`A World of Ground': Terrestrial Space in Marlowe's Tamburlaine plays
Author: Jones, Emrys
Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 38, Numbers 1-2, 1 July 2008 , pp. 168-182(15)
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
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Abstract:
In the Tamburlaine plays Marlowe adapted for dramatic purposes what Jorge Luis Borges termed `the vast geographies of Ariosto'. These purposes brought the English drama into a close relation with the new cosmography of Ortelius and others. Marlowe was exploiting the growing awareness of the world's full spatial context — an awareness peculiar to Western Europe in his time. In Part One of Tamburlaine he focuses on the establishment of his hero's imperial power: first Emperor of Asia, then Emperor of Africa. This symbolically balanced shaping of his military career is Marlowe's own interpretation. Among other spatially sensitive features, Part Two presents spectacular map-based journeys of a kind prominently exemplified in Ariosto's Orlando furioso.Document Type: Research article
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