No More Learning

All the affections the human heart is capable of centred for
her in Francis. He was not only her brother and her friend, but he
was respected by her like a father, and cared for by her like a son;
he was (with a weight of meaning difficult of conception by modern
ininds) supremely her King; he was at moments almost her God.
He repaid this fervor of devotion with a brotherly regard that satis-
fied her; but her content was a proof of her generosity.
Their youth was passed together in the pleasant Château d'Am-
boise; and their careful education – the education of the Renais-
sance — happily fostered in them inherited tastes for literature and
art.
Marguerite was married at seventeen (in 1509) to the Duke d'Alen-
çon, the first prince of the blood; and when, six years later, Francis
became king, she was in a position and of an age to be conspicuous
at court, where her intellectual vivacity and social grace made her
eminent. Free and gay in speech, eager and joyous in spirit, she
amused herself with the brilliant life and with her would-be lovers;
and at other hours occupied herself with her books, — books often of
divinity,-- studies that were molding her character. « Elle s'adonna
fort aux lettres en son jeune aage,” says one who knew her; and her
interest also in the men who wrote the books of her day was great
even then. From the first, she discerned and divined and recognized
the most remarkable of the men who surrounded her.
But the startling contrasts that marked the career of King Francis
all found their reverberating echo in the heart of Margaret, and made
her something very different from a merely intellectual woman. In
1520 came the Field of the Cloth of Gold; in 1525 the battle of Pavia
and Francis's imprisonment and illness at Madrid. Again, 1520
brought the appearance of Luther, and the next year the beginning
of persecutions in France; but it was not till the King had gone to
Italy that heretics were burned at the stake. That this comparative
leniency was greatly due to Margaret's personal influence with the
King is as unquestionable as that it is an error to consider her as


## p. 9704 (#112) ###########################################

9704
MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
-
herself belonging to the party of the Reformers. Her generous nat-
ure could protect the Protestants all her life long, and sympathize
with them so keenly as to cause her personal anguish, without shar-
ing their beliefs. This exceptional largeness and liberality has caused
Margaret's relation to the Reformation to be constantly and greatly
misunderstood. Her personal character - her own nature — was less
akin to the spirit of the Reformation than to that of the Renaissance.
The year 1524 was marked by domestic sorrows. Queen Claude
died, truly lamented by her husband and his mother and sister; and
two months later one of her little motherless girls died in Margaret's
arms. It was probably the first time she had seen death: she had
been summoned to the Queen's death-bed, and had hurriedly traveled
thither, but had arrived too late. The death of little eight-year old
Madame Charlotte after weeks of weary illness, spent by her aunt
in tender watching, made a profound impression upon Margaret, and
was the occasion of a poetical composition - the earliest in date of
her extant writings- a dialogue "en forme de vision nocturne » be-
tween herself and “l'âme saincte de defuncte Madame Charlotte de
France” concerning the happiness of the blessed dead.
In her somewhat mystical mind death was always a subject of
meditation; and it is told of her that she once sat long by the bed-
side of one of her waiting-women whom she loved, who was near
death; and she gazed upon her fixedly till the last breath was drawn.
And when asked why she had thus eagerly watched, it appeared that
she had longed to catch some sight, some sound, of the departing
soul; “and she added,” says the contemporary account, “that if her
faith were not very firm, she should not know what to think of this
separation of the soul from the body; but that she would believe
what God and his Church commanded without indulging in vain
curiosity. And indeed she was a woman as devout as could be found,
and who often spoke of God and truly feared him. ”
Within three months of the death of the Queen and Madame
Charlotte, the King was a prisoner. Margaret's religious faith, put to
the utmost test, supported her through days of measureless misery, of
which there are very touching outbreaks and outpourings among her
poems. Again two months, and her husband, the Duke d'Alençon,
died. Many years later she wrote a touching and affectionate narra-
tive in verse of the scenes she then witnessed.
The agony of her suffering at the King's defeat and imprisonment
was in some measure lightened by being sent officially to him at
Madrid, and empowered to enter into negotiations with Charles the
Fifth for his release. Again we find the reflection of these events in
her verses. Her position attracted wide interest, and a letter written
to her by Erasmus expresses the general feeling :--


## p. 9705 (#113) ###########################################

MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
9705
"I have been encouraged,” he says (in effect), “to address some con-
dolences to you in the midst of the tempest of misfortune which now assails
you.
Long have I admired the many excellent gifts that God has
endowed you with. He has given you prudence, chastity, modesty, piety,
invincible strength of mind, and a marvelous contempt for temporal things.
Therefore I am inspired with the desire to congratulate you rather
than offer you consolation. Your misfortune is great, I acknowledge; but no
event is terrible enough to overthrow a courage founded upon the rock of
belief in Jesus Christ.
This letter, written in Latin, did not need to be translated to
Margaret. And not only did she read Latin easily, but she was
familiar with the Greek dramatists and with Plato in the original.
Another period of Margaret's life opened in 1527, when her second
marriage took place, with Henri d'Albret, the young King of Navarre
(the nominal King), eleven years younger than herself. It was a
marriage of passionate affection on her side, inspired in part, one may
be sure, by the misfortunes of this valiant youth, who, taken captive
with her brother, had been a prisoner like him for many months, and
who had then presented himself at the French court, poor and
friendless, but famed for his kindness and justice to his Béarnais
subjects. He cannot but have been easily moved to ardent admiration
for the sweet, attractive widow of thirty-five, whose recent remark-
able sojourn at Madrid had made her famous; still more, she was
the sister of the King of France, his liege lord, and recognized as
the King's constant counselor. No question his wooing was vigorous.
How strong Margaret's wishes must have been is shown by her with-
standing the opposition of her brother for the only time in her life.
From the moment of this union date the unspeakable sorrows of
Margaret's heart. The position she henceforth occupied as the queen
of an outcast and mendicant king, and also as the wife of a soon
alienated husband, was one burdened with tragic perplexities public
and private. It involved among other bitter trials that of an enforced
separation from her only child, Jeanne d'Albret.
The court Marguerite created at Pau and at Nérac, in the impor-
erished princedom of Béarn, was the meeting-ground of scholars and
of poets, of charming women and light-hearted men. Even more, it
the refuge of men persecuted. She possessed the supreme
womanly power that when herself in pain, she could comfort; when
weak, she could protect; when poor, she could enrich. Her benevo-
lence was one with beneficence. She was the great Consoler of her
fellow countrymen,- and not of them alone. Her heart-beats sent
vital force to all the numberless unknown suppliants whose eyes were
turned toward her, as well as to her oppressed friends who safely put
their trust in her.
was


