"Christopher
("Kit") Marlowe (baptised February 26, 1564 – May 30,
1593) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan
era. Perhaps the foremost Elizabethan tragedian before Shakespeare, he
is known for his magnificent blank verse, his overreaching protagonists,
and his own untimely death." (wikipedia)
You need to know at least these two works by Marlowe: “The
Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and Doctor
Faustus. You should be familiar with the story of Faust
and the other writers who have written versions of this legend.
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- Come live with
me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals. (from "The
Passionate Shepherd to His Love")
- Was this the face
that launch'd 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 Wittenberg be sack'd;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appear'd to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour! (Faustus)
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