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University Wits 1590’s Up to 60 men, mostly university graduates Writing styles – Verse Marlowe known for his mighty line – Tragic – Heroic
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Christopher Marlowe
"What nourishes me, destroys me,"
• baptized 26 February 1564–30 May 1593
• (Shakespeare, baptized 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616)
Marlowe
• Son of shoemaker, Canterbury, England• Attended Cambridge University on scholarship• Earned BA and MA• Wrote for production, not publication• Wrote with others (Thomas Nash) and alone
University Wits
• 1590’s • Up to 60 men, mostly university graduates• Writing styles– Verse• Marlowe known for his mighty line
– Tragic– Heroic
Blank Verse
• Unrhymed iambic pentameter poetry• Is this / the face / that launched / a thou /
sand ships
Poet!!!• Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,And all is dross that is not Helena.I will be Paris, and for love of thee,Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd;And I will combat with weak Menelaus,And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,And then return to Helen for a kiss.O, thou art fairer than the evening airClad in the beauty of a thousand stars;Brighter art thou than flaming JupiterWhen he appear'd to hapless Semele;More lovely than the monarch of the skyIn wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;And none but thou shalt be my paramour!
Catholic!!!
• Marlowe was initially denied his Masters Degree on suspicion of being a Catholic
• The crown intervened and Marlowe was given his degree
Atheist!!!
• Thomas Kyd’s house was raided, Marlowe’s name were on some heretical papers found
• Kyd tortured for information• Ordered to be arrested for being an atheist
Satanic!!!
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
• Performed around 1592• First published 1604
(quarto, A text)• Published again 1616
(quarto, B text)
Secret Agent!!!
• Marlowe became a secret agent at university• Went to jail for participating in a fight,
resulting in a man’s death
Assassinated???
• Stabbed to death (in the eye) in a brawl in Deptford in a "dispute over an unpaid bill." – Two government agents were involved with killing
– assassination?