Christopher Marlowe A
Great Rebellion By Khurshid Alam
Christopher Marlowe is remembered largely as a great tragedy playwright but he was more than a believer in the Renaissance and creator of a world of his own: a space of
freedom which he manned with the people of his choice. They are not slave; neither are they under strict codes of discipline as of the traditional convention of the Middle Ages.
Marlowe belonged to the school of the “University Wits”1 but he was apart in characteristics. Marlowe rebelled against religious tenets, against social laws, against the submissiveness of human nature and against the literary theory. His creation is his
achievement but his rebellion is felt throughout his literary journey which gives a new dimension to the whole gamut of his creations.
He was infamous for the “lewd and mutinous libels” during his career as a dramatist. Almost in all his dramas his rebellion against religion is felt clearly. In the drama Doctor Faustus (1588) he chooses necromancy over all other disciplines and professions. He announces:
“A sound magician is a mighty god
Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.”
and
“A god is not so, glorious as a king,
I think the pleasure they enjoy in heaven
Cannot compare with kingly joys on earth.”
Marlowe’s such utter declaration is the renunciation of religion. He was deeply influenced by ‘atheism’ one of the chief philosophies of the Revival of Learning and Renaissance which affected the whole of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He did not believe in the concept of hell and heaven. R Green rightly accuses C Marlowe in A Groatsworth of Wit “as an epicure, an atheist and a Machiavellian.”
Marlowe rebelled against the convention of the Middle Ages. He strived for complete individual freedom like Machiavelli: he did not second to the strict self-control and ascetism. He promoted freedom of choice, freedom of ideas and freedom of the way to live. He did not only live a free life himself but encouraged all others for this. He beguiled: “Come live with me and be my love”.
Though Marlowe belonged to the “University Wits” his contribution among his contemporaries’ stands heaped above others. To his credit goes the creation of romantic heroines for the first time in the world literature. Though not rounded with a remarkable role Marlowe created romantic heroines who appear first as transparent in his dramas and then grew with William Shakespeare into quite visible and strong ones. Marlowe’s heroines’ shadow is larger and has a lively affect on the heroes if not on the readers and audience.
His heroes are striking: they breathe air of free will; they decide their destiny themselves; they are brave persons; they work on and then they meet their consequence. They are closer to the real characters of the common men who may be avarice, greedy after power and may have lust for wealth. His characters are bold and do not submit in any circumstances.
In Edward II through Mortimer, Marlowe speaks of his faith:
“Base Fortune now I see, that in thy wheel
There is a point, to which when men aspire
They tumble headlong down: that point I touched,
And seeing there was no place to mount up higher,
Why should I grieve at my declining fall?”
Marlowe like other dramatists of the age broke the classical unity of Time and Place. But his unique achievement is his contribution of the English blank verse. A H Sleight says: “…he (Marlowe) gave us genuine blank verse and our first great history play, and founded romantic noble achievement.” Approving such views M Arnold says in Essays in Criticism: “Marlowe gave the drama passion and poetry was his most precious gift.”
All his achievements seem to have emerged of his rebellion temperament. He was really a great rebellion than any thing else. Remarkably P Henderson quotes in British Writers Vol-I as: “…Marlowe was the kind of man who could not help making enemies and letting off squibs pour epater le bourgeois.”
1. The “University Wits” refers to the group of the playwrights majority of whom were degree holders from the universities.
J Lyly, R Greene, George Peele, Lodge, Nash, T Kyd and M Christopher were some of the prominent writers of this group.
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