r590 to m' Yonge it appered vnto mej that it was your honours pleasure I sholde geue order for the staie of all playes within the Gttie, in L0. 1590 that rn" Tilney did vtterly mislike the same. According to which your Lps. good pleasure, I presendye sente for suche players as I coulde here of, so as there appered yesterday before me the L. Admeralles and the L. Straunges players, to whome I speciallie gaue in Charge and required them in her Maiesties name to forbere playinge, vntill further order mighte be geuen for theire allowance in that repecte: \Vhere- Kit Marlowe's play The lew of Malta had become an established upon the L. Admeralles players very dutifullie obeyed but the others favourite and was drawing large audiences when the records of in very Contemptuous manner departing from me, went to the Crosse Philip Henslowe's Rose Theatre began in r5gr-2. Before keys and played that afternoon, to the greate offence of the better Henslowe's diary there were local records of where some of the sorte that knewe they were prohibited by order from your L. Which acting companies visited including Marlowe's Lord Admiral's as I might not suffer, so I sent for the said Contemptuous persons, Players, and though these lists do not give the names of the who haueing no reason to alleadge for theire Contempt, I coulde do dramas presented they are some guide to the activities of thc no lesse but this evening Comitt ,some of them to one of the companies with which Kit operated; and as only Henslowe's Compters, and do meane according to your Lps. direction to prohibite all playing, vntill your Lps. pleasure therein be further knowen. records of a single London theatre have survive4 local recordg And thus resting further to trouble your L., I moste humblie take my leaue. such as they are, are the only guide to the companies which did At London the Sixte of Nouember 1589. not come within Henslowe's orbit. Two early mentions of performances by the Lord Admiral's The Lord Admiral's players were to merge with Lord Srrange's company are from court records of 1588-9. The Lord Admiral's company, and it was to be this troupe which appeared frequendy company presumably was chosen to perform at court because itc from r59r onwards at the Rose Theatre, production details of patron had successfully led the defence against the Spanish which were recorded by Philip Henslowe. Armada a few months earlier. Marlowe's The Massacre at Parit Among the surviving provincial accounrs of the period are was probably prepared for one of these occasions, with its actual records of visits by the Lord Admiral's Men in r589-9o to mention of the Armada, 'the king of Spain's huge fleet', and lpswich, Maidstone, Winchester, Marlborough, Gloucester, patriotic and topical references. As Kit Marlowe was the troupc't Coventry and Oxford. In r59o-9r they appeared with the Earl knowledge of France, and tho leading playwright with first-hand of Sussex's players and the Queen's players at Southampton on Guise gave Ned Alleyn a choice part with which to entertain tho Shrove Sunday (r4 February); at Winchester 'by order of the court, it would have been apt. mayor this year'; at Bath, with 'my L. Stranges plaiers,; at public playrng was forbidden in thc (iloucester, At the end of 1589, when again with 'the Queenes and the Earle of Sussex city of London, the Lord Admiral's company acquired merit players'; and at Oxford. obeyrng the ediot, while Lord Strange's company did not, The merged company with Lord Strange's players appeared is seen from a letter written by the Lord Mayor to Lord rrr court (tJfhitehall) 'for six severall plays' on z7 andz8 December, r and and 6 and 8 February period. My very honourable good L. Where by a letter of your Lps. 9 fanuary in the r59r-z The 88 8g WHO WAS KIT MARLOWE? r590 Earle of Sussex's Men appeared once, on z ]anuary the only other great playwright of the beginning of the theatres. It was inevitable troupe mentioned in the court records at this time. that they should meet, though they had little in common other Another group still called the Admiral's Players was to continue than their profession of playwright, and in rheir writing for a time touring in the provinces, and Lord Strange's merged company for the same company. also toured. They were in Canterbury in July r59z when 'they Thomas Kyd was born in London and baptized on 6 November played in the courte hall before Mr Lawes maior & other his 1558, more than five years earlier than Kit Marlowe and \X/illiam brethren',x for which they received thirty shillings. This was an Shakespeare. He was the son of a scrivener and was educated at occasion when Kit Marlowe may have been present and The lew Merchant Taylor's School under Richard Mulcaster, as was of Malta may have been performed. The pride of the Marlowe Edmund Spenser. He did no! like Spenser and Marlowe, move family in these circumstances can be imagined ! This would also on to Cambridge and like Shakespeare did not attend universiry, account for some of the play's Canterbury references. but nevertheless received a good education at school. He was not The first record of a performance by the Earl of Pembroke's empathetic and adaptable as Shakespeare became, and did not players, for whom Kit Marlowe was to wite Edward I/, was at pick up information later as Shakespeare did hence his history Christmas 1592, when they shared corut appearances with Lord geography, French, Latin and Italian were suspect. He was not Strange's ffoupe at Hampton Court. 