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Christopher Marlowe

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564) was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his magnificent blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own mysterious and untimely death.

The author's Wikipedia page.


“Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burnèd is Apollo's laurel-bough,That sometime grew within this learnèd man.”
Christopher Marlowe
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“All things that move between the quiet polesShall be at my command. Emperors and kingsAre but obey'd in their several provinces,Nor can they raise the wind, or rend the clouds;But his dominion that exceeds in thisStretcheth as far as doth the mind of man!A sound magician is a mighty god.”
Christopher Marlowe
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“I am Envy...I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.”
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“I am Envy, begotten of a chimney-sweeper and an oyster-wife. I cannot read, and therefore wish all books were burnt; I am lean with seeing others eat - O that there would come a famine through all the world, that all might die, and I live alone; then thou should'st see how fat I would be! But must thou sit and I stand? Come down, with a vengeance!”
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“The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike”
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“Wagner Doctor Faustus' student and servant: "Alas, poor slave! See how poverty jests in his nakedness. I know the villain's out of service, and so hungry that I know he would give his soul to the devil for a shoulder of mutton, though it were blood raw."Robin a clown: "Not so, neither! I had need to have it well roasted, and good sauce to it, if I pay so dear, I can tell you.”
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“Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.”
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“All beasts are happy,For, when they die,Their souls are soon dissolv'd in elements;But mine must live still to be plagu'd in hell.Curs'd be the parents that engender'd me!No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse LuciferThat hath depriv'd thee of the joys of heaven.”
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“Nay, could their numbers countervail the stars,Or ever-drizzling drops of April showers,Or wither'd leaves that autumn shaketh down,Yet would the Soldan by his conquering powerSo scatter and consume them in his rage, That not a man should live to rue their fall.”
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“Look, look, master, here comes two religious caterpillars.”
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“If we say that we have no sin,We deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us. Why then belike we must sin,And so consequently die.Ay, we must die an everlasting death.”
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“I am Wrath. I had neither father nor mother: I leaped out of a lion's mouth when I was scarce half an hour old, and ever since I have run up and down the world, with this case of rapiers, wounding myself when I had nobody to fight withal. I was born in hell - and look to it, for some of you shall be my father.”
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“That perfect bliss and sole felicity, the sweet fruition of an earthly crown.”
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“If I be cruel and grow tyrannous,Now let them thank themselves, and rue too late.”
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“What art thou Faustus, but a man condemned to die?”
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“Accursed be he that first invented war.”
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“Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed In one self place, for where we are is hell, And where hell is must we ever be.”
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“What nourishes me, destroys me”
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“Make me immortal with a kiss.”
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“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.— Her lips suck forth my soul; see where it flies...”
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“Money can't buy love, but it improves your bargaining position.”
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“Bene disserer est finis logices.(The end of logic is to dispute well.)”
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“FAUSTUS. [Stabbing his arm.] Lo, Mephistophilis, for love of thee,I cut mine arm, and with my proper bloodAssure my soul to be great Lucifer's,Chief lord and regent of perpetual night!”
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“Till swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit,His waxen wings did mount above his reach,And melting heavens conspired his overthrow.”
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“Faustus: Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me, what good willmy soul do thy lord?Mephistopheles: Enlarge his kingdom.Faustus: Is that the reason he tempts us thus?Mephistopheles: Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.(It is a comfort to the wretched to have companions in misery.)”
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“Mephistopheles: Within the bowels of these elements,Where we are tortured and remain forever.Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribedIn one self place, for where we are is hell,And where hell is must we ever be.And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,And every creature shall be purified,All places shall be hell that is not heaven.”
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“Mephistopheles: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of GodAnd tasted the eternal joys of heaven,Am not tormented with ten thousand hellsIn being deprived of everlasting bliss?”
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“But what are kings, when regiment is gone,But perfect shadows in a sunshine day?- Edward II, 5.1”
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“Had I as many souls as there be stars, I'd give them all for Mephistopheles!”
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“You must be proud, bold, pleasant, resolute,And now and then stab, when occasion serves.”
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“Quod Me Nutrit Me Destruit.”
