A Brooding Eloquence: Amplification and Irony in Marlowe's Dramas. Jeffery Galle Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1991 A Brooding Eloquence: Amplification and Irony in Marlowe's Dramas. Jeffery Galle Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Galle, Jeffery, "A Brooding Eloquence: Amplification and Irony in Marlowe's Dramas." (1991). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 5182. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/5182 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Ann Aitoor, MI 48106 A BROODING ELOQUENCE: AMPLIFICATION AND IRONY IN MARLOWE'S DRAMAS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Department of English by Jeffery Galle B.A., Louisiana Tech University, 1977 M.A., Louisiana Tech University, 1979 August 1991 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 I. ‘Won With Thy Wordes': Tamburlaine I 26 II. ‘If Words Might Serve': Tamburlaine II 63 III. The Failure of Scholar, Saint, and Sinner: Doctor Faustus 103 IV. The Rhetoric of the Savage Farce in The Jew of Malta 154 V. England's Shaken Cedar: Edward II 186 V I . CONCLUSION 228 NOTES 239 WORKS CITED 252 VITA 258 ii Abstract My subject is the relationship between rhetoric and the range of possible reaction to Marlowe's protagonists in his five major plays— Tamburlaine I and II, P,Q,c.,t.QXL..Zaus.tus, The Jew, of....Malt a, and Edward.. 11 ■ In a very broad sense, I conceive of the rhetoric of each play in terms of opposing rhetorical forces, amplification and irony, and attempt to account for the relative intensity of amplification and irony in each play as I study the rhetoric of the protagonist. One strategy, amplification, entails the investment of a major character with logical arguments from invention, effective arrangement of ideas from disposition, and specific devices from elocution that create a degree of identification with that character. The force of irony is enhanced through a different use of these three parts of rhetoric--the arguments are dyslogistic, the elements of arrangement act to undercut, and the devices check or even undermine identification with the protagonist. Many critics have pointed out how Marlowe's rhetoric departs from the "astounding terms" of Tamburlaine that the playwright employed at the beginning of his dramatic career. I follow the stylistic changes in Marlowe's rhetoric and find correspondences between those changes and the increasingly complex portrayal of the central iii figure. To this end, I analyze the central figures of each play in terms of that character's logos, pathos, and ethos and attempt to ascertain the degree of identification that the audience may attach to a given protagonist. In a play-by-play analysis, I analyse the debate over subversion, a perennial issue in Marlowe studies. Fortunately, the elements of classical rhetoric that Marlowe's plays already possess provide easy access to this complex issue, so the application of rhetorical analysis to these plays exists as an excellent method to answer the abiding question of whether the subversion itself is contained. iv Introduction When studying the Marlovian canon, one often wishes to call, like Faustus, on an infernal angel to "resolve [us] of all ambiguities," (1.1.80) since the critical commentaries on the plays harmonize in few places.1 Nevertheless, several distinct patterns have emerged. Literary historians concur that Christopher Marlowe's plays deserve a thoughtful examination because they represent a transition from the mere sensationalism of early Senecan drama to the naturalism of Shakespearean drama. Moreover, it is generally agreed that in most of his plays (with the exception of Dido and Aeneas and The MassacrA.-jafJEarii.jB) Marlowe focusses primarily on a central character and that character's concerns rather than on the cumulative effect of a host of more equally developed 2 characters and a complicated plot. However, these characters and their language have aroused an incredible amount of attention and debate. Since Robert Greene's condemnation of "that Atheist Tamburlaine," much has been said concerning the values, goals, and aspirations of all the characters. Until recent years most interpretations have suggested that their portrayal wholeheartedly supports a violation of 3 traditional Elizabethan morality. Other critics, notably Stephen Greenblatt, admit that the protagonists indeed violate the accepted standards but argue that they do so in order to fashion an identity for themselves in the void created by the rejection of traditional 4 boundaries. According to the first view, the characters set out to usurp the accepted morality, while the second approach emphasizes that these characters determinedly purpose to "will themselves into new being" (Cunningham 176). Notwithstanding their different emphases, both of these approaches share the objective of seeking out and explaining Marlowe's intentions in writing these plays. In fact, this major critical trend, pejoratively termed "romantic" criticism, has faithfully pointed out specific associations between the personality of major characters and the personality of Marlowe himself.5 Following the similar efforts of the Victorian critics, this identification of Marlowe the man with his major characters has often resulted in speculations about the conscious and unconscious intentions of Marlowe when he wrote the plays. Critics have often assumed a connection between the hyperbolizing characters and the tumultuous, though largely unknown, life of the playwright and his explorations of diverse, contradictory values within his society. These interpretations assume Marlowe supported the feelings of his caste of overreachers, creating them as projections of himself. In this estimation, Tamburlaine, Faustus, and Edward voice Marlowe's private aspirations and brooding thoughts about the machinery for 3 achieving power, infinite knowledge, and love though it be forbidden. Their selves are various embodiments of aspects of Marlowe's aspiring self. For these critics, the characters are the projections of one of the most highly subjective artists of his time. However, other recent studies that still seek Marlowe himself in the plays record and analyze elements which undercut the protagonists or place them in a tradition which by definition requires their particular traits. One of these critics, Judith Weil, has gone so far as to see a complete undercutting of the protagonists in the plays. She argues that "Marlowe mocks his figures," though she C. adds that he does so "in extremely subtle fashion" (2). Thus, this approach stands at the opposite end of the spectrum, viewing Marlowe as a largely objective artist who consciously creates his very eloquent protagonists. Fortunately, much recent criticism has attempted to "take Marlowe out of the monkey house" (14), as Kenneth Friedenrich has observed, by centering close attention on the plays themselves. Linguistic and poetic studies, for example, which involve another of the basic areas of agreement in Marlowe criticism, concentrate on the power of the poetry that these characters manifest. Since Ben Jonson praised the power of "Marlowe's mighty line," readers and audiences alike have appreciated Marlowe's ability to produce some of the best blank verse in the English language. According