Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe (c. 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era.

Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?

Quotes

• Come live with me and be my Love,
  And we will all the pleasures prove
  That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
  Or woods or steepy mountain yields.

  And we will sit upon the rocks,
  And see 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.
  • The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (unknown date), stanzas 1 and 2. Compare: "To shallow rivers, to whose falls / Melodious birds sings madrigals; / There will we make our peds of roses, / And a thousand fragrant posies", William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. scene i. (Sung by Evans.)

Dido (c. 1586)

• You sons of care, companions of my course!
  • Aeneas, Act I, scene i, line 142

• Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend.
  • Aeneas, Act I, scene i, line 149

• What strange arts necessity finds out.
  • Venus, Act I, scene i, line 169

Tamburlaine (c. 1588)

• Time passeth swift away;
  Our life is frail, and we may die to-day.
  • Mycetes, Act I, scene i, line 68

• Our swords shall play the orators for us.
  • Techelles, Act I, scene ii, line 132

• Accurst be he that first invented war.
  • Mycetes, Part 1, Act II, scene iv, line 1

• Let Earth and Heaven his timeless death deplore,
  For both their worths shall equal him no more.
  • Amyras, Part 2, Act V, scene iii, lines 252–253

The Jew of Malta (c. 1589)

• I count religion but a childish toy,
  And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
  • Machiavel, Prologue

• And thus methinks should men of judgment frame
  Their means of traffic from the vulgar trade,
  And, as their wealth increaseth, so inclose
  Infinite riches in a little room.
  • Barabas, Act I, scene i. Paraphrasing John Heywood, "Here lyeth muche rychnesse in lytell space," in The Foure PP (c. 1530).

• Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.
  • Ferneze, Act I, scene ii

• Things past recovery
  Are hardly cured with exclamations.
  • Barabas, Act I, scene ii

• Religion
  Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.
  • Barabas, Act I, scene ii

• Now will I show myself to have more of the serpent than the dove; that is, more knave than fool.
  • Barabas, Act II, scene iii. Marlowe is referencing Jesus, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," in Matthew 10:16.

• Thou hast committed—
  Fornication: but that was in another country;
  And besides, the wench is dead.
  • Friar Barnardine and Barabas, Act IV, scene i

• Love me little, love me long.
  • Ithamore, Act IV. Quoting John Heywood, "Love me litle, love me long," in Proverbes (c. 1538), Part ii, Chapter ii.

• So, march away; and let due praise be given
  Neither to fate nor fortune, but to Heaven.
  • Ferneze, Act V

Edward II (c. 1592)

• My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
  Shall with their goat feet dance the antic hay.
  • Gaveston, Act I, scene i, lines 57–58

• What should a priest do with so fair a house?
  A prison may best beseem his holiness.
  • Gaveston, Act I, scene i, lines 204–205

• My swelling heart for very anger breaks.
  • King Edward, Act II, scene ii, line 197

• And let these tears, distilling from mine eyes,
  Be proof of my grief and innocency.
  • Mortimer, Act V, scene vi, line 100

Doctor Faustus (c. 1603)

Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd
In one self place; but where we are is hell,
And where hell is, there must we ever be.

• Che serà, serà:
  What will be, shall be.
  • Faustus, Act I, scene i, lines 47–58

• Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd
  In one self place; but where we are is hell,
  And where hell is, there must we ever be.
  • Mephistopheles, Act II, scene i, line 118

• When all the world dissolves,
  And every creature shall be purified,
  All places shall be hell that are not heaven.
  • Mephistopheles, Act II, scene i, line 120. In the first line, Marlowe references Isaiah in Isaiah 24:19 and 34:4; in the second line, he references Daniel in Daniel 12:10.

• 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!
  • Faustus, Act V, scene i, lines 91–93

• Pray for me! and what noise soever ye hear, come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me.
  • Faustus, Act V, scene ii, lines 57–58

• He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure fall.
  • Evil Angel, Act V, scene iv

Hero and Leander (published 1598)

• A pleasant-smiling cheek, a speaking eye,
  A brow for love to banquet royally.
  • First Sestiad

• It lies not in our power to love or hate,
  For will in us is overruled by fate.
  • First Sestiad

• Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?
  • First Sestiad. The same statement occurs in As You Like It (1600) by William Shakespeare, and a similar one in The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (1596) by George Chapman.

• Like untuned golden strings all women are,
  Which long time lie untouch'd, will harshly jar.
  Vessels of brass, oft handled, brightly shine.
  • First Sestiad

• All women are ambitious naturally.
  • First Sestiad

• Love always makes those eloquent that have it.
  • Second Sestiad

• Above our life we love a steadfast friend.
  • Second Sestiad

Disputed

• All they that love not tobacco and boys are fools.
  • Remark attributed to Marlowe from the testimony of Richard Baines, a government informer, in 1593.

Misattributed

• Comparisons are odious.
  • Lust's Dominion (c. 1600), Act iii. scene 4. The first edition attributed the authorship of this play to Marlowe, though this attribution has been recognized as spurious by critics and scholars for nearly two centuries. See Logan and Smith, Predecessors of Shakespeare, p. 32. But compare: "Comparisons are odious", John Fortescue, De Laudibus Leg. Angliæ, Chapter xix.

• I'm armed with more than complete steel,—
  The justice of my quarrel.
  • Lust's Dominion (c. 1600), Act iii. scene 4. Compare: "Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, And he but naked, though locked up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted", William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Act iii. scene 2.

External links

• The Marlowe Society
• Peter Farey's Marlowe Page
• The works of Marlowe at Perseus Project
• The Rose Theatre where Marlowe made his name
• Works by Christopher Marlowe at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Christopher Marlowe
• Marlowe Collection
• M.G. Scarsbrook's Marlowe Research Page
• “Hell” and “Soul” as cultural codes in Christopher Marlowe’s “Tragic history of the Life and death of Doctor Faustus”