In the Renaissance spirit of celebrating and imitating classical art and literature, Marlowe wrote heroic tales in the tradition of the classical Roman dramatist Seneca. The sonorous lines of blank verse lent themselves to the tragic content of plays such as Tamburlaine and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Marlowe’s contemporary and fellow playwright and poet Ben Jonson, in his poem “ To the Memory of My Beloved Master William Shakespeare,” coined the phrase “Marlowe’s mighty line” to refer to Marlowe’s use of blank verse, unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter, considered the meter most closely resembling normal English speech. Plaque marking the rooms where Christopher Marlowe lived at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. Portrait believed to be Christopher Marlowe. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that Marlowe, in hiding, wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare although this theory is now considered unlikely. This sequence of events has led some historians to believe that Marlowe’s death was staged to help him escape arrest and certain torture.
Only a week before his death, one of his associates and fellow dramatist, Thomas Kyd, claimed under torture that Marlowe was an atheist, and a warrant was issued for Marlowe’s arrest. At age 29 Marlowe was stabbed to death in an argument over the dinner bill in an inn. He also apparently was engaged in espionage for Elizabeth’s court. Although not born into the nobility, Marlowe attended Cambridge University, then moved to London where he moved in court circles and wrote the plays that secured his fame.
\)Ĭhristopher Marlowe is a good example of an individual caught up in the intrigue and danger of court life who might long to escape to the seemingly simple, leisurely life of the rustic shepherd.
0 kommentar(er)
