THE MIGHT IN MARLOWE'S LINE: A LINGUISTIC EXAMINATION

This dissertation attempts to arrive at a linguistic description of the fabled might of Marlowe. By citing particular stylistic choices operating simultaneously and contextually on all levels of Marlowe's language--phonological, morphological, and syntactic--the study seeks to puncture the ingrown literary notion that might is nothing less than a mysterious aura. The premise is that might can be evidenced sufficiently in the concrete details of the verse.

Based on a generative model, the systematic investigation involves quantification ranging from the counting in sample texts of stress maxima on the metrical level to the counting of verbs and verb types on the syntactic level. These counts in Marlowe are compared with identical ones in sample texts from Surrey and Shakespeare, belonging to the same genre. While Surrey's verse is paired with selections from Marlowe for the metrical counts and observations, Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and King Lear are matched with Hero and Leander and Edward II for items of morphology and syntax.

Explicitly the study arrives at certain immediate conclusions: (1) that metrically Marlowe reduced the number of stress maxima per line, thereby making blank verse more flexible and adaptable while at the same time more dynamic in that he stressed the category of verb more often than Surrey who imported the medium; (2) morphologically, that in minting new words Marlow again gravitated toward verbs, changing other categories to verbs and verbals to an overwhelming degree, effecting an economy as well as a special thrust in diction; (3) Syntactically, that Marlowe used more action and action-process verbs than Shakespeare, forging a line known in many senses for its quickness, facility, and power. All three conclusions have their basis in the keystone concept of the thesis: the muscular verb--the hub of all of Marlowe's primary stylistic choices. Marlowe's verb simply has more muscle, and might arises from sheer verbal force.