After many weary weeks of matching . Nzinga and her attendants arrived at the white wall of Luanda. The guards at the city gates led them through the winding streets and up to the governor’s palace. A pompous courtier, sweating and dirty in his thick clothes ordered them to wait amongst a crowd of people who had come to beg favours of the governor.
Nzinga waited patiently, ignoring this insult to her royal dignity. She knew that her chance would come. The hot sun beat down on the white walls of the palace, yet Nzinga stood straight and proud as the crowd of Portuguese merchants mopped their sweating faces with damp lace handkerchiefs.
Much later the courtier came back. He knocked on the floor with his staff, and then announced in a loud voice, ‘His Excellency Joao Correia de Souza, the Governor in Angola of His Most Royal and Catholic Majesty, the king of Portugal’. The tired soldiers stood to attention and the courtiers and merchants bowed.
Nzinga became very impatient. Was she to stand here like a servant all day, waiting for this man to make up his mind to hear her? She stepped forward, walked into the middle of the room and faced the governor. The guards and the courtiers were so amazed that they could o nothing but gasp in amazement at this boldness. ‘Well, ‘murmured one of the merchants to his neighbor. ‘Now she will learn what trouble is! Don Joao will be very angry. It is an insult to his dignity’. ‘What do you mean by this, asked the governor when he had recovered from his surprise. ‘Who are you? Come, woman, state your business!’
But Nzinga was not afraid. In a clear, calm voice she answered him. ‘My first business is a chair,’ she said. The governor laughed. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked. ‘You are seated, ‘she replied, ‘And you are only a governor, a slave of your king. I am a princess and men do not sit where I stand. I will state my business seated!’
But Nzinga had learnt the strength of her enemy. She knew that she was already winning this contest of wills. E
Whatever happens now, this man would not think that she has been sent by a beaten people to beg favours. Without another word, she turned and made a sign to her maid. When the girl came to her, Nzinga ordered her to kneel down. Then, with a flash or triumph in her eyes, Nzinga sat down on the girl’s back, Nzinga got her treaty. Pride in herself and in her people had saved the day for the Mbundu.

Read the following passage and answer the questions below:

Christopher Marlowe, the son of Marlowe who is described as the clerk of St Mary's in the city of Canterbury, was born in 1564. He received his early education at The King's School in that city. He took the degrees of B.A. and M.A. in 1583 and 1587 respectively from Cambridge University. He started writing poems and became a renowned dramatist in the Admiral's Company.

Marlowe is known as one of the university wits, a group of dramatists along with Robert Greene, Thomas Nash, and George Peele. Marlowe is considered the greatest precursor to Shakespeare. When Marlowe came upon the English stage, the nature of drama was undeveloped. The verses in the dramas were lifeless. But Marlowe gave English drama an appropriate meter, diction, and method. It is really a matter of speculation what kind of greatness he would have achieved if his life had not been terminated (C++) in a duel after a brawl in a tavern (inn).

The literary life of Marlowe had a short span, from 1587 to 1593. During this period, he wrote five plays which were all tragedies as he had no comic vein. His tragedies like Dr Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and Edward Il are rated as some of the best works of the Elizabethan age. He also wrote an unfinished poem Hero and Leander and translated some parts of Ovid's (a Roman Poet) elegies.

Marlowe's subjects are mostly heroic which appeals to the imagination of the play-goers. His heroes epitomize the spirit of the Renaissance. Each of them embodies a passion and tries to achieve lies in his development of the blank verse. He put it at any cost. But Marlowe's chief contribution aside from the old rhyming lines then employed in the plays and used blank verse. Thus, the language of drama was brought closer to real life and drama was made ready for Shakespeare (1564-1616) to improve upon it. It is rightly said, "No Marlowe, no Shakespeare".