God's Spies - Spenser and Marlowe

Act 3 - The Sonnets and a 'Journey in my Head'

God’s Spies – Spenser and Marlowe

“Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies …” [from King Lear, Act V, scene iii]

This is a story about ‘William Shakespeare’. While some scholars assert that a different writer was the actual author of Shakespeare’s plays, like Francis Bacon or the Earl of Oxford, there’s not much evidence for these two. However, one other theory that gathers much evidence is that Christopher Marlowe was the actual playwright. Much has been written about Marlowe and much has been written about Shakespeare, and while some of it is very interesting, some of it is merely hearsay or gossip or imagined. Trying to unravel what is myth and what is possible, and what we should believe about their lives, is often a painstaking and thought-provoking exercise, but one that however might bring us a little closer to seeing the real ‘William Shakespeare’ and the real Christopher Marlowe, and to glimpse a story of what might have been.

Act 3 – The Sonnets and a ‘Journey in my Head’

a possible portrait of a ‘William Shakespeare’ [?]

It must also be remembered that Marlowe accepted this deal too, and so he began his journey. Having to flee in a hurry, Marlowe may have left behind some manuscripts of his plays, that could be used to begin the career of his nom de plume, ‘William Shakespeare’. Perhaps, we may assume these plays to be some of his early comedies – ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, and ‘The Comedy of Errors’, and some of his early history plays – ‘Henry VI, part 1, part 2, and part 3’, and an early tragedy – ‘Titus Andronicus’.

Perhaps one of the first plays that he began after his ‘death’ was ‘As You Like It’. In this play, Touchstone says :

“When a man’s verses cannot be understood, nor a man’s good wit seconded with the forward child understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room.”

Marlowe may be referring to the ‘le recknynge’ as ‘a reckoning in a little room’ that faked his ‘death’, and that when a man’s (i.e. Marlowe’s) verses aren’t understood, or when his good wit isn’t understood by the ‘forward child’ (i.e. the purported author), then that man feels deader than from a great ‘reckoning’ (his supposed murder). And also as Jacques says in this play:

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players”.                  

Later, Phoebe says:

“Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”

The dead shepherd (i.e. dead poet) and his saw (i.e. saying) then repeats, word for word – ‘who ever loved that loved not at first sight’ – a line that is taken directly from Marlowe’s ‘Hero and Leander’!!! [1^st sestiad, line 158] that was not to be published or read by others until 1598! Only Marlowe could have written this!

Since this play was set in France, we may assume that this is where Marlowe fled to. Another play that is also set in France is ‘Love’s Labours Lost’ – Marlowe’s report on the situation in France.

King Ferdinand of Navarre and his three companions swear off the company of women for three years, but their infatuation with the princess of France makes them break their promise. Could King Ferdinand be referring to (the future king) Henry Navarre and his three companions be referring to the Duc de Biron (i.e. Lord Berowne), the Duc de Mayenne (i.e. Lord Dumaine) and the Duc de Longueville (i.e. Lord Longaville). Could all this be referring to the three years of the war of succession, after the death of Henry III, until Henry Navarre denounced Protestantism and converted to Catholicism, for his love of France and to become king? Could the Spanish visitor be referring to the Spanish intrigues behind the succession? With his report on France done, Marlowe could continue on his journey.

Now, ask yourself, if you were a young 29-year-old aspiring playwright and about to start on your life’s journey, where would you want to go, to learn and hone your craft? Why, to Italy, of course – the home of the Renaissance, in painting, architecture, dance, music, opera and especially in poetry, prose and plays!

[And perhaps, he may have wished to maintain his ‘double-agent’ identity, and so, he may have journeyed to that stronghold of Jesuit (and Venetian) thinking, the university at Padua, where he could both appear to be studying with them, but also gathering intelligence on them! Perhaps.]

On his journey, Marlowe may have taken with him a book, ‘The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland’, written by Raphael Holinshed in 1575, that he could use for ideas in writing more of his history plays, including:

‘Richard II’ and ‘Richard III’, ‘King John’, and ‘Henry IV – parts I and II’.

Marlowe may also have taken with him another book, ‘Palace of Pleasure’ written by William Painter in 1575, that was filled with a hundred different stories, including some English versions of Italian novellas that were taken from Giovanni Boccaccio, Gianfranceso Straparola, Matteo Bandello and Giovanni Giraldo (Cinthio) – stories that Marlowe could use as sources for ideas in developing plots for more of his comedy plays.

