THE information we have on the actual play The Isle of Dogs provides a picture of the play's writing, performance, and reception. In August of 1597, “Uppon informacion given us of a lewd plaie … contanynge very seditious and sclanderous matter, wee caused some of the players to be apprehended and comytted to pryson, one of them was not only an actor but a maker of the said plaie.” Ben Jonson, Gabriel Spenser, and Robert Shaa were put in prison, accused of sedition mongering, while John Marston and Thomas Nashe fled London. While in prison, Jonson— the “maker”—was questioned in order to assess two things: where Nashe, Marston, and the other actors were, and the location and number of copies of the play. And even though the judges “plac’d two damn’d Villains to catch advantage” with Jonson, “he was advertised by his keeper” of the situation and kept silent, only responding with yes or no.

In the aftermath of this episode, both Nashe and Jonson actively distanced themselves from the play. Nashe writes of the play in Lenten Stuffe: “An imperfect embryon I may well call it, for having begun but the induction and the first act of it, the other four acts without my consent, or the least guess of my drift or scope, by the players were supplied, which bred both their trouble and mine, too.” Nashe's disavowal is twofold: he insists that the majority of the play was not written by him, and he claims to have no prior knowledge of the inclusion of seditious material in the text. He blames it all on the actors.

While Jonson did not deny his involvement as vehemently as Nashe, he certainly did not admit his association with the play while in prison, and he and the other actors were eventually released.