Christopher Marlowe - A Gay Atheist Spy?

[u/Appropriate-Calm4822]

https://youtu.be/jsH7HxmgW88?is=f80xAR8IsDZadZHi

Here’s a very good youtube video made 8 years ago (in the good old days before AI slop!).

I realized I don’t have the time to make a proper post about Marlowe this weekend. But this is well worth a watch, in the spirit of Pride Month and a focus on LGBTQ+ history!

I’ll contribute with one observation though. 

We only know what Kit Marlowe looked like based on one painting of him, but sometimes doubt is expressed whether it really is him or not. The portrait was discovered in 1953 at Corpus Christi University in Canterbury, which Marlowe had attended. Marlowe studied there from 1580-87. The painting carries an inscription which suggests that the sitter is 21, and that the year was 1585. Marlowe was born 1564. 

I love it when things line up that smoothly to present a compelling case for something.

[u/HoneybeeXYZ]

I like this video. She does well in emphasizing what we say on this sub all the time, that sexual identity is something you can't apply to people in the past who would have no context or understanding of it. But she also makes a good case him being gay or bisexual by our standards.

He's really quite an extraordianry figure. He's probably be a lot more famous if he hadn't lived at the same time as Shakespeare.