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Ayres Death and Posthumous Life of Christopher 4 August 2012 Page 1

The Death and Posthumous Life of

by Robert U. Ayres

Preface: How this book came about ...... 4 Introduction ...... 13

Part I: Before the “Death” ...... 27 Chapter 1: The authorship question: Who was William Shaksper(e)? ...... 27 Chapter 2: The birth and early education of Christopher Marlowe ...... 57 Chapter 3: A short but necessary historical background ...... 78 Chapter 4: , and ...... 91 Chapter 5: Plots and counter-plots ...... 108 Chapter 6: Theaters, spies, and the Earl of Oxford ...... 122 Chapter 7: The impersonation of Gilbert Gifford and the 1585-88 ...... 138 Chapter 8: The Grand Armada and prison in Paris ...... 152 Chapter 9: Back home and a bit of fame ...... 164 Chapter 10: The Bloody Question; Archbishop Whitgift and the 1583-90 ...... 171 Chapter 11: Manwood, Martin Marprelate, and the

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marron murders ...... 178 Chapter 12: The Stanley plot and the Flushing episode ...... 191 Chapter 13: A gold chain and the death of Manwood 1590-92 ...... 204 Chapter 14: Interlude at Scadbury ...... 231 Chapter 15: The death of Christopher Marlowe ...... 240

Part II: Resurrection ...... 278 Chapter 16: From Calais to Venice ...... 278 Chapter 17: Istanbul, Crete, and a child bride ...... 290 Chapter 18: Re-enter LeDoux ...... 306 Chapter 19: The Cadiz raid (1596) and Admiral Tom Howard ...... 313 Chapter 20: A short English interlude, and more of LeDoux ...... 325 Chapter 21: The Fall of Icarus and the Tudor twilight ...... 338 Chapter 22: Valladolid, Ireland and Venice again ...... 353 Chapter 23: Gregorio goes to Venice with Harry Wotton 1604-09 ...... 365 Chapter 24: Interlude in Naples and a new love, Micaela Lujan: 1610-13 ...... 389 Chapter 25: The Bermuda Triangle 1613-14 ...... 404 Chapter 26: The astonishing rise of 1603-13 ...... 417 Chapter 27: The Overbury scandal and trial 1613-16 ...... 433

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Chapter 28: “You don’t love me” June-October 1616 ...... 441 Chapter 29: Quevedo and the Spanish Conspiracy 1516-18 ...... 449 Chapter 30: Bacon’s fall and Bacon’s revenge 1518-21 ...... 482 Epilog...... 517 Afterword ...... 533

Appendices ...... 539 Appendix A: Anagram ciphers (examples) ...... 539 Appendix B: “Shall I die? Shall I fly?” ...... 593 Appendix C: Technical evidence ...... 602 Forensic and stylometric evidence ...... 602 Crypt-acrostic evidence: The signatures in the sonnets and elsewhere ...... 611 Appendix D. Anagrammatic evidence ...... 629

References ...... 636

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Preface: How this book came about

My interest in Kit Marlowe really began in 1972 when I was living in Washington DC. My recently retired father, my mother, and my younger brother, Alex, were then living in Annapolis, Maryland, about an hour’s drive away, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. On one of the family gatherings that summer, I told everybody about an interesting book I had just read, ’s best- seller The Murder of the Man Who Was Shakespeare. It had never occurred to me – or most people – that of Stratford might not be the author of those great plays, like and Othello, we all learned at school. Well, for me Hoffman’s book was an eye-opener, to say the least. It made for interesting conversation for a couple of weekends. Alex was particularly intrigued. He asked to borrow my copy of the book. I didn’t see it again for 35 years. During those years Alex finished at Harvard (where he was one of the editors of the Lampoon). Later, he got interested in films. Thereafter he has worked on and off as a free-lance script-writer for the movie industry, as well as a writer-editor, notably of a series of books published by Penguin, entitled “The Wit and Wisdom of...”. Subjects of that series were various, from Abraham Lincoln and Will Rogers to Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Truman, but one of them was Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain. Mark Twain, as it happens, also made rather a point of not believing that William Shakespeare wrote the works

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published under his name. In his small book Is Shakespeare Dead? (1909) he wrote “So far as anybody actually knows and can prove, Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon never wrote a play in his life ... He ought to have explained that he was a nom de plume for another man to hide behind” {Twain, 1909 #474}. Alex read that little book in the course of his work on “The Wit and Wisdom” series, and remembered the Hoffman book I had loaned him. He reread it and several other Marlovian books that had appeared since. It rekindled his interest in the subject. Starting sometime in the 1990s Alex wrote a feature film script called Playwright about an episode in Kit Marlowe’s life. I don’t think I should reveal the plot here, except to say it is a love story (heterosexual, in case you care). The history of the script would be an interesting tale in itself, but that, too, belongs in another place. In brief, the script was sold to an independent English movie company, which hired a gay director who hired a gay script-writer who rewrote the script to make Marlowe a gay, even though he wasn’t. Alex was angry, because that changed the whole story. But he could do nothing, until that movie company went bust. After some legal problems he got his script back, and the script is now the property of another legal entity in which Alex is co-producer, along with a more experienced producer, and – in the interests of transparency – my wife and I are investors. Negotiations on financing, directing and casting are continuing and I can say no more about that. However, when Alex re-acquired Playwright and we invested in the company, I also became interested once

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again in the whole issue. My perspective is that of an experienced scientist. I have BS in mathematics and a– PhD in theoretical physics, along with 18 books and a couple of hundred academic publications. I have been a Professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, at the European business school INSEAD and a visiting professor or adjunct professor at several other universities. I have a lot of experience reviewing academic publications, and I am now, or have been, on the Board of Editors of a dozen journals. The reason for mentioning this background is simply to make one point:– that I have a pretty good sense of how to evaluate a chain of evidence and how the bits and pieces of complex systems fit together. On the other hand, I have no literary qualifications and no literary preconceptions, except that I was curious – indeed puzzled – why the academic world seems to be so unwilling to accept, or even to take seriously, the arguments put forward by Hoffman and since elaborated by others such as Ule, Wraight, Baker and Farey. More research seemed to be called for. I did what everybody does nowadays, by starting with Google and the Internet. On the Internet I encountered a number of interesting essays by individuals with interests in the authorship question, including several Baconians, several Oxfordians and, of course, some Marlovians (and others). Curiously, the skeptics – I mean those who did not accept the conventional wisdom – were mostly unpublished, albeit well documented and well-argued in some cases. It has become clear over time that trade publishers are not

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anxious to publish the work of scholars who don’t fit the mold, even though some recent books written by “Shakespeare” scholars with academic credentials– have received very large advances. Well, the same barriers against heterodox views exist in other fields, from physics to economics. If you think about it, breakthroughs pre-suppose the existence of barriers. To be sure, most of the scholars I encountered on the Net are amateurs from an academic point of view. This is because anyone who questions the standard canon cannot do a PhD or be hired in the English Department in any major university. It seems that the weaker the case, the higher the barriers. If you want to work in this field you need to have another day job. Luckily, I do. In the course of my research I noticed that very few of the essays on the Internet were published in academic journals, even though some were well researched, well documented and well-written.. Having been a “peer- reviewer” for hundreds of articles submitted to something like twenty academic journals, I became curious as to why these articles were unacceptable. In fact, it was evident that the academic world of “Shakespeare” scholarship was – and is – aggressively uninterested in discovering the truth. Here is a curious fact: James Shapiro, a prominent Shakespeare scholar, Professor of English at Columbia and author of “Contested Will”– has acknowledged this fact, even as he does his part in sustaining it. In his Preface (p.5) he says “I had wanted to write my doctoral dissertation on ‘Shakespeare and the Jews’ but was told that since there

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were no Jews in Shakespeare’s there were no Jewish questions, and I should turn my attention elsewhere. I reluctantly did so, but years later after a good deal of research, I learned that both claims were false. ....That experience, and the book that grew out of it, taught me the value of revisiting truths universally acknowledged. There yet remains one subject walled off from serious study by Shakespeare scholars: the authorship question.....One thing is certain: the decision by professors to all but ignore the authorship question hasn’t made it disappear. If anything, more people are drawn to it than ever ...” {Shapiro, 2010 #484}p.5. Shapiro’s book is a masterful study of the Baconians and Oxfordians and why Bacon and Oxford can’t be taken seriously as possible authors. Sadly, he ignores the much stronger case for Christopher Marlowe, which I present hereafter. I wrote to Prof. Shapiro to inquire about this omission. He did not reply. So, as a retired professor, with 50 years of experience as a researcher in several fields, and time to spare, I decided to dig deeper into the authorship question. My approach is strictly historical – literary evidence is not my forte and is consequently not considered except in a few footnotes. This book is the result. *** What follows is mostly a plausible, albeit partially speculative, reconstruction of Christopher (Kit) Marlowe’s life, both before and after 1593 when standard history says he was murdered. However it is also a reconstruction of

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significant parts of European history and touches the lives of many others, especially Elizabeth Tudor (Queen Elizabeth the First), Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford), Mary Sidney Herbert (Countess of Pembroke), Henry Wriothesley (third Earl of Southampton), Robert Devereux (second Earl of Essex), Tom Howard (Earl of Sussex), Sir Harry Wotton, Miguel Cervantes and Sir Francis Bacon (Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans). It is consistent with verifiable historical facts insofar as we know them from other sources. It also includes information from new sources. The remainder can be regarded as a work of speculative extrapolation and blamed on me, or those from whom I have borrowed ideas, and named. My younger brother Alex has provided a good deal of research material, much of it related to the “Wit and Wisdom” series of books (published by Penguin) that he has worked on for a number of years. He is my literary expert, as well as my brother. However, we live in different continents, 9 time zones apart, and we work independently in completely different worlds. His world is Hollywood; The movie script and the future movie “Playwright”, as well as “Wit and Wisdom” are his domain. This project is mine. The major part of my borrowings are from extensive anagrams that have been found – or created –– by a lady named Roberta Ballantine. She had been married to a US government cryptologist. When he died, in 1978, she spent the last 28 years of her life “deciphering” anagrams starting with the chapel in Stratford and then from the plays, poems and other documents written by Christopher Marlowe a.k.a.

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Shakespeare. Sadly, Roberta B. died in early 2008. She bequeathed her extensive notes and library to my brother and myself. It sits here in a cottage I own in California, awaiting a permanent home. Among the collection are her handwritten notes as well as some very rare items, including privately printed books from other scholars who were unable to find a commercial publisher. A few words about anagrams are necessary here. Anagrams are defined as sequences of– “legitimate” words belonging to some lexicon (dictionary) obtainable by rearranging a given set of letters. The more letters in the set, the more possible sequences of legitimate words i.e. anagrams may be found there, in principle. In fact that number of possible anagrams increases hyper-exponentially with the number of letters in the set. Hence it can be stated definitively that anagrams are not unique. For most people who know a little bit of mathematics, that bit of knowledge is enough to dismiss anagrams as a source of valid information. However, it is also a fact that anagrams were widely used as means of (secret) communication – as well as private amusement – in Marlowe’s time. How could this be so if every set of letters contains a huge number of possible anagrams?– The answer is that there are many collections of letters from which it is not possible to find any word at all (as Scrabble players will confirm), and there are many possible sequences of “words” but very, very few that make sense.– The limiting factor is making sense – intelligibility. The vast majority of “possible” anagrams – word sequences

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– make no intelligible sense. (This point is easily demonstrated by computer programs such as “Anagram Genius” that generate all possible anagrams from a given set of letters and rank order them in terms of some intelligibility criterion {Tunstall-Pedoe, 2006 #226}.) There is no mathematical theory to determine how many intelligible anagrams can be created from a given line of verse. The set of allowable words and spellings may also be quite flexible. In Roberta Ballantine’s anagrams there are a number of instances of letters combined to make sounds that a speaker might employ in verbal communication, such as U (for “you”), C (for “see”), M– (for “am”) and so forth. It is interesting to see in the anagrams a number of abbreviations similar to those used nowadays in text messaging. Kit Marlowe was the first text messager. The reader is quite free to assume that Roberta Ballantine, rather than Christopher Marlowe, “created” all the anagrams (which amount to hundreds of pages of print in her privately printed book {Ballantine, 2007 #364} just to make a case for Marlowe as the author. However, I don’t believe it. As a matter of interest, she became quite good at finding anagrams when they were there to be found. But she was also able to say, with considerable certainty, when there were no anagrams to be found in a text. I don’t know how she could tell at a glance whether there was an anagram in it, but after a quarter century, she could tell with some confidence. If she could have embodied that arcane knowledge in a computer program, research on 16th century literature would be much easier.

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Of course, in a literal sense, Roberta did create the anagrams in her book. The question is whether Kit Marlowe created them first. I happen to think they were already there, but the point is not crucial. Whether the story they tell is Marlowe’s tale, or her invention, the reader must judge from context, style, intelligibility and – most important – consistence with known historical facts. Here is what she says in the introduction of her book “People have created short anagrams from another person’s text, but only the author, and one who is a genius, could have invented these long (three hundred, five hundred lines long) perfectly connected anagrammatic messages which make narrative sense, creating thoughtful essays and tales of adventure and love, at the same time maintaining a plaintext of excellent quality.” I concur absolutely with that statement. But for me, to repeat, the crucial point is historical consistency. If the anagrams told stories that are contradicted by known facts, one would have to ignore them. But, the situation is quite otherwise:– the anagrams contain a number of clues as to what was going on, that could be and, in many cases have been verified by other means. Undoubtedly, the most important such clue is the name “Gregorio de’Monti” under which Marlowe lived the last half of his life, mostly in Venice. She found that name in the anagrams, not once but scores of times, often in the same set of verses with one of Marlowe’s abbreviated signatures. Without that essential clue, we would still be floundering. But with the name in hand, it has been possible to search for other evidence in a variety of places, ranging

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from English and Venetian State Papers to the published correspondence of diplomats and other notables. It turns out that Gregorio de’Monti was a real historical person, who was quite well-known to his contemporaries in Venice. In fact we now have reason to suspect that Gregorio was also a writer of short stories, in Spanish under the name Antonio Eslava, a translator of Spanish prose into English under the name Thomas Shelton, and also a playwright, in Italian, under his own name {De Monti, 1620 #413}. Unfortunately, I have not yet obtained a full English of that play, but we have enough to confirm that it reads very much like several of the Italian comedies attributed to William Shakespeare. Because of Roberta Ballantine’s contribution, not just to the deciphering (or creation) of the anagrams, but also her immense scholarship, I originally wanted her to be a co- author. We discussed it. She declined because she planned to publish her own book first (which she finished, a few months before her death in 2008) {Ballantine, 2007 #364}. Meanwhile, notwithstanding some differences, she is a co- author in spirit, if not on the front cover. Anagrams apart, all errors are mine.

Introduction

What do we really know about the past? Judging from the millions of pages of books about history, one would think that we know quite a lot. But do we really? Most of what we think we know – more accurately, what academic historians,

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archaeologists and Egyptologists think they know – about the ancient world is largely conjecture based upon a certain type of “ hard” evidence. It happens that some of that evidence – like the results of carbon-dating – may have been misinterpreted because of failure to consider the possibility of major geological cataclysms that could have wiped out the remains of earlier civilizations e.g.{Hancock, 2001 #495}. I have no position on this controversy, except to say that “standard” assumptions about history have been proven wrong more than once in the past and perhaps not for the last time. There is so much to doubt about even recent history that nobody can safely make firm statements about a lot of what happened five hundred years ago – apart from a few well documented events such as coronations and wars. Even today some of us wonder who really killed President Kennedy and why? Did the CIA conspire with to delay the release of the American hostages and assure the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980? Some thinks so. Was the Iraq war really about weapons of mass destruction, or about democracy, or was it about access to oil? Those are just a few of the many unresolved mysteries of our own time in one country. There are plenty more. Flash back a few hundred years. Just in 16th century English history there are some fascinating gaps. Was Elizabeth of York (mother of Henry VII) illegitimate (thus invalidating the succession)? Were the two sons of Edward IV murdered in the Tower, as alleged by Sir Thomas More and Shakespeare? Did Henry VIII die of syphilis? Was his

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son Edward VI syphilitic or was he deliberately poisoned by the plotters who favored Lady Jane Grey? Was Queen Mary really pregnant at the time of her death? Did her younger sister, Princess Elizabeth, have an affair with King Philip of Spain, who was officially married to her older sister, Queen Mary? Was the “Virgin Queen” really a virgin, or – having been born in a room at Greenwich Castle called “the chamber of the virgins”, under the sign of Virgo, on the eve of the birth of the Virgin Mary –– in the did she find that title convenient? Did Queen Elizabeth marry Robert Dudley in secret? Did she have children in secret? If so, what became of them? Was the Earl of Oxford one of hers? Was– Francis Bacon one of her children? How about the Earl of Essex (and a few more?) Were there Freemasons in England at the time? Was the Globe theater destroyed by accident or arson? Did Christopher Marlowe die in 1593 as advertised? Oh yes, and by the way, did the third-rate actor William “Shakespeare” write the plays and poems now attributed to him? Another mystery I will touch on, later, is whether William Shakespeare, the actor, who died in 1616 was actually murdered, possibly because he knew too much about the fire at the Globe Theater – which had cost him his job. Historical research has uncovered a large number of undeserving icons and a (very) few unrecognized heroes. The discovery of the so-called Gnostic Gospels near the town of Nag Hammadi in northern Egypt in 1945 and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947-1956), and more

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recent discoveries, have seriously undermined the official “scriptural” story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, which are the foundation of the Christian Church. We now know that the Council of Nicea, convened by the Emperor Constantine (325 AD), was intended to prevent the Church from splintering into several branches by establishing a single uniform doctrine, the “Nicene Creed”. In effect certain gospels were selected by the convention of Bishops as “orthodox”, and all others were rejected as erroneous and dangerous. The selection process was clearly political, not based on historical scholarship. We now know that the four chosen gospels constituting the were no more authoritative than others, insofar as the accuracy of the story they told, which was based on hearsay in all cases. For instance, all four “official” gospels – written by males – suggest that Mary Magdalene was a repentant prostitute. But other evidence suggests that she might well have been Jesus Christ’s consort, if not his legal wife. It has even been plausibly suggested that the resurrection never took place in reality, but that the language of resurrection was metaphorical. Similar metaphors had a long history in Egyptian religion. The recent discovery of a family tomb in Jerusalem, in which lie the bones of “Jesus, son of Joseph”, and two Marys adds to the historical confusion. Consider another more recent example of false history. We now know that King Richard III was (and still is) unfairly accused of usurping the throne after the death of his older brother Edward IV in 1483, and of having his two

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nephews – Edward’s young sons – murdered. The truth has been uncovered several times in the past, most recently by Josephine Tey, albeit still ignored by many academic historians. The truth is that Richard III was the legitimate heir because his brother Edward IV had been a bigamist. King Edward’s first wife still lived (in a convent) and she was not the mother of the two boys. This is now well established. That meant that the two boys were bastards and therefore ineligible. But the history was written by Richard III’s successors. The rest of the plot set forth in the play was, essentially, propaganda. This book is not really about the solutions to historical mysteries, though answers to some of them will be suggested (hypothetically, of course). One mystery concerns the authorship of the works of “William Shakespeare”, known to school-children as “the Bard of Avon”, the “Soul of the Age” and the greatest writer in English history? Was he the same man who was born and died in Stratford, had very little, if any education, abandoned his wife and children, joined a theatrical company and eventually became part- owned of the Globe Theater? I don’t disguise my interest in this question, or my views, but they are secondary. The book is about the life of Kit Marlowe, who is known to the literary establishment as a talented and playwright, pioneer of the use of , precursor of “The Bard”, sacrilegious associate of disreputable characters, spy, homosexual, free-thinker and non- conformist. At the age of 29 , on May 29, 1593, Kit Marlowe was supposedly murdered in some sort of disreputable affair

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in a bawdy-house in , on the Thames. Kit Marlowe was, I think, nothing like that traditional cartoon-like image. He was, first and before all else, an incredibly talented poet, actor and linguist. But he was also an important secret agent of the security services of the English government, under Sir William Cecil and Sir . Working for them his main job was to protect the Queen from a never-ending series of plots to her throne and threats to her life from Catholic regimes and English Catholic expatriates living in . Plays and poetry were recreation and relief for him, from a very stressful double life. This book is about that life. *** However, the life of Marlowe is inseparable from the life and works of his contemporary, Shakespeare. Like some few others, I am convinced that Shakespeare was not, in fact, the author of any of the works published under his name. But first, who was Marlowe? And who was Shakespeare? *** To cut to the bone (so to speak) I am convinced that the real author of those plays was Christopher Marlowe, and that he did not die in 1593. In fact, I believe he lived at least until late November 1621, and possibly later. The rest of this book attempts to tell the story of the two halves of his life, up to his supposed murder, and after it. Indeed, were it not for his supposed (and officially recorded) death in 1593, Marlowe would be the obvious candidate for the authorship, by far. In his book The Genius of Shakespeare

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Jonathan Bate says “Shakespeare, I suggest, only became Shakespeare because of the death of Marlowe.” {Bate, 1997 #472}. I think Bate was more accurate than he knew. Marlowe was the acknowledged author of a number of famous plays that were performed in , in five-beat blank verse, prior to his reported death in 1593. They were (parts I and II), Dr. Faustus, , Massacre at Paris and Edward II. , Queen of Carthage was also produced, though perhaps not in a theater. Many scholars believe that the history play ascribed to Shakespeare, Henry VI, Parts II and III were written by Marlowe. In fact, Part III was originally printed in the earliest of the play as The True of Richard, Duke of York, registered anonymously by the Pembroke Players. Before 1593 or soon after, Marlowe almost certainly wrote (or co-wrote) a number of others that were performed privately and printed anonymously. These may have included Arden of Feversham, , Edward III, Mucedorus, Sir John Oldcastle, Thomas Lord Cromwell, The London Prodigal, The Puritan, A Yorkshire Tragedy, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, Fair Em, The Birth of Merlin and Sir Thomas More. Some of these were “potboilers”, written or rewritten hastily for private performances under short deadlines. Perhaps they do not deserve a high place in the . But they kept him employed, and sane, and contributed to his literary development. It is a fact that none of the plays mentioned above were printed initially with Marlowe’s name attached. Several were registered with the Stationer’s Office by the Pembroke

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Players. But his authorship in most cases was no secret. In fact it was advertised. For example, the Pembroke production of Edward II in 1592 was advertised by a poster identifying the author as Christopher Marlowe. Similar posters almost certainly advertised his authorship of other theatrical productions. After May 30, 1593 Marlowe’s name was not attached to his poems or plays for two reasons. In the first place, most dramatic works at the time were printed anonymously (for deniability reasons). In fact, Marlowe’s published translation of ’s were banned and burned by order of the ecclesiastical authorities.1 Second, and more important, as of May 31, 1593 Kit Marlowe was officially dead and buried (in an unmarked grave). He needed to remain “dead” to escape the clutches of his powerful enemy, the , . The Archbishop, who chaired the Star Chamber (the English counterpart of the Spanish Inquisition) during the , saw Kit Marlowe as a very dangerous enemy of the State and the Established Church. He wanted to have Marlowe executed, preferably by burning at the stake. (That method of public execution had been used frequently in Queen

1.The evidence is indirect. According to Leslie Orgel’s official Penguin Classic, Marlowe Biographical Chronology, his translation of Amores was republished in Middlebourgh (Holland) in 1600 in Epigrams and Elegies by Sir John Davies and Christopher Marlowe {Orgel, 1971 #477}. It is accepted that an earlier edition of the translation was published surreptitiously in England, but had been confiscated and burned, and that no copies exist.

