Customer Reviews

Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy

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This book seems to have been written mainly for an audience of professional Marlowe scholars. General readers will find it frustrating and confusing. His writing often wanders all over the place. For example, in reference to Marlowe's activities as spy, Honan writes, "He involved himself in some duplicity, if not in faithlessness and treachery, with regard to fellow scholars at Cambridge" (109), suggesting that Marlowe may have betrayed some of his fellow students with Catholic sympathies. But the point is frustratingly dropped until some 44 pages later, when Honan observes that "we cannot be certain that he betrayed Corpus [i.e. Cambridge University] men, or lured them as a provocateur" (153), seemingly contradicting his earlier point. Because his writing tends to wander, the story of Marlowe's life is hard to follow in Honan's account. Important contexts, such as espionage under Queen Elizabeth, and patronage, are not well-explained. Honan assumes that readers already have a detailed knowledge of these subjects.

An account like this necessarily involves substantial speculation, since the documentary evidence is quite spotty. Readers need to know exactly what the historical evidence is, and where speculation begins. Honan's discussion of the documentary evidence is quite uneven. In some places he gives a detailed account, but in many other places, he simply leaves this essential information out. As a result, the reader is often wondering about the historical basis for Honan's account. He often fails to distinguish fact from speculation.

One useful feature is an appendix which reproduces some important historical documents including the so-called Baines libel and coroner's inquest of Marlowe's death.

A book best for people with some prior understanding of Marlowe's works and the era in which he lived. In regard to the spying done, most casual readers will be lost in the confusing cross currents of British politics, heavily influenced by religious factors, of the late 1500s. And the fact is much of Marlowe's life is lost to documented history. In a pleasing style, Professor Park Honan fills the lacunae with his informed guesses and conjectures.

Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were both born in 1564 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare lived until his 52nd year and authored over 30 plays, the acknowledged master of London theatre. But during Mr. Marlowe's lifetime, he was considered the equal of Shakespeare with the production of his plays (four of which are revived to this day, especially "Dr. Faustus"). The equality didn't last long as he was killed in a tavern brawl at the age of 29.

Mr. Marlowe was a social and religious rebel. He populated his plays with the outsiders of his day (non-Christians, homosexuals, et al) and created the anti-hero, predating John Milton's Satan in "Paradise Lost" by seven decades. And here is the rub : there is scant documentation of his life, so Mr. Honan is forced to create facts out of his interpretation of Mr. Marlowe's plays and suppositions out of the English culture of that day. There is nothing wrong with this as writers of the Elizabethan period are constantly forced into doing so (see Stephen Greenblatt's "Will in the World"-2004) but the number of "qualifiers" for the speculations on each page is staggering. This leads to superb research on the actual facts known about the Elizabethan era and a lot of guesses about Marlowe's life. All-in-all, "Christopher Marlowe : Poet and Spy" gives the reader the sense of the man, if not definitive knowledge of his days. An accurate but fictional take of the playwright is Lisa Goldstein's fantasy epic, "Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon" (1993) where Mr. Marlowe's spy career is a major plot device.

I have long been fascinated to the point of obsession with Marlowe and his mysterious death. Currently -- having read Mark Anderson bio of de Vere -- I am convinced de Vere, by dint of his strong Cecil connection -- had some sort of agency in this ... which is most dramatically encapsulated by de Vere, through time, reading the epilogue of Faustus, over Marlowe's dead body in Deptford

Honan's very good in spots, and dense in others -- he insists that Dee was not a model for Faust because Dee was abroad -- but somehow overlooks that Dee had a big intercontinental reputation -- was 007 originale and Marlowe as a courier/spy was familiar with the continent ...

His account of the Reckoning ... well, no great insights into it -- traces all three -- skeres frizer & the other guy -- back to tom walsingham, but makes no speculation nor draws no conclusions ... nonetheless valuable for his research into the matter.

This is an excellent investigation into the life and death of Christopher Marlowe. I read it along with "The Reckoning" (by Charles Nicholl) and I found that they supplemented each other well.

Park Honan does a great job of showing the context of Marlowe's society and the consequent reasons why he might have been drawn into reporting on what he saw in the houses of the rich and noble people for whom his plays were performed. We also learn about "The School of Night". and the important thinkers of that time, who were suspected and mistrusted by those in positions of highest power.

The book follows a logical course and goes into the details of Marlowe's life and surroundings in great, but extremely interesting depth. As a contemporary of Shakespeare, Marlowe was initially more popular in their lifetimes, and his plays (Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta, etc.) were very popular. This book gives us the background to these still every enjoyable and exciting plays and also shows how they influenced Shakespeare.

All in all, an excellent read for people interested in Marlowe, British society in the 16th century, and Marlowe's plays.

Park Honan (Emeritus Professor at the School of English, University of Leeds) presents Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy, an in-depth biography of the famous literary figure. Chapters cover Marlowe's childhood, his street fighting, his alleged atheism, a thorough examination of the circumstances that led to Marlowe's murder, and much more. A handful of black-and-white illustrations intersperse this involved, heavily researched and meticulously presented true-life story. Also highly recommended are Honan's previous biographies, most notably the acclaimed "Shakespeare, A Life".

I give the book high marks for the research that apparently went into the book. There were a number of references cited in the book that were new to me. Maybe that was enough to earn it 4 stars, but like another reviewer I found the presentation to be a bit disjointed and uneven.

Mr. Honan previously wrote a biography on Shakespeare, so it appears he was careful to avoid discrediting Stratfordian doctrine, or contradicitng what was prevously written, which may account for some of the inconsistency. I feel the book would have been much more effective if the focus remained on Marlowe, and had not attempted to explore a possible relationship between the two men.

'The Tragic History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus' was perhaps Christopher Marlowe's masterpiece. The hero endeavors to save his soul and trick the devil; his devil, Methostophilis, was no match for Faust who had been tormented with 10,000 hells -- after he had seen "the face of God and tasted the eternal joys of heaven." If we find succor in hate, "neglect reconciliation," 'we shall always carry hell about with us.' Faust had boasted that "a sound magician is a mighty god."

Marlowe was no atheist as believed during his short life, but he did believe in Merlin's magic. His patron, Tom Walsingham, was a former spy who dabbled with magical spirits, (not alcohol, though he did have a brewery. 'Dido (Queen of Carthage)' was the play in which Dido's love is like Petrarch's, which Marlowe is said to have inherited. It is limitless; Marlowe portrays the intensity of her desires and playfulness, In his poetic treatise, she expressed herself with "a valid new logic" as she extolls the virtues of the winds and the seas. Marlowe, nicknamed Kit Marloe at Cambridge, was not a romantic, but a "questing realist." Personally, he was excitable, vulnerable and inconsistent.

'Tamburlaine' was written in blank verse using Marlowe's 'pathos' and much hyperbole. His views on history, society and social violence began to evolve as he showed the feelings, attitudes, motivation and behavior of humans from a religious aspect. He evokes four or five different religions in this play. In it, his hero was compared to Christ. "In dramatizing faith, desire, and our other attributes in their ambiguity, Marlowe belongs to us." For six months in 1594, the year after he was murdered, revivals of these two parts were played out before audiences as large as two thousand. Every foreign locale in his plays had a relation to England.

He had just completed 'Hero and Leander' in 1593 before he was arrested as a spy and met his untimely death. He had portrayed the "gap between his well-disciplined life of art and thought and the loose and easy exuberance of his talk." His mentor was partial to speaking Latin, which he called 'the music of the spheres.' Born in February, 1564, he was only twenty-nine when he died in May, 1593. His memory lingers on.