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Tag Archives: Christopher Marlowe
“For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth…” — Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine
Maybe this is him. I’m armed with more than complete steel, The justice of my quarrel. — Christopher Marlowe, Lust’s Dominion. Act iii. Sc. 4. Playwright, poet, prodigy, agent in Her Majesty’s secret service: the incomparable Christopher Marlowe was born … Continue reading
“Fear and the absence of hatred may go well together.” — Niccolò Machiavelli
Prologue, The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe, written in 1589. Machiavelli died in 1527. You can see his posthumous reputation had ballooned, just 60 years after his death. Enter MACHIAVEL. MACHIAVEL. Albeit the world think Machiavel is dead, Yet … Continue reading
Posted in Books, On This Day, writers
Tagged Christopher Marlowe, Italy, Machiavelli, nonfiction, politics, war
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2018 Books Read
2018 Books Read 1. Tamburlaine, Part 1, by Christopher Marlowe I finished 2017 with Paradise Lost, in the mood to continue with rigorous challenging poetry. I decided to read the complete plays of Christopher Marlowe (re-read in most cases). The … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce
Tagged Animal Farm, Annie Proulx, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Marlowe, Clifford Odets, Edgar Allan Poe, England, Evelyn Waugh, fiction, Finnegans Wake, friends, George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, Hunter S. Thompson, Ian McEwan, Ireland, Italy, Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion, nonfiction, Olivia Laing, Pauline Kael, poetry, Poland, politics, Robert Kaplan, Romania, Ron Chernow, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Sergei Kirov, Stalin, The Soccer War, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Truman Capote, Victor Serge, Waiting for Lefty
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More Stuff I’ve Been Reading
— This is a really interesting piece by Christina Marie Newland – about a world I really know nothing about, but she’s a good guide. The Rise And Fall And Rise Of Tyson Fury, Boxing’s Most Dangerous Man — This … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Christopher Marlowe, Elvis Presley, Martin Scorsese, stuff I've been reading, Tom Wolfe
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Bookshelf Tour #6
More plays! First up: the essential two volumes of Paddy Chayefsky’s stuff (and there’s still more out there). The Stage Plays and The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky: The Television Plays. He’s so good for acting classes, both his plays, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Theatre
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, bookshelves, Christopher Marlowe, Clifford Odets, Paddy Chayefsky, scripts
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2015 Books Read
Even I am impressed with how much I read this year. Along the course of the year, occasionally I’d think to myself, “Good job, Sheila, with your Self-Imposed Reading Plan!” I’ve read a lot of new novels (not really my … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alexander Hamilton, Baseball A Literary Anthology, books read, Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Marlowe, Edvard Radzinsky, Elvis Presley, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Hannah Arendt, Hunter S. Thompson, Ireland, J.D. Salinger, Jeanette Winterson, Jincy Willett, Joan Didion, John Banville, John Wayne, Joshua Ferris, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Margaret Atwood, Norman Rush, Patricia Highsmith, Paul Zindel, Rasputin, Rebecca West, Ron Chernow, Russia, science, Seamus Heaney, Vietnam, W.H. Auden, William Shakespeare, William Styron
22 Comments
The Books: The Redress of Poetry; ‘Extending the Alphabet: On Christopher Marlowe’s “Hero and Leander”,’ by Seamus Heaney
On the essays shelf (yes, there are still more books to excerpt in my vast library. I can’t seem to stop this excerpts-from-my-library project. I started it in 2006!) NEXT BOOK: Seamus Heaney’s The Redress of Poetry. In re-reading this … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Christopher Marlowe, England, essays, Ireland, poetry, Seamus Heaney, The Redress of Poetry
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On This Day: February, 6, 1564
Playwright, poet, prodigy, agent in Her Majesty’s secret service: the incomparable Christopher Marlowe was born on this day. (this 1585 portrait is widely thought to be of Marlowe) Marlowe was accused of putting atheistic ideas into his plays, and was … Continue reading
The Books: “Tamburlaine” (Christopher Marlowe)
Next script on my script shelf: Tamburlaine the Great by the marvelous Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe fascinates, intrigues. There’s a new biography of him out, and I want to read it. Here’s an excerpt from Act IV, scene 2 of his … Continue reading
Marlowe: “a burning glass to set on fire all his readers”
There’s a new biography of Christopher Marlowe out – by David Riggs – and here’s a review of it by Daniel Swift (thanks, E-verse newsletter!). The review opens with: Christopher Marlowe’s life was short, sharp and irresistible. His fame rests … Continue reading

