ABSTRACT
Unlike Doctor Faustus and Edward II which are overtly concerned with reading and writing, The Massacre at Paris does not stage the processes of reception and inscription. Unlike the two parts of Tamburlaine and Dido, Queene of Carthage, The Massacre at Paris is not concerned with issues of repetition, imitation and originality. The reception of Christopher Marlowe's play coupled with its internal concern with structures of authority renders it a useful text through which the critical institution itself can be examined. A theatrical presentation of recent French history, Marlowe's drama utilizes the mass of publications which followed hot on the heels of Saint Bartholomew's day 1572. According to Franklin E. Court the concept of the canon was already established by the time Marlowe wrote The Massacre. Like the canon which can only give its texts the appearance of being outside history, translation cannot freeze time. Instead, translation serves as a reminder that transcendent, pre-Babelian communication is forever impossible.
