"Hero and Leander" by Savator Rosa‘Hero, Leander and Marlowe’: A Poem by Brian Yapko The Society November 20, 2023 Love Poems, Poetry 24 Comments . Hero, Leander and Marlowe Setting: Christopher Marlowe’s flat in London. Date: May 29, 1593. At last I see the tyrant in the Muse— She captivates, but those she loves she kills. Like Mephistopheles, adept at ruse, She forces me to plot out what she wills. Now trapped within my Spider-Muse’s web I pen a tale I’ve known since doe-eyed youth— Of lovers lost together at tide’s ebb, Whose tragic fates vouch proof of life’s bleak truth. ‘Twas as a schoolboy learning Ovid’s Latin That first I heard of Hero and Leander. I saw her—lovely virgin!—garbed in satin; I saw him—pale, yet strong as Alexander. Their story has been told since ancient days: How Hero, priestess of great Aphrodite While at a festival attracts the gaze Of young Leander. Waxing bold and mighty, He vows to woo and win her virgin heart. Though Hero dwells across the Hellespont Its churning waves cannot keep them apart, For youth is bound to drink from rapture’s font— A rapture I confess I crave as well. But mark this, for the truth grows ever stranger: I’ve come to love them both! Now mark my hell: Despite this love, I must place them in danger! Their tale floods forth like waters through the strait. Leander’s passion rules him as he strips And swims the Hellespont defying fate. He’ll find her. She shall tremble. They’ll join lips. At last Leander reaches Hero’s shore; He climbs her tower with a serenade. He knocks; she blushes opening the door For he’s unclothed, his secrets full-displayed. Yet Hero’s touched to see the sacrifice Leander’s made: his sighs, his search, his swim. Nor do his manly charms fail to entice; And so she gives her chastity to him. They fall in love—a love I think much grander Than any that the gods themselves have known. And all that summer Hero and Leander Despair of any moment spent alone. She beckons him by lighting a bright flare— The signal that he’s wanted and should brave The Hellespont. They soon breathe the same air And satisfy the joining that both crave. Leander’s midnight swims, their secret passion; Their misery when faced with separation… The tale I write transcends both myth and fashion, For I have grown to love them! O, damnation! I love them both! They’re part of me. They’re real! How can I steer them now to their sad fate? Leander, Hero—everything you feel I feel as well! And for my Muse? Dark hate. For winter comes. The Hellespont grows cold; But lonely Hero acts as if it weren’t. She lights her flare. Leander, ever bold, Swims toward her through the strait’s relentless current. . Then… agony! Cruel wind blows out the light! Leander’s lost! He’s weak! He perishes. When Hero sees his corpse from turret’s height, She leaps to join the man she cherishes. The bodies of both lovers are… but wait! What if these sadder parts are never penned? The Muse may rail but what if I tempt fate By choosing not to write their tragic end? My skill with words must not abet their death And rend forever true love’s deepest bliss! I’d just as soon a dagger end my breath, And render me immortal with its kiss. . Poet’s Note: Christopher Marlowe never completed his version of “Hero and Leander,” ending the poem midway through the happy summer of the lovers’ romance. Marlowe was murdered on May 30, 1593—stabbed to death for unknown reasons. Although there have been many theories, none has been proven. Over four-hundred years later, the identity of the great poet’s murderer remains a mystery. . . Brian Yapko is a lawyer who also writes poetry. He lives in Wimauma, Florida. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. 24 Responses Joseph S. Salemi November 20, 2023 This is a delightful piece. It’s true — we poets tend to fall in love with the characters we create, and we don’t relish killing them. And the poet comes up with a plausible reason why Marlowe never finished writing “Hero and Leander.” It’s purely fictive, but that’s what fictive mimesis is. The poem’s last line is a nice way to conclude — by making reference to the famous words in Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus,” where the main character speaks to the demonically represented Helen of Troy during lovemaking. Marlowe’s murder is like the Kennedy assassination. We will never get the full truth. Too many powerful persons wanted Kit Marlowe out of the way. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 When I started having real grief for poetic characters who I had to lead into tragedy because it was demanded by history I knew that that this was something I wanted to write about. I think this emotional response is something many writers experience. The story of Marlowe never finishing “Hero and Leander” and then being killed gave me the exact historical/literary situation I needed to describe that feeling. I appreciate your indulgence regarding my unique take on the mysterious facts. I’m especially pleased that you like that closing line which, of course, alludes to Marlowe’s most famous passage: Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?/Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss…” Thank you very much for your comment and appreciation, Joe! Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant November 20, 2023 Brian, what a beautifully thought out and magnificently woven tour de force of a poem that has a touch of genius in its glorious imaginings. As ever the language is smooth and mellifluous, serving to paint, with poetic aplomb, linguistic pictures in a lush merge of bright and dark shades that engaged and thoroughly entertained this reader with its tale of wonder. The intrigue of the title has instant literary appeal and the imagery shines. I especially like, “Now trapped within my Spider-Muse’s web” – these potent words say so much about the relationship with the Muse. I simply adore the poet’s rebellion in the prophetic closing couplet. Brian, I believe that this is one of your finest! It’s a real privilege to read. Thank you! Reply Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Susan, I’m over-the-moon delighted that you like this poem which addresses the writer’s emotional response to the poem he/she writes. Thank you! That I got to write this based on a real historical and literary mystery was a gift from my own Muse! As for that “Spider-Muse…” It feels that way sometimes, doesn’t it? You’re caught in her web and you have to keep going with a writing project, consequences be damned! We ignore such a summons at our own risk! Reply Roy Eugene Peterson November 20, 2023 This is a poem of “heroic” proportions. The story seems like the perfect prequel to “Romeo and Juliet.” Given the date of 1593, the connection to William Shakespeare is palpable. According to “Wikipedia,” “The Marlovian (Marlowe) theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that the Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe was the main author of the poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Further, the theory says Marlowe did not die in Deptford on 30 May 1593, as the historical records state, but that his death was faked. Marlovians…base their argument on supposed anomalies surrounding Marlowe’s reported death and on the significant influence which, according to most scholars, Marlowe’s works had on those of Shakespeare. (That is the reason I cited “Romeo and Juliet.”) They also point out the coincidence that, despite their having been born only two months apart, the first time the name William Shakespeare is known to have been connected with any literary work was with the publication of “Venus and Adonis” just a week or two after the death of Marlowe. The argument against this is that Marlowe’s death was accepted as genuine by sixteen jurors at an inquest held by the Queen’s personal coroner, that everyone apparently thought that he was dead at the time, and that there is a complete lack of direct evidence supporting his survival beyond 1593. How is this for a conspiracy theory: Shakespeare or an associate murdered Marlowe and stole his unfinished transcripts which he fashioned into an incomparable literary career! Reply Joseph S. Salemi November 20, 2023 Well, let’s not let things get completely out of hand. Marlowe’s literary style is not at all like that of Shakespeare, and the evidence for the latter’s connection with the works published under his name is clear and overwhelming. Anti-Stratfordianism is a rabbit hole that no one should enter. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 I tend to agree, Joe. In the way that all writers are influenced by other people’s work which they admire, it seems probable to me that Shakespeare was influenced by Marlow –especially if you credit Oxford University Press’s determination that Marlow co-authored Henry VI parts I, II and III with Shakespeare. But I don’t believe there’s anything beyond that. And I frankly don’t understand the basis for that university determination on the Henrys since it’s derived entirely on “use of language.” Any self-respecting writer can readily write in the style of another author who he/she admires. It has happened multiple times on this very site. So to me, that argument is rather subjective and meaningless. As I said to Roy, I studied Shakespeare quite a bit at U.C.L.A. On top of reading all of his works, I’ve also read biographies of him and even wrote a short story about him and his favorite lead actor, Richard Burbage. I’ve seen nothing in either his works or the historical record to convince me that Shakespeare is not the author of his own plays and poems. As far as I can tell, most of the theories against his authorship condescendingly suggest that a young man from a humble background in Stratford could not have been exposed to so much culture as to be capable of writing his works. But that argument is unconvincing to me. It relies too much on the idea of class and underestimates the ability of a brilliant mind to read, educate and better himself. Shakespeare did not passively sit at some ivory tower desk and churn out masterpiece after masterpiece. He was surely an inquisitive and ambitious man who had an eye on the box office as much as on posterity. Such a complex man is capable of creating great things — especially in the world of drama. Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 I appreciate the wink in your description of this poem as “heroic,” Roy! Thank you very much for the kind comment and thank you as well for the interesting historical facts behind the relationship between Marlowe and Shakespeare. Your familiarity with the subject tells me that Shakespearian authorship is a something that has intrigued you well before publication of my poem! I confess that I’m Team Shakespeare on this. I studied quite a bit of Shakespeare as an undergrad at U.C.L.A. where I first learned that questions existed concerning Shakespeare’s authorship of his works. But I never encountered any evidence, either textual or historical, that caused me to doubt Shakespeare. In my view, there’s too much contemporaneous evidence of his authorship. Still, the intrigue of speculating on alternative authorship can be irresistible. People love a good mystery. Reply Jeff Eardley November 20, 2023 Brian, what a literary feast today. I had to visit Marlowe’s epic before reading, and thoroughly enjoying yours. Once again, you have entertained and educated simultaneously. I hope Bill the Quill, as he is referred to over here, retains his reputation. A really great piece and up there with your best. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Thank you very much, Jeff! I’ve never heard the Runyonesque moniker “Bill the Quill” and will have to start using it. In the finest Guys and Dolls tradition, it makes Shakespeare sound like a slightly-menacing but jovial gangster. Reply Margaret Coats November 20, 2023 Athletic, erotic, ecstatic, melodramatic, and tragic! Brian, what magic you make of two tales that are classic. “Youth is bound to drink from rapture’s font.” That line goes for the love story and the playwright story, and it’s the best Marlowe comment one could imagine. Two of my fellow graduate students bemoaned their lost youth at 25 because they had done nothing like Christopher, and here you are time-traveling into his psyche and coming back with the landscape in your own poem. Its smiling amorous appeal shows up in “despair of any moment spent alone,” with an authentic and possessive ache of love and danger. The concluding death-and-immortality wish reveals English Renaissance ambition, but also seems characteristic of our introspective age when psychology presents itself an analytical science. Those are my favorites lines and the features that most impress me. The poem as a whole is almost frightening to read, again an effect I attribute to your dramatic skill and intent. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Margaret, thank you for this very generous comment. I am so pleased that you found magic in both the ancient story and the Elizabethan “wrap-around” story. I’m more than a little pleased that you found the poem a bit frightening to read. I think “melodrama” is an apt description for the parts of it that concern the speaker’s own involvement in the tragic story. Marlowe was a somewhat dramatic, unconventional man who faced a dramatic, unconventional end. I hoped that the reader would derive some anxiety from my poem once he/she realizes that it takes place just one day before Marlowe’s mysterious murder. The sense of menace as between the poet and his “Spider-Muse” is quite intentional and there are questions here of free agency once the poet begins a project and is impelled (compelled?) to see it through to the end. I went to the extreme end of the spectrum in contemplating the consequences of disobeying the Muse but this is, after all, fiction. My theory concerning Marlowe’s death is as valid as any other and, for me, poetically satisfying. Reply Margaret Coats November 21, 2023 Your theory of Marlowe’s death is, I suppose, that the Spider Muse killed him. Maybe using his own dagger? Well, having thought about the poem overnight, I’ll say I get a more Faustian feeling about it. I was not frightened by the Spider Muse, but by some spirit in the piece, whom we might name Mephistophilis. By choosing the date you, Brian, set up a time frame like the final day and hour in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. The setting in Marlowe’s flat corresponds to the setting of most of the play in Faustus’ study. You have Marlowe say, “Mark my hell.” He uses the word “fate” three times, once about Leander, once about Hero and Leander, and finally “tempt fate” about himself. The idea of written text causing or confirming events appears in the play when Mephistophilis says Faustus must damn his soul not just by spoken words, but in a document written in his own blood. In your poem, Brian, we see your creatively imagined situation in which the human writer refuses to write the damning document, in the hope of saving his characters who continue to live in his unfinished poem. But the poet seems to lose his life (and maybe his soul) by his refusal to finish their tragedy as written by him. Was it just a spirit dagger that stabbed Marlowe, meaning someone lied about cause of death at the inquest? Or did the Muse and Mephistophilis find a human hand to shed the poet’s blood? Intriguing options for a sequel. Reply Patrick Murtha November 20, 2023 Brian, truly, truly delightful! It conjured up images of the poetry of A. D. Hope. (One of my favorite of modern but not modernist poets.) It ties the tragedy of the lovers and