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Roberta Ballantine |
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Roberta Ballantine
Marlowe Revealed, Shakespeare Exposed
I’m working on a story as true as I can make it
of the whole life of Christopher Marlowe, a spy who
considered himself damned, a great dramatist, a lifelong
student of theology and political science who set in
motion ideas that ever since have had increasing
influence.
The story tells how he invested in American
exploration, fathered children who dispersed toward
innovative careers of their own, how he lived with some
of the most gifted people of
England,
Spain and Italy, made
enemies, and how his loves and friendships changed his
life. It
tells how he came to write and leave for us a body of
very youthful works, a collection of stories in Spanish,
a popular Italian play, letters filed in the English
record office, over 100 diplomatic communiques and other
works (some may be in the earliest Gazettas), as well as
three narrative poems, many short ones—and the greatest
English-language plays.
Though the name Christopher Marlowe was
officially wiped off contemporary records after 1593 and
he used only “working names” during the last half of his
life, he was well known and beloved, a man who could be
a charming companion but who suffered periods of
despair, always with a peculiar sense of perspective
alienation from his suffering. He examined, all
his life.
He tried to help others fight misunderstanding.
This story has early chapters showing
circumstances (today still hidden from public view) into
which he was introduced as a child and which shaped his
career.
Chapters after his death are also a necessary part,
showing directions in lives of associates who survived
him.
Though he lived 58 years the whole plan of my
work covers 63: from 1563 to 1626. There’ll be a
few blank places in the work; I’d rather have them there
than fill them with unsupported conjecture. I’ve learned a
lot and can find out more, but there are lifetimes of
work here for many researchers. What I want to do myself
is spread out this wild, funny, tragic story in a fairly
straightforward way, with intent to promote
understanding.
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