'December z6; January 6. a great poet, but his dramatic structure was good and he was the the servantes of the Erle of Pembroke. December 27, 3r, father of the revenge plag which later became part of Elizabethan January r. the Servantes of the Lorde 56enge.' 'tragedy'. Edward Alleyn reffined to the Lord Admiral's patronage; by Thomas Kyd followed his father's profession for a time. A the plague time of 1593 he was described as 'Edward Allen, scrivener was a drafter of documents, a notary, and such training provided servaunt to the right honourable the Lord Highe Admiral', while in the construction of written documents the background to the growth of drama by his example of '$Tilliam Kemp, Thomas Pope, John Heminges, Augustine for his contribution good construction. The of Malta ar,d Edward Fhillipes and Georg Brian'were 'al one companie, servauntes to Until lew II, Marlowe's plays did not equal Kyd's in structure, though they our verie good Lord the Lord Strainge'in a Privy Council warrant. were superior in poetry and dlan. Kyd's masterpiece was The Kit Marlowe was to leave Pembroke's Men to frntsh Doctot Spanish Tragedy. Faustus for Edward All"yn to perform. Kyd's other great play was the first part of Heironimo (or In the first season at the Rose, as presented by the merged leronymo) to which The Spanish Tragedy was in some ways a company of Lord Strange with the Admiral's Men, The lew of sequel. This shows the popr:larity of Kyd's play. In Kyd's case, Malta md'Harey the oi'featured prominently, and by May r59z The Spanish Tragedy is considered the better work. Tambwlaines had joined the repertoire. Another prominent fie The earlier play about Hieronimo dealt with honour, in war play Thomas Kyd's 'feronymo'. was and peace, and in The Spanish Tragedy, the coming of dis- became involved with Thomas Kyd sometime Kit Marlowe honour brought the need for revenge, making it the first great released from Newgate prison while Thomas Watson after he was revenge play and the precursor of Elizabethan 'tragedy'. the other stayed behind. Thomas Kyd was, with Kit Marlowe, As The Spanish Tragedy was performed simultaneously with plays, nor Marlowe influenced each other, * Mr Leeds was in fact the maYor. Marlowe's neither Kyd 9r WHO WAS KIT MARLOWE? r590 except in the inclusion of exciting bloodshed and blank verse. but Ky4 in his letter to Sir John Puckering (1593), did not own Shakespeare's Hantlet was to be the greatest of all revenge plays, to meeting there himself. and it would be interesting to compare his play wi*r Kyd's lost . . . for more assurance that I was not of that vile opinion, Lett it Hamlet. Shakespeare's Hamlet also has many Marlowe references, but please yo" Lp to enquire of such as he fMarlowe] conversed wth including, from Hamlet's soliloqug all, that is (as I am geven to vnde$tand) wth Harriott, Wamer, Royden' But that the dread of something after death, and some stationers in Paules churchyard, whom I in no sort can The undiscover'd country from whose bourn accuse nor will excuse by reson of his companie . . . No ffaveller returns. . . Thomas Watson came out of prison on 12 February r59o. He madrigals which echoes Mortimer's speech from Marlowe's Edward II: celebrated his release by publishing a book of Italian with the cornposer William Byrd. These were'Italian Madrigalls queen; not for Mortimer Farewell, fair weep Englished not to the sense of the original dittie, but after the the and as a traveller That scorns worl4 affection of the Noate by Thomas Watson, Gentleman. There are countries yet unknown. Goes to discover also heere inferred two excellent Madrigalls of Master ttrfilliam Kit Marlowe's ex-friend from Cambridge, Thomas Nashe, in Byrds, composed after the Italian vaine, at the request of the said a preface to Greene's Menaphon (lS8q) entitled'To the Gentle- Thomas Watson.' men Students', attacked Thomas Kyd. He first referred to Kyd Kit Marlowe had made some new contacts during his friend's by his previous trade as a scrivener and notary (a'Noverint'), then absence, but he would nevertheless have welcomed Tom Watson's to his sub-Senecan type of drama, singling olut Hamlet, and fol- return. one of lowed with a pun about Kid in Aesop. Itbegan bitingly: In r59o Sir Francis I0alsingham died. He had been England's most loyal servants, a staunch supporter of Protestant It is a cornmon practise now a dayes amongst a sort of shifting Elizabeth, and remarkable for having set up the first companions, that runne through every Art and thrive by none, to Queen English spy sewice. From his period as ambassador in