Marlow into an almost comedy. Reply Brian A, Yapko November 21, 2023 Patrick, thank you so much for this comment. I don’t know A.D. Hope and so will look him up. I am always interested in poets who are not modernist but take classical forms and bring them into modern times. I am rather tickled by the view of the Marlowe’s reaction to the story of the lovers as being almost-comedy because I think you’ve observed something true that connects to Margaret’s mention of melodrama. Yes, there is something indeed humorous about a writer who becomes so invested in his characters and their story that his emotional involvement takes on a life of its own. It skirts the border between “drama” and “drama queen” in a way which pleases me because who would make more sense as a poetic drama queen than Christopher Marlowe? Reply C.B. Anderson November 20, 2023 I haven’t much to add, Brian. Your very toothsome rhymes make me drool with envy, but the best thing is the way you made your narrator appear like a mystic and a time-traveler. For a person to whom such involutions are like the water of life, you have knocked this one out of the park. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Thank you very much indeed, C.B. I consider you the master of “toothsome rhyme” so this compliment is deeply appreciated. I’m also pleased that you like the foreshadowing in the speaker’s words that make him appear to have an almost mystical foreboding of the future. This, I think, is primarily derived from Marlowe’s emotional willingness to have a dagger “render him immortal with its kiss” rather than abet the Muse’s demanded deaths of Hero and Leander. Reply Margaret Coats November 21, 2023 On the Marlowe/Shakespeare authorship question, here are some tidbits from my work at the Francis Bacon Library. The Library (now housed within collections of the Huntington) was founded to support Bacon’s claim, but hosted an Authorship Roundtable several times a year. Proponents of anyone except the Stratfordian were welcome, and some traveled long distances to participate. While I was there in the late 1980s, the Earl of Oxford was most popular. As paid staff, I assisted a Baconian using computer analysis of language. His plans were too grand to compute, even after I found him comparable texts, but his computer made him change his mind and support a syndicate! Marlowe was not included in the group, nor did any Marlovian ever show up to the Roundtable. Thus, Brian, I suspect that change of fashion and a craving to take a surprising stand in Shakespeare authorship theories is the main reason the Oxford edition likes Marlowe for Henry VI. I also checked out my Riverside edition of Shakespeare. It was the standard of scholarship from 1974 to the appearance of Oxford. The six distinguished Riverside scholars were so strongly Stratfordian that the General Introduction doesn’t even mention authorship controversy. Regarding Henry VI, they review authorship ideas in one paragraph, preferring the opinion that all three parts are entirely or mainly by Shakespeare. “Mainly” means Shakespeare could have re-worked parts of a lost play by Nashe, Greene, or Peele. Marlowe comes ahead of Chapman, Drayton, Kyd, and Lodge as other names in the discussion. However, the Riverside editors point out that without new data, no idea about Henry VI’s authorship can be anything but an educated guess. As you say, ideas about “use of language” are not new data. Reply Joseph S. Salemi November 21, 2023 The latest Earl of Oxford partisan is one Gilbert Wesley Purdy, who wrote a book some years ago making the usual pro-Oxford arguments and anti-Stratfordian snubs. Despite Purdy’s claim that his book would reveal “smoking guns” on the matter, the smoke doesn’t seem to have created much of a stir. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 22, 2023 Thank you, Margaret and Joe, for this additional information and these additional insights on the subject of anti-Stratfordians. As you observed in an earlier comment, Joe, it’s quite a rabbit-hole! And Margaret, based on your experience, it sounds like responding to the provocative but specious question of who wrote Shakespeare’s works leads to a cast of suspects worthy of an Agatha Christie novel. Joshua C. Frank November 22, 2023 I really like this poem! As a writer myself, I can identify with feeling for my characters. That’s one reason I rarely have major characters die; rather, if someone has to die, I designate “red shirts” like in Star Trek. But, as Robert Frost (who is one of my influences as a poet) said, “No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader.” I find that the lines I’ve written that made people cry were the ones that had the same effect on me. Sometimes we just have to suffer for our art, and there’s no way around it. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 22, 2023 Thank you very much, Josh! I love your idea of designating red shirts. The hard part is when you’re writing a historic piece which has a predetermined ending and — unless it’s science fiction — you don’t get to say FDR recovers from polio or Lincoln escapes his assassin. Of course, when you’re writing entirely original characters you get to direct them wherever you want. That’s one of the fun perks of being a writer! And, yes, the tears are a part of it as well. I try to write something that moves me and I hope — only hope! — that it will move others as well. Reply Paul A. Freeman November 24, 2023 Finally, I got round to reading your poem, Brian, and I’m glad I did. I write a lot of fiction and I find the more you invest in a character, especially in a novel-length piece, the harder it is to kill them off. But just imaging if Shakespeare had let Romeo and Juliet off the hook. You’d have a ‘mid’ (in today’s parlance) play, or a great play with a mediocre, unmemorable ending. In shorter pieces (flash fiction of short stories), I can see off my main character with a tragic ending, but no, not one who I almost know like a friend. Thanks for the thought-inspiring piece and for retelling a story I’m sadly not as familiar with as I should be. Reply Brian A. Yapko November 24, 2023 Thank you very much for reading and commenting, Paul! I’ve written a fair amount of fiction as well and have had the same experience. When you live with a character who you really like and then have to put him or her through the wringer — or worse — it’s actually an upsetting emotional experience. I’ve had several characters who I’ve “done in” and I still feel guilty about it! You’re right about Romeo and Juliet, of course. It’s the eventual tragedy that makes great theater out of something that might arguably be fairly mundane. In modern terms, what would the film Titanic be other than a uniquely maudlin love story if that ship didn’t eventually sink? But back to Shakespeare — what with his offing Romeo, Juliet, Ophelia, Hamlet, Cordelia, Lear and a few dozen others, Shakespeare must have needed a lot of emotional support. But soft… I think you’ve just given me an idea for a new poem…! Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Joseph S. Salemi November 20, 2023 This is a delightful piece. It’s true — we poets tend to fall in love with the characters we create, and we don’t relish killing them. And the poet comes up with a plausible reason why Marlowe never finished writing “Hero and Leander.” It’s purely fictive, but that’s what fictive mimesis is. The poem’s last line is a nice way to conclude — by making reference to the famous words in Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus,” where the main character speaks to the demonically represented Helen of Troy during lovemaking. Marlowe’s murder is like the Kennedy assassination. We will never get the full truth. Too many powerful persons wanted Kit Marlowe out of the way. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 When I started having real grief for poetic characters who I had to lead into tragedy because it was demanded by history I knew that that this was something I wanted to write about. I think this emotional response is something many writers experience. The story of Marlowe never finishing “Hero and Leander” and then being killed gave me the exact historical/literary situation I needed to describe that feeling. I appreciate your indulgence regarding my unique take on the mysterious facts. I’m especially pleased that you like that closing line which, of course, alludes to Marlowe’s most famous passage: Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?/Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss…” Thank you very much for your comment and appreciation, Joe! Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant November 20, 2023 Brian, what a beautifully thought out and magnificently woven tour de force of a poem that has a touch of genius in its glorious imaginings. As ever the language is smooth and mellifluous, serving to paint, with poetic aplomb, linguistic pictures in a lush merge of bright and dark shades that engaged and thoroughly entertained this reader with its tale of wonder. The intrigue of the title has instant literary appeal and the imagery shines. I especially like, “Now trapped within my Spider-Muse’s web” – these potent words say so much about the relationship with the Muse. I simply adore the poet’s rebellion in the prophetic closing couplet. Brian, I believe that this is one of your finest! It’s a real privilege to read. Thank you! Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Susan, I’m over-the-moon delighted that you like this poem which addresses the writer’s emotional response to the poem he/she writes. Thank you! That I got to write this based on a real historical and literary mystery was a gift from my own Muse! As for that “Spider-Muse…” It feels that way sometimes, doesn’t it? You’re caught in her web and you have to keep going with a writing project, consequences be damned! We ignore such a summons at our own risk! Reply
