Tlic Reputation of Christoplicr Marlowe. 407 



In France, F.-V. Hugo's translation of Faustus (1858) and A. 

 Mezieres' discussion in Les Predeccsseurs et Conteiiiporains do 

 Shaksperc (1863) evidence the beginning of serious interest. 

 Felix Rabbe produced a translation of the collected plays in two 

 volumes (1889), which evoked essays on the poet by Jules 

 Lemaitre (Impressions de Theatre, Cinquieme Serie, Oct. 14, 

 1889) and J. Texte (Revue des Deux Mondes, 1890). In Italy, 

 Arturo Graf's Studii drammatici (1878) contained a forty-page 

 essay on // Fausto di Cristoforo Alarlozvc. The first Italian ver- 

 sion of the play was made by Eugenio Turiello (Naples, 1898) ; 

 Edxvard II followed in the first volume of Raffaello Piccoli's 

 Dramnii Elisahettianl Tradotti (1914). A Spanish version of 

 Faustus by Alcala-Galiano was published in 191 1. and a Polish 

 version in 19 12. Dutch, Danish, and Swedish translations had 

 previously appeared.^-^ 



Though Marlowe's plays have not as yet established themselves 

 on the professional stage, academic or semi-professional perform- 

 ances have of late been increasingly successful. Doctor Faustus 

 has been many times presented before limited audiences, particu- 

 larly, since 1896, under the management of Mr. Wm. Poel for the 

 Elizabethan Stage Society.^" Notably successful academic revi- 

 vals were given at Princeton University in 1907 and at Williams 

 College in 1908. Edzvard II was given at the Oxford Summer 

 Meeting, 1903, by the Elizabethan Stage Society.^"^ A perform- 



"^A passage from the introduction to Pinkerton's selections from 

 Marlowe (1885) speaks as follows: 'Alarlowe has not yet got the ear of 

 Europe. In England even, few comparatively give him high regard ; 

 abroad, he still counts as a barbarian. Germans may sympathize, perhaps, 

 with one who first touched their great Faust-legend ; the French have 

 never seen more in him than a wild pioneer and road-breaker for Shake- 

 speare. A distinguished modern Italian poet and critic, in verses made 

 by him while reading Marlowe, expressed the belief that his author seemed 

 to have been inspired by the fumes of beer. Truly a fine criticism, a sub- 

 tle inference this, to deem all Marlowe's "mighty lines" as but the outcome 

 of beer! From such a singular judgment we may conclude that foreigners, 

 with their curious slowness to appreciate any Anglo-Saxon poets but Byron 

 and Shakespeare, have not yet got at the true Marlowe.' 



^" The Saturday Review (vol. 82, p. 2>(> f-) speaks well of a performance, 

 'Acted by members of the Shakespeare Reading Society at St. George's 

 Hall, on a stage after the model of the Fortune Playhouse', 2 July, 1896. 



"^A spectator of this revival of Edzuard II wrote: 'The wonder is not 

 so much that it should have held spellbound an audience, some of whom. 