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Mary’s day, especially against Protestant churchmen such as one of Whitgift’s predecessors, Thomas Cranmer. More recently, one of Kit Marlowe’s tutors at Corpus Christi, Francis Kett, was burned alive at Norwich in 1589, for the crime of “doubting the divinity of Christ” (i.e. heresy). The first public rumor of Marlowed’s death attributed it to the Black Plague, which was spreading in London at the time (spring 1593). Enemies and rivals (of which he had quite a few among the religious conservatives) later attributed his death to a quarrel in a “bawdy-house”. The Queen’s Coroner was told a different story. The official coroner’s report --immediately suppressed and only discovered after more than four centuries had passed – attributed his death to a quarrel over money with a fatal outcome. It was attributed by the jury (instructed by the Coroner) to “self-defense” for which nobody was charged. The details do not matter for the moment. The point is that, for the rest of his life, there was no way Kit Marlowe could be legally resurrected without getting all those who helped him into serious trouble. As I have said, I am quite sure that that Kit Marlowe did not die in 1593. As I will explain later, the death scene was a coup de theatre, staged, with help from the Queen and her security services, to permit him to leave England safely while convincing his enemies of his death. The story of his later life, under a different name, will be told later. *** The Marlowe “candidacy” (if that is the word)– was first taken seriously fifty years ago by Calvin Hoffman, a

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journalist who became a literary detective. Hoffman did suggest that the murder was a fake, and to offer a theory about the fake death. His theory was that Thomas Walsingham was the organizer of Marlowe’s escape to exile, and that he did it out of friendship with a colleague. (Thomas Walsingham was the nephew of Sir Francis Walsingham, who had been the head of Queen Elizabeth’s security services until his death in 1590.) Hoffman did not deal with the practical questions, like who was buried in Marlowe’s place and where he went. But he did provide a large collection of literary similarities between Marlowe’s writings and those attributed to William Shakespeare {Hoffman, 1955 #100}. Unfortunately, Calvin Hoffman bet his theory, so to speak, on the conjecture that evidence of Marlowe’s authorship would be found in Thomas Walsingham’s tomb. He agitated and pleaded strenuously for permission to open the tomb. However, when he finally got permission to open the outer part, nothing was found. (He was never allowed to open the actual coffin.) This “failure” was taken by the Stratfordians as proof that Hoffman’s entire theory was wrong. The failed tomb exercise actually proved nothing, one way or the other. But, in the eyes of traditionalists,– the whole Marlowe theory was effectively, if temporarily, discredited, along with Calvin Hoffman himself. As it happens, I also agree that Hoffman was wrong about Thomas Walsingham’s primary role in the affair. Apart from anything else, Thomas Walsingham was not nearly powerful or influential enough to have pulled it off. On the other

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hand, he was involved in the conspiracy at a fairly low level. One of his servants, , was a key figure in the coup de theatre. Marlowe’s life has attracted the attention of several biographers in recent years. The two most cited both started from the presumption that he really did die in 1593. Charles Nicholl’s 1992 book, The Reckoning assumes that the murder really happened as reported by the coroner, and treats it as a detective story {Nicholl, 1992 #16}. His conjecture is that Marlowe inadvertently got in the way of a plot by the Earl of Essex to destroy his rival, Sir . Apart from lack of any real evidence for such a conspiracy, not to mention its implausibility, the Nicholl thesis runs up against the problem that Raleigh had already been banned from the court (because of his secret marriage) months before the time of the “murder”. The Nicholl thesis also suffers from a number of other serious flaws, which have been neatly summarized by Peter Farey {Farey, 2000 #14}. I see no need to reproduce them here. David Riggs (a Stanford academic) tried to explain Marlowe’s plays in terms of his life, and did a fairly creditable job of that, within his self-imposed constraints. However, he assumed from the start that Marlowe was never more than an occasional, part-time, deniable, and disposable employee of the spy network created by Walsingham and that Marlowe’s murder in 1593 was the direct result of his alleged “” {Riggs, 2004 #17}. Riggs went wrong by assuming from the start that Marlowe was actually the son of a poor Canterbury shoemaker and

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that his subsequent career was that of a poor striver forever condemned to scrounge and struggle on the outer fringes of good society. But Riggs does not explain how Marlowe’s legal father, the shoemaker, could pay for his education at the King’s School in Canterbury, from which he went on to Cambridge with a Parker scholarship. I will have a lot to say later about his real father, a lawyer and magistrate named Manwood, who lived near Canterbury and who had an affair with Kit’s mother Kate back in 1563 when they were both young. It was probably Manwood who helped Marlowe’s step-father to get started in his trade. Moreover, Riggs cannot explain how it happened that Marlowe had his portrait painted on the occasion of his graduation from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, at the age of 21 by a rather good artist, wearing elaborate and obviously expensive clothes that ordinary scholarship students could never have afforded. Riggs must have assumed that the portrait was of someone else. But if the portrait was of Marlowe, as most experts seem to agree – he was the only student aged 21 in the college in that year – it is obvious from that picture alone that he had a wealthy patron. almost certainly his natural father. As for Marlowe’s undeniable work as a spy, it will be described in some detail in later– chapters. It is true, and interesting, that Marlowe’s name does not appear in the Walsingham archives that have been so thoroughly searched by historians {Haynes, 2004 #27; Budiansky, 2005 #29; Hutchinson, 2006 #399}. The likely reason is that he worked directly either for Lord Burghley (William Cecil) or

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Francis Walsingham, but always under “work names” or pseudonyms. Of course his true name must have been known to his employers, as well as to colleagues such as Thomas Walsingham, Tom Watson, Thomas Phelippes and , with whom he worked at various times. Marlowe implicitly mocked (in his plays) such pillars of the established order as the divine right of kings, as well as some of the elements of Puritan (Calvinist) beliefs and some of the pretensions of both Anglican and Catholic doctrine. He may not have been an outright atheist, but he was certainly a free thinker and a fringe agnostic. However, apart from paid (or hoped to be paid) informer’s – Drury’s Remembrances and Richard Baines Note to the Privy Council – there is really no evidence that he lectured on the subject or tried to convince others to be atheists. His alleged “criminal record” (concerning “coining” back in 158 ) was an allegation by the same Richard Baines, also a former agent of Walsingham’s who had changed sides at least once already. Baines’ role in the affair is ambiguous, to say the least. He may have been a double agent working for an Anglo-Catholic faction. (Marlowe’s “coining” activity was almost certainly undertaken in an attempt by the secret service to penetrate the financial support of the renegade Stanley regiment at Deventer in Holland, just a year year earlier. This effort would have been on behalf of Burghley and the Privy Council. At all events, Baines’ allegation was ignored by higher authority.) Recent research by John Baker, Roberta Ballantine and Peter Farey, Louis Ule and A. D. Wraight, has provided

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fascinating clues as to his subsequent activities on the continent of Europe under several other possible names {Baker, 2005 #7; Ballantine, 1989 #277; Ballantine, 1995 #232; Ballantine, 2000 #230; Farey, 1998 #190; Farey, 200 #281; Farey, 2000 #14; Ule, 1979 #91; Ule, 1987 #92; Ule, 1995 #94; Wraight, unpublished #390; Wraight, 1965 #114; Wraight, 1997 #60; Wraight, 1995 #59}. In fact it is fair to say that they, among them, have provided most of the evidence that is presented as a single integrated story in this book. What I have done can best be characterized as critical assessment and synthesis, albeit with some important new discoveries and corrections. Here it is important to say that some – hopefully very few – of the many extrapolations and speculations I have made, or reported, may turn out to be wrong. I have uncovered several historical errors in the course of this research, and others may still lurk. But one or two erroneous conjectures about who did or said what to whom, or when, does not invalidate the primary thesis. In fact, the evidence, taken as a whole, is quite overwhelming. Much of the new evidence supporting Marlowe’s story is admittedly circumstantial. It begins with the stylometric similarities noted more than a century ago by Mendenhall {Mendenhall, 1901 #95} and significantly elaborated in recent years. The discovery of the coroner’s report of Marlowe’s death in 1925 by Hotson provided another clue. It includes the extensive literary parallels pointed out by Calvin Hoffman {Hoffman, 1955 #100}. The notion that Marlowe did not die in 1593, has been taken seriously again

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in recent years by a small group of dedicated researchers starting with Louis Ule {Ule, 1979 #91; Ule, 1987 #92; Ule, 1995 #94}, and A. D. Wraight {Wraight, 1995 #59; Wraight, 1997 #60; Wraight, 1965 #114}. However, the bulk of the more recent work is still ignored by the Shakespearean “professariat” mainly because the authors cited above are regarded as– “amateurs”, lacking the PhD credential or the major university connection. But this does not mean that their work has been amateurish. A PhD in is not the sine qua non of scholarship. Plenty of PhD’s are not scholarly and quite a few amateurs have made major contributions to sciences and the humanities. The arguments need to be considered on their own merits.

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Part I: Before the “Death”

Chapter 1: The authorship question: Who was William Shaksper(e)?

There are two aspects to the authorship question. The first is often phrased somewhat dismissively as follows: “Why is there any doubt as to Shakespeare’s authorship?” Traditional Shakespeare scholars insist that there is no doubt and no reason to doubt. Here is a quote from the Internet. It is typical of the genre: “The theory persistently advocated during the last half century that Shakespeare’s works were really written not by himself, but by Francis Bacon or some other person, can never gain credence with any competent judge. Our knowledge of Shakespeare’s life, slight as it is, is really at least as great as that which has been preserved of almost any dramatist of the period, for dramatists were not then looked on as persons of permanent importance. There is really much direct contemporary documentary evidence, as we have already indicated, of Shakspere’s authorship of the plays and poems. … Aside from actually vicious pursuits, there can be no more melancholy waste of time than the effort to demonstrate that Shakespeare is not the real author of his reputed works.” There is no point in naming the writer of the paragraph above; it should be clear that I do not agree. (Though I do

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agree that Francis Bacon was not the author, nor was the 17th Earl of Oxford or any of the various other aristocratic candidates that have been proposed.) The point of the quote is simply to exemplify the views of the Shakespeare traditionalists. To the competent judges –– namely themselves –– this effort is “a melancholy waste of time”, if not actually vicious. Having been trained in science, not literature, I take leave to differ. For me the search for truth is worthwhile in itself. It should not be necessary to add (but perhaps it is) that the search for truth about the authorship is not relevant to the quality of the literary works, about which I believe there is no possible doubt. Normally there is no reason to doubt the authorship of a book or poem. Authors sign their works and there is (almost) always a mountain of supporting material, from handwritten drafts to copyright notices and correspondence with colleagues and publishers. However in Shakespeare’s case there is nothing like that. All writers back then wrote letters and other documents by hand. Professional copyists were hired to prepare clean copies of literary manuscripts for the printer. Copyists also prepared the parts of a play for the different actors, and only after a play was no longer in the repertory was it printed – if ever. Most playwrights were well-known to the producers who used their works. There is no direct evidence that “William Shakespeare” ever wrote a single sentence. Of course, this is true of most dramatists at the time, so it is not really evidence, either for or against. *** Before moving on, I need to add a few words about

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plagiarism. Thanks to greed, opportunism and “blacklists”, unscrupulous persons have, from time to time, been able to claim authorship of the works of others. Outright plagiarism is not unknown even in the ivory towers of the great universities today. In current legal disputes over credits, such as those adjudicated by the Writers Guild of America, a– title page claim unsupported by stronger evidence is regarded as worthless. In fact, many doubts (summarized in the next– chapter) suggest that the man from Stratford did not write the works attributed to him. Yet the standard paradigm persists. Like the “evil King Richard III” legend, it is propagated mainly by textbooks and teachers of English literature who are deeply committed to the tradition and care little for truth. Their commitment is so fanatical, yet based so entirely on faith rather than evidence, that one is reminded of the religious disputes of the 16th century – or of today, for that matter. Let’s be clear: putting your name on something you did not write (or paint or perform) is plagiarism. An actor named William Shakespeare did put his name on the title pages of a number of plays and poems that he did not write. The scholars themselves acknowledge this, but pretend it doesn’t matter. Shakespeare certainly allowed his fellow actors to assume that he had written the otherwise anonymous plays that he delivered (already prepared by a professional copyist) to the company of players of which he was part-owner. To call a spade a spade, as it were, the evidence says that William Shakespeare was a plagiarist. But the Shakespeare scholars insist that this was not a

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serious fault because everybody was doing it in those days. Perhaps they were. It is important to repeat that plagiarism and forgery are still sadly commonplace, both in the sciences and the arts. The most recent case, of an important German politician who copied more than half of his doctoral thesis on law (for which he was awarded a rare Summa Cum Laude), has been quite embarassing to many of the gentleman’s supporters, including the Prime Minister. Among the more famous examples of persons convicted of plagiarism one must include Martin Luther King, a great orator and civil rights leader, but one who seems to have plagiarized approximately one third of his PhD thesis as well as passages from his famous speech “I have a dream”. Vice President Joseph Biden had to withdraw his candidacy for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination race thanks to the revelation that he had failed a law school course due to plagiarism. (He was also accused of plagiarizing speeches by others, including Neil Kinnock and Robert Kennedy, although in that case it was probably his speech-writer who was guilty.) Writer Alex Haley plagiarized much of his famous novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family from another novel The African, by Harold Courlander. George Harrison of the Beatles was convicted of plagiarism of the melody for his song “My Sweet Lord”. And so on. Scores of paintings prominently attributed to great masters have turned out to be the works of 20th century artists either unable or unwilling to make an honest living painting under their own names. The notorious Henrik van

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Meegeren (1887-1947) was the most famous of those who have been uncovered. He was only caught, in 1947, because a “Vermeer” painting, sold by him, was found in the possession of Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, after the war. To avoid a conviction for collaboration, he confessed to the forgery and demonstrated his skill by creating another fake Vermeer from his jail cell. Nobody knows how many other fake Dutch masters he – or others – may have created. According to some estimates his forgeries, alone, may have amounted to between $15-25 million in 1945 dollars. And Van Meegeren was by no means an isolated case. Other similar, if less spectacular, forgeries have turned up in recent years, Thanks to improvements in forensic technology, a number of famous paintings in major museums are now under suspicion. To mention one example from another field, the highly proclaimed piano recordings of Joyce Hatto were recently discovered to be stolen and re- recorded by her husband from published recordings of obscure young pianists. Pseudonyms also play an important role in the Marlowe story. There is nothing illegal or unethical about the use of pseudonyms. Any number of famous authors have not written under their real names, for a variety of reasons ranging from gender (e.g. George Sand) to professional dignity (e.g. Lewis Carroll) to fear of persecution (e.g. “Vercors”) or outright “blacklisting” (e.g. Bernard Gordon, Kit Marlowe).The famous “Martin Marprelate” controversy was conducted for more than a year (1588-89) by

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anonymous writers, some attacking and some defending, the practices of the established Anglican Church under Archbishop John Whitgift. The authorship of these tracts is another historical mystery, although I will suggest the likely names of the authors, later. Does the true name of the author or artist really matter? Perhaps not. The play’s the thing, not the name of the author. To doubt that the author’s name was “Shakespeare” is not to doubt his genius. The corpus of works published under that name are undoubtedly the greatest in all of literature, in any language. To include the plays and poems known to have been written by Christopher Marlowe, even if many are inferior, detracts not a whit from the stature of the whole unless it matters (to some) that the author of Hamlet or King Lear could (and did) also write quite a few pot-boilers in his youth. In his early years (before 1593) Kit Marlowe was not thinking about his place in history; merely about surviving from day to day and making his way in a very dangerous world. He was writing, at first, to please audiences used to seeing severed heads decorating pikes, and watching gruesome executions. Only later, when he lived in exile and had no need to make a living by catering to the tastes of an unsophisticated audience of clerks and shopkeepers, did he write to please himself or his paymasters. *** It is true that, for the first century after the publication in 1623 of Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories. & (commonly known as the )

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there really was no authorship question. Doubts began to surface in 1728 in a book entitled An Essay against Too Much Reading by one Captain Goulding. Another small (anonymous) book entitled The Life and Adventures of Common Sense appeared in 1769. This book identified Francis Bacon as the true author, in an allegory. Doubts about Shakespeare’s authorship have been expressed since then by many famous writers, and actors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, , Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain),. Henry James, Sigmund Freud, Charlie Chaplin, , Sir John Gielgud and Justice Harry Blackmun of the US Supreme Court, among many, many others. Indeed, the enormous body of research that has been done to cast light on Shakespeare’s life have merely added substance to those doubts. The authorship question really boils down to this: if not Shakespeare, then who? There is a large body of literature on the question of “who?” At least 60 names have been suggested. The more serious candidates in the past include Francis Bacon and Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford), , William Middleton, Mary Sidney Herbert, Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth herself, and quite a few others, mainly aristocrats who (it is supposed) preferred to be anonymous. Virtually all of the evidence allegedly pointing to these people is based on life-history coincidences and literary “clues” or (in Bacon’s and Neville’s cases) ciphers supposedly found in the plays or the dedications. It is interesting that the same literary clues can often be interpreted as pointing in several different

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directions. For that reason, this book does not depend on literary evidence to make its primary case. *** William Shakespeare’s name appeared in print, for the first time, in the dedication to Venus and Adonis, published in late 1593. There is no reason to doubt that the name – variously spelled – belonged to a real man, and that he was an actor who became a partner and co-owner of the Globe Theater. He was born in April 1564 in the village of Stratford-on-Avon, north of Oxford. In fact, even the identification of the actor with the man from Stratford-on- Avon is not quite trivial. However, for obvious reasons, a lot of people have done a lot of research on the question: who was he? It is helpful – and doesn’t take long – to summarize what is definitely known about him. William (or Will) Sha. was variously known as Shaksper(e) (, April 26, 1564), Shaxper (marriage license, to Anne Whately of Temple Grafton, November 27, 1582), Shagsper(e) (marriage bond to Anne Hathwey of Slottery, November 28, 1582), and again Shaksper(e) (burial record). There are six signatures, all on legal documents, all very shaky– as though signed by a person with Parkinson’s disease – some with blots and some with letters that are almost illegible. The signatures are on a deposition Willn Shaks (blot)p (1612), on a conveyance Wm. Shakspe (1613), and on a mortgage Wm. Shakspr (1613), and on three pages of his will, viz. Willia(blot)m Shakspere, Willm Shakspere and William Shaksper(e). In the text of the will, the scrivener spelled the name

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Shackspeare. There are ambiguous marks in several signatures that could be flourishes or final “e”s, as indicated by the parentheses. William’s father John Shaksper (also spelled Shaxper) was moderately well-to-do by current standards. At one time he owned three houses and a farm. He might have been a Catholic, since many people outside of London preferred the old religion to the new. He became town Chamberlain in 1561, Alderman in 1565, High Bailiff (mayor) in 1568 and Chief Alderman in 1571. He was socially ambitious. In 1570 he applied for a coat-of-arms, possibly by offering a bribe (such things happened), but withdrew the application abruptly. Along with the majority of aldermen and burgesses of Stratford in the latter half of the 16th century, John Shaksper(e) was almost certainly illiterate; he signed all official documents with a mark. There is no evidence that John ever signed his name. (William’s two surviving daughters were also illiterate.) As an Alderman, John Shaksper(e) was entitled to several years of free education for his children at the local grammar school. The curriculum of the school is not known, but the conditions of entry to other such grammar schools usually included some elements of English grammar as well as the ability to read and write English and . There is no actual historical record of William Shaksper(e) having any education at all. His biographers assume he went to the Stratford Grammar School, for a few years, probably starting in 1571 when he was 7 years old. However he is not recorded on the rolls of the Stratford Grammar School.

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These biographers concede that, if he did go to school, he probably finished in 1577 or 1578 (aged 13 or 14). He would then have been old enough to go to a university, as many young gentry and aristocrats did. However William Shaksper(e) did not attend either university nor did he study law at any of the Inns of Court. As high bailiff (or mayor) of Stratford, from 1568 John Shaksper(e) was responsible for licensing visiting troupes of actors. From 1572 through 1582 it is known that eight such troupes received licenses to play in the town. Possibly young William made contact with actors and acting troupes during this period and possibly he traveled locally with one or more companies. The fact that he moved to London later and made a career in the theatrical world makes this connection plausible. By mid-1582 William was definitely in Stratford, because he got a local girl pregnant at that time. On November 27, 1582 a marriage license was issued to “William Shaksper(e)” and “Anne Whately” of Temple Grafton. Next day a marriage bond was filed for his marriage to Anne Hathwey (sic) of Shottery. No marriage certificate exists. Presumably Whately, Hathwey and Hathaway are the same person. She must have been two or three months pregnant at the time. He was 18, she was several years older. William installed his new wife in his father’s house. The first child, Susanna, was born in May 1583, and baptized May 26. The twins, Hamnet and Judith, were born two years later in January 1585, and baptized February 2.

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(Hamnet died in 1596 at age 11). It is unlikely that Will Shaksper(e) was living in London between 1582 and 1585. Nothing else is known of his activities during this period, or indeed until 1593, except that he was named in a lawsuit, with his father, over a parcel of land near Stratford (1589). He might have joined a company of traveling players or moved to London some time after 1585, leaving his wife and young children behind. This is often offered as a fact, though it is merely plausible. A more recent theory that some Stratfordians like better is that Will Shaksper(e) spent the next several years after 1585 in the household of a high ranking Catholic family in Lancashire, such as the Heskeths or, better yet, the Stanleys. Such a background would account for his hypothetical relationship with Ferdinando Stanley and Lord Strange’s Men in the early 1590s e.g. {Honigmann, 1985 #401}. But his presence in a Catholic household is entirely hypothetical and there is no evidence at all as to his actual whereabouts from 1586 through 1592. Shakespeare scholars call this period “the lost years.” In London, Will Shaksper(e) may have been associated in some capacity one or several companies of players, including Lord Strange’s Men, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and/or the Lord Admiral’s Men who played at Henslowe’s Rose Theater. The latter group performed several of Marlowe’s plays. It is likely that Shaksper(e) knew of Marlowe – who was famous – and barely possible that Marlowe also knew Shaksper(e) slightly, but only as a minor-league actor. Since he was an actor, it

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is likely that Shaksper(e) was also an “honest man”, which was an euphemism for an occasional employee of the spy network, as was Marlowe and many other actors and playwrights. However, even if he did have any such connection it would have been on the lowest level, perhaps as an occasional courier. It is also possible, but far from certain, that Will Shaksper knew a printer named Richard Field. Richard Field was also from Stratford and he might have known William in grammar school (if, indeed, either Field or Shaksper ever attended grammar school). He was two and a half years older, however, and his father had been sued by William’s father, so it is unlikely that they were close friends. Still, they had some history in common, and when William first arrived in London he might possibly have looked up his fellow Stratfordian for any of several reasons.(Stratfordians take it as fact.) It happens that, in May 1593, Richard Field was about to print Venus and Adonis. Whatever the reason, the fickle finger of fate pointed at Will Shaksper on May 31 or June 1, 1593. He was an opportunist, if not a poet. Somebody liked him, or at any rate, somebody suggested his name as a nom de plume for Kit Marlowe, quite likely because his theatrical connection gave it a glimmer of plausibility. At first his name was attached only to the poems Venus and Adonis, followed by . Both were printed by Richard Field. Five years later Loves Labours Lost was printed in quarto form with William Shakespeare’s name on the title page. In all he – or someone – attached his name to 23 plays, of

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which 9 are accepted by scholars as his and appear in the First Folio (1623). Scholars think that the other 14 plays he put his name on were written by others. One might think that, if the real authors were in a position to object, they probably would have done so. Not many did, to our knowledge. However, after 1593, Marlowe was not in a position to object. Scholars assume that Shaksper earned his living by acting and selling occasional plays to the printers. But sales without royalties were not very lucrative. It is usually assumed that he had a supplementary income from a patron, thought (by some) to have been Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. But, again, there is no evidence of that except for the ambiguous dedication to WS in the sonnets. (It is said that Southampton was a patron of the arts, in general, and that he was a devoted play-goer. But after 1594 he was also in severe financial straits, for reasons explained later.) Shakespeare’s– sources of income are obscure, to say the least. Yet in 1598 he was able to purchase an eighth share (later reduced to a tenth) in the newly reorganized Globe Theater. After that he became moderately famous as a playwright, albeit with the curious reputation for delivering his plays in the handwriting of a professional scribe and never making any changes. Nothing the actor Shaksper wrote in his own hand, if it ever existed, survives. In the summer of– 1613 the Globe Theater burned down during a performance, destroying all the theatrical properties stored therein. Since nobody was hurt, it was

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probably a case of rather careful arson. Soon after, William Shakespeare retired back to Stratford, where he was the largest landowner in the village by that time. He died in April 1616 of unknown causes, shortly after an alcoholic dinner with two fellow playwrights, and Mike Drayton. His detailed 3 page will listed many items of little or no value. For instance, it awarded his wife Ann Hathaway his “second best bed” with the bulk of the estate going to his two surviving daughters, Susanna and Judith. But no books or literary properties were mentioned in his will. No other writer or poet took notice at the time of his death. There were no encomiums, no obituary notices. In his memoirs the leading theatrical producer of the day, (of Theater), recorded the names of every artist and actor he had ever met. But he did not mention the actor William Shakespeare. *** What is the evidence that William Shakespeare actually wrote the plays attributed to him? I think their real case is that the arguments favoring other non-traditional candidates (Marlowe excepted) are even weaker. To be fair, it is now reasonable to let the Stratfordians make the best of their case, without reference to “historical method” (i.e. tradition). In the following summary, I have borrowed heavily from the arguments as presented by the author of “How We Know that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare: The Historical Facts” (http://shakespeareauthorship.com/howdowe.html). Their usual argument consists of five assertions, listed

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below, to which I have added a sixth. They are as follows: (1) That William Shakespeare of Stratford is the same man who was an actor and partner in the Globe Theater in London (2) That this man (probably) did have a primary education. (3) That he did have access to books, probably through his “friend” (from Stratford) Richard Field. Richard Field was the printer who printed the two poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece in 1593 in which Shakespeare’s name first appeared. (4) That his name on so many publications, particularly the First Folio, should be treated as prima facie evidence of authorship. (5) That contemporaries knew he was the author: “that no person of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras ever doubted the attribution. No Elizabethan ever suggested that the plays and poems were written by someone else” {Reedy, 2005 #58}p.10. (6) That the obvious candidate, Christopher Marlowe, was dead and buried. *** Marlovians need not challenge items (1) or (2) above. Number (1) is almost certainly true, but irrelevant. Item (2) might be true, although the local Stratford primary school would not have provided much of an education. The arid contents of a primary (ABC) education in the late 16th century are well described by David Riggs {Riggs, 2004 #17} chapter 2. Shakespeare might possibly have gone to a

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grammar school, as noted above, but he certainly did not go to university, nor did he have access to any library as far as anyone knows. Nor did he ever leave England. He could not possibly have traveled in Holland, Germany, France, Spain or Italy, nor could he have learned about those countries without knowing the languages, even if travel books had been available, which they were not. He never had a passport, and travelers had to have “laisser-passer” papers signed by a nobleman or high official. To explain his enormous erudition, Stratfordians are left with the “natural genius” theory. But natural genius cannot produce esoteric knowledge from nothing. Yet the plays of Shakespeare betray quite a bit of esoteric knowledge in several fields, including the law, medicine, seamanship, falconry and the geography of Europe, especially Italy, that William Shaksper had no known way of acquiring. There have been a few (relatively) untrained mathematicians, but I know of no untrained scientist of repute. I think there was a genius at work, but the genius in this story was Marlowe, not William Shaksper (or Shakespeare). As regards Stratford argument (3), there is a fundamental problem with the Richard Field theory, apart from lack of evidence that they knew, and were on good terms, with each other. It is, in brief, that printers like Field would not normally keep copies of the books they printed, since they always worked under contract to the booksellers. Printers were not sellers to the public. Richard Field was mainly working for publisher and bookseller John Harrison in

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1593-94. Printers were normally commissioned to print , nine sheets of cheap paper, printed with four pages per sheet. Blayney estimates the outlay for an edition of 500 would have been around £8, of which £2 might have been a payment for the manuscript and the rest would be costs of registration, fees, paper and labor. Quartos were relatively cheap, probably around 4d.per copy wholesale or 6d retail {Blayney, 1997 #224}. Richard Field might have kept personal copies, probably damaged ones, of his printed quartos. But books were another matter. They were much more expensive than quartos, since they required higher quality paper and binding. Moreover, because of their higher price, there were fewer economies of scale. The First Folio of 1623, with 36 plays, must have cost around £2 per copy just to print, or probably £3 per copy at retail (£350-400 in today’s money). The print run has been estimated at 500, of which about 185 survive {Hoffman, 1955 #100} p.174. Of course, the First Folio was an exceptionally high priced book, but ordinary books would still have cost many times more than a quarto. The printers, who were not scholars or writers themselves, would not normally keep extra personal copies of books they printed. If the printer kept anything – and that would be extremely rare – it would have been the printing plates, not the printed books. Moreover, very few of the books known to have been source material for Shakespeare’s plays were printed by Richard Field, or by any single printer. (At least one was in Spanish and had never been translated.)

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The Richard Field theory is taken seriously only because the Stratfordians have nothing better to offer. Considering the realities of printing and publishing in Elizabethan times, it is very unlikely that Richard Field had a personal library, and equally unlikely that he would have loaned valuable and probably irreplaceable books from it (if he had any) to a young marginally literate former neighbor from Stratford. Could Shakespeare had access to books at university libraries? Unless he was a member of one of the colleges of the university, appropriately attired, they wouldn’t have let him in the door. There were only two universities in England, and neither was near Stratford, or London. The college libraries contained only a few hundred books, mostly they were chained to the tables, and non- students were not permitted access. A few wealthy individuals had private libraries, but there is absolutely no evidence that any of them knew William Shakespeare. Moreover, the supposed actor-playwright had no known aristocratic patron – as actors and playwrights were required to have – and he was therefore (under a 1572 law) classed as a “vagabond”. As regards argument (4), it is a fact that Shakespeare’s name appeared on 23 plays. However, it is also a fact that 14 of them are plays that modern experts think he did not write, beginning with Locrine (1595). In 1599 accused Shakespeare of plagiarism in connection with the publication of an unregistered book of poems The Passionate , attributed to Shakespeare, published by William Jaggard. This book also plagiarized

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Marlowe’s poem The Passionate although Marlowe, being officially dead, was not in a position to complain. This simple fact discredits any argument that a name on the title page is prima facie evidence of authorship. However it is easy to put your name on a title page if there is nobody to dispute it. In short the evidence of title pages is against Shakespeare, rather than in his favor. It is the existence of the First Folio, with its prestigious publishers, dedicatees and the unctuous preface by Ben Jonson, that seems to establish Shakespeare’s authorship in the minds of most scholars and the public. Surely, they argue, all of those eminent people must have known the true identity of the playwright! I think most of those people. including Ben Jonson, did indeed know perfectly well whose work was being collected. The question is, why did they not tell the world? At a later point, I hope to offer some plausible suggestions, though the whole truth may never be known. Setting aside the title page evidence, which collapses on closer scrutiny, the real argument by the Stratfordians is tradition, viz. “everybody knows” that William Shakespeare was the author. As Michael Shermer has said recently in a column in Scientific American: “In science a reigning theory is presumed provisionally true and continu es to hold

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sway unless and until a challen ging theory explain s the current data as well and also accoun ts for anomal ies that the prevaili ng one cannot . Applyin g that principl e here, we

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should grant that Shakes peare wrote the plays unless and until the anti- Stratfo rdians can make the case for a challen ger who fits more of the literary and historic

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al data.” {Sher mer, 2009 #420} . In other words, according to Schermer and the Stratfordians, we must believe that Shaksper wrote the plays and poems of “Shakespeare” because tradition (i.e. the First Folio) says so, notwithstanding the strong evidence against that proposition. In any case, Shermer’s argument in favor of tradition is flawed. Any reigning theory in science must be based on some experimental evidence. The trouble with the reigning Stratfordian theory is lack of credible (non title page) evidence that he ever wrote anything. The problem with statement (5), as evidence, is twofold. First, it is probably untrue. As noted above, most of the plays were not even claimed by Shakespeare, and the question of “doubt” does not arise. But he claimed authorship of many things that were not his, probably because the real author was dead or could not complain. (Thomas Heywood was the exception, and he definitely did accuse Shakespeare of plagiarism.) And, second, there were good reasons why those who knew that Shakespeare was not the real author of Marlowe’s plays did not care to say so. There was nothing whatever to be gained by arguing the point and their heads were literally on the block. Even the Queen did not openly challenge her religious superior (the

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Archbishop Whitgift) who wanted to make a public example of the “atheist” Marlowe. Dedications and title pages apart, what is the evidence that Shakespeare was known as a playwright before 1593? Stratfordians rely heavily on several ambiguous comments in this short paragraph in Thomas Greene’s pamphlet A Groat’s Worth of Wit published posthumously in 1592 {Greene, 1592 #218}. Here are the words: “There is an , beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde supposes he is well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a countrey.” Stratfordians take it as a fact that Shakespeare was the target of Greene’s wrath and that the Tyger’s hart refers to a scene in Henry VI which they think he had already written before coming to London. The word “feathers” refers to pens, made from goosequills, which were the only writing instruments available at the time. For example, Boas comments “Greene....in his Groatesworth of Wit was attacking the actor Shakespeare for daring to compete with his superiors, the dramatists, in their own field.”{Boas, 1940 #154}.That interpretation of the Greene paragraph supposes that Shakespeare was already known as a would- be writer, as well as an actor, even though the play had not been presented anywhere and there is no record of Shakespeare having had any acting job whatever before 1593. It fails on those counts alone.

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It is extremely unlikely that William Shakespeare was the person being referred to by Greene, precisely because he was not well-known at the time as an actor and certainly not as a playwright. As A. D. Wraight (among others) has pointed out, there are several more plausible targets for Greene’s barbs, which seemed to be pointed at over-paid actors (such as ) who occasionally improvised their own lines rather than reciting the immortal lines written by the poor under-paid poet-playwrights like Greene {Wraight, 1997 #60}. It is also plausible that Greene had a completely different gripe, namely his discomfort with Lord Oxford’s pretensions as a man of all talents manager, playwright and actor – i.e. Johannes Factotum –– (which I will discuss later), although there is no confirming evidence of that motivation either. The first unambiguous reference to William Shakespeare, apart from title pages, was in an anonymous poem Willobie his Avisa, entered in the Stationers Register, September 3, 1594. The first mention of William Shakespeare as an actor was for a performance by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, at Greenwich Palace December 26- 27,1594. Venus and Adonis was praised in a poem by John Weever entitled Ad Guglielmum Shakespeare (1599). But that praise is not evidence that Weever knew Shakespeare as the poet, only that he knew Shakespeare’s name was on it So who knew that Shakespeare was the author of so many anonymous plays? Stratfordians rely almost entirely on the so-called “commonplace book”, Palladis Tamia, Wits

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Treasury entered in the stationer’s register by Francis Meres, September 1598. This collection praises Shakespeare and lists 2 poems and 12 plays alleged (by Meres) to be by him. A few of the poems are actually included in that little book. Who was Francis Meres and where did he acquire that list? What is known is that he was a well educated (MA Cantab,1591 and MA Oxon,1593), 33-year old schoolmaster and churchman. He was evidently a theologian and probably a classics scholar. He was appointed Rector of Wing (a village) in Rutland (1602) where he also ran a school. (His only other writings consisted of a sermon entitled “God’s Arithmeticke”, 1597, and two from a Spanish divine Luis de Granada, namely “Granada’s Devotion” and “Sinner’s Guide”.) Meres’ “commonplace book” was part of a series, focused on short, witty “quotable quotes”. The series began with Politeuphuia: Wits Commonwealth, pithy sayings collected by the anthologist John Bodenham. It was apparently initiated by a bookseller-publisher, Nicholas Ling, the same Ling who later published Hamlet (Quarto1 in 1603, Quarto 2 in 1604). Meres was not part of the London literary or theatrical scene and he had no known source of inside knowledge. As a student he certainly had access to the libraries at Cambridge and Oxford, but the university libraries did not collect quartos. Quartos were mostly sold to enthusiastic theater-goers in London. But up to the time of Meres’ writing (presumably 1597), Shakespeare’s name appeared only in two dedications (Venus and Adonis, The Rape of

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Lucrece) and on the title pages of two plays, Taming of a Shrew (1594) and Locrine (registered 1594, printed 1595) as “Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakespeare”. Yet scholars insist that Shakespeare did not write Locrine, and Meres did not attribute it to him. In 1597 two more plays appeared with Shakespeare’s name attached on the title page, Richard II (Quarto 2) and Richard III (Quarto 2). In 1598 Love’s Labour’s Lost, published by , appeared with the same inscription as Locrine. All other “Shakespeare” plays registered and printed up to that time were anonymous, with no author’s name attached. Actually there is no indication in Meres’ book that he had actually read the plays, although he seems to have read the two long poems. In fact, Meres had no plausible way of knowing the authorship of plays that had never been printed, and it is extremely unlikely that he had seen any of them, still less all of them, on the stage. He was primarily concerned with comparing Elizabethan with classical (Greek and Roman) counterparts. His one sentence comment regarding plays was essentially a list {Gray, 1996 #221}. Yet Meres’ list even mentioned several plays for which there was no contemporary evidence at all, including Two Gentlemen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, Midsummer Night’s Dream (printed 1600), and Love’s Labour’s Won. Stratfordians have not tried to explain this mystery, to my knowledge. I think Meres must have had an informant, and the informant – whoever he was – had his own agenda. The most likely source of his information would have been

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whoever recruited him to write the little book, probably the publisher Ling. But a related possibility is that his informant was someone in the State Secret Service who knew about Shakespeare’s role as front man for Marlowe and wanted to foreclose any serious search for the real author. I think the likely source was Sir Robert Cecil, who seems to have had policy reasons to keep Shakespeare in the public eye, if only to keep his most valuable agent, Marlowe out of it. This has a certain plausibility, given the doubts that had been expressed by in 1596 {Hall, 1969 (1598) #338} and John Marston in 1598 {Marston, 1598 #419}. Curiously, an anonymous playwright at St Johns College, Cambridge, wrote a play called The Returne of Parnassus: Or the scourge of Simony that was performed in 1602 (cited in {James, 2008 #418} p.40). It included the lines: “England affords those glorious vagabonds That carried earst their fardels on their backs Coursers to ride on through the gazing streets Loping it in their glaring satten sutes And Pages to attend their Maisterships With mouthing words that better wits have framed They purchase lands and now Esquiers are made.” The last two lines are an obvious reference to William Shakespeare, who was legally a vagabond – having no patron – and (apart from being an actor) a money-lender and a suspiciously wealthy landowner with no known source of income. This little verse looks to me like a rather strong doubt about Shakespeare’s authorship, in his own lifetime. There is another reason to believe that statement

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(#5) above is untrue. Briefly, if Shakespeare had really been known or even strongly suspected of being the author of Richard II – despite the fact that his name was on the title page of Quarto 2 (1598) –he would have been arrested, thrown into the Tower, and probably executed in 1601. That play, which featured a legitimate but unpopular King overthrown by a coup d’etat, led by a popular figurehead (Bolingbroke) was presented at the Globe Theater, February 7, 1601. That performance was sponsored by people working for the Earl of Essex and his admirer and follower, the Earl of Southampton, in hopes of fomenting a popular rebellion to bring Essex (like Bolingbroke) to power. The Queen was understandably angry at the presentation of Richard II at the Globe, by supporters of the Earl of Essex. Referring apparently to the play, she “could not be persuaded that it was his writing whose name was on it” {Bacon, #423}. She even threatened to “rack” that person in order to find out the name of the one who really wrote it. As a sort of substitute, the historian, Sir John Hayward, was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. His crime was having written a history of Richard II as an introduction to a history of the more recent downfall of the Valois dynasty and the rise of Henry IV (Bourbon) in France {Cohen, 2002 #425} As the Queen said to her jurist, Sir Richard Lambarde, at the time,“I am Richard II, know ye not that?” She went on to say “He that will forget God will also forget his benefactors; this tragedie was played 40tie times in streets and playhouses” {Chambers, 1932 #151}. This comment

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clearly refers to another author who “will forget God”. That comment points directly at Kit Marlowe, whose life she had spared in 1593, despite his being accused of atheism. Of course, in her calmer moments she also knew that Marlowe – far away in exile – was a valued employee of her Secretary of State Robert Cecil, and officially dead, had nothing to do with the provocative uses of the play by Lord Essex and his followers. John Baker has emphasized that the fact that Shakespeare was not identified as the author of Richard II and arrested in 1601 is fairly conclusive (albeit negative) evidence that Shakespeare was not considered to be a playwright at that time {Baker, 2006 #150}. It is rather like Sherlock Holmes’ case of the dog that did not bark in the night. In the aftermath, the Queen asked Francis Bacon, her learned counsel, whether the play could be interpreted as treason. He said “No, madam, for treason I cannot deliver opinion that there is any, but very much felony”. She then asked “How and wherein?” Bacon replied “Because he had stolen many of his sentences and conceits out of Cornelius Tacitus” {Bacon, #423}. Baconians have taken this as evidence that he (Bacon) was the true author. But Bacon must have known that Shakespeare was merely a front man. (Incidentally, he was right about the extensive borrowing from Tacitus.) While there are a few current references to Shakespeare’s connection with the Globe Theater, built in 1598, and his connection with the acting company, there is no evidence whatever that he was known to colleagues or

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rivals as a playwright before 1598. Except for Meres’ book, there is little evidence that he was known as a playwright even afterwards. The argument that “nobody challenged his authorship in his lifetime” is not only false; it can be re- interpreted to imply exactly the opposite. In fact, it is probably more accurate to say that nobody who mattered really believed in Shakespeare’s authorship. There was not a single literary tribute to Shakespeare the year of his death, or the year after, or during the five years after that. This fact can also be regarded as negative but strong evidence that he was not known as the author of plays, regardless of title page evidence. It was not until the publication of the First Folio, in 1623, seven years after his death, that Ben Jonson wrote the preface describing Shakespeare as “the bard of Avon” and “the soul of the age”and so on. And it is extremely unlikely that Jonson wrote that preface of his own accord. Although Ben Jonson was already Poet Laureate (since 1616), he was still a commoner and not a wealthy one.– In fact, Jonson was – as always – acting under orders. His orders almost certainly came from Sir Francis Bacon, head of the state secret service (SSS) after the death of Robert Cecil, Viscount St. Albans and ex-Lord Chancellor of England. For most of the period between 1593 and 1613 I suspect that some key members of the literary-intellectual community of London (de Vere, Wriothesley, Mary Herbert, , Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Marston, et al) knew that the real author of “Shakespeare’s” plays was still alive, abroad, un-pardoned,

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and vulnerable to the religious zealots who were running rampant at that time. But, by 1600 Marlowe’s character had been pretty thoroughly blackened by vicious Puritan pamphleteers. (Much of the mud they slung at him sullies his reputation to the present day.) Retroactive rehabilitation at that point would have been very difficult, if not impossible, given near certain opposition by both Puritans and Anglicans, not to mention some jealous no-talent playwrights and poets. After the Globe Theater burned in 1613 the plays stopped coming, but it didn’t seem to matter any more. The sponsors of the First Folio undoubtedly thought that the most important thing for them to do was to preserve the plays for posterity in printed form and let future historians deal with the authorship problem in quieter times. Possibly everybody “in the know”, – except Bacon – assumed that Marlowe would finally get credit for his work. After all, nobody who knew the man could have believed that William Shakespeare was the real author. But Francis Bacon, who probably supervised the production of the First Folio, had a huge ego, and a grudge against Marlowe and he changed the rules. I will have more to say about this, later. (6) Stratfordians have always tried to shift the burden of proof onto “claimants” on the grounds that the traditional attribution (based on the Folios) should be given extra weight. However, considering Shakespeare as just one claimant, along with others (including Christopher Marlowe) the picture looks very different if Marlowe did not die in 1593. The strongest part of the Stratfordian case for

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Shakespeare is really the implausibility of all the other “claimants” – except Marlowe. They simply assume that Marlowe was killed in 1593 and therefore could not have written the plays. Much of the remaining evidence cited by Stratfordians in favor of Shakespeare is really evidence against other candidates, especially Bacon and Oxford. The case for Bacon always rested on ciphers supposedly found in the text, and the original theory by Ignatius Donnelly {Donnelly, 1888 #104} and others, has been thoroughly demolished by cipher experts {Friedman, 1957 #73}. The more recent cipher theory by Penn Leary {Leary, 1987 #102} has also been thoroughly discredited {Ross, 2005 #101}. The case for the 17th Earl of Oxford rests on some parallels in his life – at least he had an education and had traveled in Europe – and the fact that he was an aristocrat with an interest in the theater and that he actually wrote some poems and masques (although it is not clear that he really wrote them himself). But Oxford died in 1604 and many of the plays in the First Folio had been revised and extended, and several were written long after that date, as far as any scholar can determine. Three among the several extensively revised plays (King John, Richard III and Othello) were further modified after quartos printed in 1622; see {Reed, 1901 #283}. This does not rule out Marlowe as the author if he died (as I believe) in November 1621, since quartos published in 1622 could reflect text written several months or even years earlier (in another country)– and subsequently revised further by other editors. There is also

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the awkward fact that a few scholars now believe that both Winter’s Tale and were based to some degree on the Spanish language book of stories Noches de Invierno, which was only published in 1609, and had not been– translated into English at that time (or even more recently).– Lord Oxford could not possibly have seen it, even in Spanish, still less in English. I agree with the Stratfordians who say that the author of the plays need not have been born an aristocrat in order to write convincingly about the high life. But if the author was not born to wear ermine, he must surely have acquired some aristo-polish along the way. Marlowe was not an aristocrat either, nor even a gentleman (by birth), although his biological father – as I believe – was a well connected magistrate and eventually Chief Baron of the Exchequer. But at Cambridge Marlowe consorted easily with aristocrats as well as people from lower orders. He was also fluent in at least four languages other than English (Latin, French, Spanish, Italian and possibly Flemish or German. He probably knew some Greek and even a little Hebrew). By contrast, Shakespeare had little (if any) formal education, little or no access to books, virtually no contact with the aristocracy, except possibly through the theater (and only later in his career), and no direct contact at all with France, Spain, Italy, Holland or Scotland. He was never abroad. Some Shakespeare scholars go so far as to insist that Shakespeare, “the bard of Avon”, was so far superior to Marlowe as a poet and playwright that they could not be the same person. Admittedly, Marlowe wrote some potboilers in

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his early years. So what? The most famous plays of Shakespeare appeared several years to a decade after Marlowe’s harrowing experiences in 1592-93, and it is normal for a writer to grow in wisdom, stature and maturity over time. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that Marlowe did a lot of editing and rewriting in his later years after the death of his alter ego. The latter point seems to me a sufficient answer to the former. The question remains: did Marlowe really die in 1593? That is the first question I consider in this book. *** In summary, the evidence cited by Stratfordians in favor of Shakespeare, comes down to his name on dedications and title pages, and a few references in other publications, notably the one by Palladis Tamia by Francis Meres, which has internal inconsistencies that make it almost worthless. His name on the title pages of quartos or the First Folio has no evidentiary value. If Shakespeare were a mere “claimant” instead of the traditional incumbent, his claim would not be taken seriously at all. The so-called evidence that he was known in any capacity before 1593 is worthless. There is another theory that explains all the facts better and that is what this book is about.

Chapter 2: The birth and early education of Christopher Marlowe

Christopher (Kit) Marlowe was born in Canterbury and

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christened there on February 26, 1564. His legal father was a shoemaker (cobbler) named John Marley. Marley was not a native of Canterbury. He was an immigrant from the village of Ospringe, near Feversham in {Riggs, 2004 #17}.2 His mother was Katherine Arthur from the town of (Farey 1998b; Henderson 1956) p.7. According to Urry, William Arthur, Katherine’s father, was a “yeoman”, meaning a petty officer (clerk) on a ship, possibly responsible for declaring cargo to customs (Urry 1988). Urry says that the Arthur family lived on the waterfront, “under the cliffs”. It has been suggested that William Arthur may have been a marrano, which is the word that was used for the descendent of a converted Jew, perhaps an immigrant from Portugal {Jofen, 1985 #140; Ballantine, 2007 #364}. (The word “marrano” means “pig” in Spanish, implying that this group was despised and hated both by Christians and unconverted Jews. Some did, indeed, reconvert to Judaism.) Jofen argues that his mother – hence Marlowe himself (because Jewishness is passed on by the female parent) – was of marrano extraction and that Jewish themes can be found in several of the plays, especially The Jew of Malta. For whatever it may be worth, the marrano’s “protector” was St. Christopher. There are also some literary clues.

2.Kit Marlowe later wrote a play entitled Arden of Feversham, about a man named Arden who had been murdered by his wife and her lover. She was burned as a witch, in 1551. He must have heard the story from his adoptive father John Marley, who came from that village.

