Criticism > Poetry > Hero and Leander, Christopher Marlowe - Louis L. Martz (essay date 1972)

Hero and Leander, Christopher Marlowe - Louis L. Martz (essay date 1972)

Louis L. Martz (essay date 1972)

SOURCE: Martz, Louis L. Introduction to Hero and Leander, by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 1-14. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1972.

[In the following essay, Martz differentiates Marlowe's Hero and Leander from George Chapman's continuation of the poem.]

This publication provides an occasion for attempting to persuade all admirers of this poem to avoid speaking of Marlowe's “fragment” and Chapman's “continuation,” or of a poem “Begun by Christopher Marloe; and finished by George Chapman,” as on the title page of the first combined edition of 1598. I would even avoid speaking of Marlowe's “part” and Chapman's “part,” as though each in some way belonged to what is sometimes called “the entire poem” or “the composite poem.” Above all I wish to avoid speaking of Marlowe's “two sestiads.” I should like to think instead of the work entered in the Stationers'...

[The entire page is 5217 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the: