Christopher Marlowe 1564 - 1593
l “Marlowe is the greatest discoverer, the most daring pioneer, in all our poetic literature. Before Marlowe there was no genuine blank verse and genuine tragedy in our language. After his arrival the way was prepared, the path made straight for Shakespeare” (The Age of Shakespeare, by Algernon Charles Swinburne, Harper, 1908).
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. He is considered the father of English tragedy. Marlowe's plays are known for the use of blank verse and their outstanding protagonists. l Marlowe was christened at St George's Church, Canterbury, on the 26 th of February in 1564, two months before Shakespeare's baptism at Stratfordupon-Avon. l Marlowe attended The King's School in Canterbury and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he studied on a scholarship and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1584 and Master of Arts in 1587. l
Marlowe’s works l Dido, Queen of Carthage (c. 1586) (possibly co-written with Thomas Nashe) l Tamburlaine, part 1 (c. 1587) l Tamburlaine, part 2 (c. 1587– 1588) l The Jew of Malta (c. 1589) l Doctor Faustus (c. 1589, or, c. 1593) l Edward II (c. 1592) l The Massacre at Paris (c. 1593)
Doctor Faustus l Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title character Faust, that was written sometime between 1588 and 1592. Two different versions of the play were published in the Jacobean era, several years later.
Structure of the play Doctor Faustus is based on an older tale; it is believed to be the first dramatization of the Faust legend. l The play is in blank verse and prose in thirteen scenes (1604) or twenty scenes (1616). l Blank verse is largely reserved for the main scenes while prose is used in the comic scenes. Modern texts divide the play into five acts; act 5 being the shortest. As in many Elizabethan plays, there is a chorus (which functions as a narrator), that does not interact with the other characters but rather provides an introduction and conclusion to the play and, at the beginning of some Acts, introduces events that have unfolded. l
The main character l Faustus is the protagonist and tragic hero of Marlowe’s play. He is a contradictory character, who sells his soul to the devil in return for twenty-four years of power and pleasure. l He represents the spirit of the Renaissance, with its rejection of the medieval, God-centered universe, and its embrace of human possibility. Faustus, at least early on in his acquisition of magic, is the personification of possibility.
An excerpt from the play Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistophilis. By him I'll be great emperor of the world, And make a bridge thorough the moving air, To pass the ocean with a band of men; I'll join the hills that bind the Afric shore, And make that country continent to Spain, And both contributory to my crown: The Emperor shall not live but by my leave, Nor any potentate of Germany. Now that I have obtain'd what I desir'd, I'll live in speculation of this art, Till Mephistophilis return again.
Marlowe and Shakespeare l Many readers, critics, and biographers have remarked on close similarities between Marlowe’s works and Shakespeare’s poems and plays. Nowadays, Marlowe’s literary influence on Shakespeare has been universally accepted.
Many characters in the Marlovian and Shakespearean works are cut from the same dramatic cloth, including Tamburlaine and Titus, Barabas and Shylock, Abigail and Jessica, the Duke of Guise and Aaron, Edward II and Richard II, and Mortimer and Hotspur. l According to researcher John Baker, Marlowe’s canon organically matures into Shakespeare’s, and his Aeneas and Dido becomes Romeo and Juliet and then Anthony and Cleopatra and Troilus and Cressida. Edward II matures into Richard II. The Massacre at Paris evolves into Measure for Measure, while The Jew of Malta metamorphoses into The Jew of Venice or The Merchant of Venice and Dr. Faustus becomes Prospero from The Tempest. l
l Both the Marlovian and Shakespearean works deal with magic, the occult, and explore the relation between the natural and supernatural worlds. Hecate, the queen of the Underworld in Greek and Roman mythology, and her furies are invoked in Dr. Faustus, Dido Queen of Carthage, and his other works. Hecate also figures prominently in Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and she or her three furies appear in about two-thirds of the Shakespearean poems and plays.
of Dr. Faustus on Hamlet, l In a study of the influence some critics found that there is a striking resemblance in the way Faustus and Hamlet appear on stage and deliver their lines. Both characters speak 38 percent of the lines in their respective plays, and the average line length is almost the same: 3. 5 to 3. 2 lines per speech (see Levin, The Overreacher: A Study of Christopher Marlowe, Beacon Press, 1952). In comparison, the protagonists in the other Shakespearean plays average about 25 percent. Levin also found that Shakespeare borrowed the broad tripartite dramatic structure of his plays, with a main plot, overplot, and subplot, from Marlowe.
l A theory has arisen centred on the notion that Marlowe may have faked his death and then continued to write under the assumed name of William Shakespeare. However, orthodox academic consensus rejects alternative candidates for authorship, including Marlowe.
l The place and the value of Christopher Marlowe as a leader among English poets would be almost impossible for historical criticism to over-estimate. To none of them all, perhaps, have so many of the greatest among them been so deeply and so directly indebted. Nor was ever any great writer's influence upon his fellows and contemporaries more utterly.