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“Gaveston:I can no longer keepe me from my lord.Edward:What Gaveston, welcome: kis not my hand,Embrace me Gaveston as I do thee:Why shouldst thou kneele, knowest thou not who I am?Thy friend, thy selfe, another Gaveston.Not Hilas was more mourned of Hercules,Then thou hast beene of me since thy exile.”
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“What makes my bed seem hard seeing it is soft?Or why slips downe the Coverlet so oft?Although the nights be long, I sleepe not tho,My sides are sore with tumbling to and fro.Were Love the cause, it's like I shoulde descry him,Or lies he close, and shoots where none can spie him?T'was so, he stroke me with a slender dart,Tis cruell love turmoyles my captive hart.Yeelding or striving doe we give him might,Lets yeeld, a burden easly borne is light.I saw a brandisht fire increase in strength,Which being not shakt, I saw it die at length.Yong oxen newly yokt are beaten more,Then oxen which have drawne the plow before.And rough jades mouths with stubburn bits are tome,But managde horses heads are lightly borne,Unwilling Lovers, love doth more torment,Then such as in their bondage feele content.Loe I confesse, I am thy captive I,And hold my conquered hands for thee to tie.What needes thou warre, I sue to thee for grace,With armes to conquer armlesse men is base,Yoke VenusDoves, put Mirtle on thy haire,Vulcan will give thee Chariots rich and faire.The people thee applauding thou shalte stand,Guiding the harmelesse Pigeons with thy hand.Yong men and women, shalt thou lead as thrall,So will thy triumph seeme magnificall.I lately cought, will have a new made wound,And captive like be manacled and bound.Good meaning, shame, and such as seeke loves wrackShall follow thee, their hands tied at their backe.Thee all shall feare and worship as a King,Jo, triumphing shall thy people sing.Smooth speeches, feare and rage shall by thee ride,Which troopes hath alwayes bin on Cupids side:Thou with these souldiers conquerest gods and men,Take these away, where is thy honor then?Thy mother shall from heaven applaud this show,And on their faces heapes of Roses strow.With beautie of thy wings, thy faire haire guilded,Ride golden Love in Chariots richly builded.Unlesse I erre, full many shalt thou burne,And give woundes infinite at everie turne.In spite of thee, forth will thy arrowes flie,A scorching flame burnes all the standers by.So having conquerd Inde, was Bacchus hew,Thee Pompous birds and him two tygres drew.Then seeing I grace thy show in following thee,Forbeare to hurt thy selfe in spoyling mee.Beholde thy kinsmans Caesars prosperous bandes,Who gardes the conquered with his conquering hands.-- ELEGIA 2 (Quodprimo Amore correptus, in triumphum duci se a Cupidine patiatur)”
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“We which were Ovids five books, now are three,For these before the rest preferreth he:If reading five thou plainst of tediousnesse,Two tane away, thy labor will be lesse:With Muse upreard I meant to sing of armes,Choosing a subject fit for feirse alarmes:Both verses were alike till Love (men say)Began to smile and tooke one foote away.Rash boy, who gave thee power to change a line?We are the Muses prophets, none of thine.What if thy Mother take Dianas bowe,Shall Dian fanne when love begins to glowe?In wooddie groves ist meete that Ceres Raigne,And quiver bearing Dian till the plaine:Who'le set the faire treste sunne in battell ray,While Mars doth take the Aonian harpe to play?Great are thy kingdomes, over strong and large,Ambitious Imp, why seekst thou further charge?Are all things thine? the Muses Tempe thine?Then scarse can Phoebus say, this harpe is mine.When in this workes first verse I trod aloft,Love slackt my Muse, and made my numbers soft.I have no mistris, nor no favorit,Being fittest matter for a wanton wit,Thus I complaind, but Love unlockt his quiver,Tooke out the shaft, ordaind my hart to shiver:And bent his sinewy bow upon his knee,Saying, Poet heers a worke beseeming thee.Oh woe is me, he never shootes but hits,I burne, love in my idle bosome sits.Let my first verse be sixe, my last five feete,Fare well sterne warre, for blunter Poets meete.Elegian Muse, that warblest amorous laies,Girt my shine browe with sea banke mirtle praise.-- P. Ovidii Nasonis AmorumLiber PrimusELEGIA 1(Quemadmodum a Cupidine, pro bellis amores scribere coactus sit)”
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“Edward:Well Mortimer, ile make thee rue these words,Beseemes it thee to contradict thy king?Frownst thou thereat, aspiring Lancaster,The sworde shall plane the furrowes of thy browes,And hew these knees that now are growne so stiffe.I will have Gaveston, and you shall know,What danger tis to stand against your king.Gaveston:Well doone, Ned.”
