The Plays Of Christopher Marlowe

The plays collected in this text provide the reader with a clear picture of Marlowe as a radical theatrical poet of great linguistic and dramatic daring, whose characters constantly strive to break out of the social, religious, and rhetorical binds within which they are confined.

Focusing upon Marlowe the playwright as opposed to Marlowe the man, the essays in this collection position the dramatist's plays within the dramaturgical, ethical, and sociopolitical matrices of his own era. The volume also examines some of the most heated controversies of the early modern period, such as the anti-theatrical debate, the relations between parents and children, Machiavaelli1s ideology, the legitimacy of sectarian violence, and the discourse of addiction. Some of the chapters also explore Marlowe's polysemous influence on the theater of his time and of later periods, but, most centrally, upon his more famous contemporary poet/playwright, William Shakespeare.

Contending that criticism of Marlowe’s plays has been limited by humanist conceptions of tragedy, this book engages with trauma theory, especially psychoanalytic trauma theory, to offer a fresh critical perspective within which to make sense of the tension in Marlowe’s plays between the tragic and the traumatic.

Christopher Marlowe lived a life that echoed the violence in his plays. He was born in 1564 and was murdered in 1593 in what is speculated to be a political assassination. An educated man, he received both his B. A. and M. A. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where it is believed that he wrote Part I of "Tamberlaine", and possibly "Dido Queen of Carthage". Machiavellian themes are present in much of Marlowe's work, the main characters constantly involved in a tumultuous upward climb toward unattainable infinite success. Marlowe's perhaps greatest legacy was introducing blank verse into English theatre with "Tamburlaine The Great, Part I." This collection includes: "Dido Queen of Carthage", "Tamburlaine, Parts I & II", "The Jew of Malta", "The Massacre At Paris", "Edward The Second", "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus", "The First Book of Lucan", "Ovid's Elegies", and "Hero and Leander".

Their texts fully restored by recent scholarship, Marlowe's astonishing works can now be appreciated as originally written. This edition includes all of Marlowe's plays, including two versions of Doctor Faustus.

Rodney Bolt's delightful life of Marlowe plays out a surprising solution to an enduring literary mystery, bringing the spirit of Shakespeare alive as we've never seen it before. Rodney Bolt's book is not an attempt to prove that, rather than dying at 29 in a tavern brawl, Christopher Marlowe staged his own death, fled to Europe, and went on to write the work attributed to Shakespeare. Instead, it takes that as the starting point for a playful and brilliantly written "fake biography" of Marlowe, which turns out to be a life of the Bard as well. Using real historical sources (as well as the occasional red herring) plus a generous dose of speculation, Bolt paints a rich and rollicking picture of Elizabethan life. As we accompany Marlowe into the halls of academia, the society of the popular English players traveling Europe, and the dangerous underworld of Elizabethan espionage, a fascinating and almost plausible life story emerges, along with a startlingly fresh look at the plays and poetry we know as Shakespeare's. Tapping into centuries of speculation about the man behind the work, about whom so few facts are known for sure, Rodney Bolt slyly winds the lives of two beloved playwrights into one.