Marlowe

I have this big post I want to do on Christopher Marlowe, and Shakespeare, and Marlowe’s Tamburlaine and Shakespeare’s Henry plays … and the compare, and the contrast … I had it all planned out in my head, and I assure you it was quite brilliant. But I have the flu. So the brilliance will have to wait. “Damn”, you all must be thinking.

I will leave you with this tidbit from Tamburlaine, Marlowe’s feckin’s GENIUS play (I love Marlowe. Like Shakespeare, he BEGS to be read outloud):

Nature, that framed us of four elements,
Warring within our breasts for regiment,
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world
And measure every wand’ring planet’s course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Wills us to wear ourselves and never rest
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all:
That perfect bliss and sole felicity,
The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.

Yum.

Yum. On multiple levels.

First of all, the language level: “the wondrous architecture of the world” … “the restless spheres” … “climbing after knowledge infinite”

The wondrous architecture of the world.”

You know, I know exactly what he’s talking about.

Marlowe completely rocks.

But I have the flu. One cannot be brilliant, and also have the flu. Not possible.

And so, to bed.

This entry was posted in Theatre and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

11 Responses to Marlowe

  1. peteb says:

    and the spying.. don’t forget about the spying! and wasn’t there some counterfeiting of currency?

    “Damn”

    ;)

  2. Ken Hall says:

    You forgot to add “Exeunt.”

    Get well soon.

  3. John MacAyeal says:

    Like Jim Morrison, Marlowe is eternally young. As you know, he was killed in a knife-fight, giving him even more cred, at age 29.

    I remember doing a paper on similarities between Taming of the Shrew and a Marlowe play — can’t remember the title; this was in 1981 — my thesis being that Shakespeare ripped off Marlowe. I’ve always admired him since then as the first cool dude in history, one who could have bested the cool dudes of any era, whether it be Rimbaud, Kurt Cobain, or Billy the Kid.

  4. Lauren says:

    Just came across your blog, thanks to the BOB nomination. Your blog immediately caught my eye as I perused all nominees, because of your Marlowe discussion. I have to say that I myself have compared Marlowe and Shakespeare and believe that Marlowe paved the way for old William. And, Doctor Faustus is one of my favorite plays of all time! Big Fan!

  5. Big Dan says:

    Sweet Lord, the redhead talks Shakespeare and Marlowe, too!

    I have nothing but good feelings for Cary Grant, make no mistake, but this is a revelation. Now you’re hitting close to home.

    Well, that and The Rock post, but that’s another story.

    Get well, dammit.

  6. David Foster says:

    There was something in the NYT book review today about a new biography of Marlowe.

  7. CW says:

    Just the other day I had a discussion with one of my “well read” friends, who is a bit older than me, about Marlowe and Shakespeare. I commented that there were a lot of very interesting unanswered questions about the origins of Shakespeare and the similarities between Marlowe and Shakespeare’s works. While I am ultimately agnostic about Marlowe, I do think there are some really fascinating coincidences. My friend, however, was absolutely incapable of contemplating the idea that Marlowe could have survived 1593 and had some influence on Shakespeare’s works.

  8. red says:

    Dr. Faustus is one of my favorite plays of all time.

  9. Dave J says:

    “As you know, he was killed in a knife-fight, giving him even more cred, at age 29.”

    Or so they would have us believe. ;-)

  10. Bryan says:

    This is a rather stupid joke, and it’s only slightly on topic, but I can’t resist.

    You may or may not be familiar with the works of “P.D.Q. Bach”, the last and the least of the sons of Bach. P.D.Q. Bach is an imaginary figure invented by Prof. Peter Schickele, who has composed a lot of awful and silly music that he attributes to P.D.Q. Bach, posing himself as a scholar who has discovered P.D.Q.’s long lost works. To give you a feel for the flavor of this stuff, there is a madrigal by P.D.Q. that has the following lines:

    My bonny lass walketh like a doe
    And talketh like a crow.
    My bonny lass looketh like a jewel
    And smelleth like a mule.

    In one of Schickele’s recordings, he is giving a lecture to an audience in which he says, “Some people have denied the existence of P.D.Q. Bach. Well, what can I say? The idea that his works were written by Christopher Marlowe is ridiculous.”

  11. red says:

    CW –

    The book I read earlier this year, Will in the World has a lot to say about Marlowe’s influence on Shakespeare. I’ll post some excerpts, just to get the conversation going – it’s all pretty interesting.

Comments are closed.