Hero and Leander

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Book Jungle, 2008 - 48 Seiten
Christopher Marlowe was a 16th century English playwright. He was the leading Elizabethan tragedian before Shakespeare. His works are known for their overreaching protagonists and his use of blank verse. Little is known about Marlowe's life, but there is much speculation about his possibly being a spy, homosexual, a heretic, magician and atheist. Hero and Leander is a Greek myth in which Hero is a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos. Leander is a young man who lives on the other side of the strait. Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across the Hellespont to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way. One night a storm blew out the light and Leander drowned. Hero was so distraught that she threw herself off of the tower.

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Autoren-Profil (2008)

Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, England on February 6, 1564. He received a B.A. in 1584 and an M.A. in 1587 from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His original plans for a religious career were put aside when he decided to become a poet and playwright. His earliest work was translating Lucan and Ovid from Latin into English. He translated Vergil's Aeneid as a play. His plays included Tamburlaine the Great, Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and Dido, Queen of Carthage. His unfinished poem Hero and Leander was published in 1598. In 1589, he and a friend killed a man, but were acquitted on a plea of self-defense. His political views were unorthodox, and he was thought to be a government secret agent. He was arrested in May 1593 on a charge of atheism. He was killed in a brawl in a Deptford tavern on May 30, 1593.

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