RHYTHMIC BEAUTY IN THE PLAYS OF RENAISSANCE

The Theatres were very much in vogue in the Elizabethan England. For the spectators, theatres were not merely places of amusement & entertainment but also of social gathering & instruction. Both Marlowe & Shakespeare are great dramatists & poets of Elizabethan age. Their poetry & music lend a unique power & beauty to their plays. Marlowe, the predecessor of Shakespeare, infused his own soul into his characters like a lyric poet. He is regarded as the Morning Star of Song & the first & foremost lyricist of English Stage. He poetized the English dramas. His play Doctor Faustus reads more like a poem than a drama. His passage on Helen is one of the loveliest of lyrics. In its idealization of beauty, in its riot of colour, in its swift transition from one myth to another, in music & melody, in its passionate exuberance & abundance the passage remains unsurpassed. Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium ? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a Kiss. Her lips suck forth my soul ! See where it flies ! Come Helen, come give me my soul again – Here will I dwell, for Heaven is in these lips: