Thursday, April 14, 2016

"You know Tom is suffering"

Tom Hiddleston as Adam the vampire in Only Lovers Left Alive, contemplating Christopher Marlowe's chosen method of displaying Shakespeare's portrait . . . .


[Post title and screen capture

I love this scene in Only Lovers Left Alive. Despite Christopher Marlowe's obvious antipathy towards his rival William Shakespeare, he greets Adam's appearance at his deathbed with a line from Hamlet -- "What a piece of work is a man?" To which Adam responds -- "This quintessence of dust" -- from the same monologue. Since Marlowe would be unlikely to quote the words of a despised rival, the implication is that he is actually quoting himself -- as the "true author" of Shakespeare's plays.

A nice nod to an old literary controversy.

No comments: