The Plays of Christopher Marlowe
POWER, WEALTH AND TREACHERY IN THREE PLAYS OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
By
Norbert Oyibo Eze
Department of Theatre Arts,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Marlowe’s popularity does not only stem from the grandeur of his poetry and penetrating tragic tone, but lies heavily on the social relevance and sublimity of his themes. Harry Levin is of the opinion that “Marlowe’s name is the one that comes after Shakespeare’s in any discussion of English tragedy” (1956:Blurb). Marlowe’s Elizabethan age disclosed to men, “a store of wealth and power in the world which they were too stunned and intoxicated to use well” (Bronowski and Mazlish, 1970:23). As a dramatist who was sensitive to his environment, Marlowe did not ignore this living problem in his dramaturgy. Rather, “like an alchemist, separating pure gold from the base metals, in the crucible of his art, he extracted the ‘pure’ drives of human nature” (1970:166). His tragedies are ethical comments on certain disquieting human possibilities, the lust for power and gold. They do not only present before our very eyes, “the thunder and flaming” (Watt, 1968:213) involved in treacherous pursuit and use of power, as well as malevolent wealth acquisition, they equally show us “the certainty with which the hand of judgment clutches the heel of the deed” (1968:212). In Tamburlaine the great, King Edward the Second, and The Jew of Malta, Marlowe shows us “the loose morals of a free and easy age” (1968:213), the depth of human greed, decadence and pathos. But in all this, he still allows us to hear the penetrating cry of that “still small voice” In Tambulaine the great, Marlowe paints the picture of the Renaissance period as “an age in which power was often personal and usurpers existed at the head of many states” (Bronowski and Mazlish, 1970:23). In this greatly tumultuous tragedy, Tarmburlaine, a “scythian shepherd becomes the scourge of the eastern world” (Vargas, 1960:102). His thirst for power is neither to
By
Norbert Oyibo Eze
Department of Theatre Arts,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Marlowe’s popularity does not only stem from the grandeur of his poetry and penetrating tragic tone, but lies heavily on the social relevance and sublimity of his themes. Harry Levin is of the opinion that “Marlowe’s name is the one that comes after Shakespeare’s in any discussion of English tragedy” (1956:Blurb). Marlowe’s Elizabethan age disclosed to men, “a store of wealth and power in the world which they were too stunned and intoxicated to use well” (Bronowski and Mazlish, 1970:23). As a dramatist who was sensitive to his environment, Marlowe did not ignore this living problem in his dramaturgy. Rather, “like an alchemist, separating pure gold from the base metals, in the crucible of his art, he extracted the ‘pure’ drives of human nature” (1970:166). His tragedies are ethical comments on certain disquieting human possibilities, the lust for power and gold. They do not only present before our very eyes, “the thunder and flaming” (Watt, 1968:213) involved in treacherous pursuit and use of power, as well as malevolent wealth acquisition, they equally show us “the certainty with which the hand of judgment clutches the heel of the deed” (1968:212). In Tamburlaine the great, King Edward the Second, and The Jew of Malta, Marlowe shows us “the loose morals of a free and easy age” (1968:213), the depth of human greed, decadence and pathos. But in all this, he still allows us to hear the penetrating cry of that “still small voice” In Tambulaine the great, Marlowe paints the picture of the Renaissance period as “an age in which power was often personal and usurpers existed at the head of many states” (Bronowski and Mazlish, 1970:23). In this greatly tumultuous tragedy, Tarmburlaine, a “scythian shepherd becomes the scourge of the eastern world” (Vargas, 1960:102). His thirst for power is neither to
Cited: Bronowski, J. and Bruce Mazlish (1970) The western Intellectual Tradition. New York: Penguin Books. Elis, Havelock (1956). Ed. Christopher Marlowe: Five Plays New York: Hill and Wang. Hopkins, Lisa (1996) “And I shall die, and this unconquered?: Marlow’s Inverted Colonialism” Early Modern Literary Studies 2.2