'Hero and Leander' was published in 1598, and anyone who came across it in a stationer’s shop in Elizabethan London would have known that its author was dead, killed in a brawl in Deptford in 1593. Christopher Marlowe’s sensational life as playwright and spy is matched by the wit, sophistication and eroticism of his eccentric retelling of Ovid’s myth, based on a sixth-century version by Musaeus. Seamus and Mark begin their new series by looking at the playful but often troubling treatment of desire in a poem that contains one of the most explicit depictions of sex in English poetry.

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:

Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applesignupnp

Other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/scsignupnp

Further reading in the LRB:

Michael Dobson on the life of Marlowe https://lrb.me/np1marlowe1

Hilary Mantel on the murder of Marlowe: https://lrb.me/np1marlowe2

Charles Nicholl on Faustus: https://lrb.me/np1marlowe3

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices