Nov 30, 2020
History remembers Christopher
Marlowe as a contemporary of William Shakespeare that was prone to
violence. Arrested multiple times for his association with fights,
duels, and even murder, scholars around the world have suggested
that Christopher Marlowe had a hot temper which often ran him afoul
of the local authorities in London. In addition to achieving a
university education and the social rank of gentleman, Marlowe is
the author of some of the most powerful plays in the English
Renaissance, including Dr. Faustus, Tamburlaine, and the Jew of
Malta. Undeniably a powerful force in England as well as a huge
influence over the life of William Shakespeare, the life of
Christopher Marlowe is as fascinating as it is essential to
understanding the life of William Shakespeare.
Despite his reputation for violence and
certainly for including some very violent characters in his plays,
our guest this week, Ros Barber, challenges the traditional
assumptions about what we know of Christopher Marlowe and suggests
in her publication “Was Marlowe a Violent Man?”, that understanding
the cultural history of what it meant to be a gentleman, the
violent nature of corporal punishment in 16th century England, as
well as comparing the recorded history of Marlowe to that of men
like William Shakespeare, reveals that the reputation for hot
tempered violence might be a posthumous application to Marlowe
instead of the truth about this significant poet.