海角大神

Stephen Greenblatt鈥檚 superb skills as a literary historian and critic are thrillingly on display in 鈥淒ark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare鈥檚 Greatest Rival.鈥�

In this riveting reassessment of the short, turbulent life of the Elizabethan dramatist and poet Christopher 鈥淜it鈥� Marlowe, Greenblatt argues that Marlowe, with his dazzling eloquence, 鈥渙ffered poetic liberation鈥� to an English culture that had been stifled by onerous government censorship.

But Marlowe was actually more of a trailblazer than a competitor to the Bard of Avon, the subject of Greenblatt鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize finalist 鈥淲ill in the World鈥� and several other books. The two men were born just two months apart, although Shakespeare outlived Marlowe by 23 years.

Greenblatt鈥檚 gripping portrait of Marlowe is set against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth I鈥檚 brutally repressive regime. It was a society in which dissent of any kind was met with imprisonment, torture, hanging, or beheading. Punishable offenses included blasphemy, heresy, homosexuality, and any suspicions of Roman Catholic leanings (or a desire to replace Queen Elizabeth with her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots).

鈥淒ark Renaissance鈥� makes an eloquent case for the provocative beauty and sly unorthodoxy of Marlowe鈥檚 major plays, 鈥淭amburlaine the Great鈥� and 鈥淒octor Faustus.鈥� Greenblatt writes: 鈥淗e had made it possible to write in a new way about violence, ambition, greed, and desire.鈥�

Marlowe, the son of a poor Canterbury cobbler, and Shakespeare, the son of a Stratford glover and alderman, were both unlikely artistic geniuses, provincials in a nation in which social class was rigidly fixed. Shakespeare鈥檚 formal education ceased at around age 14, but Marlowe, who attended The King鈥檚 School in Canterbury and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University on scholarships, earned B.A. and M.A. degrees, tickets to gentleman status.

As in 鈥淲ill in the World,鈥� Greenblatt describes the harshness of an educational system in which Latin was literally beaten into students. Yet Marlowe thrived at school. Reading Homer, Sophocles, Erasmus, and Aesop, he encountered ideas that opened up the world to him 鈥� and awakened his curiosity and skepticism.

Instead of following the safe path to a position in the Anglican ministry for which he felt no calling, Marlowe chose a riskier pursuit that offered less stability and no guarantee of success: writing. While still in Cambridge, he translated Ovid鈥檚 鈥渞acy, urbane鈥� 鈥淎mores鈥� from Latin, capturing the quickness of the original by adroitly reducing the syllables in each line of the rhyming couplets from 14 to 10. Greenblatt notes that pentameter quickly 鈥渂ecame the standard meter for classical translations in English.鈥�

In 1587, 23-year-old Marlowe moved to London, where he wrote 鈥淭amburlaine,鈥� the first of the seven plays he would produce in what turned out to be his last six years. He delighted in shocking his audiences with dramas which, like the times in which he lived, were rife with violence.

Greenblatt does yeoman鈥檚 work untangling the backstabbing, dog-eat-dog network of government spies in which it was all too easy to become ensnared. Marlowe lived in 鈥渁 world in which virtually everyone was in disguise and it was fantastically difficult to know whom to trust,鈥� he writes, though the particulars of Marlowe鈥檚 involvement in these activities remain elusive due to lack of documentation.

Greenblatt doesn鈥檛 stint on praise for his subject. He credits Marlowe with awakening 鈥渢he genius of the English Renaissance,鈥� and calls 鈥淒octor Faustus鈥� 鈥渢he single greatest tragedy ever written about an alienated intellectual.鈥� He flags Marlowe鈥檚 innovative, unrhymed iambic pentameter as a literary game-changer that influenced Shakespeare and succeeding generations of playwrights.

Oh, to be a student in one of Greenblatt鈥檚 Harvard classes! As a scholar, he earns our trust by backing up his bold accolades with the careful research and astute textual analyses for which he is justly celebrated. But then he goes a step further, and admits when he is unable to nail down details with certainty. These include the exact circumstances of Marlowe鈥檚 death, and whether the portrait of a young man at Corpus Christi College on the cover of this book is actually Marlowe. In the book鈥檚 endnotes, Greenblatt explains 鈥� with evident regret 鈥� that because of the paucity of records of Marlowe鈥檚 life, he has had to resort to speculation and guesswork, 鈥渃onspicuously marked by words like perhaps and phrases like may have and could have.鈥�

With its mix of fastidious scholarship, storytelling chops, and educated guesswork, 鈥淒ark Renaissance鈥� illuminates a cause for celebration in an age of darkness: the daring life and work of Christopher Marlowe. It also brings home the importance of studying history and the humanities, and serves as a potent reminder of the damage wrought by unchecked power and a society in which 鈥渘ew frontiers of inquiry were kept shut.鈥