The Impact of Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare’s Works
4: Christopher Marlowe was very talented and received a scholarship at 16 to study Latin and Greek. He translated Amores by Ovid. He studied at Cambridge University, earning a BA and MA (with the help of a letter from the government). The truth is unknown yet, but it seems clear that he was in jail after being present when a man was killed and that he infiltrated Catholic circles in Paris. After leaving Cambridge, he wrote Tamburlaine the Great: 1st Play (1587 or 1589). In his 20s, he was the most famous writer and had the most exciting plays in London. Meter: blank verse + iambic pentameter (classic meter). Doctor Faustus: Faustus, an elite scholar who has already reached the limits of human knowledge, wants to have much more knowledge, and he conjures the Devil, but Mephistopheles appears. A deal is made between Mephistopheles and Faustus: Mephistopheles will be Faustus’s servant and will teach him anything he wishes to know and fulfill every desire. Faustus must renounce God and the church. After 24 years, his body and soul will be given to the Devil. Faustus signs with his own blood. He lives a life of luxury. Faustus wants a wife, but Mephistopheles forbids it because marriage is a Christian institution, but he can sleep with any woman at any time. Faustus commands Mephistopheles to conjure Helen of Troy, and they become lovers. As the 24 years near, he starts regretting his actions but doesn’t repent his sins; he thinks it’s all unforgivable. 1. Form: Blank verse is a type of poetry that is distinguished by a regular meter but no rhyme. The first known use of blank verse in the English language is in Henry Howard’s Virgil’s Æneid (1554). Howard was possibly inspired by the Latin original, as classical Latin verse (as well as Greek verse) did not use rhyme. The play is set in 13 scenes with a prologue, three internal choruses, and an epilogue (the “A text” published in 1604) or five acts, composed of 4, 3, 3, 7, and 3 scenes, and all but the last scene begins with a “Chorus” delivering a transitional epilogue. Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to make full use of the potential of blank verse. 2. Characters: Faustus, a German professor at Wittenberg who has turned magician; his servant Wagner. Mephistopheles, a tempting demon. Lucifer, Mephistopheles’s lord. Minor characters include three scholars who hope to learn from Faustus, a troop of “clowns” or country bumpkins whose quests for silly powers parody Faustus’ own desires, a set of high-status characters including the Pope and the Emperor, and a set of allegorical characters including Faustus’ good and bad angels, and the Seven Deadly Sins.
5: Midsummer’s. Celebration of a wedding, first performed in 1596. At the beginning, Shakespeare treated the play as a tragedy but then changed it into a comedy (as the human actors in Midsummer). He explored the possibilities of forks and burlets in the midsummer; he acted as an actor with the Lord Chamberlain’s company, his first company. The play starts with the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta, representing the beginning of the patriarchal world. Hippolyta represents matriarchy. The title of the play is called Midsummer as it was the middle of the summer when they had the shortest night of the year; now it’s called San Juan. It was chosen as it was the beginning of summer and it’s a special night which for Celts was considered a night with magic, witches, and fairies, a period of love and fertility. In the forests, there are elements connected to love and sex. Sources of the Play: John Lyly’s Gallathea. In ‘Gallathea’ from 1592, Midas’s head is metamorphosed, and also in Apuleius, there is a tale where a man turns into an ass. Apuleius’s The Golden Ass (Bottom turns into a donkey). Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale’. Oberon comes from Celtic and Roman Hivon of Bordeaux. Hippolyta is from Greek mythology. Titania’s name comes from a legend. Puck was a name in Old English that meant mysterious. Verse: The normal mode is blank verse. The use of couplets is very often when they become romantic, as Lysander; couplets were used by monarchy and fairies. Prose is used by human actors, and sometimes there is a misspelling to indicate that they are uneducated due to their lack of culture. Fairies often use rhyme and songs. The play highlights the fantasy and dreams, but it’s not only about that; it’s not a fairy tale. The fantastic part is used to show the vulnerability of love. Main Theme: Vulnerability of love as it can change without any type of rationality. This is why there are so many discussions, as every time they try to follow the love that they want, something happens as they need to show their real feelings. There are also other themes such as: Magic (Fairies), Dreams (linked to the bizarre and magical mishaps in the forest), Jealousy, Mischief (associated with the forest and the fairies), Transformation, Unreason, and Reversal.
