A Picture of Christopher Marlowe

Well, I finally learnt how to upload pictures on this thing. This is to round off the last post, I got the picture off http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ChristopherMarlowe.htm. It's not exactly the best scan of the portrait but this site loaded the fastest and without giving me any problems. I'm still trying to finish the book but you can still post comment if you like, that is, if you are there at all.

Personally, I found the portrait a charming one from the first. It is not known if this young man really is Marlowe but the swaggering attitude depicted here certainly does match the bold, ambitious Marlowe we know. Assuming this is a portait of him, it was done in his student days when he was twenty-one (as the portrait says). The books I've read about him (well, actually, book--one book) say that he most probably obtained the money to pay for the portrait as well as the expensive jacket from his spying activities--which began while he was still a student (and this, the book says, was really quite common as they wanted really intelligent intelligence, not like the Wayans brothers--but no, I haven't watched the movie, I just know the quote). If (if, if, if nothing is ever quite certain in this world) this really were a portrait of him, it would provide fascinating insight into the character of young Marlowe:

Just a little background information, sixteenth century England was a terribly class-conscious society and only those of a certain social status (gentlemen) could wear silk and other such materials. Even at universities, poor scholars were only allowed to wear drab scholar's robes whereas the sons of gentlemen could wear whatever they pleased even though it was a rule that everyone had to wear those same robes. Also, notice that Marlowe has very long hair. This was also against the rules; all students had to have short hair. Before you simply surmise this to be simple rebellliousness on his part, think--intelligently. Marlowe, son a Canterbury shoemaker and Queen's Scholar, was an upward-looking, ambitious young man, and he must have been very frustrated by all the limits placed upon him by his social status and the society of that time (read: not based upon meritocracy, those with friends in high places were most likely to get ahead). look at his plays, "Ta,burlaine" and "Faustus" are both about ambition, in one part of the latter (first scene, open up another window on your computer and look it up on Project Gutenberg), Faustus says that he would, with his new powers, clothe all the scholars of the University of Wittenberg in silk--notice anything familiar here? (And if you don't, look at the description of the portrait.)

It's not very good as a piece of writing, in fact, I myself would call it shitty as an essay, but I'm not doing it as schoolwork and this blogger software is not doing my blood pressure any good as it's deleted whole passages of this each time I tried to save it as a draft. And now I'm really quite leery of it (an odd word, but it just means suspicious, same as how lusty means healthy). I'm not doing any beautiful writing as it's really more for my own personal satisfaction, when I have to say something, I must say it. I have a bit of an interest in Marlowe even if I do find most of this stuff pretty archaic and over my head. All the analysis came out of a wonderful book called The World of Christopher Marlowe by David Riggs. I'd suggest you borrow it from the library as it's a little heavy-going at some bits so you might not read it again, and it's also very expensive--over fifty Singapore dollars when I saw it at the bookstore. But it's also a terribly illuminating book and you should get it if you genuinely love Kit and/or the English Renassaince or just history in general--personally, I would wish to own a copy, but I've got my eye on other things as well (I just bought Plainwater by Anne Carson for $27.95 yesterday--not cheap).