The Marlovian theory

The Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship holds, first, that Christopher Marlowe did not die on 30th May 1593 as the historical records show, his death having been faked; and second, that in fact he survived long enough to be the main author of the poems and plays typically attributed to William Shakespeare. These are the two things upon which all of those who subscribe to the theory ("Marlovians") would agree.

Against the suggestion that his death was faked are both the fact that it was accepted as genuine by no fewer than sixteen jurors at a coroner's inquest and that there is a complete lack of direct evidence supporting his survival beyond 1593. As for his writing Shakespeare's works, it is generally believed that Marlowe's style—and indeed his whole world-view—are too different to Shakespeare's for this to have been possible, and that all the direct evidence in any case points to William Shakespeare as being the true author. This means that the Marlovian theory is dismissed as nonsense by almost all professional Shakespearian scholars.

Source: Wikipedia

On IMAGINATION

THY various works, imperial queen, we see,
How bright their forms! how deck'd with pomp by thee!
Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,
And all attest how potent is thine hand.

From Helicon's refulgent heights attend,
Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:

To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,
Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song.

Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,
Till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes,
Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,
And soft captivity involves the mind.

Imagination! who can sing thy force?
Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?
Soaring through air to find the bright abode,
Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,
We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,
And leave the rolling universe behind:
From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above.
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.

Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyes
The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;
The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,
And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.
Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,
And with her flow'ry riches deck the plain;
Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round,
And all the forest may with leaves be crown'd:
Show'rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose,
And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.

Such is thy pow'r, nor are thine orders vain,
O thou the leader of the mental train:
In full perfection all thy works are wrought,
And thine the sceptre o'er the realms of thought.
Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,
Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler thou;
At thy command joy rushes on the heart,
And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.

Fancy might now her silken pinions try
To rise from earth, and sweep th' expanse on high:

From Tithon's bed now might Aurora rise,
Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies,
While a pure stream of light o'erflows the skies.
The monarch of the day I might behold,
And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold,
But I reluctant leave the pleasing views,
Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse;
Winter austere forbids me to aspire,
And northern tempests damp the rising fire;
They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea,
Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.

Phillis Wheatley

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and field,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks 5
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies, 10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold, 15
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love. 20

The silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing 25
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)

Leave me, O love...

Leave me, O Love, which reachest but to dust;

And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things;

Grow rich in that which never taketh rust;

Whatever fades, but fading pleasure brings.

Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might

To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be,

Which breaks the clouds and opens forth the light,

That doth both shine and give us light to see.

O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide

In this small course which birth draws out to death,

And think how evil becometh him to slide

Who seeketh heaven, and comes of heavenly breath.

Then farewell, world; thy uttermost I see:

Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

Aunt Chloe's Politics

Of course, I don't know very much
About these politics,
But I think that some who run 'em,
Do mighty ugly tricks.

I've seen 'em honey-fugle round,
And talk so awful sweet,
That you'd think them full of kindness,
As an egg is full of meat.

Now I don't believe in looking
Honest people in the face,
And saying when you're doing wrong,
That "I haven't sold my race."

When we want to school our children,
If the money isn't there,
Whether black or white have took it,
The loss we all must share.

And this buying up each other
Is something worse than mean,
Though I thinks a heap of voting,
I go for voting clean.

Frances Ellen Watkins

http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/educ/exhibits/womenshall/html/harper.html

History and Timeline of the Elizabethan Theatre

1564 April 23 William Shakespeare was born

1576 James Burbage (father of the actor, Richard Burbage) obtains lease and permission to build 'The Theatre' in Shoreditch, London. The Lord Chamberlain's Men use it from 1594 to 1596

1577 Another open air amphitheatre called The Curtain opens in Finsbury Fields, Shoreditch, London

1587 Open air amphitheatre The Rose, Bankside, Surrey is opened

1593 Theatres close due to the Bubonic Plague (The Black Death)

1594 The Lord Chamberlain's Company (formally known as 'Lord Stranges Men') was formed.

1595 March 15, First document mentioning Shakespeare connected with the Theatre

1596 From 1596 to 1597 London's authorities banned the public presentation of plays within the city limits of London

1596 James Burbage purchases Blackfriars and converts it to a theatre. Unable to get permission to open as a theatre it stands empty

