We note in young Shakespeare the influence of Marlowe. How did he develop the Marlovian theme in his dramaturgy? This can be seen, from the standpoint of "Machiavellism," in the process from The Few of Malta to Richard III. Now "Machiavellism" is taken here to mean the culmination of that individualism which marks off the awakened Europe from the Middle age and the true "Machiavellist" is a man, who, possessed of the valour of a lion and the cunning of a fox, can ignore humanity and employ every means to gain his end. Marlowe had already glorified that vigorous passion for self-realization in Tamburlaine and Dr. Faustus, but had paid small attention to the "means," for Tamburlaine uses nothing but the sword to realize his ambition, and Faustus starts with the selling of his soul to the devil, which should be the last resort. Now Machiavellism was introduced in The Few of Malta; Barabas is the first hero who employs every means, Mortimer in Edward II and Guise in The Massacre at Paris following the suit. But in all these dramas, "the means," arranged mechanically as well as independently of the heroes, it may be said, serves in no way to reveal the heroes' characters. Shakespeare takes up the same theme in his Henry VI trilogy, especially in "The Second Part," and in Richard III. "The First Part" is only a pageant of the national events, and "the Third Part" may be regarded as a prologue to Richard III. In the "Second Part" Shakespeare depicts the ambition, not of a man, but of a crowd that makes up the atmosphere of this ambitious world, and it is here that York's character, weak as it may be, becomes conspicuous, through the various means he uses, when occasion requires, against his no less ambitious rivals. Here each means serves to tell a certain aspect of his character, the aggregates showing his whole. In York, however, it was far from being perfect, and it is seen at its best in Richard III; here, the delineation of Richard's character is the sole end, to which each means pays its own tribute, creating thus, for the first time, the living figure of the ideal "Prince" of Machiavelli.
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