## p. 9706 (#114) ###########################################

9706
MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
This exceptional womanliness is to be felt in her writings; and of
them as of her life it may be said:
« If her heart at high flood swamped her brain now and then
'Twas but richer for that when the tide ebbed agen. ”
>>
She died in 1549, killed by her brother's death two years before.
It was in those last years that Rabelais addressed her as
«Abstracted spirit, rapt in ecstasies,
Seeking thy birthplace, the familiar skies; »
but in the same breath he solicited her to listen to the joyous
deeds of good Pantagruel. Nothing could more vividly note than
this the various qualities that met in Margaret, —of sad mysticism
and gay humor, of constant withdrawal from the world's vanities and
unfailing interest in the world's intellectual achievements.
She has never been so well known, so intelligently understood, so
carefully judged, and never so highly honored, as in our own genera-
tion. The French scholars of to-day have assigned to her her true
place in history, and it is a noble one. But in her lifetime she was
loved even more than she was honored: and still and always she will
be loved by those who shall know her.
A FRAGMENT
G
RIEF has given me such a wound
By an unbearable sorrow,
That almost my, body dies
From the pain it feels in secret.
My spirit is in torment,
But it leans
On Him who gives the pain;
Who, causing the pain, comforts it.
My heart, which lived on love alone,
Is by sorrow wasted.
It resisted not since the fatal day
That it felt the stroke of death;
For of its life
From it was ravished,
The more than half
Joined to it in perfect friendship.
Lord, who knowest me,
I have no voice to cry to Thee,


## p. 9707 (#115) ###########################################

MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
9707
Nor can find words
Worthy to pray Thee with.
Thyself, O Lord,
May it please Thee Thyself to say
To Thyself what I would say.
Speak Thou, pray Thou,
And answer Thou for me.
DIXAINS
O
R NEAR, so near that in one bed our bodies lie,
And our wills become as one,
And our two hearts, if may be, touch,
And all is common to us both;
Or far, so far that importuning Love
May never tidings of you tell to me,
W see you not, nor hear your voice, nor write,
So that for you my heart may cease to ache;
Thus it is that my desire is toward you,
For between these two, save dead, I cannot be.
[Ou près, si près que en un liet nos corps couchent,
Et nos vouloirs soyent uniz en un.
Et nos deux cours, si possible est, se touchent,
Et nostre tout soit à nous deux commun;
Ou loing, si loing que amour tant importun
De vos nouvelles à moy ne puisse dire,
Povre de veoir, de parler, et d'escrire,
Tant que de vous soit mon cœur insensible;
Voilà comment vivre avecq vous desire,
Car entre deux, sans mort, m'est impossible.
II
Not near, so near that you could lie
Within my bed, shall ever be,
Or by love my heart or body touch,
Nor weight my honor by a whit.
If far, very far you go, I promise you
To hinder nowise your long wandering:
For neither near nor far have I the heart to love
Save with that love we all are fain to feel.


## p. 9708 (#116) ###########################################

9708
MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
To be so near or far is no desire of a sage:
Please you, be loved between the two.
[Ne près, si près que vous puissiez coucher
Dedans mon lict, il n'adviendra jamais,
Ou par amour mon corps ou caur toucher,
Ny adjouster à mon honneur un mais.
Si loing, bien loing allez, je vous prometz
De n'empescher en rien vostre voyaige,
Car près ne loing d'aymer je n'ay couraige
Fors d'un amour dont chascun aymer veulx.
Soit près ou loing n'est desir d'homme saige:
Contentez vous d'estre aymé entre deux. ]
FROM THE HEPTAMERON)
I
A.
LITTLE company of five ladies and five noble gentlemen have
been interrupted in their travels by heavy rains and great
floods, and find themselves together in a hospitable abbey.
They while away the time as best they can, and the second day
Parlemente says to the old Lady Oisille, “Madame, I wonder that
you who have so much experience
do not think of some
pastime to sweeten the gloom that our long delay here causes us. "
The other ladies echo her wishes, and all the gentlemen agree with
them, and beg the Lady Oisille to be pleased to direct how they
shall amuse themselves. She answers them :
“MY CHILDREN, you ask of me something that I find very
difficult, - to teach you a pastime that can deliver you from your
sadness; for having sought some such remedy all my life I have
never found but one — the reading of Holy Writ; in which is
found the true and perfect joy of the mind, from which proceed
the comfort and health of the body. And if you ask me what
keeps me so joyous and so healthy in my old age, it is that as
soon as I rise I take and read the Holy Scriptures, seeing and
contemplating the will of God, who for our sakes sent his Son on
earth to announce this holy word and good news, by which he
promises remission of sins, satisfaction for all duties by the gift
he makes us of his love, Passion and merits. This consideration
gives me so much joy that I take my Psalter and as humbly as


