Who was Kit Marlowe?: The Story of the Poet and Playwright"Sixteenth century playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe has been the subject of much speculation and analysis, some of which has over-emphasized aspects of his career and inhibited appreciation of his works. Because it has been discovered that he, like many patriotic youths in the year before that Spanish Armada attacked England, did service for Sir Francis Walsingham's spy organization, he has been elevated into a fully fledged spy. His three appearances in law courts are taken to suggest 'lawlessness', while many similar experiences of contemporaries like Shakespeare and Jonson are not considered as comparisons. And because he twice wrote about homosexuality, though other playwrights like Drayton also chose this subject, he has been dubbed homosexual. But while the images of a lawless homosexual spy may have a certain appeal, it ignores much that is now known about Marlowe. Of his genius as a playwright there has never been an y question: together with the actor Edward Alleyn, who starred in his plays, he was the catalyst for the explosion of Elizabethan drama, at a time when the acting companies were becoming legal under patronage, and theatres were being built to house their performances. As a disseminator of Renaissance ideas he was paralleled only by Raleigh, Bacon and Shakespeare. But this re-assessment of his character, made in the light of recently discovered information about his private life and the manner of his death, redresses the balance in favour of a man of warmth and moderation, infinitely more interesting than the imaginary character we have come to recognize as the real Christopher Marlowe." -Publisher. |
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accused actor Adonis Arden of Faversham Armada atheism Baines Baines's Barabas Bishopsgate Bradley Cambridge Canterbury cathedral Catholic Christopher Marlowe Christopher Morley Corpus Christi court favourite Damnable death Deptford Doctor Faustus Earl of Essex Edward Alleyn Edward II Elizabethan England English Fairie Queene Frizer Gaveston Greene Hamlet Hariot hath heaven Henry Hero and Leander Ingram involved Jew of Malta King King's School Kit Marlowe Kit's Kyd's Lady later London Lord Admiral's Lord Burleigh Lord Howard Macbeth Marlowe's play Massacre at Paris Mephistophilis Mercutio Newgate prison Norton Folgate patron Pembroke's Pembroke's Men performance Philip plague players playwright poem poet poetry Poley Privy Council Protestant Queen Elizabeth Raleigh's circle references Rheims Richard Scadbury Scene scholarship Shakespeare Sidney Sir Francis Walsingham Skeres Sonnets Spanish Spenser stage story Tamburlaine theatre thee Thomas Kyd Thomas Nashe Thomas Walsingham Thomas Watson thou Tom Watson tragedy translation verse William