Charles Marlowe a Life Sketch - Book Report/Review Example

 CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE: A LIFE SKETCH OUTLINE 1. Family 2. Academic Life 3. Career 4. Works 5. Death 6. Bibliography "...I could not understand this man. He gave me the impression that he wanted to own you. He wanted your soul. He would not give you a chance to make your mind up, he made it for you. One minute he would be warm, the next he was cold. As I say, like the Medusa. He would turn you to stone with one look. I laid on my truckle bed. I could not get his face from my mind. I could see that cold look in his eyes. Maybe there is some warmth there I know not of. He was a man that one would say his countenance haunted you, and his voice. Once you made contact with him you felt that his presence never left you. “ (Harwood, an excerpt) Family Christopher Marlowe( / Marley / Marlin / Merlin )(1564-1593), the poet-dramatist, as may be rightly called, could well be named the pioneer of revolutionary writing that marked the great Elizabethan era. Born in 1564, to a well-to-do shoemaker John Marlowe and a Clergyman’s daughter, he was destined to ride the pinnacle of glory in a span of a short life and a shorter youth. He grew up during the times when the German Reformation and the Italian Renaissance were gradually having an osmotic effect on the regeneration of English Literature. His life has been an epic journey of conceits and humors and everything that lies within. There was a certain kind of a parallel circuit running between Shakespeare and him, as far as their early life is concerned, having being born in the same year as Shakespeare and being christened barely two months apart from the baptizing ceremony of the Bard Academic Life His academic graph indicates traces of an intended or unintended interaction with the likes of Richard Boyle, Will Lyly and Gosson. He was awarded a scholarship on the basis of which he acquired his Bachelors and Masters degree from Corpus Christi College amid many controversial episodes. The University refused to confer the degree on him as his absenteeism from college had become a routine affair and far exceeded the permissible limits granted by the University. However, it was later speculated that he had been in an under-cover service under the aegis of Sir Francis Walsingham and the Privy Council intervened in order to help him receive his degree. He also came under the Church’s scanner for spending much of his time with those convening to regulate and fortify the Protestant faith under the Queen’s regime. Career Marlowe settled in London to start his career as a playwright. His first play was Dido, Queen of Carthage but the first one to be staged was Tamburlaine the Great. Thomas Kyd, who was his roommate, even though did not share much with Marlowe in terms of poetic content, was witness to many of his ideas on social and religious construct. “Possibly more interesting than ‘marlowe’s monstrous opiniouns’ is the picture that Kyd paints of his character. He was ‘intemperate & of a cruel hart’; ‘it was his custom when I knewe him first & as I heare saie he contynewd it in table talk or otherwise to jest at the devine scriptures, gybe at praiers & stryve in argument to frustrate & confute what hath byn spoke or wrytt by prophets & such holiemenn’;” (Steane, pg 7) His brief disappearance from the literary scene of London led to speculations about his mysterious death. Marlowe was often seen as a trouble maker of rough intent and brash manner. He would frequent taverns in London with his friends such as Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe. He knew that if he had to make a mark as a dramatist worth the weight of his words, he needed to build a web of appropriate social connections. The thought drove him to mingle with writers of immaculate literary repute- Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Philip Sydney. Ironically, while these two gentle men did not so much as invite the wrath of the Church for atheist writings; Marlowe, who was known to have acquired a certain distaste to religion, which may or may not have been inspired by Francis Kett, a fellow and tutor in his college, often landed on the wrong side of the law for being conspicuously atheistic. Also charged of espionage, forgery and being in the secret service, Marlowe’s reputation of a flamboyant young man preceeded his reputation as a serious dramatist. His claim to glory came with the writing of Tamburlaine the Great and with it, the English language discovered the beauty of the blank verse in unrhymed iambic pentameter, which, in no uncertain terms paved the way for Shakespeare to polish this literary gem to brilliance. Even though the use of the Blank Verse had been seen in Gorbuduc, the first tragedy in the history of English Literature; however, Marlowe may still be called the goldsmith that chiseled it to brilliance and quite literally, set the rhythm for non-rhyming decasyllables. “Is this / the face / that launched / a thou / sand ships...” (from Doctor Faustus) This famous line from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus has become etched in history as one of the most quoted phrases, purely for the beauty and mellifluence of its syllabic rhythm. Marlowe not only took away the drudgery from prosaic poetry but also added a dash of unpredictable beauty by revising the internal structure of the single line. In some lines he substituted an iamb (- / ) for a spondee (- - ), a tribrach (/ / / ) or