And perhaps at this time, he may have received a copy of Edmund Spenser’s recently published ‘Amoretti’ sonnets and his ‘Four Hymns’ – to Love, Beauty, Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty. And so on his journey, Marlowe could have begun his own book of love sonnets, while also recognizing his need for anonymity :                     

“Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage

Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit;

To thee I send this written ambassage

To witness duty, not to show my wit …

Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee,

Til then, not show my head where thou mayest prove me.” (sonnet 26)

But also in these sonnets, he could write of his other journey - ‘a journey in my head’ :             

“Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired,

But then begins a journey in my head

To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired …” (sonnet 27)                                       

Another one of his plays, that is partly set in France and partly set in Italy, is ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’, whose plot is from a story in ‘Decameron’ by Boccaccio, wherein Helena fakes her death in order to entrap her husband.

[This same theme of ‘supposed’ death (like his ‘reckoning’) would be repeated in many of his future comedies.]

With this play’s setting in France and in Italy, perhaps, we can assume that Marlowe didn’t stay long in France, and slowly travelled on his donkey through the mountain paths of the Alps to Italy :                                 

“… Full many a glorious morning have I seen,

Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,

Kissing with golden face the meadows green;

Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy …” (sonnet 33)                       

“… The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,

Plods duly on, to bear that weight in me

As if by some instinct the wretch did know

His rider loved not speed, being made from thee …” (sonnet 50)  

Marlowe would continue writing comedy plays, that he found stories for, in ‘Palace of Pleasure’, including :

‘Romeo and Juliet’, set in Verona and taken from Bandello, has Juliet feigning to be dead to avoid a marriage;

‘Much Ado About Nothing’, set in Messina and taken from Bandello, has Hero feigning death to cause remorse;

‘Twelfth Night’, set in Illyria and taken from Bandello, has Sebastion and Viola presuming each other dead;

‘Measure for Measure’, set in Vienna and taken from Cinthio, has Claudio assumed dead to avoid execution; and,

‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, (one of his masterpieces) set in Athens, has Pyramus mistakenly think that Thisbe is dead, and that makes use of ‘a play within a play’, to show that things may not always be as they appear to be.

[In ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ we have Oberon, king of the Fairies, and Titania, queen of the Fairies, that had to remind the audience of Gloriana from Spenser’s ‘Faerie Queene’.]

In ‘The Merchant of Venice’, set in and around Venice and taken from a novella by Giovanni Fiorentino, Portia is presented as a disguised, young male lawyer, and although she wins the court case on a ‘technicality’, she talks of a higher sense of justice, above simple logic – mercy.

It also presents the case of Shylock, and the way that Jewish people living in Venice were barred from all types of employment, except sellers of used clothing (rags) and owners of pawn shops (money lending) and were forced to live in ghettos. The way that Shylock is treated, is there any wonder at the way that he acts?

[But is this any different from the actions of those ‘Christians who were not Christians’, such as those of the Venetian Party who were intent on inciting both sides in religious wars.]

Perhaps Marlowe used Portia in the same way that Aeschylus used Athena to change the Erinyes from seekers of justice through vengeance (i.e. blood for blood) into the ‘kindly ones’ of a new compassionate form of justice. A forced conversion is a technicality, it doesn’t provide a reason for a conversion. For a true ecumenical approach, one must get at the essence of justice, and not simply the mere appearance of legalistic dogmas, codes and rituals – things that may not always be as they appear to be.

Perhaps, Marlowe had in mind the 1598 Edict of Nantes. Henry IV of France (with troops sent from Elizabeth of England) finally ended France’s war with Philip II of Spain, forcing the surrender of the Spanish army in France at Amiens in September 1597. Then in April 1598, Henry IV signed the Edict of Nantes that restored civil rights to the Huguenots (and granted them protection from the Inquisition). In May 1598, the Peace of Vervins was signed, between France, Spain and the delegates of Pope Clement VIII, that recognized Henry as king of France, and that withdrew all Spanish forces from France – and withdrew Spanish support for Guise’s Catholic League.

Then, in 1598, a ‘William Shakespeare’ was listed as one of the actors in the cast that performed Ben Jonson’s ‘Every Man in his Humour’.

But, was this actor, the uneducated and untrained William Shakespeare from Stratford-upon-Avon, who would return to London during ‘theatre season’, OR was it the Cambridge-educated and dramatist Christopher Marlowe – using his pen-name ‘William Shakespeare’?

I would like to assume that Marlowe had by this time returned from his (5 year) exile to London, and that it may have been either Marlowe, or Shakespeare from Stratford, that was this actor. Both hypotheses seem possible.