## p. 9709 (#117) ###########################################

MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
9709
I can I sing with my heart and pronounce with my tongue the
beautiful psalms and canticles that the Holy Spirit wrote in the
heart of David and of other authors. And this contentment that
I have in them does me so much good that the ills that every
day may happen to me seem to me to be blessings, seeing that
I have in my heart, by faith, Him who has borne them for me.
Likewise, before supper, I retire, to pasture my soul in read-
ing; and then, in the evening, I call to mind what I have done
in the past day, in order to ask pardon for my faults, and to
thank Him for his kindnesses, and in His love, fear and peace
I repose, assured against all ills. Wherefore, my children, this is
the pastime in which I have long stayed my steps, after having
searched all things, where I found no content for my spirit. It
seems to me that if every morning you will give an hour to
reading, and then, during mass, devoutly say your prayers, you
will find in this desert the same beauty as in cities; for he who
knows God, sees all beautiful things in him, and without him all
is ugliness. ”
Her nine companions are not quite of this pious mind, and pray
her to remember that when they are at home the men have hunt-
ing and hawking, and the ladies have their household affairs and
needlework, and sometimes dancing; and that they need something to
take the place of all these things. At last it is decided that in the
morning the Lady Oisille should read to them of the life led by Our
Lord Jesus Christ; and in the afternoon, from after dinner to vespers,
they should tell tales like those of Boccaccio.
II
One of the tales opens thus:
-
“IN THE city of Saragossa there was a rich merchant who,
seeing his death draw nigh, and that he could no longer retain
his possessions, which perhaps he had acquired with bad faith,
thought that by making some little present to God he might
satisfy in part for his sins, after his death, -as if God gave his
grace for money. "
So he ordered his wife to sell a fine Spanish horse he had,
soon as he was gone, and give its price to the poor. But when the
burial was over, the wife, “who was as little of a simpleton as Span-
ish women are wont to be, told her man-servant to sell the horse
indeed, but to sell him for a ducat, while the purchaser must at
as


## p. 9710 (#118) ###########################################

9710
MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
the same time buy her cat, and for the cat must be paid ninety-nine
ducats. So said, so done; and the Mendicant Friars received one
ducat, and she and her children ninety-and-nine.
»
"In your opinion,” asks Namerfide in conclusion, "was not
this woman much wiser than her husband ? and should she have
cared as much for his conscience as for the good of her house-
hold ? ”—“I think,” said Parlamente, “that she loved her husband
well, but seeing that most men are not of sound mind on their
death-beds, she, who knew his intention, chose to interpret it for
the profit of his children, which I think very wise. ”—“But,” said
Gebaron, “don't you think it a great fault to fail to carry out
the wills of dead friends ? ” — Indeed I do,” said Parlamente,
“
provided the testator is of good sense and of sound mind. ” -
“Do you call it not being of sound mind to give our goods to
the Church and the Mendicant Friars ? » «I don't call it want.
ing in sound-mindedness,” said Parlamente, “when a man dis-
tributes among the poor what God has put in his power; but to
give alms with what belongs to others I do not consider high
wisdom, for you will see constantly the greatest usurers there
are, build the most beautiful and sumptuous chapels that can be
seen, wishing to appease God for a hundred thousand ducats'
worth of robbery by ten thousand ducats' worth of buildings, as
if God did not know how to count. ”
“Truly I have often marveled at this,” said Oisille; how do
they think to appease God by the things that he himself, when
on earth, reprobated, such as great buildings, gildings, decora-
tions, and paintings? But, if they rightly understood what God
has said in one passage, that for all sacrifice he asks of us a con-
trite and humble heart, and in another St. Paul says we are the
temple of God in which he desires to dwell, they would have
taken pains to adorn their consciences while they were alive; not
waiting for the hour when a man can no longer do either well
or ill, and even what is worse, burdening those who survive them
with giving their alms to those they would not have deigned to
look at while they were alive. But He who knows the heart can-
not be deceived, and will judge them, not only according to their
works, but according to the faith and charity they have had in
Him. ” “Why is it then,” said Gebaron, that these Gray Friars
and Mendicant Friars sing no other song to us on our death-beds
save that we should give much wealth. to their monasteries,
)
((


