Dark Renaissance The Dangerous Times And Fatal Genius Of Shakespeares Greatest Rival Stephen Greenblatt by Stephen Greenblatt 9780393882278, 0393882276 instant download after payment.

Poor boy. Spy. Transgressor. Genius.

In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler's son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known—and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. A torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, like Christopher Marlowe, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism.

What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language, and culture. His astonishing literary success will, in turn, nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare.

Dark Renaissance illuminates both Marlowe's...