Marlowe, History, and Sexuality: New Critical Essays on Christopher Marlowe by Paul Whitfield White Marlowe's Counterfeit Profession: Ovid, Spenser, Counter-Nationhood by Patrick Cheney Between Nations: Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, and the Question of Britain by David J. Baker (review)

Abstract

MLR,96.3,200 I 797 Greville, Daniel, andSpenser, Kleinfinds the various ways inwhich these poets use theformal andthesocialexemplarity ofSidney almost against itself; inthecaseof Spenser inparticular, theAmoretti 'reforms thetraditions ofcourtly lovepoetry to articulate Protestant idealsofmarried love,a radicaldeparture from Sidney's practice thatparadoxically confirms theprior poet'sidealsfortheright useof POetrY'(PV I73) Thisbookhas muchto offier in thewayofclosereadings and occasional engagements with thelegacy ofSidney criticism. Compared, however, tothebest andmostcreative Sidney criticism ofthepasttwodecades(RonaldL. Levao's brilliant chapter ontheDefence inhisRenaissance Minds andtheir Fictions (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, I985),orRoland Greene's deft readings ofthe sonnet sequence inhisPost Petrarchism (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, I99I))the bookis onlyworkmanlike. And compared, too,to thecreative, theoretically informed and culturally wide-ranging workon the conceptof Renaissance exemplarity, from John Lyon's Exemplum (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, I989)toTimothy Hampton's Wrztingfrom Histo7y (Ithaca, NY: Cornell, I99I),this bookis onlyderivative. It bears, still, theimpress ofitsorigins ina dissertation finished a decade ago.Ifits virtues lieinits lackofflashiness, its sober close readings, anditsdiligent pursuit ofitsstated thesis, itsshortcomings lieinthefact that ithas chosenas itssubject matter a figure ofliterary flash, whosework, and more particularly whose contexts, havebeenstudied bysome ofthemost dazzling critics . 0tourgeneratlon. STANFORD UNIVERSITY SETH LERER Marlowe, Histoy, and Sexuality: J%ew Crztical Essays onChristopher Marlowe. Ed.byPAUL WHITFIELD WHITE. NewYork: AMSPress.I998. XXi + 257PP. S59.50. Marlowe'sCounterfeitProfession. Ovid,Spenser,Counter-Xationhood. BYPATRICKCHENEY. Toronto, Buialo, NY, and London:University ofToronto Press. I998. xii+ 402pp. $60 oo;£39 Between Aations. Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, andthe Question of Britain. BYDAVID J. BAKER. Stanford,CA:StanfordUniversityPress. I997. Xii+2XIpp. $39.50;£3° '[TheCorpus portrait] shows a striking young man:twenty-one years old,self-assured, a bit flashy [. . .] arms folded [. . .]. Thestance [. . .] requires noprops [. . . and]show[s] offthe rows ofbossed golden buttons sewn down thesleeves ofhisdoublet, fourteen oneacharm. Thedoublet issuperb: close-fitting, winged atthe shoulders, with bigpadded sleeves tapering toa narrow wrist. Thematerial, blackordeepbrown, hasthelookofvelvet. Thezigzag pattern ismadeofsmall slashes [. . .] showing theglossy, peach-colored lining underneath [. . .]. Thedoublet issogoodhe[. . .] wears noruff, nofussy ornamental pickadils, justa shirt ofthefine linen called"cobweb lawn,'3 thecollar falling [. . .],aninchofcuff atthe wrists. Hisbrown hair islong [. . .]. Allthis[. . .] is [. . .] whathehasmadeofhimself, for this moment: a certain wayof standing, a particular jacket, a hairstyle. Thestatement isoneofprestige, ofcourtliness. It shows him asa young manwith money tospend not justthe doublet, which even secondhand would havecost him thirty shillings ormore; not justthe rows ofgolden buttons like so many counterfeit coins; butthe very fact ofthe portrait. Itwasnoteveryone whocould afford the services ofa good'limner'. [. . .] Other parts ofthestatement areharder toread.Thelipsespecially area problem. [. . .] Thesmile seems ready tomock us.Wehave beentaken insoeasily [. . .]. I havelooked long andhard atthis portrait, andafter a while my gazehastravelled down from thesardonic faceandthesnazzy doublet toconsider something I cannot see:hisleft 798 Revaews hand. Itisconcealed, perhaps under the right sleeve, more probably init,inthe pocket they often hadinthose bigpadded sleeves. I find myself wondering: what hashegotinthere? A purse? Adagger? Someclose-printed text inoctavo? After allthese years almost everything ishidden, butevenifwecould stand there infront ofhim, ona dayinI 585,westill might notknow what hewashiding from us. Thissense ofa statement whose meaning youcannot quite grasp, this sense oftheatricality, this sense ofsomething hidden: tomethese arethe keynotes ofChristopher Marlowe. (Charles Nicholl, "'Faithful Dealing": Marlowe andthe Elizabethan Intelligence Service', in Marlowe, Histoy, and Sexuality.) I quotefrom Charles Nicholl's essay atsuchlength toillustrate itscombination of unimpeachable content, intellectual patience, andexcellence ofstyle. Evensavagely cutthepassage readswellbothsilently andaloud;grounded inobservation, itis exactwith supplementary knowledge, andbuilds simply butvery carefully notto theobvious lament ('Wecannot nowknow . . .'),buttoa subtler point undergraduatesneedtounderstand , andtoomany critics forget ('evenifwecouldstand there [. . .] in I585, westill might notknow'). Suchexcellence, I regret tosay,isata premium intheMarlovian criticism hereconsidered, anditis notchancethat Nicholl (ajournalist) istheonly author inWhite's volume whoisnota professional academic. One must beprofessionally wary, ofcourse (I wellremember boththeintense excitement ofreading Greenblatt as an undergraduate ('I beganwith a desire to speak with the dead'), andthe intense disappointment ofrealizing asapost-graduate thecaustictruth in Ricks'sdefinition of the'New Historicism' as 'theOld Historicism with itsfacts wrong'), butitremains starkly true that far toomuch of thewriting inthis volume ispoor.Trendy jargontoooften abounds (subversive discourses, decentred limens), andthebellelettristic islargely scorned: so diction bristles, rhythm dies,cogency recedes, andthere islittle that I wouldexcerpt for teaching, setfor seminars, orevenrecommend viareading lists. Yetneither isthe collection forscholars, foritsbestessays arebetter represented elsewhere: even Nicholl cannibalizes theopening ofhissuperb study ofMarlowe's murder, Be Reckoning, a...