## p. 9711 (#119) ###########################################

MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
9711
assuring us that that will carry us to Paradise, willy-nilly ? ” ”
"Ah! Gebaron," said Hircan, “have you forgotten the wickedness
that you yourself have related to us of the Gray Friars, that you
ask how it is possible for such people to lie? I declare to you
that I do not think that there can be in the world greater lies
than theirs. And yet those men cannot be blamed who speak
for the good of the whole community, but there are those who
forget their vow of poverty to satisfy their avarice. ” “It seems
to me, Hircan,” said Nomerfide, “that you know something about
such a one; I pray you, if it be worthy of this company, that
you will be pleased to tell it to us. ” "I am willing,” said Hir.
can, “although I dislike to speak of this sort of people, for it
seems to me that they are of the same kind as those of whom
Virgil said to Dante, Pass on, and heed them not? (Passe oul-
tre et n'en tiens compte '). ”
(
III
The following conversation contains the comments on a tale told
of the virtuous young wife of an unfaithful husband, who by dint of
patience and discretion regained his affection; so that they lived to-
gether in such great friendship that even his just faults by the good
they had brought about increased their contentment. ”
(
(
“I beg you, ladies,” continues the narrator, “if God give you
such husbands, not to despair till you have long tried every
means to reclaim them; for there are twenty-four hours in a day
in which a man may change his way of thinking, and a woman
should deem herself happier to have won her husband by patience
and long effort than if fortune and her parents had given her a
more perfect one. “Yes,” said Oisille, “this is an example for
all married women. -“Let her follow this example who will,”
said Parlamente: “but as for me, it would not be possible for me
to have such long patience; for, however true it may be that in
all estates patience is a fine virtue, it's my opinion that in mar-
riage it brings about at last unfriendliness; because, suffering un-
kindness from a fellow being, one is forced to separate from him
as far as possible, and from this separation arises a contempt for
the fault of the disloyal one, and in this contempt little by little
love diminishes; for it is what is valued that is loved. ”
there is danger," said Ennarsuite, “that the impatient wife may
find a furious husband, who would give her pain in lieu of
« But
»


## p. 9712 (#120) ###########################################

9712
MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
2
(
patience. "-"But what could a husband do,” said Parlamente,
save what has been recounted in this story? ” What could he
do ? ” said Ennarsuite: he could beat his wife. ”
“I think," said Parlamente, “that a good woman would not
be so grieved in being beaten out of anger, as in being con-
temptuously treated by a man who does not care for her, and
after having endured the suffering of the loss of his friendship,
nothing the husband might do would cause her much concern.
And besides, the story says that the trouble she took to draw
him back to her was because of her love for her children, and I
believe it ” — "And do you think it was so very patient of her,”
said Nomerfide, "to set fire to the bed in which her husband was
sleeping ? ” — “Yes,” said Longarine, “for when she saw the
smoke she awoke him; and that was just the thing where she
was most in fault, for of such husbands as those the ashes are
good to make lye for the washtub. ” — “You are cruel, Lon-
garine,” said Oisille, "and you did not live in such fashion with
your husband. ” — No,” said Longarine, «for, God be thanked,
he never gave me such occasion, but reason to regret him all
my life, instead of to complain of him. ” — "And if he had
treated you in this way,” said Nomerfide, “what would you have
done ? ” — "I loved him so much,” said Longarine, “that I think I
should have killed him and then killed myself; for to die after
such vengeance would be pleasanter to me than to live faithfully
with a faithless husband. ”
"As far as I see,” said Hircan, "you love your husbands only
for yourselves. If they are good . after your own heart, you love
them well; if they commit towards you the least fault in the
world, they have lost their week's work by a Saturday. The
long and the short is that you want to be mistresses; for my
part I am of your mind, provided all the husbands also agree
to it. ” — “It is reasonable,” said Parlamente, “that the man rule
as our head, but not that he desert us or ill-treat us. "
"God," said Oisille, “has set in such due order the man and the
woman that if the marriage estate is not abused, I hold it to be
one of the most beautiful and stable conditions in the world;
and I am sure that all those here present, whatever air they as-
sume, think no less highly of it. And forasmuch as men say
they are wiser than women, they should be more sharply punished
when the fault is on their side. But we have talked enough on
this subject. ”
C
us
»


## p. 9713 (#121) ###########################################

MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME
9713
IV
»
"IT SEEMS to me, since the passage from one life to another
is inevitable, that the shortest death is the best. I consider for-
I
tunate those who do not dwell in the suburbs of death, and who
from that felicity which alone in this world can be called felicity
pass suddenly to that which is eternal. ” “What do you call the
suburbs of death ? ” said Simortault. — “I mean that those who
have many tribulations, and those also who have long been sick,
those who by extremity of bodily or mental pain, have come to
hold death in contempt and to find its hour too tardy,- all these
have wandered in the suburbs of death, and will tell you the hos-
telries where they have more wept than slept. ”
V
(
»
((
“Do you count as nothing the shame she underwent, and her
imprisonment ? »
I think that one who loves perfectly, with a love in harmony
with the commands of God, knows neither shame nor dishonor
save when the perfection of her love fails or is diminished; for
the glory of true loves knows not shame: and as to the imprison-
ment of her body, I believe that through the freedom of her
heart which was united with God and with her husband, she did
not feel it, but considered its solitude very great liberty; for to
one who cannot see the beloved, there is no greater good than
to think incessantly of him, and the prison is never narrow where
the thought can range at will. "
VI
C
"In Good faith I am astonished at the diversity in the nature
of women's love: and I see clearly that those who have most
love have most virtue; but those who have less love, dissimulate,
wishing to feign virtue. ”
"It is true," said Parlamente, “that a heart pure towards God
and man, loves more strongly than one that is vicious, and it
fears not to have its very thoughts known. ”
S111-605


