The Marlovian World Picture by W. L. Godshalk

Abstract

Reviews 179 W. L. Godshalk. The Marlovian World Picture. The Hague: Mouton, 1974. Pp. 244. 48 Dutch Guilders. W. L. Godshalk's title, reminiscent as it is of E. M. W. Tillyard's Elizabethan World Picture, takes on a slightly ironic twist in the course of this study of Marlowe's dramatic art. Godshalk reveals his attitude rather early in the study when he says, "Human responses, even in the Renaissance, were varied and complex-no matter what the Tribe of Tillyard may believe" (p. 15) . This ambitious attempt to demonstrate the effects of such multiplicity on Marlowe's drama, and its consequences for current scholarship, is a needed antidote to the monocultural ap­ proach frequently applied by intellectual historians of literature. Godshalk's insistence on cultural multiplicity, however, may account for some of his organizational problems. He tends to cover different aspects of each play from a variety of critical points of view. His chapter on Dido, Queen of Carthage, for example, is primarily a perceptive form­ alist analysis, deriving its pattern from plot summary. Edward II is handled thematically, and Tamburlaine emphasizes source study. The book thus becomes a series of essays about the individual plays, each of which is the subject of a chapter, rather than a single consistently organized monograph. The work does provide, however, perhaps because of this diversity of approach, a good summary of textual problems, a new theory for the dating of the plays, and an examination of Marlowe's biography as it per­ tains to the plays. In addition, Godshalk's introductory chapter explains his argument for placing Doctor Faustus and The Jew of Malta at the end of Marlowe's career. Arguing primarily on terms of artistic growth and thematic concern, he suggests that Marlowe moves in his composition from an interest in "drama of unnatural conilict" in Dido and Edward 11 to the "monodrama" of Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, and The Jew. Barabas, Godshalk says, is the ultimate achievement in terms of mono­ drama; in this character Marlowe brings together "elements of earthy aspiration and metaphysical evil. If Faustus is the culmination of Mar­ lowe's study of power, then The Jew of Malta is the high point of his monodrama" (p. 203). In the absence of any convincing external evidence, Godshalk's argu­ ments are logical, almost irrefutable, unless, of course, we argue that no author writes plays with the consistent rationality that critics bring to the completed canon. In spite of the sizable amount of work that has gone into the composition of this study, Godshalk finally falls back on the same kind of reasoning that he brand� as "romantic" in the work of Harry Levin, Paul Kocher, and Una Ellis-Fermor. Eventually, he comes to making generalizations on which he bases other broad generalizations: "If Faustus is . . ., then The Jew is. . . ." After condemning the Tribe of Tillyard for oversimplification, he draws his own generalizations about Marlowe's drama. He decides that "Marlovian drama is a warning against the quest for infinity" (p. 37) and concludes that "Marlowe's plays mir­ ror this new, acquisitive society," the society that was too complex to be contained in a generalization. In spite of such inevitable contradictions, it is pleasant to see an 1 80 Comparative Drama apparently young, energetic scholar coming to grips once again with the possibility that there is more than one way to learn about the past. Guided by Herschel Baker, Godshalk may not be as startlingly new as he thinks he is, but his attack on the mass of Marlovian scholarship is reminiscent of Tambu'.rlaine's own dreams of infinite conquest. WILLIAM M. JONES University of Missouri-Columbia Bettina Knapp. Off-Stage Voices: Interviews with Modern French Dramatists, ed. Alba Amoia. Troy, N.Y.: The Whitson Publishing Co., 1975. Pp. iii + 324. $13.50. Bettina Knapp, ed. The Contempo­ rary French Theater. New York: Avon Equinox Books, 1973. Pp. 51 1. $4.95. Bettina Knapp. Celine: Man of Hate. University of Ala­ bama Press, 1974. Pp. vii + 262. $10.00. With these three practical hooks Professor Knapp surely establishes her reputation as a leading Franco-American popularizer. There will be monolingual American undergraduates who know French...