Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys through the Elizabethan UndergroundRoy Kendall |
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Book Review Roy Kendall’s Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys through the Elizabethan Underground is a valuable, if knotty, addition to the body of biographical work on Marlowe. It focuses on the man who wrote the damning “Note,” ascribing to Marlowe various blasphemous and heterodox opinions. Even which Baines this was-there are two, possibly three, candidates-is not beyond dispute, and the evidence of his activities is fragmentary and subject to much speculation, fully warranting the subtitle. If the evidence is difficult to follow in itself, Kendall does us no favors by constantly tutoring us on the misdirections of Marlovian biography; for example, responding to a comment by Curtis Breight on Kendall’s own work: “I do not wish to discuss the issue of precedence here, as I believe that in roughly equal proportions I follow, contradict, complement, and supersede Nicholl both on this general issue and on others and in such a variety of ways that a whole chapter could be written on this subject alone” (p.278). No one should suppose this is an empty threat. At the same time Kendall repeatedly tries to draw links between his biographical narrative and Marlowe’s writings. The result is a difficult, often indigestible read, but future biographers will ignore it at their peril. To see a full description of this book, search our online database
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| Photograph courtesy of Louise Dell-Bene Stahl © 2001 |
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