Christopher Marlowe in Literature

Harald Karlström came to the conclusion in 1928 that Christopher Marlowe was not suitable as a fictional character.

"Wenn wir uns zuletzt mit der Frage beschäftigen, ob Marlowe eine passende Gestalt für ein Drama ist, muss man dieses bezweifeln. Weil wenig von Marlowes äusserem Schicksale überliefert worden ist, kann er auf der Bühne schwer lebendig gemacht werden. Um von dem Publikum verstanden zu werden, muss sein Leben in grösseren Zügen bekannt sein, […]."¹

For over 200 years, that hasn’t stopped people from making Marlowe appear in all sorts of literary genres. Ludwig Tieck made the beginning.

Dichterleben

William Shakespeare had a special place in German² Romanticism. He was not only a popular subject of research, but also a figure of identification and a powerful argument against representatives of other literary movements or views. Not without reason, the term "Shakespeareo mania" emerged during this period. For most, Ludwig Tieck’s connection to Shakespeare is limited to the so-called Schlegel-Tieck translation of the plays.³ His engagement with Elizabethan theatre went far beyond this. Tieck brought hitherto completely unknown plays from England, dealt with stage construction and performance practice and had Shakespeare appear repeatedly in his own works. One of these is the novella Dichterleben from 1825.

The action takes place in 1593 London, where Robert Greene and Christopher Marlowe meet a stranger at an inn whom they mistake for a clerk. They are joined by Squire Wallborn and his pageboy. A conversation begins, during which the stranger is very reserved, but a dispute nevertheless arises with Marlowe, who decries his statements as amateurish. He then persuades Greene and the clerk to accompany him to the chiromancer Martiano. He prophesies great misfortune for Greene, imminent death for Marlowe and success and everlasting fame for the unknown. Of course, all this comes true in a very short time. Greene, who has just reconciled with his wife, betrays her again and therefore gets into serious trouble of conscience. Marlowe happened to attend a performance of Romeo and Juliet, which made him realise that Shakespeare, unknown to him, had far more talent than he has. The clerk turns out to be Shakespeare and disaster takes its course. Greene dies of self-reproach. Marlowe visits his former mistress, but meets his death in an argument with her new lover. Shakespeare witnesses him in his last breaths and mourns the passing of the artist he so admired.

Tieck’s Marlowe is prejudiced, impatient, arrogant, challenging and has nothing for Shakespeare’s opinion. Statements that speak against the so revered poet are all put into Marlowe’s mouth. Shakespeare, on the other hand, is polite, reserved, modest, noble – in short, just the way Tieck wanted him to be.⁴ Whereby this transfigured idea was not only the result of wishful thinking, but also Tieck’s reading of Shakespeare’s works. That Marlowe doubts himself and recognises Shakespeare’s genius after a performance of Romeo and Juliet, of all things, is probably only understandable from the point of view of the Romantics. But it is not only in terms of character that the playwrights diverge here. Shakespeare embodies Romanticism and the fellow poet becomes its antithesis. Marlowe turns out to be "ein aus einer Art prophetischen Wahnsinns dichtendes Sturm-und-Dranggenie, dem der Humor versagt ist."⁵ He is the natural gift who draws from inspiration rather than art, and represents views that were obsolete for the Romantics.

After Dichterleben

His enthusiasm for Shakespeare made him an inspiration for many, mostly completely untalented writers or those who thought they were. Representative of the large number of inglorious works is the one with the most melodious title: Adolf Reich’s Der Schwan von Avon oder Shakespeares Rosen und Dornen (1864). Marlowe was almost entirely spared this in the German-speaking world. Despite the widespread Shakespeareo mania, however, Tieck’s Marlowe found his admirers, such as Adelaide Reinhold, who wrote to Ludwig Tieck on 19 June 1829 about his novella:

"Wie herrlich zeichnen Sie den Kampf der wilden chaotischen Kraft mit dem menschlichen, den Kampf der Götter mit den Titanen, wie lernen wir Ihren Dichter lieben und bewundern, wie trifft er so wahr und so entschieden immer das Rechte, und doch können wir dabey auch dem Titanen Marlowe unsre Liebe und Bewundrung nicht versagen, ja er reißt sie gewissermaaßen noch mehr an sich, als Shakespear, den Sie mehr als die ruhige Critik auftreten lassen, er erobert unsre Zuneigung wie der Handelnde es immer thut, während der andre sie von Rechtswegen gewinnt. Ich finde in dieser Novelle den Stoff zu einem Trauerspiele, welches Sie Marlowe nennen könnten, und über welches ich Göthe’s Motto schreiben möchte: „Auch ohne Parz’ und Fatum spricht mein Mund, ging Agamemnon, ging Achill zu Grund,“ und dem es nur noch an Handlung fehlte, denn den ganzen innern Gehalt eines Trauerspiels, die Gedanken, welche sich unter einander verklagen und nicht aufs Reine kommen können, ja es ihrer Grundanlage nach vielleicht nie können, hat Ihre Novelle schon. Es ist eine Göttergestalt dieser Marlowe, der an nichts als an sich selbst hätte zu Grunde zu gehen können."⁶

In 1836 Reinhold’s proposal became reality. Karl Johann Braun von Braunthal adopted verbatim dialogues from Dichterleben for his drama Shakespeare.⁷ The four-act drama Christoph Marlow by Ernst von Wildenbruch had its world premiere in Hanover on 6 May 1884 without achieving the desired success. The first performance in Berlin on 14 December of the same year was followed by great applause, which Theodor Fontane could only partly endorse in his criticism.⁸ Since then, Marlowe has probably only set foot on a German stage twice more. In 1953, the drama Christopher Marlowe’s Ende was published, for which Marcel Gero received the Welti Prize the following year. Axel Hinz’s drama Marlowe. Mörder. Shakespeare had its premiere in Koblenz on 14 July 2010.

