Melodrama
Antony Lopez Who was Kit Marlowe? Della Hilt°n (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £5.00) 'Drama belongs to the people and Kit Mar' lowe was one of the people.' It's difficult t° argue with tautology, but one may ask—. what does it mean? That a part of 'drama belongs to 'Kit' Marlowe; but who Was 'Kit' Marlowe? That is the question that Della Hilton, a graduate of Melbourne Urn' versity, has tried to answer. By piecing together the facts of his life from contemPur" ary sources, she attempts to recreate ale setting in which Marlowe developed. Recounting her involvement with her old friend 'Kit,' she explains that she was first smitten with admiration as a seventeen-Year' old schoolgirl; thus setting the tone for the rest of the book :
His feeling for colour, demonstrated Par:
ticularly in Tamburlaine, was heightene° by looking at the stained glass during the numerous church services he attended. How does she know? It's a pity that `Kit can't step off the page to corroborate, but 'Dell' doesn't let that limit her: '... his new move was in the season of high promise late spring. Green trees, blossom and per haps sunshine and blue skies attended him. Note the use of the word 'perhaps.' which not only covers her if someone can Pr°ve she's wrong, but also allows her to add the clause which lengthens the sentence; Od. ding is the name of the game, and it makes for flabby style and flabby sentiment. JusciE in case the reader still hasn't quite grasPe, the core of the argument, each chapter enus with a summary. Dubious controversy sets the pace in this piece of literary detection. The author claims that Marlowe's so-called homosexual lines in Hero and Leander are in fact 'tongue in cheek'—a rather unfortunate analogY. Large chunks of verse are printed to demon; strate that Marlowe was the rival poet ol Shakespeare's sonnets, that Shakespeare took the idea for his Macbeth from lowe, and that Marlowe was not after ant murdered for being a spy. There are a grea many such assertions, but few of the arguments for them are convincing. The oPP°r-. tunity to compare the plays for their dranl: atictaanndgepnoteiatitcgcoossnitpent has been squander
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