5: Romeo. Date premiered: 1597. A romantic tragedy and a tragedy of fate. The first of the English tragedies with a theme independent of English history. Four main concepts: Action, love, fate, and death. Christianity and Religion of Love: A number of scholars have argued that the Elizabethans, with their Christian background of thought, would have regarded the lovers as guilty sinners rather than as innocent victims. In Romeo and Juliet, the medieval and Renaissance concept that sexual love is a manifestation of the cosmic love of God, which holds together the universe in a chain of love and imposes order on it, acts as a nexus between the two doctrines. Christian beliefs suggest that Romeo felt that the loss of Juliet ensued as a punishment for his killing of Tybalt. As a Christian, he believed in the will of heaven. Symbolism: Stars: The “crossed-star” in the text implies that nature would work against the love relationship between Romeo and Juliet. While preparing to attend the Capulet party, Romeo points out that “my mind misgives some consequences hanging in the stars” (Shakespeare). More symbolism of the stars is where Juliet thinks of chopping Romeo into small stars to make everyone be in love with the night. Darkness and Light: At the beginning of the story, Romeo is described as being in “artificial darkness by adding clouds to more clouds.” The first time Romeo meets Juliet in the house, he flirts with her by saying that she “teaches the torches to burn bright” (Reyhner and Francis, 2002). Romeo further remarks that “Juliet is the sun”; Juliet’s beauty overshadows the brightness of the sun. Birds: The Nurse refers to Juliet as the “Ladybird,” while waiting for the Nurse to return with a word of love from Romeo. Juliet remarks that “words of love are born by doves, and they are not the swiftest birds.”
6. The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607) by Francis Beaumont: It opens with The Citizen and his Wife taking their places on the stage to watch “The London Merchant,” itself a satire on the work of a contemporary playwright, Thomas Dekker. The Citizen and Wife interrupt, advise, and insist that the play should be more romantic, and their apprentice should take a leading part. Thereafter, these two contradictory plots go forward side by side, allowing Beaumont to have fun with bourgeois naïveté about art. A pestle is a mortar; the citizen is a grocer. This means that he uses this as a work tool or as a nonsense object reflecting that an ordinary man can become a hero (similar to Don Quixote’s dementia). It is also used as a phallic symbol, a sexual joke in the play. Comedy inspired by Don Quixote. Performed at The Blackfriars Theatre by a Boys Company. Different Plots: The London Merchant (the play they were going to perform), Ralph’s Knight Adventures (the citizen that opposes the other play and that wanted to perform with a boy called Ralph), Pastiche (stealing elements from different genres, used during Postmodernism). The play was not understood, so it was not very popular when released; it is an example of meta-drama. Final Message: The comic side of life is what makes you balanced.
7. Volpone by Ben Jonson: In Volpone, or the Fox, Ben Jonson conveys a moral message, blending satirical comedy with the feigning death of the protagonist Volpone, who spreads the false news of his death to the legacy hunters. He uses the themes of avarice and moral corruption to criticize societal degeneration. Volpone, Mosca, and the three legacy hunters create their self-deceit with a natural tendency towards greed, hypocrisy, and disguise, which also reveal their corrupt morality and the dramatic irony in the play. The play conveys serious criticism of society, such as Corvino’s offering his innocent and chaste wife to Volpone to reach his legacy and also the bad treatment of women. The trial scene bears a serious portrayal of injustice, slander, false witnesses, and the victimization of the innocent and morally good characters. On the other hand, Jonson demonstrates how a person’s greed leads to his downfall. Volpone’s inner world and motivations for his actions show that he is initially driven by negative traits: greed, extravagance, and deception. Overview: Volpone is a Renaissance man from Venice who pretends to be dead, similar to Molière’s Le Malade Imaginaire. He wanted people to bring him presents and to come into his house. Characters: Mosca (Fly), servant who hides Volpone’s treasure; Voltore (Vulture), the advocate who wants to steal Volpone’s treasure; Corvino (Crow), the merchant who wanted to be richer; Corbaccio (Raven), an old gentleman; Corvino’s wife, Lady Politic, who wanted to be a politician. Jonson was a great populist playwright of the 16th and 17th centuries. Vulgar taste. “Carnival,” he used this festival as a mock to religion. Bregazzi described it as “reality from a distorted mirror” (Grotesque).
