ENGB32H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cocytus, Philomela, Hamartia
Document Summary
Titus andronicus is shakespeare"s first tragedy - but it was so badly received a lot of people refuses to believe shakespeare even wrote it. Known for extreme violence, obsession with revenge, and cannibalism. Shakespeare"s main rival was christopher marlowe: he was the son of a canterbury shoemaker, and went to university on a divinity scholarship (to be a priest); instead, he learned formal language. He later became a spy for the government - he would get people to trust him in order to weed out any disposition towards the crown or the religion. He was known as a loose cannon - he often drank and made a ruckus; he was eventually assassinated in a tavern (it was passed off as a tavern brawl) But before he died he wrote several brilliant plays. Marlowe is famous for the tumbling verse - bold, end stopped lines. For the most part plays were written in blank verse.
