Christopher Marlowe Essay

Christopher MarloweIntroductionDrama presents fiction or fact in a variation that could be acted beforehand an consultation. It is imitation by deed and row. A hornswoggle has a plot, characters, atmosphere and conflict. Unlike a novel, which in read in private, a campaign is mean to be performed in customary. Christopher Marlowe was a issuestandingest of pre Shakespearian gamboltists, poet and translator. Marlowes jobs argon kn let for the character of blanched indite, He was kn birth as the Father of inc border Tragedy Origin and develop ment of British DramaThe Ro s experiencedierys introduced drama to England, during the medieval rate of flow. A number of auditoriums were constructed for the perfor gentle earthly disturbs gentle macrocosmce of the art form, when it came to the arna. Mummers mildews, associated with the Morris dance, became a popular form of street th obliteratere during the period. The perfor art objectces were base on the old stories of Saint George, Robin Hood and Dragon. The artists moved from town to town, to perform these folk tales. They were come mostn m mavin and only(a)y and hospitality, in re eddy for their performance. The mystery and morality looseness of the bowelss, performed during medieval period at religious festivals, carried the Christian theme. The slope Renaissance, a cultural and artistic movement in England country that final stageed from 16th to early-17th century, paved the way for the dominance of drama in the country. Queen Elizabeth I take in charged during the period, when great poetry and drama were produced. The renowned bunkwrights of this meter included William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jon word of honor and crapper Webster. The dramatists wrote animates based on themes like hi paper, drollery and cataclysm. darn around of the playwrights specialized in only one of the themes, Shakespeare emerged as an artist who produced plays based on on the whole the troika themes. Pre Shakespearian DramaThe University Wits, nearly wholly of whom were associated with Oxford and Cambridge, did overmuch to found the Elizabethan schoolhouse of drama. They were all much or less aquainted with each other, and most of them led irregular and stormy lives. Their plays had s ever soal(prenominal)(prenominal) features in popular. There was a fondness of expansive themes, such as the lives of great figures like Mohammed and Tamburlaine. whizzic themes take heroic treatment great fullness andvariety splendid descriptions, capacious s heartying speeches, the handling of red incidents and emotions. These qualities, excellent when held in restraint, only too much led to loudness and disorder. The style too was heroic. The chief aim was to achieve strong and sounding lines, magnificient epithets, and federal agencyful declamation. This again led to abuse and to simple bombast, mouthing, and in the worst carapaces to nonsense. In the best example s, such as in Marlowe, the result is quite impressive. In this connection it is to be noned that the best medium for such expression was untenanted rhyme, which was sufficiently conciliatory to bear the strong pressure of these expansive methods. The themes were usually tragic in spirit, for the dramatists were as a rule too much in earnest to give heed to what was submited to be the lower species of comedy. The general lose of real humour in the early drama is one of its most prominent features. Humour, when it is brought in at all, is coarse and im ripe. Christopher Marlowe (1564 1593)Marlowes Early brioChristopher Marlowe, side dramatist, the father of position tragedy, and instaurator of hammy livid verse, the outsetborn son of a shoe bindr at Canterbury, was born in that city on the 6th of February 1564. He was christened at St Georges Church, Canterbury, on the 26th of February, 1563/4, about dickens months before Shakespeares baptism at Stratford-on-Avon. His f ather, John Marlowe, is said to prolong been the grandson of John Morley or Marlowe, a substantial tanner of Canterbury. The father, who survived by a 12 long term or so his illustrious son, remotem married on the 22nd of May 1561 Catherine, daughter of Christopher Arthur, at one time rector of St Peters, Canterbury, who had been ejected by Queen Mary as a married minister. The dramatist received the rudiments of his education at the world-beaters School, Canterbury, which he entered at Michaelmas 1578, and where he had as his fellow-pupils Richard Boyle, afterwards cognize as the great Earl of Cork, and Will Lyly, the brother of John Lyly the dramatist. Stephen Gosson entered the same school a miniscule before, and William Harvey, the famous physician, a shortsighted after Marlowe. He went to Cambridge as one of Archbishop Parkers scholars from the Kings School, and matriculated at Benet (Corpus Christi) College, on the 17th of March 1571, taking his B.A. degree in 1584, and thatof M.A. three or four years afterward. Marlowes Contri exactlyion to British DramaIn a playwriting career that spanned little more than six years, Marlowes doings were diverse and splendid. Perhaps before leaving Cambridge he had already create verbally Tamburlaine the Great (in two parts, both performed by the end of 1587 published 1590). Almost certainly during his later Cambridge years, Marlowe had translated Ovids Amores (The Loves) and the first book of Lu shags Pharsalia from the Latin. About this time he also wrote the play Dido, Queen of Carthage (published in 1594 as the joint blend of Marlowe and doubting Thomas Nashe). With the production of Tamburlaine he received recognition and acclaim, and playwriting became his major strike in the few years that lay ahead. Both parts of Tamburlaine were published anonymously in 1590, and the publishing house omitted certain passages that he found incongruous with the plays serious concern with fib unconstipated so, th e extant Tamburlaine text can be regarded as substantially Marlowes.No other of his plays or songs or editions was published during his life. His au naturel(p) plainly splendid poem Hero and Leanderwhich is almost certainly the finest nonspectacular Elizabethan poem apart from those produced by Edmund Spenserappeared in 1598. There is argument among scholars concerning the order in which the plays subsequent to Tamburlaine were indite. It is not uncommonly held that Faustus quickly followed Tamburlaine and that then Marlowe turned to a more neutral, more social kind of writing in Edward II and The Massacre at capital of France. His last play may go been The Jew of Malta, in which he unco broke new ground. It is known that Tamburlaine, Faustus, and The Jew of Malta were performed by the full admirals manpower, a company whose outstanding agent was Edward Alleyn, who most certainly played Tamburlaine, Faustus, and Barabas the Jew. Plays of Christopher MarloweMarlowes plays, all tragedies, were written at middle five years (1587-92). He had no bent for comedy, and the comic parts found in some of his plays are always deficient and may be by other sources. As a dramatist Marlowe had serious limitations, though it is promising to trace a growing sense of the theatre through his plays. Dido, Queen of Carthage (1586)Dido, Queen of Carthage is a fiddling play written by the English playwrightChristopher Marlowe, with possible contri saveions by Thomas Nashe. The story of the play focuses on the classical figure of Dido, the Queen of Carthage. It tells an intense dramatic tale of Dido and her fanatical do for Aeneas (induced by Cupid), Aeneas betrayal of her and her as yettual suicide on his departure for Italy. Jupiter is fondling Ganymede, who says that Jupiters wife Juno has been mistreating him because of her jealousy. Venus enters, and complains that Jupiter is neglecting her son