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(Marlowe’s frequent cryptic abbreviation of his signature as Mar, noted later, might be an indication of his awareness of this heritage, but it could equally well have other interpretations. I don’t take literary clues very seriously in the absence of other evidence.) Anagrams found by Roberta Ballantine suggest that Kate Arthur was, indeed– his real mother, but that his natural father was not the shoemaker John Marley, but a local dignitary, learned serjeant-at-law, magistrate, and philanthropist, Sir .– Manwood was also a possible marrano himself {Ballantine, 2007 #364}{Burgon, 1965 #240; Foss, 1966 #313}, and {DNB, 2004 #334 “Manwood, Gresham”}. Roger Manwood’s grandfather had served the Boleyn family, In fact, he was one of the men who carried ’s canopy when she was crowned as Queen. (That honor was traditionally reserved for Barons of the Cinq Ports). Young Roger Manwood later helped put Princess Elizabeth on her throne. His help must have been of some importance, because in gratitude – or partly thanks to Gresham’s influence – in 1563 she gave him a handsome manor house of St Stephens in Hackington, Kent, near the west gate of Canterbury. In November 1578 he was knighted and promoted to Chief Baron of the Exchequer.3 In fact, at least one other scholar, Lewis J. M. Grant,– has come to the same conclusion. How he arrived at it is not

3. The Barons of the Exchequer were essentially supervisory auditors.

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clear, but the following provides a flavor. Explaining his method, he writes: I continued to look for key words and on pages 47 and 49 (of the Histories section of the Folio) I found these. “I, Christopher Morelow, sonne of Judge Manwood. To Henry Percy, sonne of my lord Northumberland with the clear and true industrious friend Sir Walter” It looks like a secret message to his friends of the ‘school of night’, Raleigh and the Earl of Northumberland.

I do not suppose the order of the words are right [sic]. I do not pretend to have the code – but in these days of computers, someone else could unravel the message if there is one”{Grant, 1970 #137} p. 211.

On page 213 of the same book Grant explicitly refers to Sir Roger Manwood as Marlowe’s father.– Those pages include a detailed account of Roger Manwood’s marriages, lands and his will (signed by Archdeacon Redman two days before his death), from another source {Foss, 1966 #313}. Roger Manwood was a Judge of the Admiralty Court for the Cinq Ports in spring 1563{Foss, 1966 #313}. Possibly Kate Arthur participated in what was then known as “a monstrous ransom” (i.e. she went to bed with him) to save her father from some charge, probably smuggling. The timing is right. It must have been an interesting and more than casual encounter, given the class prejudices of the time. Roger Manwood was a Puritan with fairly strict morals

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and there is no indication that he ever had another extramarital affair. There are also indications – Roberta Ballantine would call them “shadows” – that the love affair continued until the end of Manwood’s life. Kate seems to have been present at his death-bed There can be no direct evidence of this conjecture, but it fits well with several other facts, including the fact that John Marley, Marlowe’s step-father, was able to cut short his apprenticeship by three years. He was also able to remodel his house to open a fully equipped cobbler’s shop shortly afterward. The opportunity arose because his master, one Gerald Richardson, died conveniently within weeks of Kit Marlowe’s birth, during an outbreak of bubonic plague. But the court-appointed executor of Richardson’s will accused John Marley of “trespass”, which suggests that Marley had taken over Richardson’s tools and supplies without paying for them {Riggs, 2004 #17} p. 17. The lawsuit was settled out of court, possibly with Roger Manwood’s help. Confirming evidence of the father-son relationship arises from the anagram ciphers found by Roberta Ballantine, where it is mentioned dozens of times {Ballantine, 2007 #364}. Another argument in favor of the Manwood theory is that Kit Marlowe, then 28 years old, wrote an epitaph for Roger Manwood’s funeral, which took place in December 1592. On the other hand, in the Latin epitaph, he actually likened Manwood to a “lurking vulture of the night” {Bowers, 1973 #126} p.540. Not very kind, but perhaps understandable if Manwood was indeed his father, but had neither recognized him nor made provision

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for his son in his will {Grant, 1970 #137}. John Baker takes the “vulture” reference as evidence against the parental relationship {Baker, 2005 #3}. However, the word “vulture” also referred to the generic term for State Secret Service agents, namely “hawks”.– Marlowe himself was the smallest hawk, a “merlin”. Roger Manwood may have been one of them. The epitaph was also an angry satire aimed against the Anglican bishops, a sentiment shared by his father. As explained later, I think Manwood was definitely Marlowe’s real (biological) father, but that at the time of his death, father and son were estranged. Ballantine describes the death of Manwood and the main provisions of his will, based on Grant (ibid), in her Tales of Christopher Marlowe, Part 3 {Ballantine, 2003 #136}. The fact that Manwood’s will did not explicitly mention Marlowe proves nothing, for reasons I will explain later when I discuss Manwood’s death. At that time,– Manwood had good reasons for not calling attention to his bastard son in a will. In short, his absence from the will does not rule out Manwood either as Kit’s natural father or as the school fee-payer. Nevertheless, if Manwood was Marlowe’s biological father, as I believe, it is natural to suppose that much of his later life was shaped by that relationship. Lower class boys below apprenticeship age (12 years) either worked at home on domestic chores or ran wild in the streets. When Kit was three years old his step-father John Marley took on an apprentice named Richard Umberfield. Umberfield only lasted three years before running away. But during those years Kit Marlowe had neither employment

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with his father or his mother, because he had an older sister and younger sisters to do the domestic chores. Anagrams suggest that he did run wild for a time, with a gang of street boys, who engaged in petty theft and other mischief. A story along these lines appears in a book called Noches de Invierno (winter nights) published in Spain under the name– Antonio de Eslava {Eslava, 1609 #238}. I think he wrote it, but that is for later. Historian David Riggs thinks that Marlowe spent the next few years (ages 5-7) at a petty school in the parish, probably run by the local vicar, a man named Sweeting (who was barely literate himself) {Riggs, 2004 #17}. It is barely possible, but not likely. These schools had been created by a 1536 edict by King Henry VIII, with the intention of fostering religious uniformity among the young. It’s curriculum consisted of three books: The ABC, The ABC and Catechism and A Primer or Book of Private Prayer. The ABC books taught the letters and syllables of the English alphabet; the Catechism taught the Apostles Creed, The Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments. It was religious instruction taught by rote and repetition (much as the Koran is taught today in the Madrassa schools of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.) This primitive religious education would not account for Marlowe’s poetry and music by the time he entered King’s School in Canterbury several years later, at the age of 14. Here, I think Roger Manwood re-enters the picture. Quite possibly he had never been sure of his responsibility for the child – after all, Kate Arthur was a married woman

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when they had their brief affair – and he may have assumed that his helpful interventions on behalf of John Marley were sufficient recompense for any harm done by his un-judicial behavior. But Kate almost certainly knew and by the time the boy was 5 or 6 years old she probably realized that he was far brighter than his siblings. It wouldn’t have been easy for her, but I suspect she found a way to get in touch with Sir Roger and let him know that he had a son and that his son was extraordinary. There is interior evidence in the plays and ciphers that Marlowe’s parents sent him to spend some time at sea with his grandfather, the Dover-based yeoman (ship-board clerk) William Arthur, during the period between 1568 and continuing into 1572 {Ballantine, 2007 #364}. This could have taken place after a couple of years of ABC school.Another scenario, also barely possible and totally speculative, is that Kit Marlowe, aged 8, was actually present in Paris, with Sir Francis Walsingham, during the massacre of Huguenots on Saint Bartholomew’s Day in late August of 1572. It could only have happened if there was a close personal relationship between Roger Manwood and Francis Walsingham. That relationship is not altogether unlikely, inasmuch as they were neighbors in Kent and possibly members of the small intermarried group of English marranos. Unfortunately we do not have any other information confirming his Kit’s presence in Paris in 1572. If he was there, it certainly would have been a life-changing experience and a powerful antidote against Roman Catholicism and pro-Catholic propaganda. The main evidence in favor of this theory is the fact that, many years later, Marlowe was able to write a play about it: Massacre at Paris. That play displays detailed knowledge that must have obtained from eyewitnesses, if not from personal observation. Whether or not he was in Paris in August 1572, it is fairly likely that the boy encountered French Huguenot

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refugees near John Marley’s home in Canterbury, In particular, there was a family living in Canterbury by the name of LeDoux, with a son of approximately Kit’s age {Farey, 2005 #75}. Kit could have heard horrifying stories about the massacre from this boy. An early acquaintance with a French family would also help to explain his later fluency in the French language. It is doubtful that the details which finally appeared in his play Massacre at Paris (1593) could have come from anywhere but the official report based on Tomasso Sassetti’s original, sent from Walsingham to Lord Burghley. Walsingham probably kept a copy, and it might have found its way to Marlowe after Walsingham’s death in 1590. Or Marlowe might have come across a copy in Burghley’s offices if, as some think, he was working directly for Burghley. But that was much later. Meanwhile, from 1572 until 1575 or so, Marlowe probably learned to speak French, quite fluently, from the LeDoux family, with which he probably spent many hours. It could have been this linguistic ability that first came to the attention of Sir Roger Manwood. If there were any documentary records of Marlowe attending school in Canterbury (before entering the Kings School), they would surely have been found and mentioned by Urry {Urry, 1988 #97}. (Of course, there were no records of Shakespeare attending any school at all, and that fact does not bother the Stratfordians.) Based on anagrams found in his early works, Ballantine thinks that Marlowe worked for several years, probably 1576-7 as a page for his real father Sir Roger Manwood, and/or Sir Thomas Gresham

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(the Queen’s Merchant) {Burgon, 1965 #240; Ehrenberg, 1928 #251}. Who was Gresham? Sir Thomas Gresham was the son of a Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Gresham, a Protestant, in public, but a marrano (descendant of converted Jews) or secretly practicing Jew in private. Originally he was a merchant (one of the principals of the Mercers Company). In 1551 during the regime of Henry VIII he became the Crown’s financial agent in Amsterdam, which was the financial capital of the western world (west of Florence) at the time, and the only place with a market where currencies were exchanged. He kept the job under King Edward VI, during which he managed– by clever currency manipulation –to discharge the Crown’s debts. He kept the job during Queen Mary’s reign and that of Queen Elizabeth. Starting in 1565 he was also, together with his partner, Sir Richard Clough, responsible for creating the Royal Exchange in London. Gresham moved from Amsterdam back to London at the outbreak of war in the Netherlands (1567), but continued as her chief financial advisor and agent until he died in 1578.4 Later, Manwood was one of the executors of Thomas Gresham’s will, which established the London Royal Exchange as a public enterprise {Burgon, 1965 #240} vol 2 pp 491-92.)

4.Gresham was also credited (much later) with being the first to enunciate “Gresham’s Law”, namely the proposition that bad money drives out good money, meaning that if there are any under-weight coins in circulation, people will use them first, while hoarding the full weight coins.

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Gresham could have been an important early influence on the precocious boy. Kit Marlowe may have been a page in Gresham’s houses at Bishopsgate, Osterley and/or Mayfield for some time during the years 1575-1577. In fact, Kit may have accompanied Manwood and Gresham to a famous party at Kenilworth (1573) during which Gresham had to talk to Queen Elizabeth about his “expense account.” (Gresham had been in charge of currency trading through the Dutch banks, and he later co-founded the London exchange, so he probably had gains and losses to report to the Queen.) There were masques at the party and elements of those shows reappeared later in Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night. There was yet another occasion at Kenilworth two years later (1575) when Gresham and Queen Elizabeth had to meet inconspicuously with a Kent neighbor and young Kit Marlowe may have been present. This neighbor was a Portugese Jew named Alvaro Mendes, Mendes was also a friend (and in-law) of both Roger Manwood and Francis Walsingham, a fact that hints at marrano connections among them. Mendes owned diamond mines at a place called Narsinga in India. The diamonds were the source of capital for– his Lisbon-based international bank – one of the first such banks in Europe – with branches in several cities around Europe, probably including Amsterdam, Venice and Istanbul. It is possible that Manwood was trying to get precocious young Kit Marlowe interested in trade, or finance, in hopes that he would follow Gresham’s footsteps as a merchant-trader. It was certainly Gresham who –

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probably with a consortium of wealthy London merchants– financed a trading voyage to Istanbul in 1575. This was shortly after England had established diplomatic relations with the rising Ottoman Turkish power. Anagrams found by Ballantine suggest that Kit was sent by Gresham, with concurrence by Manwood and Walsingham, as “ship’s boy”, on a trade voyage carrying export cargos, including Cornish tin, to the Levant. The destination of the trip was ostensibly Alexandria, but really it was to Constantinople (as it was still known to Christians) or Istanbul (as it was known to the Turks). They started in November 1577 and returned– during May 1578 {Williamson, 1938 #315; Skilliter, 1977 #316} pp 18-29. There were initially three ships, Swallow, Judith and Pelican. The Pelican, captained by Francis Drake, split from the others before entering the Mediterranean Sea, renamed itself Golden Hind and took off south to sail around the world. It is possible that Kit Marlowe was introduced to Drake at the time of the departure. They had an important encounter later (in 1587), when a mutual recollection of their earlier meeting might have helped establish Marlowe’s credibility. The secrecy of the voyage was undoubtedly due to the need to prevent the Spanish from intercepting the flotilla. Drake did not get back to England for three years, but when he did arrive back at Plymouth in 1580, his ship was loaded with treasure captured from the Spanish Main. After Drake’s departure the Swallow and Judith jointly intercepted and captured a Spanish ship, the Tygre. The Spanish sailors were put ashore and the master’s mate from

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Judith, Christopher (“Kester”) Carleill took over as captain. Kester Carleill was the son of Francis Walsingham’s first wife Anne Carleill, from a previous marriage.– (He later married Walsingham’s daughter Mary5). Kit went with him on the captured Tygre. They became very good friends, and probably lovers (Greek style), during the voyage. Carleill bought Marlowe some Turkish clothes in Constantinople. It was there that he celebrated his 14th birthday (February 1578). Kit returned with more than clothes; he brought ideas for a number of his later plays, including the early Selimus, Skanderbeg, and details for his two big hits Tamburlaine I and II. That such a voyage really took place is attested by of Gresham, Drake and Carleill in the Dictionary of National (DNB). Anagrams in Sonnet 126 identify Marlowe and “Captain Kester” as lovers both on that voyage and later to Ireland. But, apart from anything else, the voyage would have been a major learning experience with regard to ships, naval war and seamanship. It would certainly have brought Kit Marlowe to Walsingham’s attention, if they had not met earlier. There are several episodes in his later life indicating that Christopher Marlowe knew how to sail a ship. In fact, on several later occasions he seems to have acted as captain, and even owned a small ship. But that was much later. One piece of corroborating evidence regarding

5.According to DNP. However other sources say that Walsingham’s only daughter was Frances, who– married Philip Sidney, and later married the Earl of Essex.. .

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Marlowe’s seamanship, is that he later engaged in some discussion on arcane navigational matters with John Harriot, the man who taught navigation to Walter Raleigh and was regarded as the greatest mathematician of his age {Roche, #181; Baker, 2005 #3}. Another indication is that “Shakespeare” seems to have known a great deal about the sea and sailing, although Stratford is nowhere near the sea and the man from Stratford never left England or sailed a ship, or even sailed in one {Falconer, 1964 #237}. *** Sir Thomas Gresham employed a soldier-poet named Thomas Churchyard, who was also close to Ned de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford) {Burgon, 1965 #240}. Churchyard may have introduced Kit to Ned de Vere, as a promising poet, probably in 1578. In any case, anagrams found by Ballantine place Marlowe as a page-cum-actor-writer with Edward de Vere on Queen Elizabeth’s “long progress” from June to November 1578. The “progress” is documented {Chambers, 1923 #236} Appendix “A Court Calendar” and {Nichols, 1828 #239}. Marlowe’s presence can only be inferred from some anagrammatic hints, but it is not contradicted by any other information. It explains a possible origin of his later relationship with Ned de Vere. Kit may have played a part in one of the masques, produced by de Vere, as a “Turkish boy”, using his birthday clothes from Constantinople. Having been introduced to homo-erotic love by Kester Carleill, Kit could have been seduced by Ned de Vere, who was widely reputed to be a sodomite {Nelson, 2003 #250} chapter 41. Historian David

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Riggs notes that de Vere (Oxford) was a known pederast and that he “was the only titled Elizabethan to be charged with sodomy” {Riggs, 2004 #17} p. 122. It was in that period that Lord Oxford concentrated on preparing entertainments for the Queen and court, and wrote the few poems that have survived. At that time, Kit found Ned very attractive personally. He gave himself the private nickname “moth” to reflect his tendency to be attracted by the light (i.e. by people of high rank). Hence, despite the difference in their social status, he seems to have worked for de Vere (Oxford) on many occasions during the next dozen or so years. *** This selection of anagrams, deciphered by Ballantine and compressed, comes from the first 8 opening lines of The Famous Victories of Henry V, date uncertain, but written several years after Queen Elizabeth’s “long progress” from June to November 1578. The accompanying plaintext is shown in Appendix A-1. Chr.M. made ye show – Gad’s Hyl to Agyncourt –w–wi’ my amee Hal (moue- over ‘omme!), ‘n’y’ Old Lad o’d’Castle. We had grog to beat th’ cold. Hot, I’d vvrite my lood stuff tha whole nite ‘n’ h-hump U, m- m! So U’d prefer me. No uuorry: al seem’d fine. But U broke’ Nan’s heart! She’ll d-d-d- d-d-dy of no love – P-U! Phu! We’re all for hire to make nationalist plays t’B shouun before her Majesty’s covrt. It’s time tv

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finish yt at last – rehearse yt with Buck. Oy! A new thril for me! But uue’l study to do the most… .” It continues. Note that Marlowe – as ever after – signs his name in the opening line. He uses phonetic spelling in his anagrams wherever convenient (“amee” for “amie”, “lood” for “lewd”). Note also that the “u” can be read as a “v” and the “uu” as a “w”. He was a stutterer. “U” (shorthand for “you”) referred to Edward de Vere. The interior writing is explicit. Apparently “Hal” is another literary proxy for de Vere,– whom Marlowe imagined as the prototype for Henry V (Prince Hal), “omme” is French for “man”, Ned also meant Edward de Vere, and Nan was his unhappy, neglected wife, Anne Cecil (although they had five children), and whose eventual suicide was probably the model for Ophelia’s death in Hamlet. The reference to “humping” needs no translation. In subsequent verses Kit describes his sexual-cum-literary relationship with “Ned”. It goes on for many lines. Gad’s Hyl (Gad’s Hill) was the location of one of Roger Manwood’s homes, where an early version of the play had probably been presented. Old Lad o’ d’ Castle refers to Sir John Oldcastle, an earlier religious reformer (Lollard) who had been a friend of Prince Hal (Henry V) before Henry was crowned. Later King Henry forgot his friendship and Sir John Oldcastle was burned at the stake along with five hundred others. Oldcastle was the model for Falstaff, who was Kit’s literary proxy for his father, Roger Manwood. Buck was George Buck, who was the property manager of the

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theater and possibly the director of the productions. There is an– alternative – or possibly complementary – theory about– Marlowe’s early life before entering Kings School in the fall of 1579. Perhaps Kit spent some time as a page to the soldier-poet Sir Philip Sidney, another neighbor from Penshurst, Kent. Sir Philip Sidney had been present at the English embassy in Paris in 1572 at the time of the massacre. This could explain Kit’s knowledge of that horror, as incorporated in his late play, Massacre at Paris. More important in view of later events, is that Kit could have met Philip’s attractive sister Mary Sidney (who was just two years older than him). She was affianced to the second Earl of Pembroke, (and they were married in early 1577). It is just barely conceivable (but unlikely) that Kit followed her to her new home at Wilton House, near Salisbury. This seems to have been suggested by , albeit he speaks of a “chieftain of pages” in Wilton House, and dubs him “Jack Wilton” – implying considerable familiarity with the Pembroke family (Nashe 1594). But the identification of “Jack Wilton”as Marlowe is very doubtful. Still, Nashe’s supposition was accepted by Urry {Urry, 1988 #97}, and cited by John Baker {Baker, 2005 #3; Baker, 2005 #7}. I think Kit was with Captain Carleill on the Tyger during that trip to Constantinople, from November 1977 to May 1978. But it is entirely possible that the Queen’s “progress” intersected with the Pembroke’s estate at some point during that summer. If so, another tryst between Kit and Mary Sydney Herbert (Countess of Pembroke) could have taken place. Her husband was away in Wales. She was

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very young and very lonely. He was full of stories about– his trip to Constantinople. She might, as Desdemona later said to Othello, loved him for the dangers he had encountered. Nature might have taken its course, resulting in the birth of the baby who eventually became the Third Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert (with the initials W.H.) The Second Earl (her husband) seems to have been absent at the time the baby was conceived. So the timing fits, at least roughly. As I said, this is very speculative. But it is not implausible, even though none of it is confirmed by Ballantine’s anagrams. It is important to remember that any evidence that the baby W.H. was a bastard would have disqualified him from inheriting the earldom. There were rumors that Philip Sidney (Mary’s older brother)– “confessed” – within the family – to having impregnated his sister. This is not very plausible, since incest was than (and now) a major taboo. On the other hand Philip, Mary and the servants knew perfectly well that there was no incest. If such a confession occurred, it would have been done to assure the baby’s legitimacy and entitlements. This, of course, would immediately explain both the cryptic dedication of the sonnets to “the begetter, W. H.” and the curious dedication of the First Folio to William Herbert and Philip Herbert as “incomparable brethren” (because they had different fathers?) To summarize, the possibility of a Marlowe connection with Philip and/or Mary Sidney at some time during the years 1575 -1579 and perhaps afterward arises mainly from

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geographical conjunction and a few hints and shadows. But it would explain Marlowe’s early interest in sonnets, and his evident admiration of Giordano Bruno – who was invited to come to England by Philip Sidney, and stayed with him. The phrase “For who would bear the whips and scorns of time” in Hamlet’s soliloquy is a near direct quote from Giordano Bruno. Above all, it would explain his (Kit’s) possible love affair with Mary Sidney Herbert6, which lasted to the end of her life, and his. In 1578 Robert Dudley, favorite of the Queen and created Earl of Leicester by her, entertained Queen Elizabeth at his estate at Wanstead, Essex. During that entertainment a masque The Lady of May was written for the occasion by Sir Philip Sidney. Is it possible that young Kit Marlowe contributed? Philip Sidney was an important poet (at least after his devoted sister Mary posthumously edited his major work, Arcadia) as well as a courtier, diplomat and gallant soldier. Indeed he was the leading sonnetteer of the day, founder of the Areopagus Club, and Kit Marlowe would have learned something about how to write sonnets from him. Philip Sidney was in Canterbury, possibly even at the King’s School, in late 1578 and early 1579, in order to meet with the Protestant Prince John Casimir, the brother of the Elector Palatine {Urry, 1988 #97} p.6. It is also known that Philip Sidney acquired a new page – Henry Danvers– in 1579, implying that he had lost one {Duncan-Jones, 1991 #125}.

6.His love letters to her are anagrammed in Twelfth Night (Ballantine 2006).

