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Shirley Sharon-Zisser wrote:-
> Dear Professor Lochman, 
> 
> Thank you so much for your considerate response. I was referring, for
> instance, to Ovidian texts such as Chapman's *Ovid's Banquet of Sense* and
> *Shadow of Night*, Campion's *Umbra*, which have not received their due;

Thomas Campion was another of Marlowe's aliases.
 
> for pastorals, Drayton's *Shepheards Garland*, and, for texts harly ever
> mentioned or republished, John Dickenson's *Shepheards Comlaint*,

John Dickenson was another of Marlowe's aliases.

> Shakespeare's "A Lover's Complaint," 

William Shakespeare is the most famous of Marlowe's aliases.

>William's Smith's *Chloris: The
> Complaint of the Passionate Despised Shepheard*, 

William Smith was another of Marlowe's aliases.

>poems in *Englands
> Helicon* and *A Poeticall Rhapsody*. 

'England's Helicon' contains poems written by Marlowe under his
various aliases and a few are from his close friends, Jonson, Drayton,
Peele, Sidney, Watson, Greville and Dyer. When he wrote 'The Phoenix
Nest', just after he was exiled, he wrote many of the poems in the style
of his contemporaries and put their initials underneath. How confusing
for future generations!

> Yes, as I think you gathered, many of the works I am considering belong in
> the denied Euphuistic 

John Lyly was another name used by Marlowe -- what a prankster! He,
of course, was 'Ephues'. Compare Ephues with Sancho Panca -- he was
both of them!

>and Anglo-Latin traditions: Robert Greene's
> *Menaphon*, Thomas Lodge's *Rosalynd*, 

Thomas Lodge also had his name nicked by Marlowe...

>Dickenson's *Arisbas* are all
> Euphuistic and Ovidian pastorals; 

As I said, Marlowe was 'Ephues'. He also translated Ovid (loosely)
and was referred to as 'Ovid' by his contemporaries. Check Jonson.

>the *Calender* was transalted into Latin
> soon after it was published by one "John Dove" who also, like Campion and
> Dickenson, wrote Ovidian verse in Latin. 

They were all Marlowe ;-)
 
> I agree with you completely about some of the reasons for the popularity of
> the sonnet in the sixteenth century. But so many sonnets -- Shakespeare's
> of course, the sonnets in Barnfield's *Cynthia*, but also, for instance,
> Henry Constable's *Diana,* 

Shakespeare, Barnfield and Constable were all names purloined
by Marlowe. Have you read the works published under those names?
A sad shepherd can't get a flinty hearted woman to forgive him. Marlowe
had been banished by Queen Elizabeth and his name was banned. But
he kept on trying. Many of his pseudonyms were used only once, circa
1593 - 1598. The lad was desperate!

>Drayton's *Idea*, 

Ah now -- Drayton was a pal of Marlowe's who went with Ben Jonson
to bump the real Shakspere off when he started blabbing in 1616.

>John Dickenson's *Sonnets to
> Philomel,* 

Marlowe's sonnets to his pet nightingale which he kept in a cage
made out of bone. Philomel crops up in many of the poems under
many of the names. Try Barnfield and 'The Passionate Pilgrim' by
W.S.

>Richard Lynch's *Diella*, (all intertextually resonant) differ
> markedly from what most current critics would call "Petrarchan," even after
> refinement.                 

More Marlowe...
 
> I agree with you and Dorothy Stephens about the need of nuanced refinement
> of our understanding of the literature of the period. 

Take Marlowe and his many aliases (50-odd and still counting) away 
from the period between 1572 and 1635 and you will be left with very 
little. He died in 1622 -- the year before the First Folio came out -- but 
the stuff that hadn't been published was still finding its way onto the 
market until the early 1630s. He had been living with the Fair Man at 
Eynsham Abbey until he died and, when the Fair Man himself died in 
1632, the last of it found its way to the publishers.  

>I believe, as is
> clear by now, in the need of nuanced and refined understanding of any
> category. I believe, though, that in the spirit of the sixteenth century,
> it would help refined and precise thinking if we used different terms,
> especially terms used by Renaissance rhetoricians and poets themselves, not
> twentieth-century literary theorists whose distinctions are far from being
> as rich and accurate, to delineate these nuances. Not doing so, for
> instance continuing to talk of all sonnets as instances of "Petrarchism"
> and other such generalized categories, we risk remaining in a state of
> confusion regarding the texts we study. Comfortable to many in the field, I
> realize by now, but not at all intellectually and professionally
> responsible.                 
> 
> Shirley Sharon-Zisser 

When the truth is finally out, Shirley, the whole world of literature will
be turned on its head. (No I'm not crazy!)

Peter Zenner

+44 (0) 1246 271726
Visit my web site 'Zenigmas' at 
http://www.pzenner.freeserve.co.uk




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