Aeneas, who has left troy with survivors of the defeated city. He was on his way to Italy, only if is now lost in a storm. Jupiter tells her not to worry he testament quiet the storm. Venus travels to Libya, where she disguises herself as a lethal and meets Aeneas, who has arrived, lost, on the coast. He and a few followers gull become separated from their comrades. He recognises her, but she denies her identity. She friends him meet up with Illioneus, Sergestus and Cloanthes, other surviving Trojans who lose already received generous hospitality from the topical anaesthetic ruler Dido, Queen of Carthage. Dido meets Aeneas and promises to supply his ships. She asks him to give her the uncoiled story of the generate of Troy, which he does in detail, describing the stopping point of Priam, the loss of his own wife and his escape with his son Ascanius and other survivors.Didos suitor, Iarbas, presses her to agree to marry him. She knock againstms to privilege him, but Venus has other plans. She disguises Cupid as Aeneass son Ascanius, so that he can permit close to Dido and touch her with his arrow. He does so Dido immediately falls in passionateness with Aeneas and rejects Iarbas out of hand, to his repulsive force and confusion. Didos sister Anna, who is in love with Iarbas, encourages Dido to pursue Aeneas. She and Aeneas meet at a countermine, where Dido declares her love. They enter the cave to make love. Iarbas swears he will get revenge. Venus and Juno appear, arguing over Aeneas. Venus believes that Juno wants to harm her son, but Juno denies it, saying she has important plans for him. Aeneass followers say they must allow for Libya, to fulfil their destiny in Italy. Aeneas seems to agree, and prepares to depart. Dido sends Anna to get wind out what is happening. She brings Aeneas back, who denies he intended to leave. Dido forgives him, but as a precaution removes all the sails and tackle from his ships. She also places Ascanius in the custody of the cling to, believing that Aeneas will not leave wit hout him.However, Ascanius is genuinely the disguised Cupid. Dido says that Aeneas will be king of Carthage and anyone who objects will beexecuted. Aeneas agrees and plans to build a new city to rival Troy and strike back at the Greeks. Mercury appears with the real Ascanius and informs Aeneas that his destiny is in Italy and that he must leave on the orders of Jupiter. Aeneas reluctantly accepts the divine command. Iarbas sees the opportunity to be rid of his rival and agrees to supply Aeneas with the mis ejaculateg tackle. Aeneas tells Dido he must leave. She pleads with him to ignore Jupiters command, but he refuses to do so. He departs, leaving Dido in despair. The Nurse says that Ascanius has disappeared. Dido orders her to be imprisoned. She tells Iarbas and Anna that she intends to make a funeral pyre on which she will burn ein truththing that reminds her of Aeneas. After cursing Aeneas progeny, she throws herself into the fire. Iarbas, horrified, kills himself too. Anna, e yesight Iarbas dead, kills herself. Tamburlaine the Great (15871588)Tamburlaine the Great is a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur the lame. Written in 1587 or 1588, the play is a milestone in Elizabethan public drama it marks a turning remote from the unqualified terminology and loose plotting of the earlier Tudor dramatists, and a new interest in fresh and magnificent language, memorable action, and intellectual complexity. Along with Thomas small frys The Spanish Tragedy, it may be considered the first popular success of Londons public stage. Marlowe, generally considered the greatest of the University Wits, fascinated playwrights well into the Jacobean period, and echoes of Tamburlaines bombast and am numberion can be found in English plays all the way to the prude closing of the theatres in 1642. While Tamburlaineis considered inferior to the great tragedies of the late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobe an period, its significance in creating a stock of themes and, especially, in demonstrating the po bivouacial of blank verse in drama, are still acknowledged. Part 1The play opens in Persepolis. The Persian emperor, Mycetes, dispatches troops to dispose of Tamburlaine, a Scythian shepherd and at that point a mobile bandit. In the same scene, Mycetes brother Cosroe plots to overthrow Mycetes and assume the throne. The scene shifts to Scythia, where Tamburlaine is shown wooing, capturing, and winning Zenocrate, the daughterof the Egyptian king. Confronted by Mycetes soldiers, he packs first the soldiers and then Cosroe to join him in a fight against Mycetes. Although he promises Cosroe the Persian throne, Tamburlaine reneges on this promise and, after defeating Mycetes, takes personal control of the Persian Empire.Suddenly a right figure, Tamburlaine decides to pursue moreover conquests. A campaign against Turkey yields him the Turkish king Bajazeth and his wife Zabina as captives he keeps them in a cage and at one point uses Bajazeth as a footstool. After conquest Africa and naming himself emperor of that continent, Tamburlaine sets his eyes on Damascus this target places the Egyptian Sultan, his father-in-law, right off in his path. Zenocrate pleads with her husband to spare her father. He complies, instead making the Sultan a tributary king. The play ends with the wedding of Zenocrate and Tamburlaine, and the crowning of the former as Empress of Persia. Part 2Tamburlaine grooms his sons to be conquerors in his wake as he continues to conquer his neighbouring kingdoms. His oldest son, Calyphas, preferring to stay by his mothers side and not risk death, incurs Tamburlaines wrath. Meanwhile, the son of Bajazeth, Callapine, escapes from Tamburlaines jail and gathers a group of tributary kings to his side, planning to avenge his father. Callapine and Tamburlaine meet in battle, where Tamburlaine is victorious. further finding Calyphas remained in his tent d uring the battle, Tamburlaine kills him in anger. Tamburlaine then forces the defeated kings to pull his chariot to his next battlefield, declaring, Upon reaching Babylon, which holds out against him, Tamburlaine displays further acts of riotous savagery. When the Governor of the city attempts to save his life in return for revealing the city treasury, Tamburlaine has him hung from the city walls and orders his men to shoot him to death. He orders the inha potato chipants men, women, and sisterren bound and thrown into a nearby lake. Lastly, Tamburlaine scornfully burns a re-create of the Quran and claims to be greater than matinee idol. In the final act, he is struck ill but manages to defeat one more foe before he dies. He bids his remaining sons to conquer the remainder of the earth as he departs life. The play is often linked to Renaissance gentleism which idealises the emf of valet beings.Tamburlaines incli terra firma to immense power raises profound religious questi ons as he arrogates for himself a place as the pine outdoor(a) of God (an epithet originally applied to Attila the Hun). Some readers nonplus linked this stance with the fact that Marlowe was incriminate of atheism. Others have been more concerned with a supposed anti-Muslim thread of the play, highlighted in a scene in which the main character burns the Quran. Jeff Dailey notes in his article Christian Underscoring in Tamburlaine the Great, Part II that Marlowes work is a direct successor to the traditional medieval morality plays,3and that, whether or not he is an atheist, he has inherited religious elements of content and allegorical methods of presentation. The Jew of Malta (1589)The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably written in 1589 or 1590. Its plot is an original story of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set