Apocalypse Then: TAMBURLAINE and the Pleasures of Religious Fear

Abstract

Well before the rise of the public playhouses religion provided an irresistible current of imaginative material for the ordinary person in sixteenth-century England. It is worthwhile to inquire into the ways in which this reservoir of imagery and emotional experience infl uenced the stage in its formative years, particularly at the hands of an innovative artist like Christopher Marlowe, who knew and used religion in this dimension—as opposed to religious ideas—to great advantage in his plays. Marlowe came to London not only with considerable religious learning, but also a creative rhetorical talent that helped him to use language and performance to manipulate audiences’ feelings. How he applied this knowledge and talent in Tamburlaine will be the focus of this article.