1597 Dispute over the lease of 'the Theatre'. The Puritan owner, Giles Allen. disapproved of the Theatre and the acting troupe. Burbage opens negotiations to re-new the lease of the 'Theatre'

1597 Shakespeare's company of actors moved to the Curtain Theatre after failed negotiations for a new lease for the 'Theatre'

1598 Christmas - Timber from the 'Theatre' taken to use for the building of a new theatre to be called the Globe

1599 The Globe Theatre is opened on Bankside

1600 Richard Burbage is forced to lease out Blackfriars.

1603 The Bubonic Plague (The Black Death) again ravages London killing 33,000 people - all theatres close 1613 June 29, Fire at the Globe Theatre

1614 Globe Theatre was rebuilt on original foundations, this time the roof is tiled, not thatched

1616 April 25, Burial of William Shakespeare in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.
1642 The English Civil War beaks out between the Parliamentarians (Puritans) and the Royalists

1642 September 2 - Parliament issues an ordinance suppressing all stage plays

1644 The Globe Theatre demolished by the Puritans. 15th April - Landowner Sir Matthew Brend demolishes the Globe and builds tenement houses on the site

1647 Even stricter rules passed by the Puritans restricting the staging of plays

1648 The Puritans ordered all playhouses and theatres to be pulled down, all players to be seized and whipped, and anyone caught attending a play to be fined five shillings.

1649 The Civil War finally leads to the terrible execution of King Charles I by the Parliamentarians (Puritans)

1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England

1658 Cromwell dies and the power of the Puritan starts to decline

1660 King Charles II is restored to the throne of England

1660 The Restoration, and the demise in the power of the Puritans, sees the opening of the theatres again

Africans in America

http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/images_aa19/slavery.cfm?jmiu8534

.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

"Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd and join th'angelic train.

On Being Brougth from Africa to America
Phillis Wheatley

NAME: Phillis Wheatley

DATE OF BIRTH: c. 1753-5

PLACE OF BIRTH: Gambia, Africa

DATE OF DEATH: December, 1784

PLACE OF DEATH: Boston, Massachusetts as a result of childbirth

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Phillis Wheatley was a slave child of seven or eight and sold to John and Susanna Wheatley in Boston on July 11, 1761. Her first name was apparently derived from the ship that carried her to America, The Phillis.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: During her life, while it was not common for American women to be published, it was especially uncommon for children of slaves to be educated at all. Her gift of writing poetry was encouraged by her owners and their daughter, Mary; they taught Phillis to read and write, with her first poem being published at the age of twelve, "On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin." The countess of Huntingdon, Selina Hastings, was a friend of the Wheatley's who greatly encouraged and financed the publication of her book of poetry, Poems. Obour Tanner, a former slave who made the journey through the middle passage with Phillis also was one of the chief influences and supporters of Phillis' craft.

She was especially fond of writing in the elegiac poetry style, perhaps mirroring the genre of oration taught to her through the women in her African American tribal group. Her elegy on a popular evangelical Methodist minister, George Whitefield, brought her instant success upon his death. She also was well versed in Latin which allowed her to write in the epyllion (short epic) style with the publication of "Niobe in Distress."

Phillis' popularity as a poet both in the United States and England ultimately brought her freedom from slavery on October 18, 1773. She even appeared before General Washington in March, 1776 for her poetry and was a strong supporter of independence during the Revolutionary War. She felt slavery to be the issue which separated whites from true heroism: whites can not "hope to find/Deivine acceptance with th' Almighty mind" when "they disgrace/And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race."

Phyllis is remembered for many first time accomplishments from a woman of her day:

First African American to publish a book
An accomplished African American woman of letters
First African American woman to earn a living from her writing
First woman writer encouraged and financed by a group of women (Mrs. Wheatley, Mary Wheatly, and Selina Hastings.)

Source: Women in History. Phillis Wheatley biography. Last Updated: 1/26/2008. Lakewood Public Library.

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/WhePoem.html