Roy Eugene Peterson November 20, 2023 This is a poem of “heroic” proportions. The story seems like the perfect prequel to “Romeo and Juliet.” Given the date of 1593, the connection to William Shakespeare is palpable. According to “Wikipedia,” “The Marlovian (Marlowe) theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that the Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe was the main author of the poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Further, the theory says Marlowe did not die in Deptford on 30 May 1593, as the historical records state, but that his death was faked. Marlovians…base their argument on supposed anomalies surrounding Marlowe’s reported death and on the significant influence which, according to most scholars, Marlowe’s works had on those of Shakespeare. (That is the reason I cited “Romeo and Juliet.”) They also point out the coincidence that, despite their having been born only two months apart, the first time the name William Shakespeare is known to have been connected with any literary work was with the publication of “Venus and Adonis” just a week or two after the death of Marlowe. The argument against this is that Marlowe’s death was accepted as genuine by sixteen jurors at an inquest held by the Queen’s personal coroner, that everyone apparently thought that he was dead at the time, and that there is a complete lack of direct evidence supporting his survival beyond 1593. How is this for a conspiracy theory: Shakespeare or an associate murdered Marlowe and stole his unfinished transcripts which he fashioned into an incomparable literary career! Reply
Joseph S. Salemi November 20, 2023 Well, let’s not let things get completely out of hand. Marlowe’s literary style is not at all like that of Shakespeare, and the evidence for the latter’s connection with the works published under his name is clear and overwhelming. Anti-Stratfordianism is a rabbit hole that no one should enter. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 I tend to agree, Joe. In the way that all writers are influenced by other people’s work which they admire, it seems probable to me that Shakespeare was influenced by Marlow –especially if you credit Oxford University Press’s determination that Marlow co-authored Henry VI parts I, II and III with Shakespeare. But I don’t believe there’s anything beyond that. And I frankly don’t understand the basis for that university determination on the Henrys since it’s derived entirely on “use of language.” Any self-respecting writer can readily write in the style of another author who he/she admires. It has happened multiple times on this very site. So to me, that argument is rather subjective and meaningless. As I said to Roy, I studied Shakespeare quite a bit at U.C.L.A. On top of reading all of his works, I’ve also read biographies of him and even wrote a short story about him and his favorite lead actor, Richard Burbage. I’ve seen nothing in either his works or the historical record to convince me that Shakespeare is not the author of his own plays and poems. As far as I can tell, most of the theories against his authorship condescendingly suggest that a young man from a humble background in Stratford could not have been exposed to so much culture as to be capable of writing his works. But that argument is unconvincing to me. It relies too much on the idea of class and underestimates the ability of a brilliant mind to read, educate and better himself. Shakespeare did not passively sit at some ivory tower desk and churn out masterpiece after masterpiece. He was surely an inquisitive and ambitious man who had an eye on the box office as much as on posterity. Such a complex man is capable of creating great things — especially in the world of drama.
Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 I appreciate the wink in your description of this poem as “heroic,” Roy! Thank you very much for the kind comment and thank you as well for the interesting historical facts behind the relationship between Marlowe and Shakespeare. Your familiarity with the subject tells me that Shakespearian authorship is a something that has intrigued you well before publication of my poem! I confess that I’m Team Shakespeare on this. I studied quite a bit of Shakespeare as an undergrad at U.C.L.A. where I first learned that questions existed concerning Shakespeare’s authorship of his works. But I never encountered any evidence, either textual or historical, that caused me to doubt Shakespeare. In my view, there’s too much contemporaneous evidence of his authorship. Still, the intrigue of speculating on alternative authorship can be irresistible. People love a good mystery. Reply
Jeff Eardley November 20, 2023 Brian, what a literary feast today. I had to visit Marlowe’s epic before reading, and thoroughly enjoying yours. Once again, you have entertained and educated simultaneously. I hope Bill the Quill, as he is referred to over here, retains his reputation. A really great piece and up there with your best. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Thank you very much, Jeff! I’ve never heard the Runyonesque moniker “Bill the Quill” and will have to start using it. In the finest Guys and Dolls tradition, it makes Shakespeare sound like a slightly-menacing but jovial gangster. Reply
Margaret Coats November 20, 2023 Athletic, erotic, ecstatic, melodramatic, and tragic! Brian, what magic you make of two tales that are classic. “Youth is bound to drink from rapture’s font.” That line goes for the love story and the playwright story, and it’s the best Marlowe comment one could imagine. Two of my fellow graduate students bemoaned their lost youth at 25 because they had done nothing like Christopher, and here you are time-traveling into his psyche and coming back with the landscape in your own poem. Its smiling amorous appeal shows up in “despair of any moment spent alone,” with an authentic and possessive ache of love and danger. The concluding death-and-immortality wish reveals English Renaissance ambition, but also seems characteristic of our introspective age when psychology presents itself an analytical science. Those are my favorites lines and the features that most impress me. The poem as a whole is almost frightening to read, again an effect I attribute to your dramatic skill and intent. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Margaret, thank you for this very generous comment. I am so pleased that you found magic in both the ancient story and the Elizabethan “wrap-around” story. I’m more than a little pleased that you found the poem a bit frightening to read. I think “melodrama” is an apt description for the parts of it that concern the speaker’s own involvement in the tragic story. Marlowe was a somewhat dramatic, unconventional man who faced a dramatic, unconventional end. I hoped that the reader would derive some anxiety from my poem once he/she realizes that it takes place just one day before Marlowe’s mysterious murder. The sense of menace as between the poet and his “Spider-Muse” is quite intentional and there are questions here of free agency once the poet begins a project and is impelled (compelled?) to see it through to the end. I went to the extreme end of the spectrum in contemplating the consequences of disobeying the Muse but this is, after all, fiction. My theory concerning Marlowe’s death is as valid as any other and, for me, poetically satisfying. Reply
Margaret Coats November 21, 2023 Your theory of Marlowe’s death is, I suppose, that the Spider Muse killed him. Maybe using his own dagger? Well, having thought about the poem overnight, I’ll say I get a more Faustian feeling about it. I was not frightened by the Spider Muse, but by some spirit in the piece, whom we might name Mephistophilis. By choosing the date you, Brian, set up a time frame like the final day and hour in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. The setting in Marlowe’s flat corresponds to the setting of most of the play in Faustus’ study. You have Marlowe say, “Mark my hell.” He uses the word “fate” three times, once about Leander, once about Hero and Leander, and finally “tempt fate” about himself. The idea of written text causing or confirming events appears in the play when Mephistophilis says Faustus must damn his soul not just by spoken words, but in a document written in his own blood. In your poem, Brian, we see your creatively imagined situation in which the human writer refuses to write the damning document, in the hope of saving his characters who continue to live in his unfinished poem. But the poet seems to lose his life (and maybe his soul) by his refusal to finish their tragedy as written by him. Was it just a spirit dagger that stabbed Marlowe, meaning someone lied about cause of death at the inquest? Or did the Muse and Mephistophilis find a human hand to shed the poet’s blood? Intriguing options for a sequel. Reply
Patrick Murtha November 20, 2023 Brian, truly, truly delightful! It conjured up images of the poetry of A. D. Hope. (One of my favorite of modern but not modernist poets.) It ties the tragedy of the lovers and Marlow into an almost comedy. Reply
Brian A, Yapko November 21, 2023 Patrick, thank you so much for this comment. I don’t know A.D. Hope and so will look him up. I am always interested in poets who are not modernist but take classical forms and bring them into modern times. I am rather tickled by the view of the Marlowe’s reaction to the story of the lovers as being almost-comedy because I think you’ve observed something true that connects to Margaret’s mention of melodrama. Yes, there is something indeed humorous about a writer who becomes so invested in his characters and their story that his emotional involvement takes on a life of its own. It skirts the border between “drama” and “drama queen” in a way which pleases me because who would make more sense as a poetic drama queen than Christopher Marlowe? Reply
C.B. Anderson November 20, 2023 I haven’t much to add, Brian. Your very toothsome rhymes make me drool with envy, but the best thing is the way you made your narrator appear like a mystic and a time-traveler. For a person to whom such involutions are like the water of life, you have knocked this one out of the park. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 21, 2023 Thank you very much indeed, C.B. I consider you the master of “toothsome rhyme” so this compliment is deeply appreciated. I’m also pleased that you like the foreshadowing in the speaker’s words that make him appear to have an almost mystical foreboding of the future. This, I think, is primarily derived from Marlowe’s emotional willingness to have a dagger “render him immortal with its kiss” rather than abet the Muse’s demanded deaths of Hero and Leander. Reply
