The main obstacle to a homoerotic reading of Marlowe's "passionate shepherd"
is the word "kirtle." While it could refer to masculine attire, this sense
was not the dominant one at the end of the 16th century. I cite the OED
ref:
1. A man's tunic or coat, originally a garment reaching to the knees or
lower, sometimes forming the only body-garment, but more usually worn with a
shirt beneath and a cloak or mantle above.
In early instances freq. transl. L. tunica. As the common name for an
article of male attire, kirtle seems to have gone out of use about or
shortly after 1500; writers of the 16th and 17th c. use it chiefly in
describing robes of state. It survived to some extent in dialects, applied
to a short jacket or blouse
Maybe Marlowe is hinting that he will dress his male beloved as a king, but
that seems out of place in this poem. I am sorry if I seemed to "scoff." I
think the homoerotic reading valuable, but I have not yet seen enough
evidence to convince me.
John Leonard
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