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“I must have wanton Poets, pleasant wits,Musitians, that with touching of a stringMay draw the pliant king which way I please:Musicke and poetrie is his delight,Therefore ile have Italian maskes by night,Sweete speeches, comedies, and pleasing showes,And in the day when he shall walke abroad,Like Sylvian Nimphes my pages shall be clad,My men like Satyres grazing on the lawnes,Shall with their Goate feete daunce an antick hay.Sometime a lovelie boye in Dians shape,With haire that gilds the water as it glides,Crownets of pearle about his naked armes,And in his sportfull hands an Olive tree,To hide those parts which men delight to see,Shall bathe him in a spring, and there hard by,One like Actaeon peeping through the grove,Shall by the angrie goddesse be transformde,And running in the likenes of an Hart,By yelping hounds puld downe, and seeme to die.Such things as these best please his majestie,My lord.”
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“My father is deceast, come Gaveston,'And share the kingdom with thy deerest friend.'Ah words that make me surfet with delight:What greater blisse can hap to Gaveston,Then live and be the favorit of a king?Sweete prince I come, these these thy amorous lines,Might have enforst me to have swum from France,And like Leander gaspt upon the sande,So thou wouldst smile and take me in thy armes.The sight of London to my exiled eyes,Is as Elizium to a new come soule.Not that I love the citie or the men,But that it harbors him I hold so deare,The king, upon whose bosome let me die,And with the world be still at enmitie:What neede the artick people love star-light,To whom the sunne shines both by day and night.Farewell base stooping to the lordly peeres,My knee shall bowe to none but to the king.As for the multitude that are but sparkes,Rakt up in embers of their povertie,Tanti: Ile fawne first on the winde,That glaunceth at my lips and flieth away: ....”
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“From jygging vaines of riming mother wits,And such conceits as clownage keepes in pay,Weele leade you to the stately tent of War:Where you shall heare the Scythian Tamburlaine,Threatning the world with high astounding tearmsAnd scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.View but his picture in this tragicke glasse,And then applaud his fortunes if you please.”
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“In summers heate and mid-time of the dayTo rest my limbes upon a bed I lay,One window shut, the other open stood,Which gave such light as twinkles in a wood,Like twilight glimpse at setting of the Sunne,Or night being past, and yet not day begunne.Such light to shamefast maidens must be showne,Where they may sport, and seeme to be unknowne.Then came Corinna in a long loose gowne,Her white neck hid with tresses hanging downe,Resembling fayre Semiramis going to bed,Or Layis of a thousand lovers sped.I snatcht her gowne: being thin, the harme was small,Yet strived she to be covered therewithall.And striving thus as one that would be cast,Betrayde her selfe, and yeelded at the last.Starke naked as she stood before mine eye,Not one wen in her body could I spie.What armes and shoulders did I touch and see,How apt her breasts were to be prest by me.How smooth a belly under her wast saw I,How large a legge, and what a lustie thigh?To leave the rest, all liked me passing well,I clinged her naked body, downe she fell,Judge you the rest, being tirde she bad me kisse;Jove send me more such after-noones as this.”
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“That like I best that flies beyond my reach.Set me to scale the high pyramids And thereon set the diadem of France;I'll either rend it with my nails to nought,Or mount the top with my aspiring wings,Although my downfall be the deepest hell.”
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“Why should you love him whom the world hates so?Because he love me more than all the world.”
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“Kebaikan merupakan milik kita yang terbaik dalam bentuk yang cantik.”
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“Where both deliberate, the love is slight; Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?”
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“Fornication: but that was in another country; And besides, the wench is dead.”
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“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”
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“Fools that will laugh on earth, most weep in hell.”
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“He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall.”
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“Unhappy Persia, that in former age Hast been the seat of mighty Conquerors,That in their prowesse and their policies, Have triumph over Africa.”
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“Hell is just a frame of mind.”
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“Come live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove”
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