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It is 100% certain that this one is dead, 99% certain that he was out of the closet, and 98% certain that this is a picture of him.
This one will either be ridiculously easy or fiendishly difficult.
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Attachment: whoisit.jpg
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The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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Guest
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On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
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Well, when I saw I immediately said Shakespear but I am only 2% certain. I sent the pic to my daughter who is supposed to know such things and she said she's pretty sure it is Shakespear at 65% but wouldn't want to bet the house on it. I am not going to cheat by looking for pic's on the net to compare it with.
John
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Research for the answer is not cheating.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I looked at google and couldn't find that pic. seems too small a face to me
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Looks rather too petulant for Shakespeare to me, so I'm hazarding that it's the inimitable spy, atheist, notorious drunkard, inveterate lecher after young men - Christopher Marlowe.
Who may, of course, have been none of these things ... the legends that have grown up around him are legion, but I'd like to think are based on truth. (Except the rumour that he wrote the plays of Shakespeare: reardless of any textual criticism, the surviving works of Marlowe and Shakespeare play so differently on stage that I can't beleive they come from the same hand.)
I rather suspect that he had a hand in the fabrication of his own image, and this makes him a truly "modern" figure in many ways, although he more usually seen as a typical Renaissance figure.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Google seems to confirm your idea
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Yes, Christopher Marlowe it is - and he was, apparently, all the things that you wrote about him! His most famous play is probably "Doctor Faustus". "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?" "Lente, lente currite noctis equi."
Over to you
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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Perhaps my favorite legend about him is that he faked the brawl that led to his apparent death, in order to escape pressing debts (or to flee with a lover - versions vary). As an adolescent, Marlowe was closer to my ideal of the espionage agent than 007 Bond, James Bond ever was ... perhaps just a bit more that I could identify with!
I'll post another Famous Gay in the morning ...
NW
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Mind you he does look just a little on the seedy side in that portrait, doesn't he? There is something the artist has caught that is not the normal portrait.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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NW wrote:
> As an adolescent, Marlowe was closer to my ideal of the espionage agent than 007 Bond, James Bond ever was ... perhaps just a bit more that I could identify with!
I don't know whether it was ever proven that he was in Walsingham's pay. There are records that suggest he was, but I don't think they are conclusive. It has been suggested that it was Walsingham (head of Queen Elizabeth's secret service) who arranged for his death in that brawl because Marlowe had become too dangerous - whatever that means. Again, I don't think the evidence is conclusive one way or the other. As you wrote, one thing is certain: he was killed in a shady tavern brawl.
One interesting thing that has come to light from the papers of the secret service is the fact that Marlowe used to claim that Jesus and John the Baptist were lovers!
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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Goto Forum:
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