against a backdrop of the get by for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean that takes place on the isla nd of Malta. The Jew of Malta is considered to have been a major influence on William Shakespeares The merchandiser of Venice. The play opens with a Prologue narrated by Mach mephistophelianl, a travesty of the precedent Machiavelli. This character explains that he is presenting the tragedy of a Jew who has become rich by following Machiavellis teachings. Act I opens with a Jewish merchant, called Barabas, waiting for news about the return of his ships from the east. He discovers that they have safely docked in Malta, before three Jews arrive to inform him that they must go to the senate-house to meet the governor. in one case there, Barabas discovers that on with every other Jew on the island he must forfeit half of his estate to help the government pay indemnity to the Turks. When the Barabas protests at this unfair treatment, the governor Ferneze confiscates all of Barabass wealth and decides to turn Barabass house into a convent. Barabas vows revenge but first attempts to r ecover some of the treasures he has clandestine in his mansion. His daughter, Abigail, pretends to convert to Christianity in order to enter the convent. She smuggles out her fathers currency at night. Ferneze meets with Del Bosco, the Spanish Vice-Admiral, who wishes to sell Turkish slaves in the market place. Del Bosco convinces Ferneze to break his alliance with the Turks in return for Spanish protection. While viewing theslaves, Barabas meets up with Fernezes, Lodowick. This man has heard of Abigails great beauty from his friend (and Abigails devotee) Mathias. Barabas realizes that he can use Lodowick to exact revenge on Ferneze, and so he dupes the girlish man into cerebration Abigail will marry him. While doing this, the merchant buys a slave called Ithamore who hates Christians as much as his new control does. Mathias sees Barabas talking to Lodowick and demands to know whether they are discussing Abigail. Barabas lies to Mathias, and so Barabas deludes both young men i nto thinking that Abigail has been promised to them. At home, Barabas orders his reluctant daughter to get betrothed to Lodowick. At the end of the second Act, the two young men vow revenge on each other for attempting to woo Abigail behind one others backs. Barabas seizes on this opportunity and gets Ithamore to deliver a forged letter to Mathias, supposedly from Lodowick, challenging him to a affaire dhonneur. Act III introduces the prostitute Bellamira and her pimp Pilia-Borza, who decide that they will steal some of Barabass gold since business has been slack. Ithamore enters and instantly falls in love with Bellamira.Mathias and Lodowick kill each other in the duel orchestrated by Barabas and are found by Ferneze and Katherine, Mathiass mother. The bereaved parents vow revenge on the perpetrator of their sons bump offs. Abigail finds Ithamore laughing, and Ithamore tells her of Barabass role in the young mens deaths. Grief-stricken, Abigail persuades a Dominican beggar Jacom o to let her enter the convent, even though she lied once before about converting. When Barabas finds out what Abigail has done, he is enraged, and he decides to poison some rice and send it to the nuns. He instructs Ithamore to deliver the food. In the next scene, Ferneze meets a Turkish emissary, and Ferneze explains that he will not pay the required tribute. The Turk leaves, stating that his leader Calymath will attack the island. Jacomo and other friar Bernardine despair at the deaths of all the nuns, who have been poisoned by Barabas. Abigail enters, close to death, and confesses her fathers role in Mathiass and Lodowicks deaths to Jacomo. She knows that the priest cannot make this knowledge public because it was revealed to him in confession. Act IV shows Barabas and Ithamore delighting in the nuns deaths. Bernardine and Jacomo enter with the intention of confronting Barabas. Barabas realizes that Abigail has confessed his crimes to Jacomo. In order to distract the two priest s from their task, Barabas pretends that he wants to convert toChristianity and give all his coin to whichever monastery he joins. Jacomo and Bernardine start fighting in order to get the Jew to join their own religious houses. Barabas hatches a plan and tricks Bernardine into coming home with him. Ithamore then strangles Bernardine, and Barabas frames Jacomo for the crime. The action switches to Bellamira and her pimp, who find Ithamore and persuade him to bribe Barabas. The slave confesses his masters crimes to Bellamira, who decides to report them to the governor after Barabas has given her his money. Barabas is maddened by the slaves treachery and turns up at Bellamiras home disguised as a French lute player. Barabas then poisons all three conspirators with the use of a poisoned flower. The action moves quickly in the final act. Bellamira and Pilia-Borza confess Barabass crimes to Ferneze, and the murderer is sent for along with Ithamore. Shortly after, Bellamira, Pilia-Borza a nd Ithamore die. Barabas fakes his own death and escapes to find Calymath.Barabas tells the Turkish leader how best to storm the town. Following this event and the capture of Malta by the Turkish forces, Barabas is do governor, and Calymath prepares to leave. However, fearing for his own life and the security of his office, Barabas sends for Ferneze. Barabas tells him that he will free Malta from Turkish rule and kill Calymath in exchange for a large amount of money. Ferneze agrees and Barabas invites Calymath to a feast at his home. However, when Calymath arrives, Ferneze prevents Barabas from killing him. Ferneze and Calymath watch as Barabas dies in a cauldron that Barabas had prepared for Calymath. Ferneze tells the Turkish leader that he will be a prisoner in Malta until the Ottoman Emperor agrees to free the island. Doctor Faustus (1589-1593)Marlowes The sad History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus stands as one of the most influential and frequently-referenced pieces of publications in history. The play is the story of Dr. Faustus, a man who considers study in the fields of logic, medicine, law, and divinity and instead chooses to forsake them all to use black magic. He enters into a deal with Mephastophilis, a servant of the devil, in which Faustus gains the services of the demon but has to give up his person after 24 years. The play deals with several important themes. The corrupting influence of power, sin and redemption, and the divided nature of man are interwoven throughoutthe piece. Absolute power corrupts Faustus thoroughly. In the beginning we are introduced to a man at the top of his game. Hes mastered several important disciplines and is seeking a further, more rewarding, challenge so he turns to black magic. Faustus dreams of the umteen amazing things hell accomplish with his new powers. He muses on sending spirits to India to fetch him gold, ponders having them Ransack the oceanic for orient pearl, and contemplates how he will use his spirits to gain knowledge of the secrets of all foreign kings. His ambitions even extend to the throne of Germany. When finally granted the power he so desires, Faustus proceeds to do very little with it. He starts out auspiciously enough with an adventure in a chariot pulled by dragons so that he may unlock the mysteries of astronomy. Faustus seeks to test the accuracy of maps of the coasts and kingdoms of the world as well and ultimately ends up in Rome. Soon after, however, he basically lets his amazing power go to waste. He spends his time impressing various noblemen, playing petty tricks on people, and conjuring up specters of Alexander the Great and Helen of Troy. The underlying literary argument Marlowe is making is one