## p. 9714 (#122) ###########################################

9714
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
(1564-1593)
was a
wo months before the birth of William Shakespeare, on Feb-
ruary 26th, 1564, John Marlowe, shoemaker in the ancient
town of Canterbury, carried a baby boy, his first son, to
be baptized in the Church of St. George the Martyr. John Marlowe
clarke of Saint Marie's church, and member of the Shoe-
makers' and Tanners' Guild. He may have been a man of sufficient
means to give his son a liberal education; or some rich gentleman,
Sir John Manwood perhaps, may have interested himself in the gifted
lad. At any rate Christopher went to the King's School, Canterbury,
where fifty pupils were taught gratuitously and allowed £4 a year
each; and there he was a diligent scholar, for it is recorded that in
1579 he received an allowance of £1 for each of the first three terms.
From school he was sent to Benet- now Corpus Christi — College,
Cambridge; where he obtained the degree of B. A. in 1583, a:id that
of M. A. in 1587. His translations of Ovid's elegies were probably
begun, if not completed, during his years at the university. There
are slight indications in his poems that he may have been a soldier
for a time, and served during the Netherlands campaign. Probably,
however, he went at once to London from Cambridge,—"a boy in
years, a man in genius, a god in ambition,” as Swinburne says,- and
began his struggle for fame and fortune. Like many another young
poet, he may have gone on the stage; but it is said that he was soon
after incapacitated for acting, by an accident which lamed him. He
attached himself as playwright to a prominent dramatic company, -
that of the Earl of Nottingham, the Lord Admiral.
He was a dashing fellow, witty and daring, “the darling of the
town, and with a gift for making friends. He was a protégé of
Thomas Walsingham, and gallant Sir Walter Raleigh found him a
congenial spirit. He knew Kyd, Nash, Greene, Chapman, and very
likely Shakespeare too. Of all the brilliant group that glorify Eliza-
bethan literature, there is no more striking or typical figure than
Marlowe's own. He was the very embodiment of the Renascence
spirit, with energies all vitalized and athirst for both spiritual and
sensual satisfactions. His gay-hearted, passionate, undisciplined nature
was too exorbitant in demand to find content. To his pagan soul
beauty and pleasure were ultimate aims, orthodox faith and observ-
ances impossible. So for a few mad years he dreamed and wrote,
a
>>>


## p. 9715 (#123) ###########################################

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
9715
loved and feasted, starved sometimes, perhaps; and then at twenty-
nine, when he had tried all possible experiences, his wild, brilliant
young life suddenly ended. His irreligious scoffing, doubtless exag-
gerated from mouth to mouth, led finally to a warrant for his arrest.
Evading this, he had gone to the small town of Deptford, and there,
June 1593, while at the tavern, he became engaged in a drunken
scuffle in which he was fatally stabbed.
Marlowe's first play, “Tamburlaine,' must have been written before
he was twenty-four. Like many of his contemporaries, he always bor-
rowed his plots; and this one he took from Foreste,' a translation
from the Spanish made by Thomas Fortescue. His treatment of it
was a conscious effort to revolutionize dramatic poetry; for «jiggling
veins of rhyming mother wits” to substitute “high astounding terms”;
and it is his great distinction that with “Tamburlaine) he established
blank verse in the English drama. From the appearance of (Gorbo-
duc) in 1562 there had been blank or rimeless verse; but the customary
form of dramatic expression was in tediously monotonous heroic coup-
lets, whether they suited the subject or not. Marlowe was the first
of the English dramatists to understand that thought and expression
should be in harmony. His original spirit refused dictation; and he
developed a rich sonorous line, the beauty of which was recognized
at once. His musical ear and poetic instinct guided him to hitherto
forbidden licenses, — variety in the management of the cæsura, femi-
nine rhymes, run-on lines, the introduction of other than iambic
measures; and thus he secured an elasticity of metre which perma-
nently enriched English poetry. His creative daring stifled a cold
and formal classicism, inaugurated our romantic drama, and served as
guiding indication to Shakespeare himself. But although certain
verses of Tamburlaine) cling to the reader's memory as perfect in
poetic feeling and harmony, the greater part of it is mere “bombast »
to modern taste. Even in Marlowe's day his exaggerations excited
ridicule, and quotations from his dramas became town catchwords.
But the spontaneous passion of his impossible conceptions gave them
a force which impressed the public. Tamburlaine was immensely
popular, and the sequel or Part Second was enthusiastically received.
Many critics since Ben Jonson have discussed “Marlowe's mighty
line » and honored its influence; and his fellow writers were quick to
follow his example.
The Faust legend, traceable back to the sixth century, finally
drifted over to England, where in ballad form, founded upon the
Volksbuch' by Spiess, it appeared in 1587, and probably soon caught
Marlowe's attention. His play of Dr. Faustus' was given in 1588,
and was very highly praised. It is said that Goethe, who thought of
translating it, exclaimed admiringly, “How greatly it is all planned ! »
((


## p. 9716 (#124) ###########################################

9716
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Compared with the harmonic unity of form and matter in Goethe's
(Faust,' Marlowe's work seems childish in construction, uneven and
faulty in expression. But there are certain passages — for example,
the thrilling passion of the invocation to Helen, and the final despair
of Faustus — of positive poetic splendor.
In the Jew of Malta' there are fine passages which show Mar-
lowe's increasing mastery of his line. But in spite of its descriptive
color and force, and keen touches of characterization, it was less
successful than “Tamburlaine,' and is perhaps most noteworthy now
for the obvious parallelism of certain scenes with those of the later
Merchant of Venice. '
(Edward II. ,' founded upon Robert Fabyan's Chronicle or Con-
cordance of Histories,' is structurally the best of Marlowe's plays,
and contains finely pathetic verse which bears comparison with that
of Shakespeare's historical dramas. The poet as he grows older
seems to take a broader, more sympathetic view of life; and there-
fore he begins to understand feelings more normal than the infinite
ambitions of Faustus and Tamburlaine, and becomes more skillful in
the portrayal of character. There is little of his earlier exaggeration.
The two shorter dramas — 'The Massacre of Paris,' and Dido,
Queen of Carthage) were written in collaboration with other play-
wrights.
No one can read Marlowe carefully without feeling that the social
influences of his time made him a dramatist, and that he was by
nature a lyric poet. He was intensely subjective, and incapable of
taking an impersonal and comprehensive point of view. He always
expresses his own aspiration for fame, or joy, or satisfaction, tran-
scending anything earth can offer. « That like I best that Aies be-
yond my reach. ” This preoccupation with imaginative ideals made
it impossible for him to understand every-day human nature. Hence
no touch of humor vitalizes his work; and hence his efforts to depict
women are always vague and unsatisfactory. He is at his best when
expressing his own passions,— his adoration of light and color, of gold
and sparkling gems, of milk-white beauties with rippling brilliant
hair. Like the other men of his time, he loved nature: delighted
in tinkling waters, wide skies, gay velvety blossoms. He is a
thorough sensualist; frankly, ardently so in Hero and Leander,'-
that beautiful love poem, a paraphrase of Musach's poem, of which
he wrote the first two sestiads, and which after his death was fin-
ished by Chapman. Every one knows the lines, written in much the
same spirit, of 'The Passionate Shepherd to his Love); "that smooth
song which was made by Kit Marlowe,” as Izaak Walton says. It
had many imitations, and a charming response from the pen of Sir
Walter Raleigh.


## p. 9717 (#125) ###########################################

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
9717
It has been suggested that Shakespeare in his early days may have
looked enviously at the successful young Marlowe. This erring ideal-
ist aimed high, and left a lasting imprint upon English literature.
He reached fame very quickly; made more friends than enemies;
and his early death called out many tributes of love and admiration.
Michael Drayton wrote of him:-
«Next Marlowe, bathed in the Thespian Springs,
Had in him those brave translunary things
That the first poets had: his raptures were
All air and fire, which made his verses clear;
For that fine madness still he did retain,
Which rightly should possess a poet's brain. ”
THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE
CO
OME live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, and hills, and fields,
Woods or steepy mountains yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.


## p. 9718 (#126) ###########################################

9718
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
FROM (TAMBURLAINE)
Alarms of battle within. Enter Cosroe, wounded, and Tamburlaine
OSROE
С
Barbarous and bloody Tamburlaine,
Thus to deprive me of my crown and life!
Treacherous and false Theridamas,
Even at the morning of my happy state,
Scarce being seated in my royal throne,
To work my downfall and untimely end!
An uncouth pain torments my grieved soul,
And death arrests the organ of my voice,
Who, entering at the breach thy sword hath made,
Sacks every vein and artier of my heart.
Bloody and insatiate Tamburlaine !
Tamburlaine -
The thirst of reign and sweetness of a crown
That caused the eldest son of heavenly Ops
To thrust his doting father from his chair,
And place himself in the empyreal heaven,
Moved me to manage arms against thy state.
What better precedent than mighty Jove?
Nature that framed us of four elements,
Warring within our breasts for regiment,
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.
Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world,
And measure every wandering planet's course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Will us to wear ourselves, and never rest,
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all, –
That perfect bliss and sole delicity,
The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.
FROM (TAMBURLAINE)
A
H, FAIR Zenocrate! - divine Zenocrate! -
Fair is too foul an epithet for thee,
That in thy passion for thy country's love,
And fear to see thy kingly father's harm,
With hair disheveled wip'st thy watery cheeks;
And like to Flora in her morning pride,
Shaking her silver tresses in the air,


## p. 9719 (#127) ###########################################

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
9719
Rain'st on the earth resolvèd pearl in showers,
And sprinklest sapphires on thy shining face,
Where Beauty, mother to the Muses, sits
And comments volumes with her ivory pen,
Taking instructions from thy flowing eyes;
Eyes that, when Ebena steps to heaven,
In silence of thy solemn evening's walk,
Make, in the inantle of the richest night,
The moon, the planets, and the meteors, light.
There angels in their crystal armors fight
A doubtful battle with my tempted thoughts,
For Egypt's freedom and the Soldan's life;
His life that so consumes Zenocrate,
Whose sorrows lay more siege unto my soul,
Than all my army to Damascus's walls:
And neither Persia's sovereign, nor the Turk,
Troubled my senses with conceit of foil
So much by much as doth Zenocrate.
What is beauty, saith my sufferings, then ?
If all the pens that ever poets held
Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,
Their minds, and muses on admired themes;
If all the heavenly quintessence they still
From their immortal flowers of poesy,
Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wit;
If these had made one poem's period,
And all combined in beauty's worthiness,
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.
But how unseemly is it for my sex,
My discipline of arms and chivalry,
My nature, and the terror of my name,
To harbor thoughts effeminate and faint!
Save only that in beauty's just applause,
With whose instinct the soul of man is touched;
And every warrior that is wrapt with love
Of fame, of valor, and of victory,
Must needs have beauty beat on his conceits :
I thus conceiving and subduing both
That which hath stooped the chiefest of the gods,
Even from the fiery-spangled veil of heaven,


