I too have my doubts that poem is addressed to a boy, but it is worth
thinking about what it means that the poem sparked a bunch of responses by
men (Sir Walter Ralegh and John Donne, I think there are others too)
writing as women.
Peter C. Herman
At 09:46 PM 10/25/00 -0400, you wrote:
>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
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|