Christopher Marlowe: Merlin's Prophet

Christopher Marlowe: Merlin's Prophet

by Judith Weil
Christopher Marlowe: Merlin's Prophet

Christopher Marlowe: Merlin's Prophet

by Judith Weil

Paperback

$47.99 
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Overview

Mrs Weil challenges two widely accepted views of Marlowe. He is not the poet and dramatist of heroic energy, 'daring God out of heaven' with his outrageous heroes. Nor is he a dogmatic moralist. Instead, he belongs to Merlin's race, as his contemporary Robert Greene suggested. An ironic writer of riddling plays, he does not endorse his characters, but cunningly manipulates our responses to them. Like Erasmus or Rabelais, he uses the knowledge of his audience in a variety of surprising ways. This approach is carefully argued for each play. The reader – perhaps initially sceptical – will find himself confronted with many features of the drama and the poetry not adequately accounted for in the conventional views, but persuasively explained here. The book may well permanently modify our attitudes toward Marlowe.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780521090872
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 11/27/2008
Pages: 228
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Marlowe's prophetic style; 3. Wicked fools of fortune; 4. The tragic folly of Doctor Faustus; 5. Mirrors for foolish princes; 6. Merlin's prophecies; 7. The difference of things in Edward II; 8. The prophetic spirit.
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