of the basic tenets of modern psychology. People simply dont appreciate things they didnt have to work to gain. In the beginning, Faustus is a great man, full of ambition and at the top of his field. While he earns his new-found power in a sense by forfeiting his soul, he has done no true work to acquire it.Throughout the course of the play we see the formerly-ambitious Faustus reduced to a petty thaumaturgist and celebrity because of the corrupting influence of his power. Instead of choosing to act on his lofty ambitions or, heaven forbid, use his power for unselfish reasons he simply wastes his days amusing himself with practical jokes and beautiful women. Marlowe also comments on the nature of sin and redemption. Faustus essentially commits the ultimate sin by signing a pact with the devil. He chooses of his own free will to give up his without end soul in exchange for an earthly reward. jibe to Christian mythology, one can be forgiven of any sin, one has only to aby and ask Gods forgiveness. Despite the severity of his sin, Faustus is given several opportunities to repent his sin and be saved, and is encouraged to do so both by the steady-going angel who appears several times and by the old man in scene 12. Each tim e he chooses to remain loyal to Hell. He seems to consider repenting at the very end, but Mephastophilis threatens to tear his body apart, so he choosesinstead to send Mephastophilis to torture the old man whose words he finds himself unable to heed. Even though an easy answer to the problem of losing his soul equals, and he is several times reminded of it, in the end his own weakness prevents him from making the choice to repent and damns him for all eternity. The divided nature of man is literally personified in the play by the good and evil angels that appear to Faustus periodically. These characters represent opposing sides of Faustus own psyche, as well as representing emissaries of heaven and hell. Faustus is continually assailable whether he should continue his bargain or repent and seek salvation. He is clearly afraid for his eternal soul but is unable to relinquish the amazing power his bargain has afforded him. Marlowe may have intended the two angels as literal beings, but its obvious he also intended them as an allegorical representation of Faustus own internal peel. Themes are an integral part of the play, but Marlowes work has very stood the test of time. What is it about Doctor Faustus story that has made it resonant to countless generations of readers since it was written? The good doctor is a character with whom readers can sympathize.This is not to necessarily say that he is a benignant character, but simply that hes a man who faces temptation and a tough choice. military personnel beings face tough choices every day, and like Faustus we are forced to weigh the consequences of yielding to those temptations. Every human being faces temptation almost every day of their lives. These temptations range from the miniscule, such as being tempted to eat a slice of bread in spite of your pledge to adhere strictly to the Atkins diet, to the extreme, such as your best friends drunken girlfriend coming on to you. The story of Faustus rings true with readers even today because of this. It speaks to every reader because there are no people who have lived without temptation. We all have our good angel and bad angel, the voices inside our heads that spell out consequences of choices were faced with. In most cases, people who give into temptation are aware of the consequences of that choice. The fact that Faustus temptation is a far greater one than any of us is likely to face and has far greater consequences than any of us will ever be up against just makes it even more resonant. Everyone has given in to a strong temptation at some point in their lives and it makes us feel good to see someone doing the same despite the enormous consequences that follow for Faustus. Despite the fact thatFaustus has committed the ultimate sin by choosing of his own free will to give up his immortal soul for an earthly reward, the happening of salvation exists for him until the very end. We as people want to believe that the possibility of salvation and forgiveness exists for us no matter how heinous the deeds we have committed are. Marlowes play speaks to this desire within us, telling us that, like Faustus, the possibility of repentance and forgiveness exists for us no matter how in earnest we screw up. Its a very comforting melodic theme, especially to those animation with guilt over some historical transgression. Another reason that the story in Doctor Faustus is as relevant today as it was when Marlowe wrote it is Faustus himself. Some may see him as a tragic hero, and its very possible to consider him in this light, but its also not much of a stretch to call him a villain. Men like Faustus exist even today, people who are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want regardless of the consequences to themselves or to others. Ken Lay in the recent Enron scandal comes to mind as an example of this. Mr. Lay was perfectly willing to practically destroy the lives of thousands of people by taking their hard-earned money and squandering it on yachts and other expensive trifles. He, in operation, sold his soul.Faustus selfish deeds remind us that people like him exist in real life. When Faustus is corrupted by his power and basically squanders it we are both angry at his in competency to find a way to do good with his powers and prosperous that he is getting what he deserves. Society likes it when people who commit evil deeds have it roam up in their face. We want to see justice served, whether it be Faustus eternity in hell or Mr. Lays recently-handed-down prison sentence, it feels good to know that evil people are punished. Doctor Faustus has truly stood the test of time as a great piece of classical literature. Countless indications of its influence exist even today, ranging from the film The Devils Advocate to the good and evil angels that appear on the shoulders in Warner Brothers cartoons. Marlowes use of complex themes and subtle commentary on the nature of man coupled with the underl ying messages that speak to the human psyche have established Doctor Faustus as a superlative degree of the savers craft and a treatise on the human condition. Edward the Second (1592)Edward II is a Renaissance or Early Modern period play written by ChristopherMarlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer. Christopher Marlowes Edward II is typically applauded as an aesthetic achievement, a history play that brings form and meaning to the in crystalline material of its history source by retelling the kings some dull, twenty-year reign as the fierce and deadly debate of a few willful personalities. Within the phylogeny of Elizabethan drama,Edward II is granted a crucial role in bringing to the English chronicle playincluding Shakespeares Henry VI plays and Richard IIIthe unity and purpose of the mature hi story play, epitomized by Shakespeares later, more aesthetically sophisticated tetralogy. In this narrative of literary development, the episodic chronicle play fails to show the disparate events of the past contributing to a single action fails, like the chronicle, to comprehend the past while the history play successfully makes sense of those events.Considered in context of the Marlovian oeuvre, Edward II again demonstrates the delight of art and order over inchoate historical material it is Marlowes most perfect achievement in dramatic structure and the most finished and satisfactory of Marlowes plays, evidently carefully written, with the intractable chronicle material skillfully handled. These readings of Edward II, however, have relied upon too superficial an understanding of the