## p. 9720 (#128) ###########################################

9720
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
To feel the lowly warmth of shepherds' flames,
And mask in cottages of strowed reeds,
Shall give the world to note for all my birth,
That virtue solely is the sum of glory,
And fashions men with true nobility.
FROM (TAMBURLAINE)
TASHKI
AMBURLAINE — But now, my boys, leave off and list
to me,
That mean to teach you rudiments of war:
I'll have you learn to sleep upon the ground,
March in your armor thorough watery fens,
Sustain the scorching heat and freezing cold,
Hunger and thirst, right adjuncts of the war,
And after this to scale a castle wall,
Besiege a fort, to undermine a town,
And make whole cities caper in the air.
Then next the way to fortify your men:
In champion grounds, what figure serves you best,
For which the quinque-angle form is meet,
Because the corners there may fall more flat
Whereas the fort may fittest be assailed,
And sharpest where the assault is desperate.
The ditches must be deep; the counterscarps
Narrow and steep; the walls made high and broad;
The bulwarks and the rampires large and strong,
With cavalieros and thick counterforts,
And room within to lodge six thousand men.
It must have privy ditches, countermines,
And secret issuings to defend the ditch:
It must have high argins and covered ways,
To keep the bulwark fronts from battery,
And parapets to hide the musketers;
Casemates to place the great artillery:
And store of ordnance, that from every flank
May scour the outward curtains of the fort,
Dismount the cannon of the adverse part,
Murder the foe, and save the walls from breach.
When this is learned for service on the land,
By plain and easy demonstration
I'll teach you how to make the water mount,
That you may dry-foot march through lakes and pools,


## p. 9721 (#129) ###########################################

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
972 1
Deep rivers, havens, creeks, and little seas,
And make a fortress in the raging waves,
Fenced with the concave of monstrous rock,
Invincible by nature of the place.
When this is done then are ye soldiers,
And worthy sons of Tamburlaine the Great.
Calyphas - My lord, but this is dangerous to be done:
We may be slain or wounded ere we learn.
Tamburlaine -
Villain! Art thou the son of Tamburlaine,
And fear'st to die, or with a curtle-axe
To hew thy flesh, and make a gaping wound ?
Hast thou beheld a peal of ordnance strike
A ring of pikes, mingled with shot and horse,
Whose shattered limbs, being tossed as high as Heaven,
Hang in the air as thick as sunny motes,
And canst thou, coward, stand in fear of death ?
Hast thou not seen my horsemen charge the foe,
Shot through the arms, cut overthwart the hands,
Dyeing their lances with their streaming blood,
And yet at night carouse within my tent,
Filling their empty veins with airy wine,
That, being concocted, turns to crimson blood, -
And wilt thou shun the field for fear of wounds ?
View me, thy father, that hath conquered kings,
And with his horse marched round about the earth
Quite void of scars and clear from any wound,
That by the wars lost not a drop of blood, -
And see him lance his flesh to teach you all.
(He cuts his arm.
A wound is nothing, be it ne'er so deep;
Blood is the god of war's rich livery.
Now look I like a soldier, and this wound
As great a grace and majesty to me,
As if a chain of gold, enameled,
Enchased with diamonds, sapphires, rubies,
And fairest pearl of wealthy India,
Were mounted here under a canopy,
And I sate down clothed with a massy robe,
That late adorned the Afric potentate,
Whom I brought bound unto Damascus's walls.
Come, boys, and with your fingers search my wound.
And in my blood wash all your hands at once,


## p. 9722 (#130) ###########################################

972 2
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
While I sit smiling to behold the sight.
Now, my boys, what think ye of a wound?
Calyphas - I know not what I should think of it; methinks it is a
pitiful sight.
Celebinus — 'Tis nothing: give me a wound, father.
Amyras And me another, my lord.
Tamburlaine -
Come, sirrah, give me your arm.
Celebinus Here, father, cut it bravely, as you did your own.
Tamburlaine -
It shall suffice thou darest abide a wound:
My boy, thou shalt not lose a drop of blood
Before we meet the army of the Turk;
But then run desperate through the thickest throngs,
Dreadless of blows, of bloody wounds, and death;
And let the burning of Larissa-walls,
My speech of war, and this my wound you see,
Teach you, my boys, to bear courageous minds,
Fit for the followers of great Tamburlaine !
INVOCATION TO HELEN
From Doctor Faustus)
F
AUSTUS- Was this the face that launched a thousand
ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium ?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
[Kisses her.
Her lips suck forth my soul; see where it flies! -
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for Heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee,
Instead of Troy, shall Wertenberg be sacked;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear thy colors on my plumèd crest;
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
Oh, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appeared to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky


## p. 9723 (#131) ###########################################

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
9723
In wanton Arethusa's azured arms:
And none but thou shalt be my paramour.
Ah, Faustus,
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damned perpetually!
Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come;
Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again and make
Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
O lente, lente, currite noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The Devil will come, and Faustus must be damned.
Oh, I'll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down ?
See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul! – half a drop; ah, my
Christ!
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!
Yet will I call on him: O spare me, Lucifer! -
Where is it now ? 'tis gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!
Mountain and hills come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!
No! No!
Then will I headlong run into the earth;
Earth gape! Oh, no, it will not harbor me!
You stars that reigned at my nativity,
Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,
Now draw up Faustus like a foggy mist
Into the entrails of yon laboring clouds,
That when they vomit forth into the air,
My limbs may issue from their smoky mouths,
So that my soul may but ascend to heaven.
The clock strikes the half-hour. ]
Ah, half the hour is past! 'twill all be past anon!
O God!
If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ's sake whose blood hath ransomed me,
Impose some end to my incessant pain;
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years
A hundred thousand, and — at last - be saved!


