Award-winning novelist and Marlovian scholar par excellence, Dr. Ros Barber has written an analyis of a unique poem contained in the Bodleian Shakespeare First Folio employing a "Marlowe-shaped lens" and the result is ... Marlovian gold! Whoever wrote the poem (sometime between 1668-1700 Barber reasons) carefully removed Ben Jonson's verses on the Folio engraving of Shakespeare and replaced them with the verses you see here.
T hou art hid now, tho' not for danger's sake,
ReplyDeleteO nly because so many will not see.
C aught up in broider'd follies that they make,
H id well in mask'd respectability.
R emove the veilings from thine eye and look--
I n comes the light so brilliant from the East!
S imple is the truth within the book:
M artext is the one and onlie Priest.
A round about the garland-scholars dance,
R evolving antic planets 'round false sun.
L ies then, lies now in academic trance--
O stop the heaped dirt of words! Be done!
W e who truly know and take his part
E ver hear Kit, whisper-close to heart.
I sign myself
Thalassa Atlantis,
Wandering Poetess and Muse (Part-time)
A fine acrostic sonnet! Thanks for sharing it here.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It is definitely from the heart. I think there are a lot of people out there who will clearly get the building strengths supporting the Marlowe-as-true-author case (and the corresponding Shakespearian case weakness) once they are exposed to the evidence.
DeleteFrom a medical/forensic point of view (I have a couple of relatives who had careers in the medical professions), the supposed-fatal wound above the eye would likely not have been instantly fatal. It would have rather been a sort of "botched lobotomy", and while the recipient would probably have died in a matter of days (painfully!) from septic and other complications, the wound would not be immediately death-dealing. I believe Blumenfeld mentions this in his book, and I think it is more evidence that the body the wound was inflicted on was already dead at the time. A post-mortem injury to the corpse's face/head might also prove useful in further disfiguring the corpse and disguising facial features. The whole story of how the fatality came about stinks to high heaven anyway-- I also have a couple of cousins who work in law enforcement who concur that the whole thing reeks of a cover-up, so I think the question-mark on the Marlowe memorial window in Poet's Corner is highly appropriate.
At any rate, fine blog! I will be visiting often!
Thanks again,
Thalassa
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete