DAY 2: OF A DARK STAIN ON THE HEART OF THE "GOLDEN AGE"

Day 2: 9:00 until 19:00
Introduction: On our second day of this time-travelling tour, we will be exploring the darker side of The Renaissance, often referred to as The Golden Age. This was the time when things were changing, and changing fast. This was the world of Shakespeare, Galileo, Elizabeth I, the Spanish Inquisition (shudder), Leonardo da Vinci, Michealangelo, and colonization... which led, acknowledging the cannabilistic traits of our language, to a growth spurt in the development of English. In this time period, which was perhaps filled with more vibrancy and intensity than the others before it, suicide was for the first time given a more romantic (and less hell-fire-and-brimstone) spin to it by playwrights and writers... Shakespeare being a perfect example. In the time of optimism and new beginnings, the determined act of suicide amongst writers was rare... but the hedonistic and often reckless lifestyles they led (which we will be exploring) undoubtedly insured that geniuses died tragically young... as is sadly the general tendency, as we shall discover in our journey through time, of those especially creative.


Above: Poor Christopher Marlowe



Above: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge



Above: "Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight" it says at the bottom: Did Chris strike you as the straight branch type?

Locations:
Years of 1564 to 1593, England: Our first locations will circle around the (in)famous writer, Christopher Marlowe. We'll first tour his birthplace in the town of Canterbury, 1564... this year was, coincidentally, the same year that his great rival Shakespeare was born. Here, we'll be visiting his early school King's School, which was barely paid for by his father's poor earnings as a shoemaker. Tracing his life story, we'll then visit Corpus Christi College, Cambridge: in pariticular, we'll comb through the expansive library which Marlowe as a young man must have explored in his studies of philosophy, theology and history.
At midday, we'll eat in Cambridge: a veritible mine of literature, goods and souveneirs.
Our next stop in his life, however, will be far less pleasant: the Newgate Gaol he stayed in in 1589 on charges of murder (but was let off on account of his political connections...). Sadly, this kind of behaviour was prevalant in his life: people suspected him things ranging from heresy to homosexuality to atheism (the ultimate crime...). And Marlowe wasn't a likeable man: with a quick temper and unexplainable mood swings, it has been theorised that he suffered from a mental disorder. His lifestyle finally led him to his death: he was stabbed in the eye in a tavern in Deptford, while he and his equally intoxicated companion fought over the bill. This destination is where we'll take our supper at eight o'clock : looking at what had, perhaps, been Christopher Marlowe's last sight... lighted by authentic lanterns and thrumming with music.