chronicle tradition, and they have unploughed the plays formal success separate from the Elizabethan debates about historiography within which both play and source participated. The social and po litical stakes of Marlowes historiographical practice emerge when we reread Edward II against a conception of the chronicle not as mere material but as a coherent and influential projection of national identity and historical process. Such a comparative reading shows us not merely that Marlowes play is more aesthetically satisfying, but also that it significantly re influences the nation and the forces of historical change. In particular, Marlowe delineates and focuses on a private realm, which he sets up in opposition to the public as a volatile source of decisions affecting the state. In addition, reading Marlowes play with a new understanding of the chronicle foregrounds the metadiscursive elements in Edward II that, referring back to the source accounts, help to illuminate Marlowes sense of his own artisticrefashioning. The chronicle form, as Marlowes top dog source and one with coarse cultural authority, challenged him to set up his drama as a more true history and to exempl ify his very different understanding of both political process and history writing. The assessments of Edward II that began this article define the play against the chronicle, which is in turn characterized as material, an apparently amorphous grouping of note value-free facts for the artist to choose or reject. For the modern reader, accustomed to finding meaning in tales of causality, the disparate events recorded by the chroniclers events only related to each other by their shared chronological structure seem to lack meaning and purpose. But we can no longer read these important histories so carelessly.In her recent analysis of Raphael Holinsheds Chronicle, Annabel Patterson has shown that the chronicles form and content actually worked to address the concerns and convey the values of the citizen and artisan Londoners who were its principal readers and producers. Maintaining that the Chronicle reveals not its authors incompetence but their different set of historiographical pr inciples, Patterson argues that the Chronicles perplexing inclusivity the fiber that brought John Donnes scathing dismissal of chronicle content as triviall houshold trashin effect creates a national history that will encompass not just king and court but also citizens and even the artisanal and laboring classes. Patterson also traces, in passages throughout the Chronicle, the authors recurrent, approving attention to rights theory, to the antediluvian constitution, and to the value of Parliament in limiting the monarchs power. She persuasively demonstrates that they make a strong case for certain liberties of the individual and the laws that protect them. The Massacre at Paris (1593)The Massacre at Paris is an Elizabethan play by the English dramatist Christopher Marlowe. It concerns the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre, which took place in Paris in 1572, and the part played by the Duc de Guise in those events. The Lord Stranges Men acted a play titled The Tragedy of the Guise, t hought to be Marlowes play, on 26 January 1593. The Admirals Menperformed The Guise or The Massacre ten times between 21 June and 27 kinfolk 1594. The Diary of Philip Henslowe marks the play as ne, though scholars disagree as to whether this indicates a new play or a performanceat the Newington Butts theatre. The Diary also indicates that Henslowe planned a revival of the play in 1602, possibly in a revised version.1 A possible revision may have something to do with the surprising number of Shakespearean borrowings and paraphrases in the text.2The only surviving text is an undated quarto that is too short to represent the go off original play and in all probability it is a memorial reconstruction by the actors who performed the work.3 It preserves a lot of the violence and stabbing jokes but deletes most of whatever social value the play may have had, except for one long soliloquy near the beginning. One roll to the original substance of the play is a page which survives in manus cript. It is known as the Collier leaf, after the Shakespearean scholar John Payne Collier, who is known to have been a notorious forger, although modern scholars think that this particular leaf is probably authentic. Despite including a speech where one of the characters mutters abominable jokes to himself before shooting someone, it supplies a much longer and more interesting version of a blank verse speech than appears in the quarto. This suggests that the more thoughtful parts of the play were precisely the ones that tended to be cut. This was his unfinished work. Christopher Marlowe Father of English TragedyThe first great thing done by Marlowe was to break away from the medieval conception of tragedy, as in medieval drama, tragedy was a thing of the princes only. It dealt with the rise and fall of kings or royal personalities. But it was left to Marlowe to evolve and create the real tragic hero. Almost all the heroes of MarloweTamburlaine, Faustus or Jew of Maltaare of humb le parentage, but they are endowed with great heroic qualities and they are really great men. His tragedy is, in fact, the tragedy of one man-the rise, fall and death of the hero. All other characters of a Marlovian drama pale into insignificance beside the towering personality and the glory and grandeur of the tragic hero. Even various incidents of the drama revolve round the hero. The spiritual or moral conflict takes place in the heart of man and this is of much greater-significance and much more poignant than the former. And a great tragedy most powerfully reveals the unrestrained conflict or moral agony of the mighty hero. Like the heroes of ancient tragedy, Marlowes heroes are nothelpless puppets in the hands of blind fate. The tragic flaw was in their character and the tragic action also issued out of their characters. This was really Marlowes greatest contribution to English tragedy. Marlowes Themes and Stylethough Marlowe did not care for the unity of plot, his characteriz ation was powerful and he developed the element of soul struggle in plays like Dr. Faustus. His hero Faustus, dissatisfied with the poor results of human science sells his soul to the devil so that for 24 years he may satisfy every desire. Marlowe was fascinated by king Tamburlaine who ruddiness from a shepherd to became a master of Asia. In the Jew of Malta Marlowe shows the Jew Barabas enjoying his riches. He takes revenge on his Christian enemies. At last Barabas fell into the pit he had dug for others. In Edward II the murder of king is one of the most poignant scenes in the drama of Renaissance. Each of the plays has behind it the driving force of this vision, which gives it an artistic and poetic unity. It is, indeed, as a poet that Marlowe excels. Though not the first to use blank verse in English drama, he was the first to exploit its possibilities and make it supreme. His verse is notable for its possibilities and makes it supreme. His verse is notable for its burning ener gy, its wideness of diction, its sensuous richness, its variety of pace, and its responsiveness to the demands of varying emotions. Full of bold primary colours, his poetry is crammed with imagery from the classics, from astronomy and from geography, an imagery barbaric in its wealth and splendour. Its resonance and power led Ben Jonson to coin the phrase Marlowes mighty line. but its might has often obscured its technical precision and its admirable lucidity and finish. Creator of English vacant verse in DramaBlack verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter. It was first introduced by the Earl of Surrey in the 16th century. Later it was employ by Marlowe and Shakespeare in their famous plays. Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to make full use of the potential of blank verse, and also established it as the dominant verse form for English drama in the age of Elizabeth I and James I. Marlowe and then Shakespeare developed its potential greatly in the late 16th century. Marl owe was the first to exploitthe potential of blank verse for powerful and involved speech. Marlowe was the real creator of the most versatile of English measures. Sackville, Norton and Surrey experimented with this metre more than twenty years before Marlowe. They failed because they worked on wrong principles and the results which they produced were of an intolerable tedious monotony. Marlowes achievement in developing blank verse can be illustrated by the study of Doctor Faustus. In the chorus passage for example, the verse seems more consistently regular in its beat. The less questionable judgment is, that Marlowe exercised a strong influence over later drama, though not himself as great a dramatist as Kyd that he introduced several new tones into blank verse, and commenced the dissociative process which drew it farther and farther away from the rhythms of rhymed verse. Marlowes PoemsTranslation of Book One of Lucans PharsaliaTranslation of Ovids Elegies (1580)The Passionate she pherd to His Love (pre-1593)Hero and Leander (1593, unfinished completed by George Chapman, 1598) Christopher Marlowe, a poet known mostly for his plays rather than his verse, translated two major works of classical Latin poetry Amores by Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) and the first book of Lucans (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) Pharsalia. These are long Latin poems written in the first centuries before and after the Common Era. Though the poems were at least 1400 years old when Marlowe translated them, he put them into the Elizabethan English of his day with considerable verve and poetic vividness (and with the occasional error in translation.) Ovids poem is a three-book collection of elegies (Latin elegia,) which in Ovids day were the equivalent of personal lyric poetry. It concerns a stylized and sometimes humorous and distrustful romance between a rich Roman man and his married, foolish lover Corinna. Much of Ovids poetry is formulaic, based on earlier poetic forms. These forms (such a s stylized addresses to the mistress, a funeral elegy, apostrophes and the like) make up a large portion of Amores, and the narrative is secondary. Ovid, however, was able to imbue his characters with convincing realism, which Marlowe translated admirably. Hero and Leander, the only long original work of poetry of Marlowes to have survived (and possibly the only one he ever wrote, apart from his plays,)was written during a plague year when theatres in London were closed. Marlowe was thus unable to write for the stage, and set his pen again to classical subjects. Hero and Leander concerns the Greek mythical lovers of those names, separated by the Hellespont. It is thought that Marlowe took the story from the mythical Byzantine poet Musaeus, though the myth was known long before that time. The Passionate sheepherder To His Love, is a pastoral love poem, written in tetrameter. It is a justly famous piece, often quoted, and Ralegh (a contemporary poet) made a famous Answer to it. It is about a shepherd who longs to make a woman (or a nymph) his wife, and tries to lure her into the countryside with promises of rich gifts. This 24-line sweet-toned plea paints an idealized picture of rural life, with images of the finery the lover will make for his beloved from the fruits of the land. It is an homage to an old Greek form of poetry, and one of Marlowes masterworks. The translation of Lucans First Book is a virtuoso piece by Marlowe, recounting the beginning of a long epic by the Roman poet Lucan. In it, Julius Caesar has returned from conquering Gaul, and debates on crossing the Rubicon and conquering his own city of Rome. It is a piece full of classical allusions, but is also a surmise on the folly of civil war. Marlowe may well have intended to translate all of Lucans ten extant books, but it is assumed that this effort was stopped by his early death. Marlowe wrote a Latin epitaph, which he translated into English, for Roger Manwood, an official and judge. It is a poem in the finest old Latin style, but with Elizabethan sensibilities. It, along with Hero and Leander and Lucans First Book are among Marlowes last works. Major Themes of his PoemsIllicit loveThe whole of Amores is concerned with an adulterous love affair. The lovers attempt to conceal their trysts and deceive Corinnas husband at every turn nor are the lovers faithful or truthful to one another. The embarkation of this affair seems to have caused the two lovers no moral misgivings. Never do Corinna and her lover wrestle with their consciences, or voice concern about Corinnas deceived husband. The complete absence of sexual and social shapeal morality is a bit surprising in a poem more than two thousand years old. These elegia were part of a Roman poetic convention the love poetry of illicit relationships was a poetic trope that was much explored byOvid and other writers of his day. That Marlowe chose to translate it, however, speaks close to of his taste in iconoclastic themes. Hero and Leander, too, a poem devised by Marlowe from the framework of an early myth, is concerned with a doomed love affair. The separation and desperation of the lovers (on a different scale of personal integrity, but still with the same sort of angst) in Hero and Leander is dwelt on the same way as Ovid expresses his striving and frustration for Corinna in Amores. Love denied is a powerful dramatic subject, and Marlowe liked to address it in his longer poems. Classical poetry translationsMarlowe chose a short but however difficult poem to translate in Ovids Amores. Classical translations were in vogue at the time (the appearance of Henry Howard, Lord Surreys partial translation of Virgils Aeneid some years before this had made a mark in literary circles) and a task that a young poet would likely set himself to. The translation is not an easy one classical Latin was a very mature language and many times more compact than Elizabethan English. The meanings of words in Latin were so metimes multi-layered and used in ways that Elizabethan scholars of Latin, such as Marlowe, were not always able to grasp. In addition, the putting of one style of verse (Ovids alternating hexameter/pentameter unrhymed lines) into another (blank verse English rhyming couplets) is a difficult task at best, and one that would have honed Marlowes skills in English verse as well as Latin translation. Apprenticeship of MarloweThe translations of Ovid and Lucan were made when Marlowe was very young. He was still an undergraduate student at Cambridge when he began them. The Latin translations, though at times extremely witty and apt, do contain significant errors. Marlowe, though doubtless a classical scholar, was not a complete master of Ovids extremely refined Latin, and Marlowes treatment of Lucans sometimes more awkward language is compounded by errors. The Amores were particularly admired in the medieval and Renaissance Europe, and the people who read them sometimes missed the cynical and playful side of Ovids poetry. Marlowe seems to have fewer of these illusions (for example, he often translates Ovids puella, girl, as wench, which had similar connotations in Marlowes day as it does now,) but Marlowe besides wasunaware of some of the Roman poetic conventions and the more polished double- and triple-meanings that the poet of the Augustan age employed in his verses. The translations of Ovid and Lucan, though ambitious and certainly