Although his poetic dramas, including The Patrician's Daughter (1842) and The Favourite of Fortune (1866), were popular, he is more noteworthy for his literary criticism, most particularly his review of Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon.