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Unworthy Marlowe

Recently, I scanned through a copy of Thomas Fuller’s The History of the Worthies of England, first published in 1662. I wanted to read Fuller’s biographical synopses of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and George Sandys. Well, I was a little surprised that Marlowe was just not worthy enough for inclusion in Fuller’s work. I guess Marlowe was still, in 1662, too widely thought of as a dastardly homosexual atheist, an embarrassment to the heritage of England. But, worthy Shakespeare was there, as well as worthy Sandys. Another mild surprise? Shakespeare’s writeup was equal in length to that of Sandys.

One line in Fuller’s writeup for George Sandys, struck me as being vaguely familiar. Here is that line:

He most elegantly translated “Ovid’s Metamorphoses” into English verse; so that, as the soul of Aristotle was said to have transmigrated into Thomas Aquinas (because rendering his sense so naturally), Ovid’s genius may seem to have passed into Master Sandys. °
(Fuller 1840, 3:434)

And now, here is a famous line about William Shakespeare from Francis MeresPalladis Tamia, first published in 1598:

As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to live in Pythagoras: so the sweete wittie soule of Ovid lives in mellifluous & hony-tongued Shakespeare, witnes his Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among his private friends, &c.
(Meres 1973, 281v-282r)

So, it certainly seems like Shakespeare and Sandys had similar spirits. Did Fuller consciously mimic Meres’ praise for Shakespeare to praise Sandys? I think he did.

But, whatever! That nasty, unworthy Marlowe translated Ovid so beautifully in rhymed couplets of iambic pentameter. And, coincidentally, so did Sandys.


[above is taken from my HLAS post on April 27, 2003 (edited)]


Notes:

The History of the Worthies of England:
The copy I actually scanned through was Freeman’s one-volume, abridged edition (1952) of Fuller’s three-volume opus with the shorter title The Worthies of England.

Shakepeare’s writeup … equal … to that of Sandys:
In Nutttall’s three-volume reprint (1840), Fuller gives George Sandys very high praise and a total of 32 lines in either prose, verse, or notes (3:434). He gives William Shakespeare a total of 33 lines (3:284-85). Christopher Marlowe?—Fuller gives him exactly zero lines. Alas, poor Marlowe is neither mentioned in Freeman’s abridged edition (1952), nor in Nuttall’s complete reprint. Even “Romish exile writers” get an honorable mention by Fuller, although he does see the need to defend such graciousness to his readers (1:42). For example, the Romish exile writer William Bishop of Warwickshire gets 55 lines from Fuller (3:288-89).

He most elegantly translated … :
There is something highly suspicious and disconcerting about Thomas Fuller’s very high praise of George Sandys. Why was George Sandys so well-known up until about 1700? Why is Sandys so little-known today? Is Sandys’ decline in fame coincident with the rise in fame of William Shakespeare? Can it be that there are just too many literary parallels between Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Sandys? Ah yes, readers musn’t wonder too much about these embarrassing similarities, so say the ruling elite? Did the Shakespeare hoax—and budding bardolatry—require not only the removal of Christopher Marlowe from the public eye, but also the removal of George Sandys? Oh my no, this could never be the case, could it?

nasty, unworthy Marlowe:
Setting sarcasm aside, let me be perfectly clear. Christopher Marlowe may have been a bit nasty, but he was most assuredly not an atheist. He is eminently worthy to be recognized and honored by everyone for all of his dramatic and poetic work. The only true nastiness and unworthiness I sense is in the distortions and intimidations emanating from the Shakespeare establishment.

And, coincidentally, so did Sandys:
Here are examples of iambic pentameter couplets from Marlowe’s translation of Ovid’s Amores, and Sandys’ translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses:

Let not thy neck by his vile arms be prest,
Nor lean thy soft head on his boist’rous breast.
Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, 1.4.35-6 (1966, 4:150)

And bath’d his name in teares, and strictly prest
The carved Marble with her bared brest.
Sandys, Ovid’s Metamorphosis Englished, 2 (1970, 89, +5v)