MARLOWE:

1

• MARLOWE
• The Father of
• English Tragedy
• the Creator of English Blank Verse

2
Marlowes Poetic Language

• Inverted structure
• Blank verse
• Elaborate comparisons
• Imagery
• Rhetorical symmetry

3
Inverted Structure

• O what a cozening doctor was this! (4.5.31).
• Learnèd Faustus, / To find the secrets of
  astronomy / Graven in the book of Joves high
  firmament, / Did mount him up to scale Olympus
  top / Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright
  / Drawn by the strength of yokèd dragons necks /
  He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars.
  . . . (3.Chorus.1-6).

4
Blank Verse

• Mephistophilis. Within the bowels of these
  elements / Where we are tortured and remain
  forever. / Hell hath not limits nor is
  circumscribed / In one self place, but where we
  are is hell, / And where hell is there we ever
  shall be (2.2.125-29).

5
Elaborate comparisons
Hell strives with grace for conquest in my
breast. / What shall I do to shun the snares of
death? (5.1.68-71).
6
Imagery

• My God, my God, look not so fierce on me. /
  Adders and serpents, let me breathe awhile. /
  Ugly hell, gape not, come not, Lucifer! (5.2.
  191-199).

7
Rhetorical symmetry

• Cut is the branch that might have grown
  fullstraight, / And burnèd is Apollos laurel
  bough, / That sometime grew within this learnèd
  man. / Faustus is gone.  Regard his hellish fall,
  / Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise /
  Only to wonder at unlawful things, / Whose
  deepness doth entice such forward wits, / To
  practice more than heavenly power permits
  (5.3.20-28).

8
Importance to Poetry

• A. C. Swinburne, critic Marlowe was the father
  of English tragedy and the creator of English
  blank verse.
• Tamburlaine Prologue shows Marlowes contempt for
  stage verse of the period jygging vaines of
  riming mother wits presented the conceits
  which clownage keepes in pay.
• Dramatic poets of 16th c followed where Marlowe
  led

9
Multi-Dimensional Characters

• Is Faustus completely good or bad?
• Does Faustus change during the course of the
  play?
• Is Mephistophilis completely evil?
• Marlowes characters are much more fully
  developed than the characters in medieval plays.

10
Importance to Tragedy

• Blank verse
• Poetic language
• Multi-dimensional protagonists
• Humorous subplots that parallel larger themes
• Episodic treatment of events

11
Epitaph for Marlowe

• Cut is the branch that might have grown full
  straight, / And burnèd is Apollos laurel bough,
  / That sometime grew within this learnèd man
  (5.3.20-22).

12
Sources Barnet, Sylvan, ed. Introduction.
Doctor Faustus. Christopher Marlowe. New York
Signet Books, 1969. vii-xix.Bevington, David.
General Introduction. The Complete Works of
Shakespeare. New York HarperCollins, 1992. Rpt.
in Doctor Faustus Divine in Show. Ed. McAlindon,
T. Twaynes Masterworks Studies. New York
Twayne, 1994. 152-170.Duncan-Jones, Katherine.
Devil May Care. New Statesman 131 (1996)
42-44.McAlindon, T. Doctor Faustus Divine in
Show. Twaynes Masterworks Studies. New York
Twayne, 994. The Sixteenth Century
I1485-1603) Introduction. The Norton Anthology
of English Literature. 6th ed. Ed. M. H. Abrams.
New York W. W. Norton,1996. 253-273. Stenning,
Rodney. The Burning Chair in the B-text of
Doctor Faustus. Notes and Queries 43 (1996)
144-145. Stumpf, Thomas A. Images and Music.
Freshman Seminar Visits to Hell. (2001). 29
Sept. 2004.lthttp//www.unc.edu/courses/2001fall/en
gl/006m/005/thumbnails.html.gtWalton, Brenda.
Lessons for Marlowes Doctor Faustus. Orlando,
FL Network for Instructional TV, 1998. 12 Oct.
2004. lthttp//www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/marl.h
tmgt.