Histrio-Mastix is an important piece of the narrative of the War of the Theatres and therefore of old notions of commerce among the playing companies. It is most important if its author is John Marston and if it was performed at Paul's playhouse during the late summer or autumn of 1599. It is least important if its author is not Marston, its venue not a commercial playhouse, and its stage run not in the months of August through December of 1599. Whoever its author, Histrio-Mastix is no more important to commerce among the Elizabethan playing companies than the hundreds of plays in public and private playhouses, at Court, at the universities, in provincial city halls, at the Inns of Court, and in the banquet halls of noble houses – all sites where the appetite for playgoing was encouraged throughout England in Shakespeare's time. It is no more important to strategies of commerce than the dozens of plays that turn up in dramatic and non-dramatic texts by way of allusions.