Marlowe’s Fictional Life

In England it was quite different. Marlowe first appeared there as a literary figure in 1837 in the reading drama The Death of Marlowe by Richard Henry Horne.

Marlowe loves the courtesan Cecilia. Although his friends Heywood and Middleton enlighten him about the woman’s true character and she herself does not value unconditional affection, Marlowe cannot let go of her. A fight ensues with Cecilia’s pimp, who stabs Marlowe.

Horne’s Marlowe is a prototype of romanticism: rapturous, weak, melancholic, caught up in his idealised passion and living only for the moment. He projects wishes and illusions onto his beloved, which she can never or will never live up to. Leigh Hunt, to whom the drama is also dedicated, was one of the first in England at the time for whom Marlowe was a romantic rebel. Then came a long period of literary silence. It was only when English enthusiasm for Marlowe reached unimagined proportions that playwrights discovered him for themselves. W. L. Courtney’s Kit Marlowe’s Dead was shown in London in 1890 and was even set to music eight years later by Herbert Bedford.⁹ It was followed by Josephine Preston Peabody’s Marlowe (1901), Clemence Dane’s Will Shakespeare (1921), Ernest Milton’s Christopher Marlowe (1924) and C. E. Lawrence’s The Reckoning (1939). None of these works made a lasting impression. Wilbur G. Zeigler’s 1895 It was Marlowe was Marlowe’s first acquaintance with English fiction prose. It was also the first presentation – fictional, mind you – of the idea that Marlowe had written Shakespeare’s plays. From the 1970s onwards, it was primarily novels in which Marlowe appeared. In 1992, Peter Whelan’s drama The School of Night ushered in a Marlowe renaissance for the stage. Although theatre is less fruitful than fiction in their dealing with Marlowe, the representatives of both genres have in common that they are:

"[…] in the spirit of Genet, portray the homosexual outsider, challenger of convention, and opponent of a dehumanizing orthodoxy – a champion whom all who feel rebellious can applaud. In doing so, these authors probably wrest history to suit their own ends by portraying the Elizabethan backstage world as a hotbed of sexual laissez-faire and experimental lifestyles."¹⁰

Marlowe For the Ears

There is at least one radio play version in English of all Marlowe’s dramas. Only Bernhard Klaus Tragelehn’s radio play of The Massacre at Paris is available in German.

The US station WNYC broadcast a thirty-minute episode about Christopher Marlowe in the series Human Adventure on 11 October 1950.
In December 1993, the BBC broadcast four episodes of Ged Parson’s The Christopher Marlowe Mysteries. It wasn’t until 2010 that the channel turned its attention to Marlowe again with Michael Butts' The Killing.
Presumably Charles Nicholl does not see his work The Reckoning as fiction. Nevertheless, it was dramatised by Mike Walker and also went on air in this form on the BBC in May 2022.

Ulrich Land’s Marlowe’s Drama was broadcast on DeutschlandRadio Berlin in 2003. What was particularly refreshing about it was the portrayal of Shakespeare as a conceited, exploitative, untalented, pretentious cutthroat, against whom all the other characters seem downright sympathetic. There is also a radio play version of Dieter Kühn’s novel Geheimagent Marlowe: Roman eines Mordes.

Christopher Marlowe as a Fictional Figure – A List

Elisabeth Riba listed the fictional representations of Marlowe in the English-speaking world until 2007. Unfortunately, this website can only be accessed archivally. I have therefore tried my hand at a list of my own, starting with Tieck’s Dichterleben. When I was young and idealistic (a very long time ago), I actually had the ambition to read all these works. A few dramas later, it had shrunk noticeably. I switched to fiction (I wish I’d stuck to drama!). After A Dead Man in Deptford and Tamburlaine must die I vowed never again to pick up any book that featured Marlowe as a fictional character. Life is simply too short to waste it reading such things. So if anyone was hoping for an in-depth review or reading recommendations, I have to disappoint them. Although this list is limited to English- and German-language literature, it is guaranteed not to be complete. Pretty sure there are still epics, poetry books, colouring books, etc. that are about Marlowe. I am very grateful for any hint of a title I have forgotten. Incidentally, I didn’t break my vow until 2021, when I read the All Souls trilogy, because I expected a historian to have a more solid grasp of the material. Probably a bit of a stretch for a novel about witches, vampires and time travel, but Deborah Harkness is absolutely right about one thing: Christopher Marlowe is a demon, because there is at least one person who is possessed by him.