Let's put to rest the notion that Marlowe must be ruled out as a possible author of the Shakespeare plays "on literary grounds."
Click here for the International Marlowe-Shakespeare Society's take on the closeness between the works of Marlowe and Shakespeare - a closeness supported by two centuries of mainstream Shakespearean scholarship. And there's also Daryl Pinksen's pieces on the style issue and the Mendenhall experiment.
Click here for the blog's home page and recent content. Emmerich, What similarities exist between Shakespeare and Marlowe?
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
...not to mention the things that just leap out of the texts if you're willing to expand your perspective to the *possibility* that Marlowe might be a candidate for the authorship. Case in point: Whenever I teach one of the plays to my high-school students, I introduce them to the idea that the authorship is contested. We take a look at some of the possible candidates and the arguments for and against them, then the students determine their own belief based on the information they've read. I don't share my preference for Marlowe until they've had a chance to think about it for themselves.
Just this past week, we finished reading Much Ado About Nothing, and we went back to read the Epitaph scene again. One of my students asked me what it meant to be "Done to death by slanderous tongues." We discussed it as a class, and then moved on. A few moments later, the same student (with the Light of Sudden Understanding glowing above his head) said, "Oh, wow! That's just like that one guy. The one you think wrote the plays." I asked him to elaborate. He went on to mention Baines' slander of Marlowe (which I'd shared with them), the poet's ruined reputation now that the charge of atheism was upon him, and the need to fake his death in order to live until such time as he could prove his innocence. When asked to explain how the last part of the Epitaph might pertain to Marlowe, he thought for a moment and then said, "Well, if he's supposed to be dead but is alive, and if he's writing these plays as Shakespeare and getting famous for it, then isn't that the same as 'dying in shame' but 'living in death in glorious fame?'"
Following this exchange, one very astute child said, "If this is out here in the play for everyone to hear and read, then why don't more people talk about Marlowe maybe being Shakespeare?"
From the mouths of babes...
As I said before, all it takes is an open mind.
Isn't that a most brilliant and beautiful example of how Marlowe will eventually win the day?
Well done, R.S. Abrinaud!
I agree with Ms. G.
I love this website! And thanks to you, I'm not an Oxfordian anymore.
I like the idea that Marlowe didn't die in 1593, but I find it difficult to believe he wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare. When I read Sheakespeare, I'm aware I'm reading something that was written 400 years ago. When I read Marlowe, it feels completely different: much fresher, more direct, and, frankly, better written; I find his imagery more accessible than Shakespeare's, and his humour more sardonic (and more to my taste - I've actually laughed out loud while reading Marlowe, but never while reading Shakespeare).
Just my two penn'orth, really. :)
awesome, carlo
Sothis said:
I find his [Marlowe's] imagery more accessible than Shakespeare's, and his humour more sardonic (and more to my taste - I've actually laughed out loud while reading Marlowe, but never while reading Shakespeare).
This is a really interesting comment, or at least it would be if we had some examples of exactly where you laughed out loud at Marlowe or just where you found his humour more sardonic than Shakespeare's. I really would like to know this, since Marlowe is of course believed by many a Stratfordian to have no sense of humour at all, which is of course complete rubbish.
Just as a matter of interest, how old are you? Older or younger than the 29 that Marlowe was when he died? Our sense of humour does change with age!
Peter Farey
Hi Peter,
I've never understood how anyone can claim that Marlowe has no sense of humour. I laughed aloud at the description of Leander arriving on Hero's doorstep after swimming the Hellespont, and at the nobles, ordered by Edward II to be respectful to Gaveston, being ironically polite; and then at Gaveston, fuming because he realises he's just been insulted more directly. There are lots of other places too, but it's hard to give examples, because it's more part of the whole effect taking place in my imagination as I read; the picture being built by Marlowe's words (which I find infinitely more direct and clear than Shakespeare's).
Where Shakespeare is concerned, I find him funny if there's a cast to bring him to life; I just can't picture what's happening when I read him straight of the page. Part of the problem for me is the amount of time I have to spend scanning the glossaries because he's used an obscure nature metaphor or something. I sometimes get the feeling that Marlowe had things to say, and said them, and Shakespeare just liked throwing words down on a page to see how they sounded or looked. (I'm probably doing him a bit of an injustice there, though. ;) )
As for my age... older than 29! ;p
Another highly amusing scene in Marlowe is in Act 4, Scene 4 of The Jew of Malta, in which Barabas disguises himself as a French musician and brings a poisoned nosegay to Ithamore, Bellamira, and Pilia Borza who have been blackmailing him. Bellamira accepts the poisoned nosegay while Barabas speaks in a phony French accent. The idea of Barabas pretending to be a Franch musician and speaking in a phony French accent, played by Edward Alleyn, must have sent the audience rolling in the aisles.
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
thanks for this!
These quotes are super. Gee, funny how similar Marlowe and Shakespeare can be . . .
Post a Comment