Marlowe said this in Hero and Leander. The myth of Hero and Leander proves the rule that the first few seconds of a meeting dictate whether or not the chemistry is right. Recognising who you want to spend time with takes place almost instantly. Shakespeare, to whom these lines are often attributed, may well have felt a rush of fellow-feeling on meeting Marlowe, whose murder cut off a glittering wit and intellect. Shakespeare was evidently affected enough to pay homage to Marlowe’s words through Phoebe, a shepherdess in As You Like It who prefaces them with: “Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might: ‘Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?’ ” It is Marlowe, the master of insight, who Shakespeare acknowledges here, imitation being the height of flattery.
Shakespeare indicates through another character, Touchstone, that he knew Marlowe may well have been killed for “apostasy” on the authority of a rigidly narrow-minded church, sanctioned by a state that could not understand his verse. But Marlowe’s influence outlived him: Shakespeare reused Marlowe’s themes in many of his plays. Of course, there is much debate about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, and this includes speculation about Marlowe’s role. Even the relationship between these two has been the subject of heated discussion. Marlowe had more of a hand in Shakespeare’s work than it appears at first glance.