8. Measure for Measure (1604): A problem play. Shakespeare juxtaposes the brothels and the prison of Vienna. Characters: Duke Vicentio, Angelo, Claudio, Isabella, Kate Keepdown, Bridget, Mistress Elbow. Dark matters. Allegory of court corruption. A medieval morality play. Gender: Shakespeare moved beyond comedy to address the social consequences of sexual behavior. He explored wider questions of how to maintain law and order but suggested that policing sex was often problematic. Metatheatre: Plays-within-a-play-within-a-play.
9. Macbeth: A tragedy that tells the story of a soldier whose overriding ambition and thirst for power cause him to abandon his morals and bring about the near destruction of the kingdom he seeks to rule. At first, the conflict is between Macbeth and himself, as he debates whether or not he will violently seize power, and between Macbeth and his wife, as Lady Macbeth urges her husband toward a course of action he is hesitant to take. Once Macbeth stops struggling against his ambition, the conflict shifts. It then primarily exists between Macbeth and the other characters, in particular Banquo and Macduff, who challenge his authority. Macbeth is the protagonist in the sense that he is the main focus of the narrative and that audiences frequently have access to his point of view. However, as he often acts against his own best interests, as well as the best interests of the other characters and his country, he is also the antagonist. The characters who oppose Macbeth and eventually defeat him do so in order to restore order and justice. Overview: Jacobean tragedy. Macbeth was first performed in 1606. Influences: Holinshed’s Chronicles (King called Macbeth who killed the King called Duncan). King James Demonologie (1597 witch trials of 1590). Unrhymed blank verse iambic pentameter. According to some critics, it could also be inspired by the Gunpowder plot (Guy Fawkes wanted to destroy the Parliament with gunpowder; it was successful, and a huge fire happened). Tone: Fatalistic, creating the sense that the natural world has been thrown out of order by Macbeth’s unnatural ascension to the throne. Violence or the possibility of violence exists throughout, and there are very few light or playful moments. After Macbeth murders Duncan, the tone becomes even more foreboding, as Macbeth’s guilt causes him to become paranoid. By the end of the play, the tone has devolved from fearful and foreboding to deeply pessimistic.
10. The Witch of Edmonton (1621): Dekker (Justice for the poor and oppressed). The village community of Edmonton feels threatened by two misfits: Old Mother Sawyer, who has turned to the devil to aid her against her unfeeling neighbors, and Frank, who refuses to marry the woman of his father’s choice and ends up murdering her. Elizabeth Sawyer was deprived of power by class, age, and gender. Witchcraft could be seen as a form of social criticism which challenged the inequities of early modern society. In the context of an upside-down world, witches were understood to be rebelling not only against God but also against their social subordination. The play is both a tragicomedy and a domestic tragedy, presenting two parallel upside-down worlds. The two people who are executed at the end of the play, Frank Thorney and Elizabeth Sawyer, both present themselves (with different degrees of credibility) as trapped by a lack of choices. Frank Thorney is responsible for the secrecy of his marriage and caught up in a situation he cannot control. He positions himself as a victim, although he could have told his father of his marriage to Winifred. Elizabeth Sawyer’s position in the world is defined by her lack of control. She is old, poor, and at odds with her neighbors. Her only power is that of her tongue: she curses them and harms the crops and animals of Old Banks. Sawyer: She enumerates all the offenses of which she is accused but does not see herself responsible for them; instead, her neighbors have projected blame on her. The play casts doubt on the reality of witchcraft and on the nature of accountability. If witchcraft turned the world upside down, the play suggests, the abuse of power by those in authority does so as well.