Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

1. born at Canterbury on 26th February, 1564.
2. Second child and eldest son of a shoemaker John Marlowe,
3. Got a scholarship from Matthew Parker, Archbishop of canterbury to study music, religion, latin and literature and entered King’s school, canterbury, and later joined Corpus Christi college, Cambridge.
4. After education, Marlowe went to London, where he started writing for stage.
5. Made blank verse popular.
6. Works:
   1. Dido, Queen of Carthage (published 1594): first play.
   2. Tamburlaine the Great 1590
      1. was about a Scythian shephard and his thirst for poer.
   3. Doctor Faustus 1604***
      1. Original Title: The Tragic History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
      2. Written in 1592 or 1593
      3. Originally published in 1604
      4. Setting: 16th Century Europe.
      5. Written in blank verse, and prose in 13 scenes (1604 Quarto), and 20 scenes (1604 quarto)
      6. Elizabethan Tragedy
      7. Source:
         1. Faust legends
         2. Historia Von D. Johann Fausten, published in Germany as a chapbook in 1587.
      8. Two Versons:
         1. 1604 Quarto: Printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Law. A-Text. Regarded as the abbreviation.
         2. 1606 Quarto: Published by John Wright. B-Text. Regarded as the original text.
      9. Characters:
         1. Doctor Faustus:
         2. Mephostophilis
         3. Wagner: Clumsy would be magician.
         4. Good Angel
         5. Bad Angel
         6. Cornelius: Learned magician and teacher of Faustus.
         7. Valdes: Learned magician and teacher of Faustus.
         8. Lucifer:
         9. Belzebub:
         10. The Seven Deadly Sins:
         11. Robin the Clown
         12. Vintner
         13. Carter
         14. Galen: a Greek physician
         15. The Old man: An Enigmatic figure who appears in the final scene.
      10. Calvinist/Anticalvinist Controversy:
          1. According to Calvin, Predestination meant that God, acting of his own free will, elect some people to be saved and others to be damned, thus an individual has no control over his fate.
          2. It was a hot topic of controversy in Cambridge University, and Marlowe was a student there in 1580, and got influenced by the theory of Calvin.
      11. Renaissance Occultism/Magic:
          1. A resurgence in Hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of the magical arts which arose along with Renaissance humanism in the 15th and 16th century CE. These magical art is divided into seven types: nigromancy, geomancy, hydromency, aeromancy, pyromancy, chiromancy, and scapulimancy.
      12. Important Quotations:
          1. “Till,swoll’n with cunning of a self-conceit,/His waxen wings did mount above his reach,/And melting, heavens conspired his overthrow.” – Chorus, Prologue
          2. ‘Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me. – Doctor faustus, Act I, Scene I
          3. Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it. – Mephastophilis, Act I, Scene III
          4. Tut, Faustus; marriage is but a ceremonial toy. If thou lovest me, think no more of it. – Mephistophilis, Act II, scene I
          5. Mountain and hills, come, come, and fall on me/And hide me from the heavy wrath of God! – Doctor Faustus, Act V, Scene II
          6. Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,/ And burned is Apollo’s laural bough/ That sometimes grew within this learned man. – Chorus, Epilogue
          7. Was this the face that launched a thousand ships./ And burned the topless towers of Illium – Faustus about Helen , Act V, Scene I
      13. MCQ***
          1. Where was faustus born in? Rhode
          2. Who is the servant of faustus? Wagner.
          3. Faustus promished to give his soul to the devil if Mephistopheles becomes his servant for: 24 years.
          4. Who were the teachers of Faustus: Valdes and Cornelius.
          5. Who was the German emperor who invited faustus to his palace? Charles V
          6. Who did Faustus resque from the Pope? Burno, The German emperor wanted Burno to become the pope.
          7. Who was converted into a stag by Goddess Diana and on whose head faustus conjured up a pair of antlers? Benvolio
          8. Whom did the German emperor wanted to see? Alexander the Great.
          9. What did Duchess of Vanholt asked from Faustus? Ripe grapes.
          10. Who asked Faustus to bring Helen of Greece before him? The scholars
          11. Faustus left all his belonging to: Wagner
   4. The Jew of Malta 91633)
      1. dramatic presentation of a machiavellian man-Barabus.
   5. The Massacre at paris 1593
   6. Edward II (1594)
7. Non-dramatic Verse/poetry
   1. Translation of Book One of Lucan’s Pharsalia
   2. Translations of Ovid’s Elegies 1580s
   3. The Passionate Shephard to His Love 9pre-1593)
   4. Hero and Leander: a mytological poem with 818 lines. This unfinished poem was completed after his death by George Chapman ***
8. MCQ***
   1. What is the immediate source of Doctor faustus? A German Narrative.
   2. Which play has a Machiavellean hero? Dr Faustus
   3. In the Prologue to Dr faustus, the chorus proposes that the theme should be: Cursed necromancy, Self-conceit
   4. The center of his plays is a proud character on Marlowe’s model, with a bold licence in speech and action, full of elaborate metaphors, phrase tumbling after phrase, as he asserts himself in the French Court. Dryden unjustly described his style as “a dwarfish, dressed up in gigantic words.” Who is this Jecobean writer? George Chapman.
   5. Which pair best describes the characteristic features of Marlowe’s portrait of Tamburlain? Ambition, Cruelty.
   6. ‘Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight’ is a line occurs in: Dr Faustus.
   7. The hero of Marlowe’s Tamburlaine was born as a: Shepherd.
   8. Which play by Christopher Marlowe has epic features? Tamburlaine.
   9. Which Marlovian character is consumed by greed? Barabas.
   10. Edward II was written in the last year of Marlowe’s life.
   11. Which are NOT Marlowe’s play, but early English plays imitating Greek and Latin plays: Gorbodoc, Ralph Roister Doister, Gammer Gurton’s Needle.
   12. Marlowe wrote: Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew of Malta, Edward II
   13. Act V of Marlowe’s Edward II shows the murder of the king. Where does it take place? A eoom in Berkeley Castle.
   14. Christopher Marlowe was one of the first major writers to affairm what can be identified as a clearly homosexual sensibility. Whis of his drama deals with it? Edward II
   15. Christopher Marlowe’s heroes are said to be larger than life, exaggerated both n their faults and in their qualities. They have a desire for everything in extreme. In one of his plays the hero wants to conquer the whole world. The name of the play is: Tamburlaine the Great.
   16. There is a play on the name of Machiavelli in the prologue ti Christopher marlowe’s The Jew of Malta.
   17. In Doctor faustus, what books does valdes council faustus to study in preparation for conjuring up sprits? The worls of Bacon and Abanus, The Hebrew Psalter and New testament
   18. To which mythological character is Faustus compared in the Prologue of Dr faustus? Icarus.
   19. Traces of the Morality plays are discernible in a play like Dr faustus, traces such as: Its soliloquizing protagonist, Good and Bad Angels and its final moral