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The link between Kit Marlowe and Sir Francis Walsingham is widely assumed, though not documented anywhere. Certainly, if Marlowe had been a page for Philip Sidney, or was for other reasons in and out of the Sidney residence (e.g. to see his sister, Mary) he might have met Walsingham on any one of several occasions. Sir Philip Sidney had been with Walsingham at the embassy in Paris and they were friends and political allies. He married Walsingham’s daughter Frances. (Later, when Philip Sidney died, Walsingham paid his debts, even though it left him – and Frances – in difficult financial circumstances) This is superficially plausible because it explains not only why Marlowe knew all about the massacre, but why Marlowe in later life would have been so unshakeably anti-Catholic and therefore ipso facto, a trustworthy agent for Walsingham and Lord Burghley (William Cecil) in protecting the Protestant English Queen from dangerous overseas Catholic conspiracies. An unresolved question is the fact – emphasized by Riggs {Riggs, 2004 #17} – that entry to the Kings School in the middle of the 5th form required an extremely thorough knowledge of Latin grammar and rhetoric. Even Kit Marlowe could not conceivably have achieved this level of proficiency without many months of intensive study and practice. Moreover, his subsequent scholarship at Corpus Christi College at Cambridge not only required the candidate to be able to create verses in Latin that conformed to the very complex rules of grammar and verse-making, but also to sight-read music. Where and when did Kit Marlowe learn

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these things? There is no record of how he did it, but it is clear that even a genius requires some intensive learning time, and a tutor, teacher or library. On the other hand, being the genius he was, he may not have needed all the time between the ages of eight and fourteen, when he was awarded the scholarship to the King’s School. Riggs suggests that part of that time was probably spent at the grammar school adjacent to the Eastbridge Hospital, in Canterbury, where singing was taught {Riggs, 2004 #17}p. 36. In fact, there was also a singing teacher at the Canterbury cathedral (the father of Nicholas Faunt, an earlier graduate of the King’s School and Parker Scholar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). Riggs (ibid) suggests that Marlowe might have entered the King’s School as a fee-paying “commoner”. But John Marley was much too poor for that. In fact he was several times sued for non-payment of debts. Yet, as it happens, the headmaster of the school, John Gresshop – also a poor man, perhaps because he spent his salary on books – owed money to John Marley (for unknown reasons. Riggs thinks that Gresshop took Marlowe as a “commoner student” in lieu of payment of this debt. But the debt was apparently still unpaid on the books at the time Gresshop died a year after Marlowe’s departure. Did Marley forget to acknowledge payment-in-kind? We don’t know. I think Sir Roger Manwood almost certainly paid the fees. He was already a famous philanthropist, who later left much of his estate to found another school (that still exists). Was there enough time for Kit Marlowe to master Latin and

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also learn seamanship, music and to spend time in the houses of his biological father, as well as Thomas Gresham and others of the marrano power elite? The answer is surely yes, particularly when it is recalled that Marlowe was a natural linguist and that he was about two years older than the other scholars when he did finally enter the Kings School and, subsequently, went on to Cambridge. Whether Kit Marlowe was Gresham’s (or Sidney’s) page or not, he did have easy access to books. Specifically, in 1579-80 he had access to headmaster Gresshop’s 350 book private library. A catalog of those books has been found, and it covers virtually all of the so-called “Shakespeare” sources {Urry, 1988 #97} pp 108-122 and Appendix II. Ballantine thinks that Marlowe learned about the use of anagrams and “interior writing” from Gresshop, who was a Greek scholar and knew of the use of this technique by the Greek tragedians {Thompson, 1963 #229; Urry, 1988 #97; Ballantine, 2007 #364}. Marlowe apparently wrote his very early play Famous Victories of Henry V in 1577, even before he entered the King’s School. Assuming the date is correct, this fact virtually guarantees that he was living in a place with access to history books, paper, ink and privacy to write. Where could he have found those requirements? It had to have been somewhere other than in the cobbler John Marley’s tiny, crowded home in Canterbury. Again, it could have been Manwood’s home or Philip Sidney’s home. Speaking of books, in 1940 an English book dealer in London found a copy of Edward Hallé s Chronicle of England

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from Henry IV to Henry VIII published in 1550 {Halle, 1550 #443}. The book had been defaced by a number of handwritten notes in the margins, suggesting the possibility that the “annotator” had been collecting material for a project of some sort {Keen, 1954 #244}. The three authors tried very hard to trace some connection between the original owner or the book, and some place where the young William Shakespeare might have had access to it. They came up with some hypotheses, but nothing really plausible. It is much easier to imagine ways in which the young Marlowe might have had access to it, perhaps in the library of John Gresshop, Thomas Gresham or even Roger Manwood. However, I would not like to think that he would have dared to write notes in the margins. That kind of behavior is more in keeping with a wealthy academic who bought books to read, not to collect.

Chapter 3: A short but necessary historical background

This is a story of the 16th century, and Kit Marlowe was very much a man of his own time before he became a man for all time.– His time was very different from ours, in almost every way you can imagine, from the everyday details of life to the deeper drivers of human behavior. To begin with, even the rich – and he wasn’t rich –– lived very uncomfortable, unhealthy and – for some – dangerous lives. Hardly anyone reached the biblical target of three score and

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ten (a milestone I passed several years ago and hardly noticed.) Another difference between then and now is that people, with few exceptions, had virtually none of the freedoms we take for granted. Movement was restricted; residence in towns was restricted; entry into trades and professions was restricted. Ownership of land was restricted. Military service was an obligation on most boys and men. Church attendance was obligatory. Tithes were obligatory. Literacy was minimal; most people could neither read nor write and for many legal or liturgical purposes English would not have been used anyway.) All European societies were ruled by parallel hierarchies. The secular hierarchy was based on feudal ranks, each owing allegiance to the next higher one, topped by kings and emperors, and supported by force of arms. The religious hierarchy was equally rigid, from the laity through deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and the Pope. Almost everyone among the lower orders, at least, believed fervently in God the Father, the divinity of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the intercession of saints, the efficacy of prayer and – at the end – the day of judgment when the dead would be sent either to Heaven to dwell forever with Christ or to burn forever in . Those beliefs gave the Church, and especially the Pope, a powerful weapon even against Kings and Emperors. His weapon was the threat of excommunication, which meant no access to communion, confession – and absolution –– or other sacraments. Charlemagne’s empire, following the defeat of the

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Saracens in Spain by his grandfather, Charles Martel, spanned Europe circa 800, was essentially secular. But it fell apart after his death in 814. Three centuries later the Church was dominant. The– excommunication weapon, wielded by Lateran IV, forced the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I (“Barbarossa”) to acknowledge the ultimate authority of the Pope (1177). The peak period of Papal authority occurred during the rule of Innocent III (1198 to 1216) and culminated in the 4th Lateran Council (1215) which articulated the Papal claims to authority over the secular powers, in detail. But in the next two centuries, marked by bloody but ultimately pointless crusades papal authority was challenged, especially by King Philip IV “the Fair” of France, who destroyed the Templars (the military arm of the Pope) in 1317 and forced the papacy to move from Rome to Avignon, in France where it remained for a century. In the 15th century other forces such as printing of books and exploration came into play. They also challenged Papal authority both directly, and – as society became more complex – indirectly through erosion of the belief system itself.– The story is far too complex to tell here. It is enough to say that by the beginning of the 16th century the Church of Rome had regained some authority, but had became blatantly corrupt. High level appointments were routinely bought and sold for money. Beyond this,– the Popes, especially starting with Leo X between 1513 and 1521, made the sale of indulgences offering “complete absolution and remission of all sins” into a major business,

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The money was supposed to pay for his favorite project, the new St. Peter’s Cathedral, which began in 1509 {Tuchman, 1985 #406}. One wonders how much of the money raised actually went into the building project? That blatant corruption was what triggered the protests of Martin Luther, Jean Cauvin (John Calvin), John Knox and the other “Protestants”. The depravity of the Renaissance Popes led to the Protestant Reformation, which began in the early 16th century and led to religious wars that finally split Europe into a Catholic south and a Protestant north. The French Civil wars, which reached maximum intensity after the massacre of Huegenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day in Paris in 1572, continued for over twenty years. It spanned much of Queen Elizabeth’s reign and all of Kit Marlowe’s life before his supposed death in 1593. Spain, as a nation, began as a merger by marriage between two minor Kingdoms, Aragon and Castille, after the expulsion of the Moors at the end of the 15th century. The combined kingdoms prospered. Spain soon conquered neighboring Catalonia, Sicily and Naples. Another merger by marriage, between the daughter of the last Duke of Burgundy and the Hapsburg prince Maximilian created the Austrian component of the eventual third great merger, by marriage, between Spain and Austria. Charles V became the first King of Spain, as a whole, a the age of 16. In 1519 he also inherited the Holy Roman Empire, consisting of the Hapsburg possessions in Austria and Germany, and Dutch- speaking remnants of former Burgundy, including Flanders

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and parts of Holland. The Burgundian remnant was still the richest of all the Spanish possessions. Not surprisingly, the division of Burgundy was also a source of continuing conflict between France and Spain, since the French -speaking part of Burgundy wanted to remain with France, while Charles V claimed it as part of his father’s inheritance. A third power had arisen in the east, after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, in 1453, when they renamed it Istanbul. The contest between these three great powers, Spain, France and Turkey, along with Portugal, Genoa and Venice, in and around the Mediterranean Sea dominated the 16th century. It also enabled tiny England to survive by learning and playing the “balance of power” game and depending on its navy. Charles V ruled his enormous empire from Madrid and Brussels, but he spent most of the next third of a century fighting the Ottoman Turks in the Balkans and France on his western– border, which separated the French and Flemish- Dutch parts of the former Duchy of Burgundy. Charles V finally abdicated in favor of his son Philip II, in 1556. Philip II ruled the Spanish empire for most of the rest of the 16th century. Moreover, two major technological changes changed the balance of secular powers. One was progress in navigation, map-making and ship-building. This was largely inspired by the fact that the Ottoman Turks had cut the old trade route – the “silk road” – to the far east, thus necessitating a search for other routes. The technical

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progress in ship design enabled sailing ships to explore and exploit new territories far from Euope, especially the New World. That development also created joint stock trading companies and a class of wealthy merchant traders and bankers with greatly diminished loyalty to the feudal hierarchy. The other powerful new technology was printing and the accompanying rise of schools and literacy. It started with Johannes Gutenberg, and rapidly led to translation and printing of Bibles in contemporary European– languages. Wider availability of Bibles in the vernacular changed everything, most of all the social structure. From bibles, the printers quickly moved on to other types of reading materials, including histories, poetry, plays and essays. Obviously, the story of Kit Marlowe and the English state secret service was embedded in the religious and dynastic struggles of the later 16th century. A starting point would be the long failure of Henry VIII to sire a healthy son and heir.7 This led to his decision in 1529 to divorce his devout Spanish wife of many years, Katherine of Aragon. She was then 44 years of age, having produced only one living child, a girl named Mary. By then she was incapable of having more children. Henry wanted to found a dynasty. His purpose was to wed a younger, more fertile woman in hopes

7.Queen Katherine actually had six children, three stillborn and only one who survived infancy. There is a semi-plausible theory that King Henry had syphilis. This might account for his impotence problem and also the early death of his only son, Edward VI and the impotence of his daughter, Queen Mary.

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of siring a male heir to continue the Tudor line. Queen Katherine resisted vehemently, of course. But Henry asked Cardinal Wolsey – demanded would be more accurate – to come up with an ecclesiastically acceptable way to accomplish this end. To put it simply, he wanted his marriage to Katherine of Aragon to be declared invalid, for any reason that would satisfy the Pope. (Papal power was still very important, but King Henry was undoubtedly aware that papal indulgences were for sale.) He also wanted to marry a young woman in his entourage, named Anne Boleyn, whom he had been unsuccessfully trying to seduce for two years. The cartoon version of history notes that he did marry her, and a couple of years after that he had her beheaded because his roving eye had moved on to another woman, Jane Seymour. From her he got a son, Edward, but she died a few days after giving birth. The boy may have inherited an illness from his father. He had six wives altogether, but after Catherine of Aragon, only Anne Boleyn gave birth to a healthy child. It was that child who ultimately became Queen . Elizabeth was not first or even second in line for the throne, however. She was preceded by Henry’s sickly boy, Edward VI, who was followed by older sister, Mary after a brief failed coup d’etat in favor of lady Jane Grey. Their reigns were fraught, to say the very least. During Edward’s reign, under the Protectors, first Seymour and then Dudley, the Protestants were dominant and many Catholics left England for the continent. The tables were turned when Queen Mary got the throne, with backing from

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her new husband, Philip II of Spain. In 1556 Philip II of Spain abandoned poor Queen Mary Tudor, of England, after the failure of her first pregnancy. She prayed on her knees most of the time, which apparently bored him, so he returned to the low countries to lead the Spanish forces there, against incursions by the French. During the next two years Mary begged him to come back to her, and he continually found excuses to remain away. Finally, in 1557, as a kind of quid pro quo to please him and assure his return, Queen Mary sent an under-trained army to Calais to enter the war against the French on Philip’s side. The result was a disaster. The English lost Calais and the Pale after 200 years of occupancy. Mary Tudor died, perhaps of a broken heart, late in the fall of the following year, 1558. By the time Elizabeth came to power, the country was deeply divided and very close to civil war. Queen Elizabeth, with help from her cautious advisors – especially Sir William Cecil – managed to fend off the sharks for the next half century. The first step was an Act iof Supremacy in 1559, re-establishing the separation of the from the Roman of Rome. The situation in France was crucial for England’s survival. During the 15th century, following the short but spectacular career of Jeanne d’Arc, France under the Valois dynasty had reconstituted itself as a nation, kicked out the English (except from Calais) and recovered the former Aquitaine, Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Picardy, Lorraine and French Burgundy. In short, by 1500 the map of France had would have looked quite a bit like France today, except for

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the southeastern quarter where the mountainous Principality of Savoy separated France from Spanish-controlled Lombardy in northern Italy. The consequences of the untimely death of Henri II of France in a jousting contest in 1559 were truly terrible. The surviving widow was, of course, Queen Catherine de Medici. After her husband’s death, Queen Catherine became the principal advisor to her four sons. Henri II was succeeded by his oldest son, the Dauphin, Francis II, who was 15 years old and sickly. The boy had just been married a year earlier, in 1558, to young Mary Stuart, later known as Mary Queen of Scots, to whom he had been betrothed since childhood. Prompted no doubt by advisors and the dowager Queen- mother Catherine de Medici, Francis II and Mary jointly claimed the English throne on the grounds that Queen Elizabeth was illegitimate, and that Mary Stuart of Scotland was the next in line. This claim naturally had the effect of infuriating Queen Elizabeth and her supporters without achieving anything “on the ground”, so to speak. On December 5, 1560, the boy-King Francis II died, after just 18 months on the throne, making his wife Mary, Queen of Scots, a very young widow without a throne. Francis’ brother Charles IX was then crowned King of France a few weeks later at the age of 9. The Queen-mother, Catherine de Medici, became ruler de facto. Her first major act was to convoke a meeting of Protestants and Catholic leaders in hopes of resolving their doctrinal differences. The so-called Colloquy of Poissy self-destructed in October 1561, against her will. She then issued the Edict of Saint Germain

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the following January calling for toleration of the Huegenots. The edict was almost immediately flouted by the Duc de Guise, who was a national hero on account of his role in the recapture of Calais from the English. He attacked a Huguenot religious gathering in a barn at Vassy, killing 74 people and wounding another 104. He claimed it was a “regrettable accident” and was cheered in the streets of Paris. It was the beginning of the religious wars in France. The Huguenot leader, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and of Condé (Louis II de Bourbon)– immediately raised an army and captured a number of towns, including Rouen. The royal army under Duc de Guise, hero of Calais retaliated, and retook Rouen, on December 19, 1562. But de Guise himself was shot and killed after the battle by a Huguenot spy. Admiral Coligny was unjustly accused by the Guise faction of having hired the assassin. More riots, rebellions and more massacres followed. Catherine made peace with the Edict of Amboise in 1563. She tried hard to enforce that peace, despite demands by King Philip of Spain for a harsher policy against heretics. That changed after 1567, when the Peace of Amboise was broken by a Huguenot attack at Meaux. Yet, she still counseled moderation. *** It is difficult in retrospect to determine which events caused which consequences, but the “Northern Rebellion” of 1569, led by the Catholic dukes Thomas Howard of Norfolk and Thomas Percy of Northumberland, may have been the excuse for the promulgation of a papal bull, Regnans in

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Excelsis, or “Ruling from on high” issued in February 1570. It said that Queen Elizabeth was “the pretended queen of England and the servant of crime” and declared that she was a heretic, that her subjects were released from any allegiance to her, and that any who obeyed her orders were excommunicated. This bull had no immediate effect in England, but it sowed the seeds of most of the civil wars that followed, especially (as it turned out) in France. *** Meanwhile, the Huguenots distrusted Catharine’s moderate policies. They concentrated their forces at La Rochelle, where they were joined by Jeanne d’Albret, the wife of Antoine de Bourbon, Regnant Queen of Navarre and her son, Henry III of Bourbon (later Henri IV of France). This “betrayal” infuriated Catherine, but she was forced to sign the Peace Agreement of St. Germain-en-Laye, in the summer of 1570. The accompanying Edict of Pacification gave the Huguenots even more concessions than the original, including unrestricted rights to worship. The edict of St. Germain left the Huguenots in control of a number of fortified towns, such as La Rochelle. Cognac and Montauban. However, the ultra-catholic Guise faction hated compromise and wanted the Edict to be revoked. In 1571 there was a sea battle near a place called Lepanto in the Adriatic Sea. The combined fleets of Venice, Austria and Spain decisively defeated the Ottoman fleet for the first time. It was a turning point for the Ottoman Empire. The outcome released Spanish-Hapsburg forces from the Balkans and caused ripples across Europe. Among

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other things, it persuaded the Huguenot leaders in France, especially Admiral Coligny, that France should now intervene to support the Protestant rebels in Holland, to forestall further intervention by Philip II of Spain on behalf of the ultra-Catholic Guise faction in France. The Queen- mother Catherine opposed this plan with all her heart. She wanted no more wars or debts. In her changed view, the Huguenots and Coligny were war-mongers and were getting too powerful. Catherine’s next idea –probably it was hers – was to “decapitate” (as it were) the Huguenot movement, and at a stroke, wipe out some of the royal debt burden. Her scheme was to invite all of the principal Protestant leaders to witness the wedding of her daughter Marguerite Valois to Henri of Navarre, Duc de Bourbon, who was one of the most important Huguenots. This would bring them all together in one place away from their armies and accessible to killers. She probably imagined that Coligny and a few others could be killed, leaving the rest in a more amenable mood.– But, whether it was her intention or not, the stage was set for an event that precipitated civil war in France and intensified anti-Catholic opinion in England. It was the massacre of tens of thousands of Huguenots in Paris alone, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day, Sunday, August 24, 1572. The violence rapidly spread through the country and continued sporadically until September 17. It resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Huguenots throughout France. (Estimates of dead range from 30,000 to 100,000. Pope Gregory XIII struck a medal to honor Catherine de Medici’s

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supposed role in this achievement. One of the very few important Huguenots not killed during the massacre was Henri, Duc de Bourbon, King of Navarre. He had just been married to Marguerite Valois, the sister of King Charles IX. It was their marriage that had brought the Huguenot leaders to Paris. Marguerite Valois was not interested in being his wife. In fact, she was in love with none other than Henri, Duc de Guise. But, according to popular legend, she did protect her husband of six days, Henri Bourbon, and a few others, from the murderers. For the next three years, Henri of Navarre lived in a precarious kind of house-arrest in the French court. One of the conditions of his continued safety was to convert to Roman Catholicism, which he did. After several years, Henri finally escaped back to Navarre under murky circumstances. There, he reconverted to . The experience of living in Paris through the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre was life-changing for English Ambassador, Francis Walsingham, and everyone who was with him at the embassy. After the massacre he became virulently anti-Catholic. Kit Marlowe later wrote about it, except for the epilog. Marlowe’s last play to be performed before his “death”, on January 30, 1593, was Massacre at Paris. He might or might not have been in Paris himself, but he certainly had inside knowledge from somebody who was there and who knew the gory details. The play describes the action quite accurately as it happened, especially the role of the Duc de Guise, the murders of the principal Huguenot leaders, and the much later assassination of de Guise

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himself {Riggs, 2004 #17} pp 308-313. A less well-known consequence of the massacre of French Huguenots in 1572 was a wave of Protestant refugees, mostly to Germany or the Netherlands but some also to England. Many of those arrived at the Cinq Ports in Kent, directly across the English channel, of which Dover was the most important. The weeks after St Bartholomew’s Day must have been a little like the evacuation of Dunkirk almost 400 years later, except that it was whole families with all their portable possessions that were clamoring for places on the boats (at a price, of course.) For the fishermen and smugglers (and customs officers) of the Cinq Ports in Kent, it was an incredible windfall. There was a substantial transfer of wealth to England, during those days, in the form of cash and valuables. A few of the new arrivals settled in Canterbury. A larger number went on to London. But one of those who settled in Canterbury, was a man named Louis LeDoux (with wife and small boy, also named Louis). Young Kit Marlowe almost certainly got to know this family, with important future consequences.

Chapter 4: Canterbury, Cambridge and Reims

For two years, from January 1579 through Christmas 1580, Kit Marlowe attended the King’s school in Canterbury, on a

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Parker scholarship. I think it was probably arranged by his biological father, Sir Roger Manwood, who had been a friend of Archbishop Parker’s {DNB, 2004 #334 “Manwood”}. He was then two years older than the other students, and probably much more worldly. In the King’s school – which survives to the present time – he polished up his Latin and Greek, did translations, and probably read most of the 350 books in the library of the schoolmaster, John Gresshop. One of the things Gresshop may have taught about Greek was that their authors identified themselves by means of anagrams. “Authors of the Greek tragedies constructed the first eight iambic lines so that they not only made sense but also provided letters to make eight other iambic lines, the first two giving the writer’s name, the next two the Olympiad, the third a homage to Athena, and the last couplet a warning that the show was about to begin” {Thompson, 1963 #229}Appendix p.253. The schoolboy Christopher Marlowe, who was fascinated by words, apparently adopted this Greek convention for himself, with minor modifications. The first two line verse always identifies him as the author, using phrases like “Chr.M wrote this” or “Kit M. penn’d this” in dozens of variations. A few examples of his anagrammatic signatures can be found in Appendix A. His tendency to introduce anagrams in all his works was apparently known to those close to him. His friend, playwright John Marston wrote: “H’ath made a commonplace booke (scrap-book) out of plaies and speakes in print” {Wraight, 1997 #60}. This

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refers to his habit of using slang and descriptive sounds as though he was talking. Marlowe arrived at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in late December 1580, immediately after leaving the Kings School in Canterbury. However, he was not officially– enrolled until March 17 and he had to wait until May 7 1581 to be “elected and admitted” as a member of the university. His shilling a week stipend from the Parker scholarship only began on that day. Who paid his expenses during the previous five month period? Riggs suggests that he might have worked as a manual construction laborer during that interregnum {Riggs, 2004 #17} p.66. This explanation is very implausible, to put it mildly; since Marlowe was at the university to get a degree that normally required four years, with a scholarship that covered only three. He was there to learn, and to learn as fast as possible. It is much more likely that his biological father (Manwood) paid his expenses. During the rest of the year 1581 Kit stayed put and studied, although some time during the year he apparently met Gabriel Harvey, a Fellow of Trinity College. Harvey introduced him to the poetry of fellow student Edmund Spenser, and some writers think that Harvey may have recruited Marlowe to the state secret service {Stern, 1979 #242}. Others think he was recruited by Lord Burghley, who was (among other things) the Chancellor of Cambridge University. However, as noted in– Chapter 2 it is also possible that “Mr. Secretary”– Francis Walsingham already had young Marlowe under consideration, either thanks to reports from Philip Sidney, Thomas Gresham or – even

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more likely – from his step-son, Christopher Carleill who (as already mentioned) had taken the boy with him on that voyage to Constantinople in 1577-78. During his first year at Cambridge Kit Marlowe was not yet a member of the secret service, but almost certainly he was being watched as a promising future recruit. A turncoat priest at the English Catholic Seminary in France (Reims) named Richard Baines, had been reporting to Walsingham on the intentions of the founder and director of that seminary Dr William Allen. Richard Baines had been arrested at Dr. Allen’s seminary in Reims as a spy in the spring of 1582 and was being tortured to reveal his links to Walsingham. A word about Dr. Allen and the seminary.– During the and 1570s several hundred Oxford student-scholars left England for Catholic Flanders. Among the first to be expelled for refusing to sign the “oath of supremacy” (1561) was Doctor William Allen, a former student of Oriel College and Principal of St. Mary’s Hall. Dr. Allen went first to Louvain, in Flanders, where he found a flourishing group of Catholic expatriates. Then he wandered through Catholic Europe for several years before founding an English Catholic college in 1568 at the University in Douai (also in Flanders). Ten years later (1578) the seminary was expelled from Douai and subsequently removed to the university at Rheims in France. There it came under the protection of the ultra-Catholic Guise family, of which much more later. In the summer of 1582 ( July 17/27 to late August) Kit Marlowe traveled to Reims in France. His instructions are

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unclear. He may have been sent to contact (or liberate) Baines. Or, more likely, he was instructed to reconnoiter the seminary, now that Baines was hors de combat.8 Francis Walsingham was (again) in Paris during this time, as head of the delegation to negotiate a possible marriage between Queen Elizabeth and the Duc d’Anjou. A poet-spy named Tom Watson and Sir Francis’ nephew Tom Walsingham were also there at the time. In August 1582 Baines made a meaningless “confession” to Dr. Allen and was shifted to the Reims town jail, where he remained for another nine months. In the autumn and winter of 1582 Marlowe seems to have spent most of his time writing plays (Dido, Arden of Feversham, Locrine). In April 1583 Marlowe was sent, whether by Walsingham or Burghley we do not know, back to Dr. Allen’s Catholic College in Reims. On this occasion he may have been expected to work with agents Tom Watson or Tom Walsingham or even directly with Francis Walsingham who was still in Paris {Knox, 1878 #252}. At the seminary in Reims Marlowe apparently cultivated a traveling priest, pretended to be attracted to the Catholic ceremonies and doctrines and became a candidate for the Catholic priesthood, probably making notes of the other candidates and their plans. During the period of Marlowe’s residence in the college, Baines was finally– released from gaol in early June 1583, after making a second, written,

8.See the First and Second Diaries of the English College, Douai, with Appendix of Unpublished Documents. London {Knox, 1878 #252} {Wraight, 1965 #114}.

