Hero and Leander

Globe Education began its series of staged readings of plays in 1994. Since then audiences have been able to see and hear over 150 plays written between 1567 and 1642 by Shakespeare's contemporaries. These 'performances with scripts' are staged by professional actors and directors.

Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe (1598)

Boy meets girl. Or rather, a nun of Venus meets an amorous youth who lives on the other side of a dangerous narrow strait. Despite Marlowe's protests that his 'slack muse' and 'rude pen' are not up to the task of retelling the classic narrative, his incomplete poem was an instant success in the print-shops of late 1590s England. "Whoever loved, that loved not at first sight?"