Guest post: The two young men
Originally a comment by Tim Harris on His plays harbor problematic depictions and characterizations.
‘Edward II’ has a very strong relationship to Shakespeare’s ‘Richard II’ (one of my favourite plays, one that I have directed and acted in as Richard); it is the forerunner to Shakespeare’s play, and an influence on it, just as Marlowe’s poem ‘Hero & Leander’ (a wonderful poem) was a stimulus to Shakespeare to write ‘Venus & Adonis’. In ‘As You Like It’, Shakespeare makes a specific reference to Marlowe and ‘Hero & Leander’ when Phebe says:
Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,
‘Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?’
The second line is a a line from ‘Hero & Leander’. The dead shepherd is Marlowe.
I suspect the two young men worked together on some of the early history plays, which were not by Shakespeare alone, and in particular on ‘Edward III’, a play that is now recognised as almost certainly being in part by Shakespeare. They clearly stimulated each other. I put on and directed a production of it at the university I worked at in connexion with the British Council’s British arts festival in 1998, I think. It was the first production ever in Japan, and probably only the third or fourth full production for 400 years. The first half is, I believe, definitely by Shakespeare – it contains probably the first of Shakespeare’s great temptation scenes, when Edward attempts to seduce the Countess of Salisbury. In the second half, which is not so intimate and literary (by which I mean no criticism) but works wonderfully well as theatre (it is about the wars in France), there is one speech by Edward which has all the hallmarks of Marlowe, in its building and cutting away at the end almost to a kind of bathos. It was wonderful to work on a play that hadn’t been done thousands of times before.
The play of Marlowe’s I love best is ‘Dr Faustus’ (the first version), with Faustus’s final soliloquy, in which blank verse is used with a quite astonishing mastery, and an hour’s time is convincingly contracted on stage into a speech lasting about ten minutes.
The view of Shakespeare as an aristocrat who wrote plays in secret and then got some actor from Warwickshire to pretend he had written them; or the Romantic view of the solitary genius turning out great masterpieces are both annoying and don’t ring true. The view of Shakespeare as a member of a company collaborating on pieces for the next production strikes me as absolutely right. I’ve been part of a band. You turn up with a new song; the band arranges it; suggests re-writes; two of you maybe get together and find inspiration, spurring each other on like much lesser Lennon and Macartneys. You re-use old material; you maybe steal something you half remember. The Romantic artist wandering the moors listening to angelic voices isn’t a false view of some kinds of creation but the gang or duo in the studio/dirty room exciting each other to line after line, bouncing ideas around, is far more common.
If I may be so uncouth as to recommend something on the teevee, I’d like to point out that the BBC’s Upstart Crow has a great deal of fun with themes such as the solitary genius, blatant plagiarism, Marlowe as the secret author, snobbery about Shakespeare’s background, etc. (and also commuting on British public transport)
It led to a stage production this year which had to be cancelled due to the plague.
KBPlayer, yes, and also they’re so much less interesting. I’m fascinated by the relationship of the Chamberlain’s/King’s Men and Shakespeare, the collaboration, the in-jokes, the way the players available must have shaped the writing, all of it. That was one thing I loved about Shxpr in Love. (The not-credible Gwyneth Paltrow story line not so much.)
Makes a note of Upstart Crow. Thanks Banichi.
I’ve been meaning to watch Upstart Crow at some point, your recommendation has convinced me, Banichi.
@OB – I imagine an Elizabethan version of the Dick Van Dyke show. I always loved the scenes when the trio were writing jokes for Alan Brady. The idea that there must be a good solid comic role for Ned Farthington (known as Ned Fatbum) so we’ll have a lot of Falstaff in the Firft Part of Henry the Fourth with the Life and Death of Henry surnamed Hotspur – can we extend that? Did anyone ever say that young Prince Hal is the most hypocritical knave that ever wore a coronet?
Well, Banichi, thank you! And it is kind of you, Ophelia, to put this up as a guest post- I had not thought it worthy of the honour! I’ve watched what clips I can of ‘Upstart Crow’ (you can’t see more than very short clips here in Japan), and one of them was Marlowe’s ghost having a go at Robert Greene. They are all very funny.
And a happy new year of the sheep to all. I think it would be difficult for it to be worse than the last…
Just too much interesting stuff, Tim; I couldn’t risk front-page readers missing it.
This being the start of the Hogmanay holiday, and outside being snowy/icy I’ve watched a couple of episodes and thoroughly enjoyed them. The wordplay and allusions are very good and Marlowe’s Cool Lad against Shakespeare’s Suburban Dad is funny. David Mitchell always has to play the nerdy bloke who doesn’t get the girl.