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Review
‘Bolt recreates an alternative life of Marlowe that compellingly views the known facts from a different angle.’ Independent
‘A learned and clever piece of historical investigation which cocks a snook as much at the heretics as at the orthodox.’ Independent on Sunday
‘“History Play” is a triumph because…its passion is with the search, with the idea of how our concepts of history and biography are created. “History Play” is, by turns, a jeu d’esprit, an examination of the idea of historical study and a play-filled novel. It made me laugh out loud. And most of all, it made me want to go back to the plays. This was a book that needed to be done perfectly or not at all. It is perfect.’ Spectator
Review
'Bolt recreates an alternative life of Marlowe that compellingly views the known facts from a different angle.' Independent 'A learned and clever piece of historical investigation which cocks a snook as much at the heretics as at the orthodox.' Independent on Sunday '"History Play" is a triumph because!its passion is with the search, with the idea of how our concepts of history and biography are created. "History Play" is, by turns, a jeu d'esprit, an examination of the idea of historical study and a play-filled novel. It made me laugh out loud. And most of all, it made me want to go back to the plays. This was a book that needed to be done perfectly or not at all. It is perfect.' Spectator
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I can only imagine that it is because they didn't have the wit, flair and sheer downright intelligence of Rodney Bolt. Bolt has taken the biographical form and shaken it about, showing us what it is, what it is used for -- and what it could be. That he has done so while also making me laugh out loud, rethink long-held opinions and enjoy myself more than I can say makes this a triumphant tour de force. If, in Bolt's cunning rethinking of the Shakespeare/Marlowe controversy, Marlowe was the author of Hamlet, then we must now ask under what name did Bolt publish his previous books? Just as the Marlovians can't believe that the unschooled son of a glover from Stratford could write Hamlet, I cannot believe that this can possibly be Bolt's first book. More!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a Stratfordian, I would naturally disagree with Bolt's thesis, although it it clear that he has totally immersed himself in his subject. He is familiar with every detail of Marlowe's life and times, but that in itself can be counted a drawback, since he appears to be starting from a supposition and then looking for evidence to support it. As a biography of Marlowe, it's a classic, but his insistence from page one of simply assuming that Marlowe was Shakespeare and accrediting him with his works as though his case was proven is most grating. He starts out with Mark Twain's famous essay stating the 'facts' of Shakespeare's life, many of which - particularly the anti-Stratfordian assumption that Shakespeare's parents were illiterate - are not know as facts at all, but are merely supposition, and not supposition strongly supported by evidence either.
The entire anti-Stratfordian edifice is built on the notion that a mere glover's son form the boonies couldn't possibly have written what Shakespeare wrote. Nonsense. Marlowe was a mere shoemaker's son from the boonies, but we know he had a good education. There's no reason to assume Shakespeare couldn't have had one as well, even if he didn't go to university. Remember, in his day, schools normally sat from six in the morning until seven at night, including Saturdays, and moreover, "universities of the day added little...gloss to a schoolboy's studies of classical literature or logic, rhetoric or moral philosophy, existing more as training grounds for the professions..." (Anthony Holden, from his biography of Shakespeare). I would say that's plenty of education for the man who wrote Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus.
All in all, Bolt's book covers Marlowe's life pretty well. It's well written and you'll enjoy it as a biography - provided you ignore the anti-Stratfordian stuff.
The entire anti-Stratfordian edifice is built on the notion that a mere glover's son form the boonies couldn't possibly have written what Shakespeare wrote. Nonsense. Marlowe was a mere shoemaker's son from the boonies, but we know he had a good education. There's no reason to assume Shakespeare couldn't have had one as well, even if he didn't go to university. Remember, in his day, schools normally sat from six in the morning until seven at night, including Saturdays, and moreover, "universities of the day added little...gloss to a schoolboy's studies of classical literature or logic, rhetoric or moral philosophy, existing more as training grounds for the professions..." (Anthony Holden, from his biography of Shakespeare). I would say that's plenty of education for the man who wrote Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus.
All in all, Bolt's book covers Marlowe's life pretty well. It's well written and you'll enjoy it as a biography - provided you ignore the anti-Stratfordian stuff.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. The author openly fakes data, making reference to books and manuscripts that do not exist and creates characters for which there is no evidence. Therefore the book is valueless as a biography of Marlowe and unconvincing in its argument that Marlowe wrote Shakespeare's plays.
For me the point of books like this is the ingenuity of their argument and the light they cast on by-ways of Elizabethan and Jacobean life. Given that you cannot trust any indivual assertion the author makes and he can make up anything he wants, then it exhibits little ingenuity and casts little light. If the book was openly fiction and simply a novelisation of Marlowe becoming Shakespear then it would possibly read better but, as it is, it reads with the ponderousness of bad non-fiction.
Possibly the author is attempting to found a new genre, but its not a good enough example for me to hope that there will be more of them.
For me the point of books like this is the ingenuity of their argument and the light they cast on by-ways of Elizabethan and Jacobean life. Given that you cannot trust any indivual assertion the author makes and he can make up anything he wants, then it exhibits little ingenuity and casts little light. If the book was openly fiction and simply a novelisation of Marlowe becoming Shakespear then it would possibly read better but, as it is, it reads with the ponderousness of bad non-fiction.
Possibly the author is attempting to found a new genre, but its not a good enough example for me to hope that there will be more of them.
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