Margaret Coats November 21, 2023 On the Marlowe/Shakespeare authorship question, here are some tidbits from my work at the Francis Bacon Library. The Library (now housed within collections of the Huntington) was founded to support Bacon’s claim, but hosted an Authorship Roundtable several times a year. Proponents of anyone except the Stratfordian were welcome, and some traveled long distances to participate. While I was there in the late 1980s, the Earl of Oxford was most popular. As paid staff, I assisted a Baconian using computer analysis of language. His plans were too grand to compute, even after I found him comparable texts, but his computer made him change his mind and support a syndicate! Marlowe was not included in the group, nor did any Marlovian ever show up to the Roundtable. Thus, Brian, I suspect that change of fashion and a craving to take a surprising stand in Shakespeare authorship theories is the main reason the Oxford edition likes Marlowe for Henry VI. I also checked out my Riverside edition of Shakespeare. It was the standard of scholarship from 1974 to the appearance of Oxford. The six distinguished Riverside scholars were so strongly Stratfordian that the General Introduction doesn’t even mention authorship controversy. Regarding Henry VI, they review authorship ideas in one paragraph, preferring the opinion that all three parts are entirely or mainly by Shakespeare. “Mainly” means Shakespeare could have re-worked parts of a lost play by Nashe, Greene, or Peele. Marlowe comes ahead of Chapman, Drayton, Kyd, and Lodge as other names in the discussion. However, the Riverside editors point out that without new data, no idea about Henry VI’s authorship can be anything but an educated guess. As you say, ideas about “use of language” are not new data. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi November 21, 2023 The latest Earl of Oxford partisan is one Gilbert Wesley Purdy, who wrote a book some years ago making the usual pro-Oxford arguments and anti-Stratfordian snubs. Despite Purdy’s claim that his book would reveal “smoking guns” on the matter, the smoke doesn’t seem to have created much of a stir. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 22, 2023 Thank you, Margaret and Joe, for this additional information and these additional insights on the subject of anti-Stratfordians. As you observed in an earlier comment, Joe, it’s quite a rabbit-hole! And Margaret, based on your experience, it sounds like responding to the provocative but specious question of who wrote Shakespeare’s works leads to a cast of suspects worthy of an Agatha Christie novel.
Joshua C. Frank November 22, 2023 I really like this poem! As a writer myself, I can identify with feeling for my characters. That’s one reason I rarely have major characters die; rather, if someone has to die, I designate “red shirts” like in Star Trek. But, as Robert Frost (who is one of my influences as a poet) said, “No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader.” I find that the lines I’ve written that made people cry were the ones that had the same effect on me. Sometimes we just have to suffer for our art, and there’s no way around it. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 22, 2023 Thank you very much, Josh! I love your idea of designating red shirts. The hard part is when you’re writing a historic piece which has a predetermined ending and — unless it’s science fiction — you don’t get to say FDR recovers from polio or Lincoln escapes his assassin. Of course, when you’re writing entirely original characters you get to direct them wherever you want. That’s one of the fun perks of being a writer! And, yes, the tears are a part of it as well. I try to write something that moves me and I hope — only hope! — that it will move others as well. Reply
Paul A. Freeman November 24, 2023 Finally, I got round to reading your poem, Brian, and I’m glad I did. I write a lot of fiction and I find the more you invest in a character, especially in a novel-length piece, the harder it is to kill them off. But just imaging if Shakespeare had let Romeo and Juliet off the hook. You’d have a ‘mid’ (in today’s parlance) play, or a great play with a mediocre, unmemorable ending. In shorter pieces (flash fiction of short stories), I can see off my main character with a tragic ending, but no, not one who I almost know like a friend. Thanks for the thought-inspiring piece and for retelling a story I’m sadly not as familiar with as I should be. Reply
Brian A. Yapko November 24, 2023 Thank you very much for reading and commenting, Paul! I’ve written a fair amount of fiction as well and have had the same experience. When you live with a character who you really like and then have to put him or her through the wringer — or worse — it’s actually an upsetting emotional experience. I’ve had several characters who I’ve “done in” and I still feel guilty about it! You’re right about Romeo and Juliet, of course. It’s the eventual tragedy that makes great theater out of something that might arguably be fairly mundane. In modern terms, what would the film Titanic be other than a uniquely maudlin love story if that ship didn’t eventually sink? But back to Shakespeare — what with his offing Romeo, Juliet, Ophelia, Hamlet, Cordelia, Lear and a few dozen others, Shakespeare must have needed a lot of emotional support. But soft… I think you’ve just given me an idea for a new poem…! Reply
