Dark Renaissance & Christopher Marlowe

 

First of all...Go Jays!

Now that I've expressed my bandwagon enthusiasm, on to today's blog entry.

I've just read a well-reviewed and intriguing book I'd never buy but was able to get through our wonderful library system. It is Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival by celebrated author Stephen Greenblatt. It's about 16th century playright Christopher Marlowe, brilliant and groundbreaking in his work. He was both a collaborator with William Shakespeare and his rival. 

The theatre was a primary form of entertainment in the period for both the rich and the poor and plays were often churned out by teams of writers to satisfy the demand. It's clear that the two authors, exact contemporaries, were well aware of the work of the other. Greenblatt, who has written extensively about Shakespeare, identifies that some of the significant developments in that writers style were likely influenced by his firsthand experience of Marlowe's work.

What struck me as I read is that this was such a dangerous time to live in England, in large part because of religion. Henry VIII not only created the Church of England, he viciously expunged much of Roman Catholicism and religious intolerance across the board was often meted out with violence and death. 

In many respects Britain became a cultural, theological, and scientific backwater, cut off from the rest of Europe. Those who challenged prevailing views about Heaven or the heavens were dealt with brutally and even conversations between supposedly friends could turn deadly. Challenging a literal interpretation of scripture or suggesting that our solar system was heliocentric could result in one's head on a pike. 

Marlowe was a lowly cobbler's son whose intellectual brilliance resulted in unlikely scholarships that took him to Cambridge and a Masters degree. The assumption was that this would lead to his ordination in the Anglican church but there is evidence that he just didn't accept the religious strictures of his time. He may have been an atheist, although to say so openly was a capital offence. His ground-breaking plays allowed him to express ideas through characters as entertainment that could have landed him in the Tower of London if offered elswhere. 

As I read this intriguing book I had my moments of dismay over how often religion, including Christianity, has been weaponized through the centuries. It has been used to squelch freedom of expression as well as honest exploration of many essential facets of life. The hypocrisy and brutality were a disgrace to the gospel of Jesus Christ wrapped up in the guise of religious fervour and devotion. And yes, this still happens, and close at hand. 

Greenblatt argues persuasively that Christopher Marlowe was an important figure in "breaking open the rigid carapace that had constricted the English creative spirit." I can't do the book justice in a few paragraphs but it opened my eyes to this era in which Francis Bacon declared that "knowledge is power." 

We wll never know how Marlowe's art and scope would have developed if he hadn't been stabbed to death at age 29, perhaps an assassination. He was a victim of the intrigue of the time and his own sometimes reckless embrace of innovation.