a dactyl (- / / ) in certain feet, which made each line more interesting and versatile. Works “Critics show more tolerance than enthusiasm for Marlowe as a dramatic artist. They praise his thought, his poetry, his psychology, but they offer excuses for his stagecraft. This si a pity, for there is no need to excuse it. Marlowe handles his medium with imagination and subtlety” (Powell, Introduction) Even though Tamburlaine the Great does not come through as a work of unparalleled literary quality as it comes with a fair share of flaws and monotony, the subsequent works of Marlowe Doctor Faustus, The Jew Of Malta and Edward ii , projected him as a playwright of great merit and unusual skill of characterization. Whether Faustus followed Tamburlaine and was then followed by Edward, is yet to be said in certain terms as the quality of Marlowe’s writing seemed to have degenerated from Faustus to Edward ii. A school of thought believes that Edward ii was actually written before the Faustian tragedy but was discovered and published later. The Faustian character is said to be an extension of Marlowe’s own personality, wherein he had traded his soul with the Devil for recognition and power. It is also said that Marlowe’s thoughts and easygoing ways gradually led to his intellectual demise as a lack of wealth and position left him in a state of unreasonable irritability and little rationale. Come live with me, and be my love; And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills and fields, Woods or steepy mountain yields. (from The Passionate Shepherd to His Love c. 1589) Not only were Marlowe’s plays a seething revolution in themselves, but also his poems such as Hero and Leander and Passionate Shepherd, which till date, remain unequalled in terms of poetic flow and spellbinding narrative. His brief brush with the Roman and Latin languages is visible in the translations of Ovid’s works but failed to find pardon with the masters of the two languages. However, as is evident from the nature of Marlowe’s works, these translations also heaved a sigh a relief and freedom from the tight-bound rules of syllables and metres in the two languages. Marlowe’s translations, even if they digressed from a word to word and phrase for phrase translation, were known to be of a lofty lyrical quality. As hearsay has it, it was believed to be at the Church’s instruction that all of Marlowe’s works of translation were burnt or destroyed. Wild savages, that drink from running springs, Think water far excels all earthly things; But they, that daily taste neat wine, despise it. (from Hero and Leander) Marlowe’s works were not only a reflection of his poetic genius but they also mirrored the undercurrents of social and religious influences on everyday life. Believed to be an atheist, he faced a serious charge of blasphemy when he equated Helen of Troy in Doctor Faustus to God, who could cleanse his soul of all sin, thus, elevating a mere mortal to a pedestal higher than the Virgin Mary. His proclamation about discrepancies in the writings of the Bible and the ways of the Church landed him in bad favor with the Church. Death “On the morning of May 30, 1593, twenty-nine-year-old Christopher Marlowe made his way to an appointment he had in Deptford, a small town on the Thames, a few miles downriver from London Bridge. The appointment was for 10 AM at a house that belonged to a widow named Eleanor Bull. There Marlowe met three men with whom he was already well acquainted, Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres, and Robert Poley. The four sat all morning in quiet conversation, had lunch together, and afterward walked for some time in widow Bull's garden. At about 6 PM they returned inside for supper. Along with the table at which they ate, the room contained a bed, on which Marlowe lay down after dining; the other three continued to sit next to each other on a single bench, their backs to their reclining companion.” (Greenblatt) Christopher Marlowe died at the young age of 29 when while paying for a tavern bill in Deptford, he got into an argument with another fellow. Spurred by his impulsiveness and short-temper, he drew out a dagger to put through this man, who in self-defense carried the dagger through Marlowe himself, thus putting a tragically Faustian end to the life of an epoch-making playwright. At least this is the version which was originally meant to be passed down to history. However, scholars believe that Marlowe’s untimely death was a plot staged by the top brass of the religious and political strata as Marlowe’s thoughts that reflected in his work heightened the awareness of the plebeians about the prevalent hypocrisy and ethical deviation of those in power. While the debate over Ingram Frizer, his companion at the tavern, and his involvement in Marlowe’s death continues, the history of English literature continues grow and sprout. His contribution to the subsequent Elizabethan and Jacobean drama remains undisputedly, till date, the fulcrum of the development of such literature Works cited Greenblatt Stephen , Who Killed Christopher Marlowe? Harwood Brenda, My Truth: The far-memory of Christopher Marlowe Honan Park, Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy, Oxford University Press Powell Jocelyn, Marlowe’s Spectacle, The MIT Press, 1964 Steane J.B. , Marlowe: A Critical Study, Cambridge University Press 1964; 1970 Wraight A.D. , In Search of Christopher Marlowe , Macdonald (UK) & Vanguard (NY) 1965; Adam Hart 1993 Read More