Paris at leave the trade of Noverint, whereto they were borne, and busie the Massacre of St Bartholomew (which gave the themselves with the indevours of Art, that could scarcely Latinize their the time of Massacre at Patis) he had been aware neck verse if they shoulde have neede; yet English Seneca by Candle- title to Kit Marlowe's The and light yeelds many good senten@s. . . and if you intreate him faire in of the desire of militant Catholics to defeat Protestantism, a frostie morning, hee will afiord you whole Hamlets . . The Sea had urged Elizabeth to recognize the danger this meant to her. exhaled by droppes will in continuance bee drie, and Seneca, let He saw supporters of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots as part blood line by line and page by page, at length must needes die to of this larger denger, and had been instrumental in securing her our Stage; which makes his famished followers to imitate the Kid in downfall. Sir Francis, because he knew Spain would attack Eng- forsooke all lBsop, who, enamoured with the Foxes new fangles, land, usedhis spy network to amass news of the Armada's prepara- into his new occupation. . . hopes of life to leape tion and it was as part of this that Kit Marlowe acted when he One place where Kit Marlowe saw playwrights like Thomas visited Rheims from Cambridge in the pre-Armada period. Kyd was St Paul's Churchyard where many printers and book- Through his spy work Kit met his lifelong patron Thomas \tr(ral- sellers had stalls, complete with hanging signs, near the walls; singhem, a younger cousin of Sir Francis' Sir Francis's only child

92 93 WHO WAS KIT MARLOWE? r590 Frances married Sir Philip Sidney, the chivalric ideal who died a reference to Audrey as Lady Walsingham was in Chapman's legendary death in 1586 (and left his father-in-law to pay his dedication to her of his completion of Kit Marlowe's Hero and de ts), and later married the Earl of Essex, who was to rebel Leander.) But he was temporarily less powerful in r59o. abortively at the end of his career; but this rebellion was a long Frances STalsingham, as Lady Sidnen and later, though with time after her father's death. less affection from Queen Elizabeth, as the Countess of Essex, The payment of Sir Philip Sidney's debts, and lack of financial always maintained standing in court. But once Sir Francis was recompense from the queen he had served so loyally, had treft dead Lord Burleigh and his son Robert Cecil were in an un- Sir Francis Walsingham deep in debt, and he rernained so until assailable position. Audrey is said to have become a favourite he died. fn court circles, Elizabeth can hardly have gained in with Robert Cecil later, but the immediate result of the death of popularity by her miser$ treatment of Sir Francis. Nevertheless, Sir Francis Walsingham was the removal from VTalsingham in the post-Armada scare of 1598, Thomas Walsingham (with farnily protdg6s like Kit Marlowe and Tom Watson of the un- Sir Thomas Leveson) assumed command of the defence system deniable strength of the backing of Sir Francis. Had Sir Francis of the Medway, which his cousin had set up ten years before, been available to help in 1593, when Marlowe was accused of and the family's tradition of loyalry continued. atheism as he had been in 1587 over the Rheims visit, the result Thomas $Tatson wrote a memorial poem after Sir Francis's might have been different. death, called 'Meliboeus'. In it Corydon (Thomas S7atson) and r59o was a fateful year for Kit Marlowe. He had yet to com- Tityrus (Thomas $Talsingham) mourned the death of Meliboeus plete his best works - Edward II, Doctor Fanstus and Hero and (Sir Francis Walsingham). Watsor5 who had received con- Leander. But his most valuable backer, Sir Francis Walsingham, siderable patronage from the Walsingham family, had reason to had died; and his activities had become difiuse due partly to ttre mourn Sir Francis's passing as well as to maintain his association absence at the beginning of r59o of his mentor Thomas Watson. with the family by enshrining his grief in verse. The English One positive milestone had been achieved - the two Tamburlaines version of 'Meliboeus'- the original was in Latin - was dedicated were published in r59o and they survive for posterity as Kit to Sir Francis's daughter Frances, Lady Sidney as she then was. Marlowe edited them. The death of Sir Francis $falsingham altered the balance of power among Elizabeth's advisers and left the Cecils still more powerful, which did not help Thomas Walsingham's prot6g6s such as Kit Marlowe. Thomas S(ralsingham was later to improve his standing by marrying Audrey Sheltor5 who was related to Queen Elizabeth through the Boleyns. Audrey was to become a Lady of Her Majesty's Bed-chamber, and was to maintain her position at court when James ascended the throne. Queen Elizabeth visited Scad- bury in ryg7, and may have knighted Thomas then, and Thomas also received the manors of Dardord Cobham, Cornbe and Chislehurst in 497, so he was in high favour. (The first known 94 95