## p. 9724 (#132) ###########################################

9724
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Oh, no end is limited to damned souls!
Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul ?
Or why is this immortal that thou hast ?
Ah, Pythagoras's metempsychosis! were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be changed
Unto some brutish beast! all beasts are happy,
For, when they die,
Their souls are soon dissolved in elements;
But mine must live, still to be plagued in hell.
Curst be the parents that engendered me!
No, Faustus: curse thyself; curse Lucifer
That hath deprived thee of the joys of heaven.
[The clock strikes twelve. ]
Oh, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell.
[ Thunder and lightning: ]
O soul, be changed into little water-drops,
And fall into the ocean - ne'er be found.
Enter Devils
My God! my God! look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe awhile!
Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!
I'll burn my books! - Ah, Mephistophilis!
[Exeunt Devils with Faustus. )
Enter Chorus
Chorus — Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man.
Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise
Only to wonder at unlawful things,
Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits
To practice more than heavenly power permits. (Exit.


## p. 9725 (#133) ###########################################

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
9725
FROM EDWARD THE SECOND)
K"
ING EDWARD
Who's there? what light is that? wherefore com'st thou ?
Lightborn — To comfort you, and bring you joyful news.
King Edward –
Small comfort finds poor Edward in thy looks.
Villain, I know thou com'st to murder me.
Lightborn – To murder you, my most gracious lord !
Far is it from my heart to do you harm.
The Queen sent me to see how you were used,
For she relents at this your misery;
And what eyes can refrain from shedding tears,
To see a king in this most piteous state ?
King Edward -
Weep'st thou already ? List awhile to me:
And then thy heart, were it as Gurney's is,
Or as Matrevis's, hewn from the Caucasus,
Yet will it melt, ere I have done my tale.
This dungeon where they keep me is the sink
Wherein the filth of all the castle falls.
Lightborn - 0 villains !
King Edward -
And there in mire and puddle have I stood
This ten days' space; and lest that I should sleep,
One plays continually upon a drum;
They give me bread and water, being a king:
So that, for want of sleep and sustenance,
My mind's distempered, and my body's numbed;
And whether I have limbs or no I know not.
Oh, would my blood dropped out from every vein,
As doth this water from my tattered robes.
Tell Isabel, the queen, I looked not thus
When for her sake I ran at tilt in France,
And there unhorsed the Duke of Cleremont.
Lightborn Oh, speak no more, my lord! This breaks my heart.
Lie on this bed, and rest yourself awhile.
King Edward -
These looks of thine can harbor naught but death:
I see my tragedy written in thy brows.
Yet stay: awhile forbear thy bloody hand,
And let me see the stroke before it comes;
That even then, when I shall lose my life.
My mind may be more steadfast on my God.


## p. 9726 (#134) ###########################################

9726
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Lightborn – What means your Highness to mistrust me thus ?
King Edward -
What mean'st thou to dissemble with me thus?
Lighthorn - These hands were never stained with innocent blood,
Nor shall they now be tainted with a king's.
King Edward –
Forgive my thought for having such a thought.
One jewel have I left; receive thou this. [Giving jewel. )
Still fear I, and I know not what's the cause,
But every joint shakes as I give it thee.
Oh, if thou harborest murder in thy heart,
Let this gift change thy mind, and save thy soul.
Know that I am a king - oh, at that name
I feel a hell of grief! Where is my crown?
Gone, gone! and do I still remain alive?
Lightborn – You're overwatched, my lord: lie down and rest.
King Edward -
But that grief keeps me waking, I should sleep:
For not these ten days have these eyelids closed.
Now as I speak they fall; and yet with fear
Open again. Oh, wherefore sitt'st thou here?
Lightborn — If you mistrust me, I'll begone, my lord.
King Edward-
No, no: for if thou mean'st to murder me,
Thou wilt return again; and therefore stay. [Sleeps. )
Lightborn - He sleeps.
King Edward [waking] -
Oh, let me not die yet! Oh, stay a while!
Lightborn — How now, my lord ?
King Edward -
Something still buzzeth in mine ears,
And tells me if I sleep I never wake;
This fear is that which makes me tremble thus.
And therefore tell me, Wherefore art thou come?
Lightborn To rid thee of thy life. — Matrevis, come!
Enter Matrevis and Gurney
King Edward -
I am too weak and feeble to resist :
Assist me, sweet God, and receive my soul!
Lightborn - Run for the table.
King Edward -
Oh, spare me, or dispatch me in a trice.
Matrevis brings in a table. )


## p. 9727 (#135) ###########################################

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
9727
Lightborn — So, lay the table down, and stamp on it,
But not too hard, lest that you bruise his body.
King Edward is murdered. ]
Matrev'is — I fear me that this cry will raise the town,
And therefore, let us take horse and away.
Lightborn Tell me, sirs, was it not bravely done?
Gurney - Excellent well: take this for thy reward.
[Gurney stabs Lightborn, who dies. ]
Come, let us cast the body in the moat,
And bear the King's to Mortimer our lord !
Away!
[Exeunt with the bodies.
FROM THE JEW OF MALTA)
ARABAS
B*
So that of thus much that return was made;
And of the third part of the Persian ships,
There was the venture summed and satisfied.
As for those Sabans, and the men of Uz,
That bought my Spanish oils and wines of Greece,
Here have I purst their paltry silverlings.
Fie; what a trouble 'tis to count this trash!
Well fare the Arabians, who so richly pay
The things they traffic for with wedge of gold,
Whereof a man may easily in a day
Tell that which may maintain him all his life.
The needy groom that never fingered groat
Would make a miracle of thus much coin;
But he whose steel-barred coffers are crammed full,
And all his lifetime hath been tired,
Wearying his fingers' ends with telling it,
Would in his age be loth to labor so,
And for a pound to sweat himself to death.