Analysis Of Christopher Marlowe's 'Tamburlaine The Great'

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orn only two months before Shakespeare and dead before he was thirty, Christopher Marlowe, considered to be the first English tragic poet, began and ended his literary work while Shakespeare was still at the beginning. His earliest tragedy, Tamburlaine the Great, was a path opener for the possibilities of Elizabethan tragedy. It was followed by other three tragedies, Dr Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and Edward II. In the prologue to his first piece, Tamburlaine, the playwright announced his intention to use in tragedy “high astounding terms.” Arrogantly, he denounced “the jigging veins of rhyming mother wits” who had previously been devoted to tragedy.
In spite of his wide literary studies and sympathies, Marlowe was a rebel in essence. He perceived tragedy beyond the limitations of authority. His main objective was to portray men in their conquest of impossible ideals. Tamburlaine wants to conquer the world. Barabas wants the universal wealth. Faustus is looking for omniscience. In developing such ambitions in drama, Marlowe often lets himself wander in wild extravagances. Though, many qualities which are necessary to improve drama were beyond the range of Marlowe’s genius. There is practically no feminine interest in Marlowe’s plays and he does not have humour. Nevertheless, he remains the master of the blank verse.
Whenever we read a critical work on Marlowe, there will certainly be a writer referring to Marlowe’s “mighty lines”. That much-quoted phrase was coined by