Well, of course Marlowe did--or so one hears--do some government work as a
spy or agent and Nashe seems to have lent his pen to the anti-Martinist
cause, if he did indeed write that anti-Martin tract (aas I think he
did). But could they have found such employment as Spenser did? Would you
hire either as a secretary? Generation may matter here when crossed with
the particular milieu in which Nashe and Marlowe found themselves. Spenser
would not have been tempted by the stage when young for obvious reasons,
whatever his possible ventures into writing plays. But by the late 1580s
and early 1590s Bohemia was an option. My own suspicion, one I cannot
support with real evidence, is that neither Nashe nor Marlowe had the
temperament for steady work. Not 9-5 guys. This has to do with their
circumstances, doubtless, and with the temptations for the young of
something more exciting than pen-pushing for bureaucrats, even famous and
powerful bureaucrats, but it could also have to do with
personality. Secretaries, even fancy ones, take "dictation." Spenser can
be subversive and restive, interrogatory, in his way, but Nashe and
Marlowe could roar and roister. A "secretary" keeps secrets; he doesn't
get into barroom brawls or have to skip town. Some of this behavior was
encouraged by the very decision *not* to try for respectable employment
(although of course they could have tried and we don't know), but some
also feels like personality. Not *everything* we are and do is socially
constructed. According to the theories explained in Mike Schoenfeldt's
brilliant new book diet might have helped them settle down, to be sure. I
think I will spend a little time trying to imagine what his mother should
have fed young Tom or young Kit. Anne Prescott.
On Wed, 17 Jan 2001, David Wilson-Okamura wrote:
> At 09:21 AM 1/17/01 -0600, you wrote:
> >I've been working through G. K. Hunter's _English Drama 1586-1642_,
> >thinking about the generational differences between Spenser and Marlowe,
> >and wondering why Spenser didn't suffer the fate of the University Wits.
> >Any thoughts? (Maybe a better question would be "Why didn't young men like
> >Nashe and Marlowe turn to writing for the stage instead of doing what
> >Spenser did and find employment as secretaries?")
>
> Sorry, that last part should be, "Why _did_ young men...turn to writing for
> the stage..."
>
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