Christopher Marlowe, the pioneer of modern English theater
Biography
He was born in Canterbury in 1564, the same year as William Shakespeare, and attended King’s School, where he received a classical education like all Elizabethan writers. He later entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on a scholarship that earmarked him for a career in the Church. This, of course, was not going to happen, as Marlowe already did in his early plays, Dido, Queen of Carthage, and his monumental Tamerlane; his existing poems also date back to this period in his life. Later Marlowe launched himself as a playwright and became a member of the renowned “University Wits”. Unfortunately, his career and life ended abruptly when he was killed in a tavern fight at Deptford in 1593; Christopher Marlowe was only 29 years old!
His works and his legacy
This playwright was completely forgotten and neglected during the eighteenth century until he was rediscovered by writers such as William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb in the next century. From the 20th century on, Marlowe acquired a comfortable place in the English literary and dramatic scene because his works no longer matched those of Shakespeare. In his short and turbulent life this great poet playwright innovated the blank verse that brought the admiration of his contemporary Ben Jonson who hailed his “powerful line”. Iambic pentameter existed in English poetry since Chaucer, but Marlowe made the break in a “realistic” form of human speech that was true for all of his works and is particularly evident in his four outstanding masterpieces.
His first work “Tamerlane,” a two-part heroic epic never written in blank verse, contains the noblest passages in literature as a whole. The Prologue was a self-confident opening with the Scythian shepherd, Tamerlane, moved by an ambition far beyond the circumstances of his state, he becomes a powerful figure with: “I am a lord, because my works will show it; and however, a shepherd by my kinship “. Tamerlane was a sensation when it was first performed, as the playwright truly exemplified Elizabethan drama with his pompous language, exquisite imagery with spectacular expressions and characters. As one of the greatest teachers of poetry, his Dr. Faust in dramatic verse is perhaps the most exceptional work in this vision of Helen that reveals an intense perception of beauty in the passionate and spontaneous choice of words: “Was this the face, who launched a thousand ships and burned the roofless towers of Illium. ” Edward the second, a king torn between his love for his friend Gaveston and the rebellion of his lords, notably illustrated the unrestricted homosexual relationship. Pity and sympathy for Edward II are emphasized by the stark cruelty of his treatment when he is imprisoned. “What are kings, when the regiment is gone, but perfect shadows on a sunny day?” It outstandingly describes Edward’s downfall. Whereas your Maltese Jew Barabas is set apart due to their differences; he is Jewish and his only motivation seems to be money.
He is presented as a comic character who “smiles when he sees how full his suitcases are”; while, on the contrary, he later becomes a scheming manipulator and a greedy old man who jealously guards his wealth. At the end of the play, Barabbas declares his own fantastic notions of destroying the world and dies saying: “It would have brought confusion to all / Damn Turkish Christians, dogs and infidels.” He personified all the traits that an Elizabethan audience would have understood as essentially Jewish and anti-Christian.