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confession and recantation. This confession contradicted the first one and Dr. Allen proceeded to print and publish it as a pamphlet. Dr. Allen’s purpose in doing so is unclear. Marlowe– probably contacted Baines after his release to take messages back to Walsingham. At the seminary, he also met a number of the other aspiring priests, possibly including one named Gilbert Gifford, whose role in history will be discussed later. Marlowe finally got back to Cambridge in late August 1583, after six months abroad. During that period he may have been recognized in Reims by someone from Cambridge. That fall he spent time with newly arrived undergraduate Tom Nashe of St. John’s College, enjoying undergraduate exploits like swimming in forbidden pools, climbing walls, drinking at nearby inns and meeting town girls. Marlowe apparently felt free to skip lectures and he apparently had some spending money, even though he had a Parker scholarship. Was it an allowance from Roger Manwood or pay from the Walsingham’s spy network? During the winter of 1583-84 he translated Ovid’s Amores and the first part of ’s {Flowers, 1981 #295}. Both were apparently printed but not entered on the Stationers Register. Several years later the ecclesiastical authorities banned the book, collected all the copies and burned them. In February and March 1584 Kit worked hard, for a change, probably with help from Gabriel Harvey, to prepare for his Bachelor of Arts (BA) exams. The considerable rigors of those exams are well described by Riggs {Riggs, 2004 #17} pp.79-97.

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The BA exams consisted of two “disputations” (debates), each responding to three opponents, plus exams by a tutor and the headmaster. On Ash Wednesday 1584 there was a test in the schools by “The Ould Batchelor”. There was one more test, in Latin. Kit survived the ordeal, but just barely. He received his BA from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on Palm Sunday 1584, ranked 199th out of 231 BA degrees awarded {Wraight, 1965 #114}. And he did this in three years despite his extended absences against the strict rules of the college. Those absences are documented both in the record of payments for his scholarship and in the Corpus Christi College “buttery book”, which kept track of payments for food {Urry, 1988 #97; Wraight, 1965 #114}. During May through July 1584, there are indications that the newly fledged BA, was introduced to friends around London by his natural father, Sir Roger Manwood. Roger had already purchased the small rectory of Chalk Church on the Dover Road, from which he hoped that Kit might someday minister to the local parish {Hasted, 1790-99 #319} Vol 3 p 469). But, even though those students who received the Parker scholarship were expected to become Anglican priests, preaching from a pulpit didn’t interest Kit. After receiving his BA in April 1584, Marlowe signed up to return to Cambridge to study for an master of Arts (MA) degree. Apparently he continued– living in the same room (shared with three other students) at Corpus Christi College. In late October 1584 the secret service seems to have called Kit back to duty, this time for military training. His

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mentor was none other than his old friend captain Christopher (Kester) Carleill, Walsingham’s step-son, with whom (I believe) he had sailed to Constantinople some five years earlier. Captain Carleill had just been appointed garrison commander at Coleraine, Northern Ireland by the new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir John Perrot. Kit sailed from Bristol to Coleraine, Ireland October 25 to meet Carleill. What followed was a series of military snafus, in which Carleill was badly served by his second-in-command. Kit played no direct part, except as an observer. However he and Kester Carleill were together in an action against the rebel Sorley Boy MacDonnell at Dunsany in the Glynns, Ulster. That was at the end of December 1584. Carleill captured Sorley Boy and took him to Dublin. But there the prisoner was badly treated by Perrot and Carleill protested in vain. After only three months Carleill was relieved of his post by Perrot and returned to England in mid February 1585, just in time for Kit’s 21st birthday. (Carleill sailed his ship, Tyger, to America with Admiral Drake later that year.) Sonnet 126 (which was probably the first in the series) contains anagrams that tell part of the story of Kit’s trip to Ireland (Appendix A-4). It was probably written for Carleill (Captain Kester). The last two lines are missing from the quarto, although the empty parentheses are printed in it. Taking the lines of the sonnet two at a time, the following anagrams (compressed) were found by Roberta Ballantine: Chr. M. writ, hopein’ t’ see U, Sly, I’l hyde til they go. I’l lose ‘em – walk off de bvsy

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show. So, ho! U cook, ‘n’ after eatin’ wee’l do a story-show, Stay ‘n’ rest, ‘n’ begin t’– shhh – whist! G-gr! Why? Why not? I guess wee R lovers! Svre U know it – sailin’ so far t’t’Greece ‘n’ back, time was we saved each other. Look, uue slept till R ship sailed! Capt. Kester ‘n’ Kit ye kid were (shh) still loue-dreamin’ at port. See me get h-h-y! Much t’reliue: R Irish days – Perrot ‘n’sorlee Boy. E-e-e-e-e! Al I kno U taut me then. One mustn’t f-fear the h- hapthat brot R queer loue: It was a deer, needed deed. A iust rhythm shunn’d giues h/ ... In this sonnet Kit was recalling both the trip to Greece (and on to Constantinople) and the later trip to Coleraine, Northern Ireland, with Carleill. In February 1585, Marlowe became 21 years old. At some time, probably the weeks after his return, Marlowe seems to have had his portrait painted. The artist is not known, but the picture is of high quality and so are the clothes worn by the subject. It was probably a 21st birthday gift from his father Sir Roger Manwood, since John Marley the shoemaker of Canterbury could not have afforded such a luxury. The painting was donated to the College, where it hung in the Corpus Christi Master’s study until sometime after 1593 when Marlowe was in disgrace and his portrait was (literally) plastered over. Luckily it was rediscovered

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during a college renovation in 1953 and has been restored.9 The portrait is inscribed AETATIS SVAE 21, (at the age of 21) with the message “Quod me nutrit, me destruit”. The Latin can be translated as “that which nourishes me destroys me” or “destroyed by what nourishes me”. The same sentiment appears in different words in several of Marlowe’s acknowledged works and several of– Shakespeare’s as well. The almost identical words are found in sonnet 73, viz. “consumed with that which it was nourished by”. A number of other examples, conveying much the same idea in different ways have been found by various authors, such as Baker {Baker, 2006 #300}. The conjunction of opposites (nourish, destroy) is a device extensively employed throughout the Marlowe-Shakespeare corpus. Could the portrait have been of another person? Very unlikely, if only because there was no other man at Corpus Christi College of that age in that year. Remember, that Kit Marlowe was two years older than the great majority of the other students. The fact that the Latin motto fits so well with others in the works of Marlowe and Shakespeare is a kind of confirmation. Authors such as David Riggs, who insist that

9.The portrait is almost certainly of Marlowe, who was 21 years old in that year and was the only student at Corpus Christi the right age. (Most were several years younger). As a matter of possible interest, Robert Cecil’s portrait (among others) was found on the same wall of the Master’s lodge, and since he overlapped with Marlowe, it is near certain that they knew each

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Christopher Marlowe was really the son of a poor Canterbury shoemaker, have no explanation for the existence of this portrait.– (Curiously Riggs’ book includes 49 pictures and engravings, but omits this most important one.) Marlowe, despite his talent, was really too young to have acquired an aristocratic patron,– unless it was Burghley or Walsingham, which is out of character for both. John Marley the shoemaker could not possibly have afforded such a luxury. In fact, he could not have afforded the rather fancy doublet Marlowe was wearing in his portrait. If not Roger Manwood, who paid for the painting and the doublet? It must have been Manwood. *** At the age of 21 Kit Marlowe could have been initiated into the brotherhood of Freemasons. I am not certain that he became a Freemason, but it is possible and it would explain some things. The Freemasons were, and are, a very secret society that does not advertise its membership. It’s very existence was secret at the time, although there were plenty of rumors. The connection with Kit Marlowe is entirely speculative, because 16th Century English membership rolls, if any ever existed, were later destroyed during the English Civil War or the Great Fire of London. Direct evidence of the strength of the society in 16th Century Scotland is plentiful, however. James VI of Scotland was initiated to Freemasonry in 1601, just three years before he succeeded Queen Elizabeth to the English throne {Knight, 1996 #111}. There are fewer records of their English counterparts,

other then, as well as later.

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thanks to fires and civil strife that probably induced many lodges to go “underground” {Anderson, 1723 #121}. Anderson has presented a list of the reputed– grand masters of English Masons, starting with Charles Howard, later Lord Admiral, prior to 1588 (ibid). Inigo Jones (the architect) may have been a grand master in the early 17th century (circa 1607){Knight, 1996 #111} p.437. According to some historians, William Herbert (3rd Earl Pembroke) was Grand Master between 1618 and 1630 {Lyell, 2005 #130}. According to Manly P. Hall – himself a Freemason of the 33 degree – Sir Francis Bacon was one of the founders of modern Freemasonry and “a Rosicrucian, some have intimated the Rosicrucian, if not actually the illustrious Father R.C. referred to in the Rosicrucian manifestoes, he was certainly a high initiate of the Rosicrucian Order” {Hall, 2008 #502}.10 Several of the people who associated with

10.One of his admiring biographers wrote “While he was establishing the educative aspect of Rosicrosse activities....[he] also began another important work, intended to be the crown of his labors, the establishment of an organized Brotherhood with Rites and Ceremonials based on the Ancient Mysteries, Classical Myths, the craft customs of the defunct guild of operative masons...a Rite in which the nature Wisdom of Egypt should be blended with the simple, ethical New Commandment of Jesus...”That ye LOVE one another”. It was, virtually, a remodelling of the Continental Templar Knights Secret Order.... Francis Bacon aimed at remodelling the Ceeremonial on broader grounds that would have, ultimately, a popular appeal as we;ll as an esoteric one. He finally redrafted the Nine Degrees of the Templars into thirty-three, half of which were based on purely Christian Ethical Concepts. “Thirty-three was chosen as the

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Kit at Cambridge, such as Gabriel Harvey, are also strongly suspected of being Freemasons {Heisler, 1990 #11}. Indeed, it is plausible that many of the top secret service people were Freemasons. A likely candidate is Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder- leader of the “school of the night”, an occasional– discussion group that met only at night, in which Kit Marlowe was known to participate on some occasions. Raleigh was much more than an adventurer. He was also a writer, philosopher and poet. The engraving on the title page of his book “History of the World “ (1614) showed an androgynous figure holding up a globe, surrounded by a mass of Rosicrucian and Masonic symbols. The headpiece on the page opposite this engraving is the same as the headpiece used both on the first Folio of Shakespeare’s works (1623) and also. earlier,– on Bacon’s Novum Organum {Hall, 2008 #502} p.550-51. Baconians cite this fact as evidence that Bacon was Shakespeare, but it is stronger evidence that all three books were linked to Freemasonry. This digression is relevant because Masonic lodges were probably the only safe places at the time, apart from

Highest Degree, because the number 33 was the numerical signature of “Bacon” [giving eaach letter the numerical value of its place in the alphabet, thus 2+1+3+14+13 = 33]... The first modern Freemasons lodge was held at Twickenham Park and Gray’s Inn. {Dodd, 1946 #122} pp. 30-35. (Author’s capitalizations)

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private homes, to discuss religious, philosophical, scientific and political topics that would have been dangerous in more public places. Also, Freemasonry involved blood-curdling oaths, codes, recognition signals and safe houses that might have been derived from the spy culture of the secret service, or may have contributed to it. Whether or not Marlowe was a member, it is generally acknowledged among Freemasons that the author of several of “Shakespeare’s” plays and sonnets must have had deep knowledge of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabalistic and Rosicrucian writings. I don’t put much faith in literary evidence, but in this context I can’t help quoting from an important Masonic scholar, who has noted that whoever wrote The Tempest, , Hamlet, The Tragedy of Cymbeline– “must have been a Platonist, a Qabalist or a Pythagorean....Who, but one deeply versed in Paracelsian lore could have conceived a– Midsummer Night’s Dream?” {Hall, 2008 #502} p.539. It has been widely noted that Love’s Labour’s Lost (1593) and some of The Sonnets – as eventually printed in 1609 – were remarkably familiar with Masonic symbols, codes and ceremonies. (This is discussed in greater depth in Peter Bull’s remarkable analysis of the sonnets, summarized in Appendix D {Bull, 2005 #51; Bull, 2005 #52; Bull, 2006 #108}.) There is no obvious way that Kit Marlowe (or William Shakespeare) could have acquired that knowledge from such a secretive society without being a member. At some time in early 1585 young Henry Wriothesley, heir to the earldom of Southampton,– arrived at St. John’s College. He was 12 years old. The Chancellor of the

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University took a special interest and deputed Tom Nashe – then a 3rd years student – to be his guard, guide and mentor. Kit Marlowe joined them on several adventures. In due course Kit became friends with the younger boy, whom called “Hen”. That friendship continued to the end of Marlowe’s life. * * * During the months of March-May, 1585 Marlowe returned to Reims yet again {Knox, 1878 #252}. While there he may have met a Deacon and– aspiring priest named Gilbert Gifford again, or possibly for the first time. This was Marlowe’s introduction to the affair that later became known as the “Babington plot”, which is discussed in much more detail in chapters 5 and 7. Much of the next five years of Kit Marlowe’s life – the years 1585 through 1590 – was devoted to spying on the English Catholic expatriates in France, especially those clustered in and around Dr. William Allen’s English Catholic Seminary in Reims. Kit’s job, as an agent of “Mr Secretary”or of Lord Burghley himself, was to uncover, report on and counter-act these plots. His qualification for this task, as it turns out, was at least partly due to his interest in acting and the theater. Kit Marlowe came back to England at the end of May, 1585, for a meeting with Sir Francis Walsingham, “Mr Secretary”, who had become the official head of the state secret service, which reported to the Secretary of State. That was followed by another meeting with Mr. Secretary and the Queen in person, at Walsingham’s country place

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Barn Elms, July 11 {Chambers, 1923 #236}. At that second meeting in July Kit seems to have been given the task of assassinating Dr. Allen, at Reims (probably by poison), as well as another job. The second job was to convey a message to the individual mentioned earlier, Gilbert Gifford, who had become a somewhat reluctant double agent working for Walsingham. Kit passed on the message, as instructed. It was probably concerned with setting up a means of communication with imprisoned Mary of Scotland, that Walsingham could monitor and control. The full story is told in the next– chapter. By July 19, 1585 Kit was back, under cover, at the English Catholic College at Reims {Knox, 1878 #252}. He managed to deliver the poison, somehow, to Dr. Allen’s serving of the faculty soup, as instructed. In fact he relived the episode in his play The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta, when the Jew smuggles a pot of poisoned soup into an expropriated nunnery through a “dark entry”. But apparently Marlowe unilaterally cut the recommended dose of poison (mercuric chloride?) in half, hoping that Dr. Allen would “get the message” and cease his subversive activities. Of course Dr. Allen did not change his convictions, but he did get very ill. However, he survived the attempted assassination. On August 3 of that year Dr. Allen was evacuated to the Belgian town of Spa, and thence to Rome (where he was treated as a hero and given a Cardinal’s hat by the Pope {Haile, 1914 #247}. Besides failing to assassinate Dr. Allen, Marlowe was apparently recognized in Reims by someone from

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Cambridge. Rumors of Marlowe’s possible Catholic sympathies began to spread back at Corpus Christi College. Some modern authors assume that Marlowe was seriously considering conversion to Catholicism; plenty of Cambridge students were doing so at the time. Riggs thinks he was pretending to do so in hopes of getting part-time employment by the secret service to supplement his scholarship stipend {Riggs, 2004 #17}. This theory would have made more sense if he was really the son of a poor Canterbury shoemaker with no other financial resources. But he did have a wealthy and influential (if not publically acknowledged) father as well as other contacts. More important, he was also one of the very few secret agents in those days able to speak several languages fluently and also to pass as an aspiring priest. He was, consequently, highly valued. The fact that his real name never appeared in any of Walsingham’s dossiers is a kind of confirmation of his unusual importance. Another confirmation will be discussed shorrtly. During August 1585 Marlowe was back home in Canterbury for a few weeks. During that time he drafted a will for Katherine Benchkin, mother of a college friend, John Benchkin {Wraight, 1965 #114; Urry, 1988 #97}. He signed the will “Christofer Marley” and read the will out loud on August 1585 in the presence of several witnesses, all relatives of the beneficiary, Thomas Harris, of Pluckley, Kent {Farey, 2004 #194}. However, from late October 1585 through January 1586, Marlowe was again absent from Cambridge, working undercover for the secret service. I

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pass over this period for the moment. The full explanation will come in Chapter 7. I mentioned the existence of strong evidence of Marlowe’s importance to the secret service. During another absence overseas, in June 1587, Marlowe had been due to receive his MA degree from Cambridge. But he was away on secret business at the time (see Chapter 8). Indeed he had been absent from the College more often than he had been present, ever since graduating as a BA in 1584. The Corpus Christi College authorities refused to award the degree, due to his many and extended absences without official– leave. Worse, during those absences he was rumored to have been in Reims, consorting with English Catholics and “possibly intending to remain there” as a convert to Catholicism. Surprisingly, the Chancellor of the University, Lord Burghley, received a letter from the Privy Council in late June 1587. It was signed by a number of the Councillors, including Henry Carey, James Crofts, , Archbishop Whitgift and Lord Burghley himself. It demanded that the “rumors” be denied. The rumors in question were suggestions that Christopher Marlowe had been seen in Reims and might be converting to Roman Catholicism. Interestingly, Walsingham, who was a member of the Privy Council, did not sign the letter, probably to minimize any public link to Kit Marlowe. The letter insisted that Marlowe had done “good service” for Her Majesty the Queen {Hotson, 1925 #19; Wraight, 1965 #114} p.359, note 14. The MA degree was duly granted by the University in August 1587, apparently in absentia. It seems virtually certain that

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the letter from the Privy Council that secured Marlowe’s MA, was a reward for his role in spying on the Catholic seminary at Reims, in France and for his secret role in the Babington plot discussed in Chapter 7. For us, today, the very existence of that letter, and the fact that it was acted upon, constitute clear proof that Kit Marlowe was not only a secret agent, but of the very highest importance. From his second year at Cambridge until the last years of his life in 1621, Kit Marlowe lived in two worlds. The one for which he (and his pen name) are known today is the theatrical world and the associated world of literature. The other was the secret world of international diplomacy, intrigue– and . It might seem odd to discuss theaters and spies – two apparently different subjects – together, but in fact they were inseparable in Tudor times. During the eight-year period from his graduation from Cambridge in 1587 until his “death” at the end of May 1593 Marlowe established himself as a poet and playwright, between dangerous episodes of derring-do worthy of James Bond. However, in the next chapter I need to introduce England’s spy-master, Sir Francis Walsingham, “Mr. Secretary”and a few other people.

Chapter 5: Plots and counter-plots

On December 20, 1573, after his return from Paris,– Francis Walsingham was appointed as a member of the Privy Council and also Principal Secretary of State, with a salary of £100 per year. In that role he succeeded Sir

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William Cecil who had been recently elevated to the nobility (as Baron Burghley) and promoted to Lord Treasurer. A spy network was already in existence, though small and unofficial, having been initiated by Lord Burghley. It originally depended mostly on the usual diplomatic channels supplemented by gossip and other inputs from traveling players. It was Walsingham – driven by events – who expanded its role enormously as a secret service, comparable in function to today’s MI5 or CIA. From 1574 to 1590 “Mr Secretary” Francis Walsingham was the person most responsible for protecting the Queen from a never- ending series of Catholic conspiracies and assassination plots, mostly concocted by English Catholic expatriates. Even his private life had public consequences. In 1583 Walsingham’s daughter Frances (aged 16) married Sir Philip Sidney. Philip Sidney was the famous and gallant soldier- poet, and protective older brother of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. Back in 1578 she had been a good friend of Kit Marlowe’s and possibly his first lover. (Her son William, possibly fathered by Kit Marlowe, was almost certainly the W.H. to whom the 1609 edition of The Sonnets were later dedicated.) After Philip Sidney’s death in 158611– Frances Walsingham remained with her father for several years but she finally married Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, early in 1590. This marriage gave young Lord Essex both insight and entré into the world of spies and

11.He died from a musket shot, received at a seige in the Netherlands, where the English were more or less continually supporting the Dutch resistance against the Spanish.

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intelligencers, just weeks before Francis Walsingham’s untimely death in the spring of that year. I will return to this episode and its consequences later. *** After Francis Walsingham became “Mr. Secretary” in 1574 things were comparatively quiet for the next few months, despite the threat created by that papal bull, Regnans in excelsis. Then came the discovery in 1575 of a secret channel of– communications to and from Mary Queen of Scots. After returning to Scotland a few years earlier, and being forced to escape by an insurrection, she was then living as a house-guest of the sympathetic Talbot family at their estate in Shrewsbury in the west country. Evidently she was not content to give up her hopes of dethroning the heretic Queen Elizabeth and taking the English throne herself, thus bringing England back to the mother church of Rome. For Walsingham, this was a danger signal. The correspondence– passed– through a London bookseller named Henry Cockyn. Walsingham had Cockyn arrested. After threat of torture (usually the threat was enough), Cockyn implicated a number of Mary’s correspondents, including Lady Cobham, the wife of a Privy Councillor, John Leslie, the Bishop of Ross, Henry Howard, younger brother of the Duke of Norfolk (who had previously been executed for treason after the 1569 Northern Rebellion), and his nephew Philip Howard, later Earl of Arundel. Cockyn’s confession also implicated a number of people who physically handled her letters, including several

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servants of the Earl of Shrewsbury– and a servant of the French Ambassador in London. He was Michel de Castenau, Seigneur de Mauvissière, who was a relation of the ultra- Catholic Guise family in France. Walsingham immediately had Mary moved from Shrewsbury to a much less sympathetic environment. It was Chartley, the castle- residence of a Puritan named Sir Amyas Paulet. Walsingham passed this information to William Cecil (Burghley), but to his distress, the Queen dithered and nothing was done about it. Meanwhile, a man named Thomas Morgan, who was one of the senior clerks who handled Mary’s correspondence during her stay at Shrewsbury, took advantage of Queen Elizabeth’s indecision and fled to Paris. There he was employed by the exiled Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow and became Mary of Scotland’s principal agent, managing her financial affairs as well as her growing network of correspondents and supporters on the continent. In December 1577, five years after St. Bartholomew’s Day, Francis Walsingham finally got some reward for his services. He was knighted at Windsor and the following spring he was appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, which entitled him to a pension of £100 per year in addition to his tiny salary. Walsingham, Leicester and a few others on the Privy Council had urged the Queen to support the Protestant rebels in the Netherlands. She was reluctant, in part because they were arguably seeking to overthrow a legitimate sovereign, which troubled her. Barely a month

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after that Walsingham was sent on another diplomatic mission, with Lord Cobham (whose wife was in touch with Mary, Queen of Scots), to meet with the Protestant rebels in the Netherlands, led by “Silent William” of Orange. The outcome was inconclusive, as usual. At Leicester’s urging Queen Elizabeth had agreed to provide a bond of £100,000 to help the Dutch Protestants. But she hated to spend money and she kept looking tor a cheaper alternative. In this caution she was supported by Lord Burghley, who – as always – preferred to avoid commitment and to rely mostly on the “balance of power” between France and Spain. In this context, a proposed marriage between the Queen and Catherine de Medici’s fourth and youngest son, François, Duc d’Anjou, suddenly became a diplomatic tool. Anjou, who seems to have really wanted that marriage, offered to lead an expedition into the Low countries against the Spanish, in exchange for an offer of rulership by William of Orange. She and Burghley saw that as a cheap way of avoiding paying the promised £100,000. But no expedition took place and the marriage idea was dropped. When Walsingham got back to London after a wasted diplomatic trip in 1579, he discovered that the marriage proposal of Elizabeth to the Duc d’Anjou, was once again on the table, and he lost his temper. He strongly opposed the marriage and said so. That was “not done” in royal circles, and Queen Elizabeth, in turn, was angry at his opposition. Walsingham, was banned from Court for some months. Of course, Walsingham was not the only outspoken opponent among senior officials. Sir Philip Sidney, married

