Body, costume, and desire in Christopher Marlowe

All the desired youths in Marlowe come clothed in favors, the tokens of older and richer men's yearning. These bribes and rewards, often feminine or effeminate ornaments, not only beautify the already gorgeous bodies of young men, but also label and augment their value and their power. The moment of virility's blooming, in adolescence, is seen as a time when boys can negotiate favorable terms of entry into the realms of manhood by the seductive use of their glamor. For their part, desirous men are distracted from the affairs and cares of state by their nostalgic encounters with girlish boys, at worst, to the extent that their own patriarchal power is compromised by sodomitic dalliance. Marlowe's involvement in these plots is iterative and committed.