Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/586

22 plays. We find the same sort of thing which we find in their writings, only better done than they usually do it, rather than such work as Shakespeare s a little worse done than usual. And even in the final text of the tragic or metrical scenes the highest note struck is always, with one magnificent and unquestionable exception, rather in the key of Marlowe at his best than of Shakespeare while yet in great measure his disciple.

Had every copy of Marlowe s boyish version or perversion of Ovid s Elegies deservedly perished in the flames to which it was judicially condemned by the sentence of a brace of prelates, it is possible that an occasional book worm, it is certain that no poetical student, would have deplored its destruction, if its demerits could in that case have been imagined. His translation of the first book of Lucan alternately rises above the original and falls short of it, often inferior to the Latin in point and weight of expressive rhetoric, now and then brightened by a clearer note of poetry and lifted into a higher mood of verse. Its terseness, vigour, and purity of style would in any case have been praiseworthy, but are nothing less than admirable, if not wonderful, when we consider how close the translator has on the whole (in spite of occasional slips into inaccuracy) kept himself to the most rigid limit of literal representation, phrase by phrase and often line by line. The really startling force and felicity of occasional verses are worthier of remark than the inevitable stiffness and heaviness of others, when the technical difficulty of such a task is duly taken into account.

One of the most faultless lyrics and one of the loveliest fragments in the whole range of descriptive and fanciful poetry would have secured a place for Marlowe among the memorable men of his epoch, even if his plays had perished with himself. His Passionate Shepherd remains ever since unrivalled in its way a way of pure fancy and radiant melody without break or lapse. The untitled fragment, on the other hand, has been very closely rivalled, perhaps very happily imitated, but only by the greatest lyric poet of England by Shelley alone. Marlowe s poem of Hero and Leander, closing with the sunrise which closes the night of the lovers union, stands alone in its age, and far ahead of the work of any possible competitor between the death of Spenser and the dawn of Milton. In clear mastery of narrative and presentation, in melodious ease and simplicity of strength, it is not less pre-eminent than in the adorable beauty and impeccable perfection of separate lines or passages.

The place and the value of Christopher Marlowe as a leader among English poets it would be almost impossible for historical criticism to overestimate. To none of them all, perhaps, have so many of the greatest among them been so deeply and so directly indebted. Nor was ever any great writer s influence upon his fellows more utterly and unmixedly an influence for good. He first, and he alone, guided Shakespeare into the right way of work : his music, in which there is no echo of any man s before him, found its own echo in the more prolonged but hardly more exalted harmony of Milton s. He is the greatest discoverer, the most daring and inspired pioneer, in all our poetic literature. Before him there was neither genuine blank verse nor a genuine tragedy in our language. After his arrival the way was prepared, the paths were made straight, for Shakespeare.  MARLY-LE-ROI, chief place of a canton in the department of Seine-et-Oise, France, 5 miles to the north of Versailles and 3 miles to the south of St Germain-en-Laye, is, notwithstanding some fine country houses, a dull and unattractive village of 1250 inhabitants, which owes all its celebrity to the sumptuous chateau of Louis XIV. It was originally designed as a simple hermitage to which the king could occasionally retire with a few of his more intimate friends from the pomp of Versailles, but gradually it grew until it became one of the most ruinous extravagances of the Grand Monarque. The central pavilion (inhabited by the king himself) and its twelve subsidiary pavilions were in tended to suggest the sun surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. Seldom visited by Louis XV., and wholly abandoned by Louis XVI., it was demolished after the Revolution, its art treasures having previously been dispersed, and all that now remains consists of a few mouldering ivy-grown walls, some traces of parterres with magnificent trees, the park, which is well stocked with game, and the forest of 8

Close to the Seine, half- way between Marly-le-Roi and St Germain, is the village of Port-Marly (500 inhabitants), and 1 mile farther up is the hamlet of Marly-la-Machine. Here, under Louis XIV., an immense hydraulic engine, driven by the current of the river, was erected ; it raised the water to a high tower of 155 metres (508 English feet), where the aqueduct of Marly commenced (2100 English feet in length, 75 in height, with 36 arches, still well-preserved), carrying the waters of the Seine to Versailles. The first engine of Marly began to work in 1682, but it was necessary to modify it in 1803. In 1826 a steam-engine was substituted, and since 1858 an atmospheric engine has been employed.  MARMONT, (1774-1852), duke of Ragusa, and marshal of France, one of Napoleon's earliest friends and most trusted generals, was born at Chatillon-sur-Seine, on July 20, 1774. He was the son of an ex-officer in the army, who belonged to the petite noblesse, and had adopted the principles of the Revolution. His love of soldiering soon showing itself, his father took him to Dijon to learn mathematics prior to entering the artillery, and there he made the acquaintance of Bonaparte, which he renewed after obtaining his commission when he served in Toulon. The acquaintance ripened into intimacy ; Marmont became General Bona parte s aide-de-camp, and accompanied him to Italy and Egypt, winning distinction and promotion as general of brigade, In 1799 he left Egypt with Bonaparte to the mercy of the English ; he was present at the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, and organized the artillery for the expedition to Italy, which he commanded with great effect at Marengo. For this he was at once made general of division. In 1801 he became inspector-general of artillery, and in 1804 grand officer of the Legion of Honour. In 1805 he received the command of a corps, with which he did good service at Ulm. He was then directed to occupy Dalmatia with his army ; he defeated the Russians on October 30 at Castel Nuovo, and occupied Ragusa. The next five years were the most creditable in his life ; he was both military and civil governor of Dalmatia, and has still left traces there both in great public works and in the memories of the people. In 1807 he was made duke of Ragusa, and in 1809, being summoned up to the help of Napoleon, who was closely beset in the island of Loban, earned the marshal s baton by his conduct at Wagram. In July 1810 he was hastily summoned from his palace, where he lived in Eastern luxury, to succeed Masse&quot;na in the command of the French army in the north of Spain, called the army of Portugal. The skill with which he manoeuvred his army during the year he commanded it has been always acknowledged. His relief of Ciudad Rodrigo in the autumn of 1811 in spite of the presence of the English army was a great feat, and in the tactics which preceded the battle of Salamanca he had the best of it. The extension of his left on the 22d July 1812 was, however, fatal, and its result was the great defeat of Salamanca, in which Marmont was severely wounded in the right arm and side. He retired to France to recover, and was still hardly cured when in April 1813 Napoleon gave him the command of the 6th corps. With 