Re: Kit Marlowe...best in comedy?
art
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Peter Farey wrote:
<<The following is summarized from my essay
"Questions All Oxfordians Must Answer"
at http://www.marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com/
Using data provided by Elliott and Valenza we can see that
in dramatic verse between the 1580s and 1620s there was a
steady move away from the constant repetition of the regular
end-stopped iambic pentameter by the increasing use of open
lines and feminine endings.
I have therefore listed below all of the Shakespeare plays,
and sorted them in ascending order solely according to the
rate of their usage of open lines and feminine endings as
counted by Elliott and Valenza. This frequency is given as
the number of times either of the two techniques is used on
average per hundred lines of verse.
Where appropriate, I have also indicated in each case
(1) if the play was included in the list of Shakespeare plays
published by Francis Meres in 1598,
(2) if it's been shown not to have been in the Lord Chamber-
lain's Men's repertoire when Meres's list was published, and/or
(3) if Elliott and Valenza gave it a date after 1604.
23 Love's Labour's Lost (Meres)
23 Midsummer Night's Dream (Meres)
25 1 Henry VI (Not in LCM repertoire)
25 3 Henry VI (Not in LCM repertoire)
25 Titus Andronicus (Meres)
25 Romeo & Juliet (Meres)
26 2 Henry VI (Not in LCM repertoire)
26 Taming of the Shrew (Not in LCM repertoire)
28 Comedy of Errors (Meres)
32 Richard II (Meres)
32 King John (Meres)
33 Richard III (Meres)
33 Two Gentlemen of Verona (Meres)
33 Merry Wives of Windsor
37 Julius Caesar
38 Much Ado About Nothing
40 Merchant of Venice (Meres)
40 Twelfth Night
41 1 Henry IV (Meres)
.................................
41 2 Henry IV
41 As You Like It
41 Troilus & Cressida
41 Othello
42 Henry V
42 Hamlet
46 Timon of Athens (after 1604)
50 Measure for Measure
50 King Lear (after 1604)
51 All's Well that Ends Well
53 Macbeth (after 1604)
54 Pericles* (after 1604)
58 Antony & Cleopatra (after 1604)
54 Coriolanus (after 1604)
67 Cymbeline (after 1604)
68 The Tempest (after 1604)
69 Winter's Tale (after 1604)
71 Two Noble Kinsmen* (after 1604)
76 Henry VIII* (after 1604)
*Those parts generally attributed to Shakespeare.
1) As most Oxfordians claim that the majority of Shakespeare's
plays had been written by 1598, what explanation would you give
for Meres including in his list, published that year, only those
with the lowest frequency of open lines and feminine endings?
2) As the use of open lines and feminine endings is no longer of
any real significance in the way plays are dated by Shakespearean
scholars, what explanation would you give for all 11 plays given
a "post-1604" date by Elliott and Valenza appearing among
the 13 plays with the highest usage rates?
The odds against either of these things happening just by chance
are so astronomical that there must be a reason for each of them.
The obvious reasons are that Meres referred only to those
"Shakespeare" plays which had been written and performed by then,
and that the Elliott and Valenza chronology is fairly accurate.
Unfortunately, neither of these options is available
to Oxfordians.>>
http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/attach/datelist.gif
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One can envision Marlowe writing (25) Titus Andronicus or
(32) Richard II as part of his new invention Shakespeare.
But:
23 Love's Labour's Lost
23 Midsummer Night's Dream
25 Romeo & Juliet
26 Taming of the Shrew
28 Comedy of Errors
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I don't think so! ;<)
Art Neuendorffer