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to Walsingham’s daughter Frances, was another. Sidney challenged Ned de Vere to a duel on the subject, which the Queen forbade. Philip Sidney then wrote her a long letter, arguing against the marriage. That letter also got him banned from court for some time. Yet, in July 1581 “Mr. Secretary” Walsingham went to France, once again at the head of the delegation to renegotiate the proposed marriage. But again, the negotiations were never taken quite seriously. However, both Sir Philip Sidney (son-in-law) and Francis Walsingham’s nephew and protegé, Tom Walsingham, went along. Tom Watson, an Oxford graduate. who later saved Kit Marlowe’s life, was there as a confidential messenger. Tom Watson and Tom Walsingham became firm friends during that summer. In fact, they spent some time on the banks of the river Seine discussing poetry – both were part-time poets – and Tom Watson later reminisced in Latin eclogues about those days by the river. But their main topic of conversation was Dr. William Allen’s English Catholic seminary, now in Reims, and the latest plot to rescue Mary of Scotland and put her on the English throne. Tom Watson knew some of the principals at the seminary from the time he had spent as one of the seminarians when it was in Douai. During that summer of 1581 Watson seems to have debriefed a man, Richard Baines, was then a deacon at Reims and was shortly to be ordained as a priest in September 1581. The real purpose of the Walsingham trip to Paris was not to negotiate a marriage, but to negotiate a defensive

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alliance with France against Spain and, if possible, to provoke Duc François d’Anjou to actually undertake his proposed expedition against the Spanish in Flanders. However, the “carrot” of marriage with the Queen was no longer credible to the French, so nothing useful was accomplished. In fact, Anjou himself arrived in London soon after Walsingham’s return, full of protestations of love and devotion to his mistress. He could only be got rid of by means of a promised “loan” of £60,000 to finance his proposed expedition to Flanders. Neither the loan or the expedition ever happened; François died of typhoid fever a few years later. But, probably due to the weight of negative public opinion, Elizabeth finally declined Anjou’s marriage offer. This hot and cold behavior on Elizabeth’s part, along with Burghley’s natural caution, one way or another, kept the dogs of war at bay. During 1580, between episodes of the long-running French marriage farce, a new Scottish plot was uncovered. It was initiated by the Duc de Guise ,who was Mary Queen of Scot’s uncle. De Guise sent a cousin, Esmé Stuart, to Edinburgh to assert his claim to the earldom of Lennox. The real purpose was to provide companionship for young King James, who had barely reached puberty. Esmé Stuart was extremely attractive – beautiful seems to be the right word – and young King James fell madly in love with him, exactly according to script. At King James’ request, Esmé Stuart converted to Protestantism. Within a few weeks King James had given him presents, lands and offices. In the summer of 1581 he created Esmé Duke (not just Earl) of Lennox. At

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that point the Spanish ambassador noted that Lennox effectively ruled the king “entirely and the whole country”, which was what the Duc de Guise had hoped and planned. The next step in the Lennox plot was for King James to be converted back to Catholicism, followed by a papist coup d’etat, invasion of England from the north to liberate Queen Mary, and finally to depose Queen Elizabeth and reimpose Catholicism in the whole of Britain. The Duc de Guise was preparing a diversionary force to land on the coast of Sussex. A proposal went to the Pope to appoint William Allen as Bishop of Durham, in the hope that he could rally the disaffected Catholics of the north of England. Mary, the imprisoned Queen of Scots, sent letters to King Philip II of Spain, urging him to take charge. Mary of Scotland’s correspondence at the time was transmitted via the French embassy in London, and thence to her agent Thomas Morgan in France. By March 1582, Esmé Stuart (Lord Lennox) had prepared operational plans and informed the Duc de Guise that he was ready. There was correspondence between the Papal Nuncio in Paris and the Pope’s Secretary of State on the subject. William Allen was the primary coordinator between the French, Scots and English plotters. Meanwhile, in 1580 the Spanish governor of the Netherlands took the radical step of putting a price on the life of the chief resistance leader, “Silent William” of Orange. This marked significant change in papal policy. The English state secret service under Walsingham was created formally in 1581-82, partly in response to events in the low

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countries, the Lennox plot and partly due to the increasing flow of fanatical English priests being trained and ordained at William Allen’s seminary in Reims. The first year budget of the state secret service, for 1582, was £750. The Lennox plot, as such, fizzled out. The Scottish Protestant Barons, encouraged by Queen Elizabeth, kidnaped young King James in an attack at Ruthven, August 22, thus separating him from his favorite, Lennox. In January 1583 Lennox was banished from Scotland. He died a few months later, on May 26 (of poison?) still protesting his devotion to James. King James never forgot his first love, and Christopher Marlowe told Esmé Stuart’s story, indirectly of course, in Edward II. *** Throughout the fall of 1581and spring of 1582 it seems that Richard Baines, a deacon and then priest, at William Allen’s English Seminary in Reims, was keeping Walsingham and the Privy Council informed of the progress of the Lennox plot and William Allen’s role in it. In April 1582 Baines was planning a trip, and bragging to his young would-be traveling companion about the secrets he knew. The young man informed Rector Allen, who promptly had Baines arrested and tortured to find out what he knew. Baines held out for most of three months, but Allen became convinced that he had been a spy for several years. At the end of August Baines confessed orally to Allen, but with a diatribe against the Catholic church and a claim that he had tried to poison the communal soup or the well. Baines himself was kept in jail in Reims until May of

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1582. But, quite surprisingly, given the tempers of , he was then set free. The condition for his release seems to have been to make a second formal confession and recantation, in writing. The was subsequently printed in Latin and published as a pamphlet. The second version omitted the anti-Catholic diatribe and substituted an attack on the Protestants. There was no more mention of the poison soup, or any details of what he had told Walsingham, but there was a claim that he had been “possessed by the devil”. There was must have been some sort of plea-bargain deal, since the Catholics wanted no public admission that Mary Queen of Scots had been actively involved in the plot or that the seminary priests were also planning for an insurrection on behalf of Mary of Scotland. The deal that released agent Baines from gaol may possibly have been negotiated with some help from Tom Watson and/or Tom Walsingham. {Haynes, 2001 #28}p.6. Kit Marlowe may also have been involved in the negotiations, but if so, under another name. At any rate, it very unlikely that Baines would have been released at that point unless he had agreed to act as a double agent for William Allen. Whether he did so with Sir Francis Walsingham’s knowledge and approval is the open question. My guess is that Walsingham approved, with deep reservations, on the grounds that he had little to lose (by keeping Baines at arms length) but that an entree into William Allen’s inner circle might come in useful some day. Baines had at least two major interactions with Kit Marlowe in later years.

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The Duc de Guise and Mary Queen of Scots were not deterred by the banishment and death of the Duke of Lennox. The plan for simultaneous invasions of England from north and south was still operative in the early 1580s. However, Sir Francis Walsingham had an agent (or agents) at the French embassy in London who routinely intercepted and copied Mary’s letters. Late in 1583, he got an important tip from one of his agents at the embassy, “Henry Fagot”. Henry Fagot is now thought to have been a cover name for a distinguished Italian guest of the ambassador, Giordano Bruno – who was also a close friend of Sir Philip Sidney, Walsingham’s son-in-law {Bossy, 1991 #128; Bossy, 2002 #363}. In fact, Philip Sidney and Giordano Bruno had traveled to Oxford together and spent some time there, but that is another story. Based on the tip from “Fagot” Walsingham’s agents arrested a minor Catholic organizer named Henry Throckmorton. Under duress Throckmorton revealed de Guise’s invasion plans and – incidentally – the fact that Queen Mary had a massive correspondence with French and other foreign Catholics. Fagot passed on the information that she not only knew of the Lennox plot but actively supported it. For instance, Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador to England had promised to make all his resources available to de Guise. Moreover Pope Gregory XIII was providing money and had agreed to renew the 1571 bull of excommunication of Queen Elizabeth. Indeed, when asked, Pope Gregory indicated that “the country should be freed by any means from oppression”. That

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statement was a direct encouragement for assassins. It was the spark that ignited a fuse to a powder-keg. In 1582 Mary of Scotland’s uncle, the powerful Duc de Guise, called a conference in Reims of Catholic factions interested in the possibility of assassinating Queen Elizabeth, invading England and putting Mary on the throne. The Duc de Guise took that occasion to offer a monetary reward for anyone who would murder Queen Elizabeth. This offer was a “disastrous error of judgment” that gave the Jesuit priests pride of place and put the laymen like Charles Paget, Thomas Throckmorton and Thomas Morgan into a secondary position, causing disaffection within the ranks {Haynes, 2001 #28}p.6. William Gifford, a priest – but not a Jesuit – supported the Paget-Morgan faction. William later became Cardinal of Reims and, in 1621m Primate of France, in 1621. George was, or had been, a Gentleman-Pensioner in Queen Elizabeth’s court which might have given him access. As a matter of interest, the Babington plot was linked in several ways to Lincoln College, Oxford, which was notoriously Catholic in its sympathies. Several supposedly Protestant Rectors had been imposed on the college by Chancellor Robert Dudley (the Earl of Leicester) after the religious settlement of 1560. But two of them turned out to be secret Catholics. One was Francis Babington, Leicester’s former personal chaplain and his first choice for the job. But Francis Babington had to be removed three years later. A family connection with young Anthony Babington is likely. Two of Lincoln College’s ex-students, William Filbie and

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William Hart were executed in 1582 and 1583 respectively for their faith. Hart, who was hanged, drawn and quartered for treason, was regarded as a martyr. William Gifford, the initiator of the Babington plot, was also an ex-Lincoln College student. The Duc’s offer of a reward of 800 crowns (£160) attracted a number of would-be assassins, including William Gifford’s brother George, a Gentleman Pensioner in Queen Elizabeth’s household. But although George Gifford traveled to France to join the plotters, he was judged “untrustworthy, if not.. a double agent” (ibid). Another candidate for the reward was John Savage, who had been a soldier-of- fortune (on the Spanish side) in the low countries during 1581-1583, when entered to Dr. Allen’s English Catholic college in Reims, where he remained until mid- August 1585. According to Haynes, the senior Gifford’s motives are unclear. According to Haynes, the “secular” faction of plotters, including Morgan and the Giffords, were so disaffected from the Jesuit faction, that Morgan and a cousin, Gilbert Gifford, offered their services to Walsingham {Haynes, 2001 #28}pp 64-65. At any rate, Thomas Morgan was arrested and imprisoned in the Bastille, though he seems to have maintained his links to Cardinal Beaton and Mary (Queen of Scots) while also serving Walsingham’s secret service. The conspiracy was actually organized by a Catholic priest named John Ballard, a graduate of Cambridge and the English Catholic Seminary in Reims. Ballard believed –

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based on the 1571 papal bull Regnans in excelsis cited earlier – that killing a tyrant was lawful. Ballard had been back in England since 1581 as a missionary. He returned to France in 1584, but was back in England in 1585, serving and networking with the Catholic faithful under the cover name “Captain Fortescue”. The senior Giffords, together with one Christopher Hodgson (a priest), persuaded the ex- soldier, John Savage to join with John Ballard. It was Ballard who later recruited Anthony Babington {Read, 1925 #245}vol.3 pp1-70. This story continues in Chapter 7. *** In 1584 the Dutch leader, William of Orange, was assassinated, possibly by someone prompted by the Duc de Guise’s promise of rewards. This scared the English Privy Council and resulted in Leicester’s “Bond of Association” and a new set of draconian anti-Catholic measures. In particular, the English Parliament passed an Act for the Queen’s Surety, which mandated the death penalty, not only for a would-be assassin, but also for any successor to the crown who knew about such a plot. This was aimed directly at Mary Queen of Scots. It was the legal basis for Walsingham’s subsequent entrapment of her (via the Babington plot). Despite Queen Elizabeth’s reluctance to execute an anointed monarch, Mary of Scotland alive was simply too much of an attraction for Catholic would-be assassins. The need to have Mary dead was clearly (to Walsingham, and probably to Burghley and others of the Privy Council) a condition for the survival of Queen

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Elizabeth. Thanks to the flood of young idealistic expatriates going to Reims, and returning to England as hedge-priests, spying on them was a growth industry. By 1585 the state secret service budget had reached £7000, and by 1586 it was £12,000. By then there were a number of full-time agents, including , Thomas Walsingham, Robert Poley and Thomas Phelippes (the code-breaker.) However, Kit Marlowe was not one of them. He was a part- time talented amateur.

Chapter 6: Theaters, spies, and the Earl of Oxford

As I said, Kit Marlowe lived in two worlds after 1585. It was not all spying. But his two worlds were linked. The linkage between spying and theaters started with a comparatively minor figure, Sir William Pickering, who had been away from England during Queen (“Bloody”) Mary’s reign. He returned to England as soon as Princess Elizabeth was accepted as the Tudor heiress in November 1558. Pickering was appointed to her first Privy Council {Williams, 1972 #314; Jenkins, 1962 #234}. At some point during a private talk with her Pickering seems to have informed Queen Elizabeth about the existence of privileged theatrical companies in France and Italy. They were government-subsidized companies of players, who were also spies reporting to their rulers. It seems young Queen Elizabeth liked the idea. She

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was very fond of masques and other such entertainments. It was a suggestion that perfectly fitted a need. A secret agent needs to be an actor, able to change his appearance, memorize lines (or messages) and to pretend to be a different person. The training process would be virtually the same for both professions, except perhaps for cipher skills. Actors would be easy to train as agents, and there is evidence that Walsingham thought that actors would make the best spies. The so-called Areopagus club – a literary group centered at the court, around Philip Sidney, Fulke Greville, and Edmund Spenser – sponsored a school for actors. Walsingham hoped to draw some actors to serve as agents from that school. One student of the topic says: “That the school of actors had their part in the spy system of Walsingham is quite evident from the record. That they were also students of poetry and is also evident. Walsingham used this group from which to select his special spies” {Proper, 1953 #356}. The Queen was notoriously thrifty. So she always looked for ways to induce others to pay the expenses of the Crown. Theatrical companies might be able to pay their own way or, at least, require much less funding than a paid network of full-time spies (or “intelligencers” to use a more polite term). Of course, as time went on and the external threats increased, the need for more spies generated a need for more companies of players. This led – in due course – to a need for more plays to amuse the public and keep the player-spies productively occupied (and paid).

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This demand for entertainment eventually produced playwrights like Beaumont, Dekker, Fletcher, Ford, Heywood, Jonson, Kyd, Lyly, Marlowe, Marston, Middleton, Peele, Webster and all the others who wrote for the Elizabethan stage. The “” was thus an unintended consequence of the long (hot and cold) war between English Protestant reformers and the continental Catholic powers. The Queen’s lover, Robert Dudley – who was quickly created Earl of Leicester – was probably the first to take her hint about using the theater. Of course, he was on her payroll, and she kept giving him handsome presents, so he had every reason to be responsive to her desires. “Dudley writes he has created a company of players, and they are all honest men” reported one correspondent {Stopes, 1970} p 7.12 They became “Leicester’s Men” until the death of Leicester himself in 1588 after which they became “Strange’s Men”. Every theatrical company had to have an aristocratic sponsor or patron. The year 1573 saw the plans for the first purpose-built theater built in England to present plays only, without bullfights or bear-baiting {Yates, 1966 #246}. The famous mathematician, astrologer, alchemist and scientific advisor to the Queen, John Dee, helped with the design {Deacon, 1968 #309}. The Queen helped financially. The ground lease was signed by Giles Allen in 1576. The new theater,

12.Spies, or “intelligencers” called themselves “honest men” in those days. Could it have been deliberate irony? Both actors and spies make a profession of dishonesty. Other terms in use at the time were “shadows” and “spirits”.

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called simply The Theater, was erected in , in , on a corner of property belonging to Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland {Stopes, 1970 #235}. It was managed by the Burbages. The Blackfriars Theater in London – also built in 1576 – was converted from a monastery. These were followed a year later by The Curtain Playhouse in Finsbury, near Burbage’s place. Philip Henslowe’s Rose Theater was built a decade later for the Lord Admiral’s Men and its star actor Edward Alleyn. By 1600 there were eight theaters in London or Southwark. Performances elsewhere must have been in the open air, probably in the market place or castle courtyard. “Mr Secretary” Sir Francis Walsingham also created a company of actors, under the direct patronage and control of the crown. It was originally called The Queen’s Men. In March 1583 Walsingham personally selected “honest men" (actor-agents) for a Queen’s Players’ Company {Chambers, 1923 #236} p.104. It was part of the expansion of the state secret service. His idea was to perform patriotic and historical plays to advance the cause of Protestantism in England, as well as to create a network of intelligencers reporting to him {Budiansky, 2005 #29} p.37. A number of other aristocrats also formed companies of players in the 1570s and “80s. They included Warwick’s Men, Essex’s Men, Pembroke’s Men, Berkeley’s Men and Worcester’s Men. Walsingham’s spy network needed agents who were reliable Protestants, who could go to France or Spain, speak the language fluently, and pretend to be Catholic seminarians or priests. For this he recruited lapsed priests

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like Watson and Baines or bright students from Cambridge or Oxford. However, the Catholic seminarians at Reims, and even back at the universities, were very effective at converting nominal Protestants back to “the true faith”. This created the risk that junior agents would shift their loyalties midstream (as Baines may have done) and work for the other side. Moreover, Calvinist theology was so different from Catholic theology that knowledge of the one did not help much with the other. It certainly did not prepare would-be secret agents to penetrate Catholic conspiracies organized and led by highly trained and fanatical Jesuit priests. Enter Christopher Marlowe, the gifted playwright, linguist and amateur actor, who may have been personally known to Walsingham, possibly through Walsingham’s step- brother, the sailor Christopher Carleill. Thanks to a neighbor and friend back at Canterbury, the Huguenot refugee Louis LeDoux, Marlowe had been deeply and personally affected by the horrible massacre in Paris on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572. For this reason alone, he was a candidate (probably unwitting) for recruitment into a starring role. He was not only qualified but motivated and unsuspected. He accepted the challenge. I reserve the details for later. The theatrical companies were constantly on the move, mostly in England but occasionally even out of England, mainly to Holland or Germany. Conditions for the members of the company were primitive, even when they were paid. There must have been continual turnover, at least among the minor actors and hangers-on. People got

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sick or bored or drunk or attracted to local women. Vacancies were filled as they occurred. It seems likely that young William Shakespeare joined such a traveling company as an actor or helper of some sort in the late 1580's, probably to escape his dull life and dull wife (and babies) in Stratford-on-Avon. William Shakespeare was not a leading man like Burbage or Alleyn. In fact, there is only one record of any payment to him as an actor, for the part as the servant Adam in . His first biographer wrote that he could not find any record of Shakespeare playing any important role {Rowe, 1709 #476}. Of course each of the companies had to have a few players with real acting skills, as well as a stage manager (director), a property manager who took care of costumes, scenery and scripts. And there had to be a readable script on paper for every play in the repertoire. When a play was in production the stage manager had to provide hand- written copies, made by a professional scribe, of the individual parts for each of the actors. He also had to make sure that all changes made during a production were also recorded on the master script. The original scripts were typically bought from playwrights and became the property of the acting company. Only a few of the most popular scripts were later sold to printers, to be published as quartos. Every company also needed a producer-manager, who kept the funds, hired and fired employees and did all the planning, organizing of tours, and negotiating with the theater owners, the town council (if necessary) and the

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aristocratic sponsor. And, it was that person, as well as other senior members of the troupe, who also reported on topics of interest to the intelligencers working for William Cecil (Lord Burghley) or “Mr Secretary” (Francis Walsingham). In this connection it is relevant that the Edward (Ned) de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, co-managed the Blackfriars Theater from 1580 through 1584 and playwright had the job for a while after 1584. William Hunnis was de Vere’s secretary. During that period the former choirboys of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and St Paul’s Cathedral were converted into a theatrical company playing for profit to paying customers. Apparently most of the choirboys had been abducted – much as sailors were “impressed” into the navy – on the basis of the Queen’s generic authorization to choir-masters: “to take up such apt and meet children as are most fit to be instructed in the art and science of music and singing as may be ... found within any place of this our realm” {Riggs, 2004 #17} p. 122.The cross-dressed boys working at the Blackfriars Theater during the early ‘80s became notorious as part-time male prostitutes. Later, in the 1580s scripts for plays were provided by an organized group of playwrights, the “” paid by Ned de Vere, who was himself interested in writing comedies and masques. I mentioned earlier that in 1578 de Vere (Lord Oxford) together with Thomas Churchyard, took charge of providing the entertainments for the Queen’s “long progress” {Chambers, 1923 #236}. Kit Marlowe, at the age of 14, could have been there as an actor-writer and

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probably as Ned de Vere’s “nancy boy” or “”. Oxford was (and still is) known in the theater world as a pedophile who exploited young boys under his control. In the early 1580s the Queen provided financial support for this activity in the form of an annual stipend of £250 to Ned de Vere to further his theatrical efforts. But the other theaters hired and paid the acting companies, and made their profit by selling tickets. The connections between the theater world and the secret service (“spies”) were mostly at a low level. Traveling actors undoubtedly constituted a major source of raw intelligence for the service, roughly analogous to the role of amateur photographers who send pictures of riots or floods to the TV networks today. What they provided was mostly gossip and background. Only one of the well-known playwrights other than Kit Marlowe (Ben Jonson) can be identified with high probability, as active members of the spy network, though there are hints connecting others. The next few paragraphs may seem to be a digression, but Edward de Vere, the17th Earl of Oxford, needs more introduction if only because there exists a theory that he was the true author of “Shakespeare”s plays and poems. His father, the 16th Earl of Oxford had died in 1562 when Ned was 13, and he inherited the earldom. Thereafter, until reaching the age of 21 (majority), he lived as a ward in the household of Sir William Cecil, the Queen’s principal advisor and Master of Wards. There he learned dancing and jousting among other aristocratic accomplishments. He also wrote some poems, of which 16-

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20 have survived {May, 1980 #445}. His poetry was praised by Thomas Campion in the Arte of English Poesie {Campion, 1602 #444} and Francis Meres cited him as “one of the (17) best for comedy” in his little book Paladis Tamia {Meres, 1598 #219}. But no play of his, comedy or other, has survived. This has not stopped the Ogburns and other “Oxfordians” from claiming that he was the author of the entire “Shakespeare” canon, primarily based on the fact that he was an aristocrat, was interested in the theater, had access to all of the source materials, had traveled sround Europe, and so on {Looney, 1920 #306} {Ogburn, 1952 #249} {Anderson, 2005 #446}. Apart from small matters of dates and other discrepancies, it is very hard to believe that Oxford shared the values of the person who wrote the poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare. In fact, what we know of his life suggests that he was a truly terrible human being, who could never have written anything with the depth of understanding and empathy in “Shakespeare”’s works {Murphy, 2009 #447}. In 1567, at the age of 18, he was practicing swordsmanship with another boy in the backyard of Sir William Cecil’s house. Somehow he managed to kill an under-cook who must have got in the way or annoyed the sword-wielding youth in some way. Ned claimed that the dead man had deliberately committed suicide by “running onto his sword”. William Cecil went along with this bizarre fabrication (why?) so he got away with it at the subsequent trial. But suicide was a sin and so the widow and child of the dead man were deprived of their possessions and thrown

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into the street as punishment! (Why would Sir William Cecil allow such a travesty? I wonder.) In December 1571 Ned de Vere, having arrived at the age of 21, was married to Sir William Cecil’s daughter Anne, then aged 15. They knew each other well, of course, since Ned de Vere had been living in her father’s house for nine years. The marriage was at his request, though she probably liked the idea, especially with Sir William Cecil’s concurrence and support. A marriage between his daughter and the oldest noble family in the Kingdom must have seemed very desirable to the newly ennobled Lord Burghley, if not to the kin of the bridegroom. It was, socially speaking, a mismatch. However, once married to Anne Cecil, Ned de Vere refused to sleep with her {Anderson, 2005 #446}. The reason alleged is that Oxford was trying to persuade Burghley to pardon his cousin Thomas Howard, the 4th Duke of Norfolk, who was then in the Tower, accused of treason (for the Northern Rebellion). When the Duke was hanged in 1572 Oxford took his revenge by denying Burghley his hoped-for grandchildren. Of course, there is another possibility, namely that Oxford really did not like women. Ned de Vere was handsome and dashing, good at dancing and fencing, a tilting champion, footloose and spendthrift, a fop who spent £150 per year on clothes {Budiansky, 2005 #29}p. xvi. He was just the sort of young man that a fifteen year old girl might admire. She had previously been engaged to Sir Philip Sidney, but that went

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wrong for some reason. In 1572, a year after his marriage, there are indications that Ned de Vere had a brief sexual affair with Queen Elizabeth, herself, at Windsor. She was 39 at the time. Everybody at Court knew about it. De Vere’s wife Anne must have known. In October 1574 Oxford finally did lie with his wife Anne, at Hampton Court, just before taking off on a long trip to the continent {Nelson, 2003 #250} p. 145. The baby (Elizabeth) was born July 2, 1575, in his absence. Anne was still only 19 at the time. In 1575 he (Oxford) toured in France, Germany and Italy with an extensive entourage but without his wife, meanwhile borrowing heavily from his estates. He spent £4561 in 14 months, roughly five times as much as Philip Sidney had spent in 3 years {Alexander, 2005 #72} p.93. He also converted to Roman Catholicism during that year. On the way back to England his ship was hijacked by pirates and he was robbed and nearly killed. When he finally did get back, Ned received some derogatory news of his wife Anne and accused her of unspecified misbehavior (adultery?) and of making him a laughingstock. He denounced her publicly as a whore and “the fable of the world”. He subsequently refused to see her or their child Elizabeth, for the next five years. Burghley must have remonstrated, but to no avail. Oxford’s reply was “For always I have and will still prefer mine own content before others” ibid. p.121. There is no clear evidence of what he was doing in 1576 and 1577, but the likelihood is that it was involved with masques and entertainments, especially involving young boys. However, he must have

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slept with Anne often enough to get four more children by her. In 1580 and again in 1581 Ned de Vere had a scandalous sexual affair with a woman named Anne Vavasour who had a miscarriage after the first pregnancy and had an illegitimate baby boy as a result of the second. (That baby later became Sir Edward Vere). During Anne Vavasour’s first pregnancy, Ned de Vere suddenly repudiated Catholicism, re-converted to the Church of England, and asked the Queen for mercy. He then denounced three of his Catholic friends to the Queen, accusing them all of treason. They, in turn, accused him of pederasty, bestiality and plotting to kill several courtiers, including Philip Sidney. The Queen did not want her favorites to kill each other so she scolded them and let it blow over. Ned de Vere was imprisoned briefly in the Tower for his affair with Anne Vavasour, along with her and her baby. But that peccadillo resulted in a long-running feud with Anne Vavasour’s uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvett, culminating in three deaths and some other injuries. Ned de Vere dueled with Knyvett, who inconveniently refused to run onto Ned’s sword. In fact, Ned was injured in the leg and lamed. The Queen put a stop to the feud by threatening to put everyone in gaol, but she still tolerated Ned de Vere’s outrageous behavior and even rewarded him for his spending by granting another pension of £250. Ned went back to his wife, Anne Cecil, in December 1581 but it didn’t last. The more she tried to get her

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husband to love her, the more he turned away. His attitude, expressed in cruel words was essentially “Get thee to a nunnery!” Kit Marlowe – unlike her husband Ned – empathized with poor Anne’s awful personal situation. Anagrams can be found in several plays, but this example from Henry V, written years later, is a good example (Appendix A-2). Marlowe saw Ned as the model for cold Prince Hal (Henry V), who cared only for military glory. The anagrams of lines 35 through 40, found by Ballantine (compressed), are as follows: bits the due history’s made total. Now, tho,’ I’M meetin’ ye heat of Ned’s very mad, witty identification with cold Hal ‘n’ the long-ago drama, speakin’ enuf o’ "damn fems" Nan’s pitiable special predilection, "A sin leadin’ ta gross loue." Ai! Duty has made R Ned (who??) a Nemesis to save R Nan from a frolic in hel, Eve-clad, C? O-o! Are U sure frustrate Nan’s headin’ for hel, ‘n’ he’s so wel? Dig hi Ned: he crav’d wa- wa, U C? U C? I’l cry Nan was Anne Cecil. Her pitiable special predilection might be that she enjoyed sex, as did the Queen, among others. Hi Ned seems to have been pretending that it was his religious duty to save her from a frolic in hel, Eve-clad (= naked) by neglecting her or punishing her. He liked to make her cry (he craved wa wa). Kit Marlowe was, for a while, Anne Cecil’s successor in Ned’s bed, as his sexual plaything and finally discarded toy.

