"Desunt Nonnulla": The Construction of Marlowe's Hero and Leander as an Unfinished Poem
1984; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 51; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2872945
ISSN1080-6547
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval Literature and History
ResumoHero and is conventionally regarded as a fragmented poem, begun by Marlowe and by Chapman. Critical interest has centered, therefore, on defining the nature of the two parts and their relationship to one another; but I believe that there is a prior question to be answered, or at least asked. Why is poem seen as incomplete, and why is it read inevitably in relation to Chapman's continuation? My intention in this paper is to contest orthodox readings of Hero and that regard both parts of the poem as dependent on one another and see them, however mismatched, as forming some kind of whole. I believe we should treat with caution the assumption that poem is incomplete, if this is based on no more than a logical inference from the fact that it was completed by another poet. We need to find evidence in poem itself that it was left unfinished. Failing this, we should try to recapture original poem, freed from the conception of it as a fragment that Chapman was obliged to impose when he added his own poem to as a continuation. I wish to argue that what we read as Marlowe's Hero and Leander is in fact a construct designed by Chapman to validate his own poem, and that to read the two pieces as parts of a single whole is to obscure the shape and significance of poem.
Referência(s)