Marlowe and Shakespeare: The Critical Rivalry

387 Pages·2017·3.657 MB·English

by  Robert Sawyer (auth.)

Marlowe & Shakespeare
The Critical Rivalry
Robert Sawyer
Marlowe and Shakespeare
Robert Sawyer
Marlowe and
Shakespeare
The Critical Rivalry
Robert Sawyer
Department of Literature and Language
East Tennessee State University
Johnson City
TN, USA
ISBN 978-1-349-95226-7 ISBN 978-1-349-95227-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-95227-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939069
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Nature America Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
To Judith Slagle, Christy Desmet, and to the memory of Terence Hawkes
A
cknowledgements
I first want to thank Judy, Christy, and the late Terry Hawkes for their
triple role as mentors, colleagues, and friends. Other academic experts
who deserve mention for reading sections of this work include Robert
Logan for his particularly perceptive comments on the Introduction and
Chap. 1, and Darlena Ciraulo, who carefully read and made suggestions
on Chaps. 3 and 4. I also want to thank Josh Reid for his support, and I
want to praise my proofreader, Rebecca Stephens, for her diligence and
eagle-eyed editing on this book and many other projects. The original
research itself, particularly my Interlibrary Loan Requests, could not have
been completed without the help of Alison Lampley, East Tennessee
State University librarian extraordinaire.
I am also happy to note the support of a number of organizations
which helped this book come to fruition through grant money for travel
further afield, either in order to conduct research or to present my find-
ings to welcoming audiences. The Research Development Committee at
East Tennessee State University, and especially its Chair, David Hurley,
provided funds through both the Small Grant and Major Grant pro-
gram, as well as encouragement during the last two years, just when I
needed them the most. Clara Calvo, President of SEDERI (Spanish and
Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies), also deserves my
thanks for providing me with funding to attend conferences in Spain,
where a number of the arguments in this book were first presented.
Closer to home, The Marco Institute at the University of Tennessee in
vii
viii ACkNOwLEDGEMENTS
knoxville granted me two Lindsay Young Fellowships that aided my final
investigations.
A number of friends both far and near should also be mentioned for
discussing this topic with me; in the course of this book’s voyage, and
with apologies to Tennyson, they have enjoyed greatly and suffered
greatly, through both the thunder and the sunshine, of this journey.
Those in the Uk include John Drakakis, Richard wilson, Sarah Stanton,
Terry Ball, and Paul Edmondson, the latter who encouraged me to
enter a short section of the book into competition for the annual Calvin
Hoffman Prize, for which it was named co-winner in 2013. On my side of
the Atlantic, I have benefited from the friendship and the support of John
Leroy, Mary Anne O’Neal, Tim Brown, Judy Fine, Colman McCord,
Joel Sawyer, Reg Ivory, George Fink, and Ryan Jenkins. Finally, I want to
express my gratitude to Danielle Byington, who, while not around at the
start of the project, was there every day, and in every way, for the comple-
tion of it.
Chapter 5 contains earlier versions of two essays from Critical Survey,
and I want to thank the editor, Graham Holderness, for permission to
reprint them in a longer and revised form here. I also want to thank Paola
Pugliatti and Donatella Palloti, the editors for the Journal of Early Modern
Studies (Florence, Italy), for permission to include in Chap. 6 (specifically
pages 285–296 of Chap. 6), parts of an essay entitled, “Fabricated Lives:
Shakespearean Collaboration in Fictional Biographies” (2016): 119–132,
which first appeared in their journal (http://www.fupress.net/index.php/
bsfm-jems/article/view/18085/16839).
c
ontents
1 Introduction: “The Rivals of My Watch” 1
2 Locating the Earliest “Critics” 17
3 The Seventeenth Century: “Collaboration,
Co-Authorship, and the Death of the Author(s)” 85
4 The Long Eighteenth Century: “Limbs Torn Asunder,
Borrowing the Bones, and Identifying the Corpus” 157
5 The Nineteenth Century: “The Space(s) of the Critical
Rivalry in London” 213
6 The Twentieth Century: “Formalization, Polarization,
and Fictionalization” 263
7 The Twenty-First Century: “Trauma, Drama,
Conspiracy” 307
Works Cited 343
Index 375
ix
A ’ n c P
uthor s ote on over ortrAits
Like many other details of their lives, the portraiture versions of Marlowe
and Shakespeare I’ve chosen also court controversy. The top portrait may
or may not be Marlowe himself, although it is the image used to repre-
sent him most often. while the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, cannot verify the identity of the young man, its
prominent and permanent placement in the College suggests its import.
The bottom picture, known as the Cobbe portrait, is also controver-
sial. Versions of this portrait extend from the seventeenth through the
eighteenth century, and most of them independently identify the sitter as
Shakespeare. while many scholars are willing to accept this attribution,
others claim it is instead a portrait of Sir Thomas Overbury. As I argue in
this book, the way critics “see” the two writers clearly depends on their
vantage point, identification, and interpretation, which is forever lodged
in the eye of the beholder.
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: “The Rivals of My watch”
CHORUS: Not marching in the fields of Trasimene
Where Mars did mate the warlike Carthagens,
Nor sporting in the dalliance of love
In courts of kings where state is overturned,
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our muse to vaunt his heavenly verse.
(Doctor Faustus, 1993: B-Text, 1–6)1
---------
BARNARDO: “Well, goodnight.
If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.”
(Hamlet, First Folio, 1623: 1.1.9–11)
BARNARDO: “An if you meet Marcellus and Horatio,
The partners of my watch, bid them make haste.”
(Hamlet, Q1, 1603: 1.4–5)2
Like the Chorus in Marlowe’s prologue to Doctor Faustus, I begin by
stating what my book will not be. This work is not a detailed examina-
tion of the biographical character of either Marlowe or Shakespeare. Nor
is it another futile attempt to show that Marlowe single-handedly wrote
some of Shakespeare’s plays. Nor will it focus solely on the working and
playing conditions of the early modern theatrical scene. what it will
© The Author(s) 2017 1
R. Sawyer, Marlowe and Shakespeare,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-95227-4_1