In the spring of the fateful year of 1598, to honour the wedding of Thomas Walsingham who had been a patron to both Christopher Marlowe and to George Chapman, Marlowe’s unfinished poem ‘Hero and Leander’ was published, and dedicated to Walsingham, by Marlowe’s friend, the publisher Edward Blount, on Marlowe’s behalf. A second publication was the finished poem, that included Marlowe’s two sestiads plus four additional sestiads written by Chapman (?) and dedicated to Lady Audrey Walsingham.

It would seem that Chapman had somehow received a posthumous request from Marlowe to finish the poem!?! Or perhaps, Marlowe had returned from his ‘exile’ and had finished the poem, but since he was ‘dead’ it couldn’t be attributed to him as the author, and was attributed instead to his friend, Chapman.

But that first dedication, written by Blount, isn’t about Walsingham at all, it’s about Marlowe !!! :

“Sir, we think not ourselves discharged of the duty we owe to our friend when we have brought the breathless body to the earth; for, albeit the eye there taketh his ever-farewell of that beloved object, yet the impression of the man that hath been dear unto us, living an after-life in our memory, there putteth us in mind of farther obsequies due unto the deceased; and namely the performance of whatsoever we may judge shall make to his living credit and to the effecting of his determinations prevented by the stroke of death.

By these meditations (as by an intellectual will) I suppose myself executor to the unhappy deceased author of this poem, upon whom knowing that in his lifetime you bestowed many kind favours, entertaining the parts of reckoning and worth which you found in him with good countenance and liberal affection, I cannot but see so far into the will of him dead, that whatsoever issue of his brain should chance to come abroad, that the first breath it should take might be the gentle air of your liking; for, since his self had been accustomed thereunto, it would prove more agreeable and thriving to his right children than any other foster countenance whatsoever …” [emphasis added]                    

First, let’s look at the cryptic references to ‘will’ and the ‘reckoning’ – this could be a hint that Marlowe’s patron, Walsingham, and his friends, Blount and Chapman, knew that Marlowe was ‘Shakespeare’. That same reference to ‘Will’ can also be seen in two of his sonnets:

[Note: in the 1609 publication of the Sonnets, ‘Will’ is capitalized]

“… So true a fool is love, that in your Will,       

(Though you do any thing) he thinks no ill.” (sonnet 57)                                

“… So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Will,

If thou turn back and my loud crying still.” (sonnet 143)

Second, we look at the reference to his ‘good countenance’ rather than his ‘foster countenance’ – this could refer to a spate of slanders and defamations that began to appear against him, after his ‘reckoning’ and ‘death’. 

Thomas Beard (‘Theatre of Gods Judgements’, 1597) writes that :

“not inferior to any former in Atheism and impiety, and equal to all manner of punishment was one of our own nation, of fresh and late memory, called Marlin …”

Francis Meres (‘Palladis Tamia’, 1598) repeats that :

“as Iodelle, a French tragical poet being an Epicure and an Atheist made a pitiful end: so our tragical poet Marlow for his Epicurism and Atheism had a tragical death …”

William Vaughan (‘Golden Grove’, 1600) also writes that :

“not inferior to these was one Christopher Marlow by profession a playmaker, who as it is reported, about 7 years ago wrote a book against the Trinity: but see the effects of God’s justice … Thus did God, the true executioner of divine justice, work the end of impious Atheists.”

But Marlowe could only silently watch and listen as his good name was being dragged through the mud.                                    

“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon my self and curse my fate … (sonnet 29)                                   

Third, we look at the reference to an ‘issue of his brain’ and his ‘right children’ – this may refer to his brilliant use of metaphor that is seen in those first fourteen sonnets, that he would place at the beginning of the ‘Sonnets’.

These first fourteen sonnets begin with the idea of our love of beauty and how beauty needs to be reproduced, not left to die, and secondly, to the idea that one’s beauty and truth can live on again in one’s offspring.

“From fairest creatures we desire increase,

That thereby beauty’s Rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory …” (sonnet 1)

“… Or else of thee this I prognosticate,

Thy end is Truth’s and Beauty’s doom and date.” (sonnet 14)                   

This is done so that those sonnets could be talking about either of these ideas or about both at the same time. Then in sonnets 15 to 19, we see that love of beauty and truth can also live in one’s verses – i.e. the ‘issue of his brain’:

“… And all in war with time for love of you

As he takes from you, I ingraft you new.” (sonnet 15)

“… Yet do thy worst old time despite thy wrong,

My love shall in my verse ever live young.” (sonnet 19)

Now, Marlowe continues with sonnets 20 to 25, with a changed view of seeing what beauty and love are:                               

“… O learn to read what silent love hath writ,

To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit.” (sonnet 23)                                            

“… Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art

They draw but what they see, know not the heart.” (sonnet 24)

[ next week - Act 4 - Achilles and Essex ]