Christopher Marlowe and Belphegor (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896. Excerpt: ... CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE H ACT I SCENE I A ROOM IN THE TABARD INN Armyn and Cowley discovered sitting at a table playing cards. Nimble looking on. Hughes and Condell are seen drinking at another table. Condell. This tale of Faustus which we played to-day Touches a keynote in the public mind That makes it popular. Herein the skill Of our young Master Marlowe shows itself To most admired advantage, and the play He hath so shapened to his higher thought That every good point is still better made By his invisible art, that works its end Like providence and nature, secretly, Leaving no trace of the artificer. How excellent it is Hughes. The work is good; The artist still above it in all praise The mind with which he works gives common things Nobility and life: we mar his lines Having not his secret. He is late to-day. The very powers of a god are his To storm and pluck life's pleasures. Condell. There he fails. To me it seems the heavenly spark he holds Is dimmed and spoiled by contact with the world, Or I should say--its dregs. He plays the heir To a vast property, and squanders it Upon a worthless set. Hughes. It follows not. I think the free and open life he lives Is necessary to him. His young thought, Now putting forth its earliest fruit, demands An infinite and rich experience; And only he who sins as deep as hell, And hopes as high as heaven, wins mastery To sway the subject-currents of the world This way or that. All excellence depends On some defect for its development. So we have Marlowe Condell. Would he threw away The worthless fellowship of Robert Greene, Who hurls the mounting spirit of our Mage Prone on a dung-heap world That Robert Greene Makes of himself a rank iniquity To flout at heaven. He carries in his life An intellectual leprosy that tak...