Diversity in the Simultaneity

by Len Bourret (Copyright 2006)

 

My response to Christopher Marlowe.

 
It lies within our power to love or hate,
for will in us is not overruled by fate.
When two are stripped, long or short
ere the course ends or begins.
We wish that one should lose, while
the other wins.
And one, especially, do we affect.
Appearing to be the same, they are
not both ingots--but quite unlike in
each respect.
For reasons each man knows, buried
in the unconsciousness avoidance's
denial, and not suffice.
What we behold is censured by our eyes.
Both are deliberate choices: love is like the
day, and hate is like the night.
There is great diversity in the simultaneity.
We choose to love or hate--but do not act,
necessarily, upon first sight.

 

 

Who Ever Loved, That Loved Not At First Sight?

by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)

 

It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overruled by fate.
When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should love, the other win;
And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
The reason no man knows, let it suffice,
What we behold is censured by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

 

 

Historical Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe

 

The most famous tribute to Marlowe was paid by Shakespeare in As You Like It, where he not only quotes a line from Hero and Leander (Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?") but also gives to the clown Touchstone the words "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." This appears to be a reference to Marlowe's murder (which involved a fight over the 'reckoning' - the bill). Shakespeare was indeed very influenced by Marlowe in his early work as can be seen in the re-using of Marlowe themes in Anthony and Cleopatra, The Merchant Of Venice, Richard II, and Macbeth (Dido, Jew of Malta, Edward II and Dr Faustus respectively). Indeed in Hamlet, after meeting with the travelling actors, Hamlet starts discussing Dido, Queen of Carthage and quoting from it. As this was Marlowe's only play not to have been played in the public theatre we can see that Shakespeare was quite the Marlovian scholar. Indeed in Love's Labour's Lost, echoing Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris, Shakespeare brings on a character called Marcade (French for Mercury - the messenger of the Gods - a nickname Marlowe bestowed upon himself) who arrives to 'interrupt'st' the 'merriment' with news of the King's death. A fitting tribute for one who delighted in destruction in his plays.

 

Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe...

www.perseus.tufts.edu/Texts/Marlowe.html

Given the murky inconsistencies concerning the account of Marlowe's death, an ongoing conspiracy theory has arisen centred on the notion that Marlowe may have faked his death and then continued to write under the assumed name of William Shakespeare. Authors who have propounded this theory include:

• Wilbur Gleason Zeigler It Was Marlowe (1895)
• Calvin Hoffman, The Murder of the Man Who Was Shakespeare (1955)... www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/muchado/readings/hoffman.html
• Louis Ule, Christopher Marlowe (1564-1607): A Biography
• AD Wraight, The Story that the Sonnets Tell (1994)

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