e his poetry his best known work reveals
almost every kind of weakness, we have not denied his claim to be the
greatest of Shakespeare's predecessors. Into indifferent material poetry
can breathe that quickening flame without which the most dramatic
situations fail to satisfy. Marlowe had a supreme gift for creating
moments, sometimes extended to whole scenes; he had to learn, from
repeated failures, the art of creating plays.

Essentially a man of tragic temperament, if we may venture to peer
through the printed page to the author, Marlowe lacked the sense of
humour. This has been cast up against him as a serious weakness; but it
is possible that just here lies the strength of his contribution to
drama. His work in literature was to set a standard in the portrayal of
deep emotions, and it may have been as well that the first models
(_Doctor Faustus_ excepted) should not be weakened by apparent
inconsistencies.

The list of Marlowe's dramas is as follows: The First and Second Parts
of _Tamburlaine_ (possibly before 1587), _Doctor Faustus_ (1588), _The
Jew of Malta_ (? 1588-90), _The Massacre at Paris_ (about 1590), _Edward
the Second_ (about 1590), _Dido, Queen of Carthage_ (printed 1549).
Fortunately for the reader, he can now obtain a volume containing all
these plays in one of the cheap modern editions of the English classics.
There will, therefore, be no attempt here to provide the details of
plots with which every student of drama is doubtless well acquainted. A
limited number of quotations, however, are supplied for the pleasure of
the reader.

The First and Second Parts of _Tamburlaine the Great_ may be discussed
together, although they did not appear together, the second owing its
existence to the immediate success of the first. Nevertheless there is
such unbroken continuity in their representation of the career of the
hero, and their style is so uniform, that it will be more convenient to
refer to them conjointly under the one title. Reference has already been
made to this famous production in the early portion of our discussion of
Greene's work. The reader will recall what was said there of its
contents, its popularity and influence, and of the meaning of the term
Marlowesque, an adjective referring more directly to _Tamburlaine_ than
to any other of Marlowe's plays. It is in this play that our ears are
dinned almost beyond sufferance by the poet's 'high astounding terms',
that the hero most nearly 'with hi