Christopher Marlowe - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Christopher Marlowe (baptised

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

26 February 1564; died 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist, poet and translator

Translation

Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...

of the Elizabethan era

Elizabethan era

The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...

. As the foremost Elizabethan

English Renaissance theatre

English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, refers to the theatre of England, largely based in London, which occurred between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642...

tragedian

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

, next to William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

, he is known for his blank verse

Blank verse

Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...

, his overreaching protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

s, and his mysterious death.

A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May 1593. No reason for it was given, though it was thought to be connected to allegations of blasphemy—a manuscript believed to have been written by Marlowe was said to contain "vile heretical conceipts".

Unanswered Questions

In which Chritopher Marlowe's work is Julius Ceasar? What is the title of either the play or sonnet or poem?

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Quotations

My swelling heart for very anger breaks.

Edward the Second.

What should a priest do with so fair a house?A prison may best beseem his holiness.

Edward the Second.

Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?

Hero and Leander (published 1598). The same is in William Shakespeare, As You Like It. Compare "None ever loved but at first sight they loved", George Chapman, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria.

All they that love not tobacco and boys are fools.

Remark attributed to Marlowe from the testimony of Richard Baines, a government informer, in 1593

Is it not brave to be a king, Techelles?Usumcasane and Theridamas,Is it not passing brave to be a king,And ride in triumph through Persepolis?

Part 1.

And sooner shall the sun fall from his sphereThan Tamburlaine be slain or overcome.

Part 1.

From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits,And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay,We'll lead you to the stately tent of war,Where you shall hear the Scythian TamburlaineThreatening the world with high astounding terms,And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.View but his picture in this tragic glass,And then applaud his fortunes as you please.

Part 1.

Where death cuts off the progress of his pompAnd murderous fates throw all his triumphs down.

Part 2.

Well, bark, ye dogs; I'll bridle all your tongues.

Part 2.

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