telling of potential talent, were still, to some extent, schoolboy exercises. There is no doubt, however, that the studying of these ancient writers and the conversion of their Latin into English verse helped greatly to develop the ability of the future writer of Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta. distrustful view of romantic loveThe entire relationship between the lover and Corinna in Amores is a sophisticated, realistic, somewhat jaded, and definitely cynical one. Corinna is married, and there is no talk of her divorcing her husband (though divorce was legal and practiced in the Rome of Ovids day.) It is plain that at least part of Corinnas attraction to the lover is his wealth, and Corinna, though praised for her natural charms, is continuously scolded and made to look foolish. Neither lover is shown to be in the least bit heroic or even admirable though the feeling of passion is there, with attendant sentiments. It is clear that Ovid is chronicling a sordid adulterous affair. The lovers deceive each other and those around them. There is nothing redeeming about the relationship, and love certainly does not conquer all. Physical gratification, and perhaps the thrill obtained from conquest and deception, seem to be the only ends and purpose of the relationship. Hero and Leander pursue, though not nearly as cynical, a similarly doomed and pointless love affair. They are so innocent as to not be able to double-dyed(a) their love immediately, and, though the poem is unfinished, their deaths are predicted in the opening lines of the poem. Much of Renaissance romance tended toward the tragic, so it is not surprising that Marlowe chose subjects with unhappy rather than conventionally happy endings. Fate curiously in Hero and Leander, but in much of Marlowes oeuvre, the notion of fate is a common theme. References to the mythical Fates (or Destinies the three Greco-Roman goddesses who decided the character and length of each human beings life) occur often, and it is used as rhetorical device to convince that something is meant to be. This may or may not have beenMarlowes own particular view of life. Since his religious views tended toward the heretical, if not outright atheism, it may be that he believed more fully in free will than the old classical idea of a ill-fated existence. The Catholic church, too, while acknowledging free will, insisted that Gods will be the dominant one. Since much of Marlowes poetry is wry and tongue-in-cheek, the mentions of Fate may well be largely ironic. Foll y of humanityEspecially in Lucans First Book, but also in Amores and Hero and Leander Marlowe takes pains to point out the folly of humanity. He chooses translations and tells stories in which the faults in the main characters are obvious and usually avoidable. The poet usually tells us at the outset what the problems of the main actors are, and the tragic ending is often foretold. This kind of lack of narrative s kepticism was common in Classical literature, and also in the drama of the Elizabethan stage. High classical cultivationMarlowe translated and composed in Latin, and his reverence for the ancient world was obvious both in his choice of literature to translate, and his original work. Marlowe didnt choose mediocre or obscure Latin poetry, but the works of Ovid and Lucan. These writers were the pinnacle of their culture, and their Latin was dense, erudite, and difficult to translate. In addition, some of the situations and stories of these authors were very far removed from types of stories told in Renaissance England. Marlowe kept the essential truths in these classical works, but he adapted them just enough to make them more accessible to his readers.Marlowe and ShakespeareTwo great names William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe Educationally they were a great contrast. Shakespeare had had little schooling, quitting school when he was fifteen years old. Marlowe, by comparison, had two degrees including a masters from Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University. Shakespeare had had no opportunity to learn foreign languages though Marlowe was fluent in many. Marlowe had translated Ovids Amores while in college and later had done the first translation of Cervantessmassive classic Don Quixote from Spanish to English. Many of the plays attributed to Shakespeare have reference to foreign cities and foreign languages. In a similar manner, Shakespeare had had no opportunity to learn protocol of military life, legal matters or court manners, things in which Marlowe was proficient things that were frequently a part of many of the Shakespearean plays. Marlowe had traveled to many countries. harmonize to records, Shakespeare had never left England. Marlowes influence on ShakespeareAccording to the Greek composition of tragedy, the hero should be a Man of Moment one whose destiny is almost tied with that of our own. Marlowe makes a glaring deviation from the path trodden by the Greeks. His heroes are men with whom we have a close kinship. Tamburlaine is a Scythian Shepherd, Barabas a Mediterranean money-lender, and Faustus an ordinary German Doctor. While Shakespeare follows the Greek convention in most of his major tragedies, we notice the conspicuous exception in Othello who though he speaks of himself as hailing etc. is after all a moor of Venice. The Greeks insisted on the observance of the unities as an essential concomitance of tragedy. Marlowe boldly violates the rule with impunity. Tamburlaines conquest takes well-nigh 24 years. The action of Faustus dating from his signing of the bond to Lucifer. The continuance of the exploits of the Jew, too, exceeds the limit set by the ancient. The scene, too, shifts from one country to another in Tamburlaine. Faustus travels around the globe. Shakespeare, taking the clue from Marlowe, proved conclusively that dramatic verisimilitude can never be disturbed by the violations of the unities of time and place. preferably contrary to the established Greek convention Marlowe mingled the comic and tragic elements in Faustus, even though in Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta we do not see it freely employed.Though many of the Wagner scenes are supposed to be interpolations by other hands, particularly Chapman, Marlowe cannot disown the authorship of these scenes completely. He had before him the primary aim of providing comic sleep to the overtaxed minds of the auditors. But as we know, from our reaction to the Porter scene, the grave diggers scene, the appearance of the clown and the rustic these scenes by emphasizing the scene of contrast, only accentuate our tension. Further, with true dramatists insight intohuman life, Marlowe wants to point out that life consists in laughter and tears. To think of mans life being burdened by unrelieved tragedy is starkly unimaginable and unreal. It was Marlowe who first presented on the English State The Titanic Struggle which rages in a mans soul. The tempest in a soul is the very essence of Shakespearean tragedy. The struggle between the forces of good and evil in Tamburlaine, Faustus, and The Jew of Maltastands boldly in comparison with similar effects in Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth. Marlowe, however, did not regard heroism as synonymous with virtue. His heroes are by no mean patterns of human excellence overtaken by tragic frailty as in the case of Hamlet, Othello and King Lear. They can be relegated to the category of hero-villains a type popularized in Elizabethan England. But these f igures move before us as grand specimens of humanity overtaken by passion for reason. Tamburlaine takes to a career of conquests Faustus turns to necromancy and so defies Mammon. In Shakespeare we have the classic instance of Macbeth who is the