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arlowe in the production of a tragedy ^Dido, Queenof Carthage', which is written in blank verse. The faults of Tamburlaine are so strong andglaring that later critics and readers would be morestruck with them than with its many excellencies.Shakespeare himself could not forbear ridiculing thebombast of the Scythian conqueror by making hisAncient Pistol swagger in an exaggerated style, andlest we should mistake the drift of the satire. Pistolquotes a line from Tamburlaine : HoUa, ye pampered jades of Asia! Later readers were satisfied with the censureimplied in this and scarcely took the trouble of turningto Marlowe's work itself: Collier and Hallam were thefirst to remedy this gi-eat injustice by showing that,inspite of many shortcomings when compared withlater poets, Marlowe had greatly surpassed all hispredecessors. If is scarcely necessary here to enter at lengthinto the plot of Tamburlaine' or of any other play ofMarlowe's; those who want to know more of them mayeasily satisfy themselves by turning to the third volumeof Bodenstedt's work on Shakespeare's contemporaries,where copious extracts are given and a complete trans-lation of 'Faustus.' The real greatness and importanceof Marlowe's works can, however, be appreciated onlyby studying them in the original language. 'Tamburlaine' was succeeded by 'The TragicalHistory of Doctor Faustus.' The poetical value ofthis work may be inferred from Goethe's words on it1829, as related by his English friend, Henry CrabbRobinson.^) 1 mentioned Marlowe's Faust. He burstout into an exclamation of praise. "How greatly is itall planned!" He had thought of translating it. Hewas fully aware that Shakespeare did not stand alone.'It is almost certain that the low comic scenes which ') See his *Diary' edited by Dr. Th. Sadler, London,1869, vol. 2 p. 434.
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