direct descendent of Dr. Faustus and Tamburlaine, while Shylock is the dramatic foster-child of Barabas. Marlowe is an crisp craftsman in the effective use of suspense a consciousness that the fate of the hero is certain right at the outset.When Faustus signs the bond with the devil, he is actually flirting with fate even as Macbeth does when he interviews the witches. Until the play moves to its ultimate catastrophe suspense grips us a feature common to Shakespeare and Marlowe. Again, Marlowes ability to compose death scenes is almost unparalleled in modern drama. In the deaths of Faustus and Edward II Marlowes dramatic power reaches its highest point. Death synonymous with tragic catastrophe was revealed to the future dramatists as some thing more than physical hatred at the end of existence. Death became the loss of active and glorious living, the negation of individual power, the expiring struggle of the drama of life, its last defiance and its most irresistible appeal to pity and horror. The death scenes in hamlet and Othello derive directly from Marlowes inspiration. Marlowe, however, refrained from exhibiting physical horror upon the stage. The deaths of Faustus, Barabas and Tamburlaine are either implied or narrated, but not enacted. The gruesome murder of Desdemona and of Antony are related to us but the greater genius of Shakespeare for tragic poignancy did introduce scenes of physical horror at times, as in theslapping of Desdemona by Othello, the blinding of Gloucester in Lear and the stabbing of Macduffs children in Macbeth. Edward II is an exception In the words of Havelock Ellis In nothing has Marlowe shown himself so much a child of the true Renaissance as in this to touch the images of physical horr or. Marlowes treatment of the supernatural is quaint and considerably influenced Shakespeare. He gives human touches to his supernatural beings which catch our eyes. Mephistopheles is capable of human feelings. His appeal to Faustus literally to compress the devil has a tinge of pathos about them. Marlowe, at this moment, reminds us of Ariel attempting to stir the steely heart of Prospero. Even in his portrayal of the witches in Macbeth and the fairies in A Midsummer Nights woolgather Shakespeare is highly indebted to Marlowe. The device employed by Marlowe to represent the tempest of the emotions in the heros heart is unique and dramatically very effective. The good and the evil angels appearing as two characters to glitter the inner conflict was a bold invention on the part of the dramatist.Shakespeare frequently resorts to soliloquy in his tragedies. We hear also the incorporeal voice bidding Macbeth sleep no more. The dagger with its handle drawn towards Macbeth, the ghost of Banquo, and the ghost of Ceasar appearing to Brutus with the words Im thy evil spirit all these are actually an objective mirror of the heart, but are incapable of giving a kaleidoscopic picture. By far the greatest contribution by Marlowe to the development of tragedy is the way he employs the medium of Blank verse. Blank verse is the only instrument capable of representing subtle shades of thought and feeling. Much of Shakespeares greatness is dependent on the poetry in his plays. Marlowe was the pioneer of blank verse in drama, Shakespeare was its complete master especially in the use of its various ramifications. We notice certain deficiencies in Marlowes tragic design, fortunately absent in Shakespeare. Marlowe concentrated his entire attention on the development of a single character and so was almost indifferent to the rest. In Shakespeare every character has a positive individuality. We believe the passive Horatio as well as the turncoat Enobarbus. Marlowe was also igno rant of the feminine heart. Zenocrate is merely a shadow. Helen appears as a vision. On the contrary, Shakespeares acquaintance with the workings of a womans mind is so profound that Ruskin, Arnold and Mrs. Jameson even contend that Shakespeare was primarily concerned with hisheroines. Out of the physical body process and intellectual inquisitiveness of the Renaissance, there grew up a body of literature which was remarkable for its power and force. Marlowe was, perhaps, the truest translator of this literary and dramatic efflorescence. He embodied in his four plays, mans inordinate love of physical power, his greed for intellectual wealth and his passion for material wealth and also his love of human passion. He devised a suitable medium to project his fiery soul and that was his well-known Blank verse. If Shakespeare had not Marlowes shoulders to stand upon he would not have been recognized as one of the greatest dramatist in the world. Shakespeare honoured his master both by im itation and direct quotation. Reputation among Contemporary WritersSwinburne, a novice of the Elizabethan theatre had said that Marlowe is a Father of English Tragedy and the creator of English blank verse and therefore also the teacher and guide of Shakespeare Whatever the particular focus of modern critics, biographers and novelists, for his contemporaries in the literary world, Marlowe was above all an admired and influential artist. Within weeks of his death, George Peele remembered him as Marley, the Muses darling Michael Drayton far-famed that he Had in him those brave translunary things / That the first poets had, and Ben Jonson wrote of Marlowes mighty line. Thomas Nashe wrote heartily of his friend, poor deceased Kit Marlowe. So too did the publisher Edward Blount, in the dedication of Hero and Leander to Sir Thomas Walsingham.Among the few contemporary dramatists to say anything negative about Marlowe was the anonymous author of the Cambridge University play The Return From Parnassus (1598) who wrote, forgiveness it is that wit so ill should dwell, / Wit lent from heaven, but vices sent from hell. The most famous tribute to Marlowe was paid by Shakespeare in As You Like It, where he not only quotes a line from Hero and Leander (Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?) but also gives to the clown Touchstone the words When a mans verses cannot be understood, nor a mans good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. This appears to be a reference to Marlowes murder which involved a fight over the reckoning, the bill, as well as to a line in Marlowes Jew of Malta Infinite richesin a little room.Shakespeare was heavily influenced by Marlowe in his work, as can be seen in the re-using of Marlovian themes in Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, and Macbeth (Dido, Jew of Malta, Edward II and Dr Faustus res pectively). In Hamlet, after meeting with the travelling actors, Hamlet requests the Player perform a speech about the Trojan War, which at 2.2.42932 has an echo of Marlowes Dido, Queen of Carthage. In Loves Labours Lost Shakespeare brings on a character Marcade (three syllables) in conscious acknowledgement of Marlowes character Mercury, also attending the King of Navarre, in Massacre at Paris. The significance, to those of Shakespeares audience who had read Hero and Leander, was Marlowes identification of himself with the god Mercury. ConclusionThe interest of Marlowes tragedies lies not in the death of Heroes but in their soul struggle against forces which in the end proves too great for them. He raised the subject matter of Drama to a higher level and changed the concept of tragedies by introducing heroes from the common people. His heroes are meant of exceptional qualities and passion. They transcend ordinary human aspiration until they meet their tragic end. Usually in his pla ys there will be no antagonist, the protagonists themselves, their inner evil thoughts will be the antagonist. There is also number of morals to teach in his plays. Marlowe may died in the age of 29, but his plays are living forever.