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The difference, apart from gender, was that Kit Marlowe was useful to Ned in his role as a producer of entertainments for the Court and (later) head of the theater wing of the state secret service. That aspect of his relationship with the University Wits is told in anagrams from 1 Henry IV lines 121-132. The plaintext and correspondence is given in Appendix A-3. Those lines yield the following anagrams (deciphered by Ballantine) and compressed to eliminate spaces: ...fore U’d even think t’ grasp thy crown. Didn’t wee wink – ha ha — at the shaggie, raw, stagey aggregations ‘o tales U showed your mother, who saw ye goin’ on ‘n’ on alone, pitiable, laughable, ‘n’ suggested a concert of ten authors t’ write’em? We tvtors tought our leader t’ shine for th’ queen ‘n’ while traces of my long-gone style adhered t’ his MT work, he began on (hum...) not-honest liftin’ of some o’ my best dialogue. E-e-e! VVe all resented that breech, see, ‘n’ feared h-he’d been one fat- ass miserable sad waste of time, but SSS hired us, and euen tho’ Ned left, good nabob Regina’s money came in, ‘n’ ye grog, ‘n’ meals ‘n’ candy too. We ten vote to write some howls on Ned ‘n’ that love-mess he cal’d Hell. U... N.B. tvtors = tutors; MT = empty; SSS = State secret service; Nabob Regina = the queen; Hell = Ned’s

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incestuous affair with his mother in 1572. “We ten” were the ten University Wits. Howls = howlers (jokes).Tom Lodge and Robin Greene did write a play involving incest: A Looking Glass for London and England, which played at the Rose theater in March, April and June 1592. There are a good many other gossipy indications of incest in the social history of the times, especially with regard to the birth of Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton. However, the Marlowe story can be told without repeating speculations along those lines. Meanwhile the theatrical wing of the secret service, under Ned de Vere, proceeded on a separate track. In 1586, Queen Elizabeth gave him a grant £1000 per annum under a privy seal warrant, to be paid quarterly {Nelson, 2003 #250} p. 301. Nobody knows exactly what it was for, but in view of his theatrical interests – arguably his only interests – it was quite possibly to put him in charge of theatrical activities for the secret service. She seems to have felt some obligation to give him a useful role. (Why?) During the period 1587-91, Ned de Vere seems to have hired and paid a group of writers, called the “University Wits” to write the plays, pageants and other entertainments expected of him. They were all housed in a place called “Fisher’s Folly”. The group probably included Sam Daniel, Robert Greene, Tom Kyd, Tom Lodge, John Lyly, Tom Nashe, and Kit Marlowe (after 1587). Of these, Lodge and Marlowe, at least, were also occasional secret agents. As it happens, the year of the Grand Armada, 1588,

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was a particularly bad year for Ned de Vere. On June 6 his abandoned wife, Anne Cecil, committed suicide by drowning herself in the river at Greenwich. (Historians differ on the details) Her death foreshadowed Ophelia’s death in Hamlet). Production of Kit’s All’s Well that Ends Well, which had been planned, became impossible; the play was too close to the tragic end of Ned de Vere’s marriage. On July 27, 1588, during the frantic preparations to meet the threat from the Grand Armada and barely seven weeks after his wife’s suicide death, Ned de Vere was offered command of the port of Harwich. He refused the appointment {Looney, 1920 #306} vol 1 p 513, {Nelson, 2003 #250}pp 317-18. He was probably with Queen Elizabeth for her famous speech at Tilbury on August 8, to inspire the troops, like Henry V did at Agincourt. Later in the year Ned de Vere sold Fisher’s Folly, the big house he had used to house his University Wits at Norton Folgate, near Bishopsgate. He probably sold it because he needed the money – he was a spendthrift – but some of the writers stayed on, probably having no place to go. But Nan’s suicide in 1588 was the end of any admiration or personal relationship between Kit Marlowe and Ned de Vere. Kit’s early admiration and liking for Ned had turned to disgust and contempt. However, for the next year or so, Ned was still the paymaster for his plays. The final break came later. A few days after the Tilbury speech, after the threat of Spanish invasion had passed, September 4, 1588, Robert Dudley (Leicester) died of some stomach ailment that could

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have been poison, but was probably cancer. This left his company of players, Leicester’s Men, without a sponsor. The following summer, together with Ned de Vere and Kit Marlowe, the company approached Ferdinando Stanley (Lord Strange), the heir of the Earl of Derby, to take over sponsorship. This move was, almost certainly suggested by Walsingham, to keep tabs on Lord Strange himself. That was because– following the death of Queen Mary of Scotland – Ferdinando Stanley had inadvertently become the primary, though unwilling, Catholic candidate for the succession, in case of a successful rebellion. The group became “Derby’s Men”, at least for a while. Ferdinando Stanley later died of unknown causes in 1594. I think he was probably assassinated (poisoned) either in revenge for his betrayal (as they thought) of Catholic plotters who tried to recruit him, or by the secret service itself, just to be sure no Catholic plot could be created around him. In September 1589, unbelievably, the Queen increased Ned de Vere’s subsidy for the ten University Wits. (Kit was among them). However, for the next several years Marlowe was not working for Ned de Vere most of the time. He was busy on other matters.

Chapter 7: The impersonation of Gilbert Gifford and the Babington plot 1585-88

As already noted in Chapter 5, before 1583, a Catholic gentleman named Sir Francis Throckmorton, had the job of

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carrying messages between Mary Queen of Scots who was then a guest of the Talbots in Shrewsbury, and the Spanish Embassy in London, in care of Ambassador Bernardino Mendoza. The embassy passed the letters on to Thomas Morgan, in Paris, via diplomatic pouch. When the Spanish embassy’s role as a clearinghouse for Mary’s mail became too obvious Walsingham had Ambassador Mendoza declared persona non grata and expelled. Mary’s postman, Francis Throckmorton, was then arrested, tortured and executed in 1584, thus cutting off Mary’s primary channel of communication. Her secondary channel was through the French embassy. There, Walsingham had a well-placed agent – now suspected to have been Giordano Bruno {Bossy, 2002 #363; Bossy, 2001/2002 #362}. Bruno was then an honored guest at the embassy and an intimate of the ambassador. So he was in a position to inconspicuously monitor Ambassador Castelnau’s official correspondence, as well as anything passed on to France in the diplomatic bag. Most of Mary’s ciphered correspondence after 1584 passed through the French Embassy it was routinely intercepted by Walsingham’s spy (probably Giordano Bruno) and copies went to Walsingham’s cipher expert, Thomas Phelippes {Read, 1925 #245} vol.3 pp.1-70. But Walsingham could not count on intercepting all of Mary’s mail to and from her many correspondents in Catholic Europe; Cardinal Beaton was not the only important person she wrote to. Walsingham wanted to control Mary’s correspondence, because he wanted to trap her into admitting her involvement in a plot against the life of Queen

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Elizabeth. There was no shortage of plots or plotters among the Catholic exiles to choose from {Fraser, 1969 #248}. But positive evidence of her approval and complicity was necessary under English law, especially given Queen Elizabeth’s reluctance to execute a fellow royal, who had been anointed by God. And, needless to say, all the Roman Catholic world was watching. Meanwhile, as I mentioned in the last chapter, Thomas Morgan had also became a double agent, working for Walsingham as well as for Cardinal Beaton. In 1584 he was arrested in France, probably due to Catholic suspicions about his role in the Throckmorton arrest, and incarcerated in the Bastille. Walsingham’s idea was to replace his blown agent, Morgan, by another double agent, Gilbert Gifford, who was a young cousin of the brothers William and George Gilbert, mentioned previously in chapter 5. He was a deacon at Dr. Allen’s Catholic seminary at Reims. His recruitment was apparently accomplished some time in mid-1585 by detaining him at the point of entry to England (Rye), conducting him to a prison (the Fleet?) and showing him the instruments of torture, possibly while in use. Gilbert Gifford was badly frightened by what he saw. Tales of joyful martyrs, happy to withstand momentary pain in order to secure perpetual life at the side of Jesus Christ, are more convincing when you don’t hear the screams. At any rate, it seems that Gilbert Gifford was scared enough to agree, albeit reluctantly, to Walsingham’s terms {Read, 1925 #245}vol.3 pp1-70. He must have known, or been told, about the plan to trap Queen Mary of Scotland into

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admitting her knowledge and approval of a plot to depose and kill Queen Elizabeth. It was a plan he personally approved. Yet he was being asked – indeed forced by his fear– to play a key role in defeating that plot. In a society where famous Catholic martyrs like suffered horrible tortures with no sign of fear and every appearance of joy, Gifford must have hated himself for his cowardice. I also mentioned that Mary, Queen of Scots, had been moved to Chartley Hall, under the strict governorship of Sir Amyas Paulet, a staunch Puritan. All her correspondence was censored. Some time in early 1585 young Gilbert Gifford visited Thomas Morgan, in the Bastille. Morgan, under instructions from Walsingham, “recruited” Gilbert Gifford again, this time on behalf of the conspirators. Gifford, may have been fingered by Baines, who was one of Walsingham’s eyes and ears at Reims. At any rate, Gilbert Gifford, also a deacon and aspiring priest at Dr. Allen’s Catholic College at Reims, was selected by the conspirators, led by the priest William Gifford, as their channel to open a secure means of communication with the imprisoned Queen Mary at Chartley {Read, 1925 #245}vol.3 pp1-70. As mentioned earlier, at the end of July 1585 Marlowe went back to Reims. It was probably to deliver a letter from Walsingham to Gilbert Gifford. This letter probably further instructed Gilbert Gifford as to his role, and procedures for handling the mail between Queen Mary in prison at Chartley and Thomas Morgan in the Bastille. According to Haynes, William Gifford was expected to negotiate (with

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Walsingham) on ways to neutralize Mary Queen of Scot’s political influence, without initiating a violent crackdown against Catholics. This effort was initiated by the moderate, anti-Jesuit, group of laymen among the expatriate English catholic community {Haynes, 2001 #28}pp. 64-65. But William Gifford did not want to go in person. He was old enough to understand the risks. The thought of being hung, drawn and quartered was frightening. Like every general or politician, he thought he was more valuable alive. Let the young, idealistic and heedless be the heros. So he sent his young second cousin Gilbert as his representative. There were no negotiations, of course. The real task of the messenger was to find a plausible way to penetrate into her private quarters – without help from Paulet or the guards – and, once in, to convince her of his bona fides. The problem, of course, was that Mary wouldn’t trust any messenger who was allowed by her guardian, Sir Amyas Paulet, to see her. However, she trusted Thomas Morgan and the senior Giffords. Cousin Gilbert was a Deacon at the English Catholic academy in Reims, also known to Thomas Morgan and other family connections. He would be accepted– if he could get in to see her. According to all reports, Gilbert Gifford went to England in December 1585. He was carrying a sealed letter from Morgan to Queen Mary. Walsingham kept him in London for some time. The time was needed to decipher the letter. During that time Gifford lodged with Thomas Phelippes at Leadenhall. He also visited the French embassy

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where he introduced himself to secretary Cordaillot, who was responsible for Mary’s correspondence. It seems that Cordaillot had some doubts about the newly designated courier but he did give Gifford another letter from the ambassador to be passed on to Queen Mary. Biographers of Walsingham and the secret service say that Gilbert Gifford became a double agent (identified only as #4 in Walsingham’s records) voluntarily, thus betraying his Queen and his religious beliefs (Haynes, op cit.) The records say he used the aliases Colerdin, Petro and Cornelys and performed the task laid upon him by Walsingham {Read, 1925 #245}vol.3 pp1-70. The most important of those tasks was to convey the first letter personally to Queen Mary, at Chartley, explaining the new communication arrangements. Conyers Read says merely that Phelippes was sent to Chartley to “arrange the means”. But he does not say how the news about the new arrangements were explained to Queen Mary, in a way she would find believable {Read, 1925 #245}. Antonia Fraser is equally vague as to this important detail {Fraser, 1969 #248}. Walsingham’s records are mute on this point. That very silence tells a story. It is noteworthy, that very, very few Catholic priests in those days were willing to compromise their beliefs as Gifford is reputed to have done. Many more, such as Edmund Campion, went to their deaths, without any sign of remorse or fear. So, based in part on anagrams deciphered by Ballantine, I think that the real scenario – admittedly speculative – was different {Ballantine, 2007 #364}. I think

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that what happened was that, sometime in early October 1585, shortly after his interview with Kit Marlowe in Reims, Gilbert Gifford was either murdered or committed suicide in Paris. Suicide is plausible. His decision to kill himself would have been due to the irreconcilable conflict between his promise to spy for Walsingham (under the threat of torture) and his loyalty to Queen Mary and to his family, as well as his personal commitment to the actual plot against Queen Elizabeth, later known as the Babington plot. The pressure was too great. He was, as the saying goes, “between the Devil and the deep blue sea”. Though suicide is a terrible and mortal sin to a Catholic, especially a priest (which he hoped soon to be), it might have seemed the lesser and more forgiveable sin, to him, at that time. Murder is also possible, if the more radical plotters from the Guise faction got a hint that Gifford had defected or was thinking of defecting. Anyhow, Walsingham’s secret service men in Paris – who had almost certainly been watching Gifford – somehow found and disposed of the body, probably in the Seine. Walsingham got the news in late October 1585. At about the same time Walsingham had also received a diverted letter to Queen Mary from Thomas Morgan, written from the Bastille on October 15, 1585. That letter was an introduction to Queen Mary on behalf of Gilbert Gifford, whose family name spoke for him, and who Morgan claimed to be absolutely trustworthy. It was the “open sesame” for Gilbert Gifford to meet with Mary. Murder or suicide, Walsingham needed a substitute for Gilbert Gifford. Kit Marlowe was the obvious candidate. He

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had become Walsingham’s most trusted agent for anything that needed doing vis a vis the Anglo-Catholics in France, especially since his previous escapade in Reims. The alias Colerdin was his; he used it serveral times later. (Ballantine thinks it resulted from bad handwriting of the word “Coleraine”). There was probably nobody else in Protestant England with the required language skills, theological knowledge and acting talents to pull off such an impersonation successfully. Tom Watson might conceivably have done it, but he was too well known as one of Walsingham’s agents. Walsingham must have sweated blood to persuade Kit Marlowe to impersonate Gilbert Gifford, in order to establish the needed line of communication with Queen Mary {Read, 1925 #245}. It was an assignment of the highest priority, and of great personal hazard for Kit. Marlowe’s experience at Reims plus his interest in theology and his knowledge of both French and Latin were crucial. Even so, it was essential to avoid meeting anybody who knew Gilbert Gifford well, especially his relatives. So here is what I think happened. During November 1585 Kit was at home in Canterbury {Wraight, 1965 #114}, probably to grow and groom his hair and beard to resemble Gilbert Gifford’s appearance. Kit Marlowe, an accomplished actor, also practiced imitating Gilbert’s voice & manner. They had previously met at least once at the Catholic Seminary in Reims. At the end of November Kit went back to Paris with papers from Walsingham for Thomas Morgan in the Bastille. He must have wondered about Morgan’s

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trustworthiness, in the circumstances. In Paris, Kit picked up Gilbert’s clothes and jewelry, then returned to Rye on a French ship {Read, 1925 #245; Fraser, 1969 #248}. On his return to England in December, pretending to be Gilbert Gifford, Kit was detained while debarking at Rye and hustled to Walsingham’s house in Seething Lane, masquerading as a prisoner for interrogation. In private they discussed the scheme (not clear whose idea it was) for delivering messages to Queen Mary wrapped in waterproof containers carried in the bungholes in the beer barrels that were routinely delivered to her quarters. The remaining problem was to explain it all to Queen Mary, and that had to be done in person by somebody she trusted implicitly. Soon after Christmas 1585 Walsingham’s cipher-man Phelippes went to Chartley, where Queen Mary was being held. Phelippes explained the bung-hole plan to her jailer Sir Amyas Paulet. Phelippes had previously worked as a secretary for Paulet when the latter was ambassador in Paris, after Walsingham’s tenure there. Meanwhile "Gifford" contacted some Catholic families in London to learn as much as he could about their sympathies and thus increase his credibility for purposes of the forthcoming meeting with Queen Mary {Read, 1925 #245; Fraser, 1969 #248}. “Gifford” was also given the purloined letter from Thomas Morgan in the Bastille, addressed to Mary with a cover note from the French Ambassador, de Castelnau (or was it Cordaillot or Chateauneuf?) in London. Kit, as “Gifford”, promised to carry the letter and deliver it to her in person. On, or about the same time, “Gifford” went to

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Chartley to introduce himself to Sir Amyas Paulet, and the local ale brewer as the designated courier from whom letters for the Queen of Scots would be received, for further transmission via the bung-holes in the barrels of ale delivered to Mary’s quarters in the castle. He explained that he would carry her replies back to London and to the French embassy, by the same means. The bung-hole scheme was complicated by the fact that Paulet insisted that all deliveries in either direction had to go to him first, before being passed on, whether to the queen or from her back to Gifford, the courier. The brewer of the ale, who lived in Burston, some miles distant from Chartley, was able to allow the barrel of ale to remain overnight in the queen’s quarters to allow time for purpose of decoding and coding replies, but not longer. He would return for the pickup next morning. The brewer, who was a catholic sympathizer, needed to protect himself (and he wanted payment for his services). The contents of the empty barrel were to be passed on to Paulet, then to Gifford, at his nearby lodgings. On receipt of the letters, Gifford would return to London and deliver the mail to Phelippes for decoding. Then he would take the deciphered and resealed letters to the French embassy and occupy himself circulating among the local catholic families while awaiting a call from the embassy to pick up the next batch of mail. So it would continue until Walsingham had the evidence he needed {Haynes, 2001 #28}. I think the next step in the operation must have been for Kit to swim across the icy moat of Chartley Castle,

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before dawn on “washday”, January 16, 1586. There he persuaded the laundresses to hide him in the basket of laundry, which the castle guards carried up to the wash- lobby of Queen Mary’s apartment. This was necessary to establish that he was not there by courtesy of her jailer, Sir Amyas Paulet. Once inside, he introduced himself as Gilbert Gifford, gave her the sealed letter from Morgan, together with the cover note from the French ambassador Castelnau or Chateauneuf or Cordaillot (Historians differ). After she read it, she interrogated him – in French – about himself and his family, and her friends in Paris, while he was still soaking wet and freezing. After a time that must have seemed like hours, although it was perhaps only minutes, she let him get dry and warm in front of a fire, gave him wine, and continued to interrogate him about his relatives, his education at Reims, and about the activities of the Catholic League. It went on for most of the day. He dared not fall asleep. He had to stay alert. It must have been an excruciating ordeal. But finally she was satisfied. He then explained the proposed mail delivery system (bungholes in the beer barrel, and so on). Finally, after dark, he had to swim back across the moat. By the time he reached Burston Inn he was feverish and delirious, but youth was on his side. He recovered in a few days with help from some hot blankets and hot toddies. From that point on, “Gilbert Gifford” was not needed at Chartley. A substitute was brought in to handle the courier work and to supervise the brewer. A coded identification must have been arranged. The following

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month (February 1586) Kit was back again in France (Rouen) using the name Jacques Colerdin. He could not call himself “Gilbert Gifford” in Rouen because Gilbert’s cousin George Gifford, the Gentleman-pensioner of Queen Elizabeth, apparently lived there. Colerdin-Marlowe stayed with fellow spy Edward Gratley (really Tom Lodge, a poet- playwright who was pretending to be a converted Catholic expatriate). They collected opinions of other expatriate English Catholics and co-wrote a monograph attacking Dr. Allen’s Catholic Seminary at Reims. Tom was working on a play, The Wounds of Civil War, and starting to think about a novel, Rosalynde {Tenney, 1935 #321}. Kit worked on Edward III. After a week Kit moved on to Paris to pick up mail for Queen Mary from Thomas Morgan (still in the Bastille), before returning home. The first delivery of mail from London reached Paulet at Chartley on January 25, 1586. From Paulet to the brewer, to the queen’s quarters, then back to the brewer and to Paulet took a week. The return mail went with Gifford to Phelippes in London on February 6. Meanwhile the substitute courier remained with the brewer. Apparently the contents, which included an authorization, satisfied Cordaillot and Chateauneuf (the new ambassador). On March 1 they released to Gifford, in London, six months of accumulated mail for Queen Mary, consisting of 21 packets. This he passed to Phelippes who deciphered it in three days and gave it back to Gifford on March 4. He sent it back to the brewer – Paulet didn’t need to see it, but the mass of accumulated mail was too great for a single bung-hole and it

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took several deliveries of ale to reach Mary {Haynes, 2001 #28}. It is hard to believe that Kit Marlowe successfully impersonated Gilbert Gifford. Yet it is more believable than the official version, in which Gilbert Gifford survived the whole Babington affair unscathed and unsuspected. (Actually it seems “Gifford” was suspected by the French Ambassador, when it was discovered somehow, that he had been lodging in London in the house of Thomas Phelippes {Fraser, 1969 #248}p.482.) The lodger in question was much more likely to have been Kit Marlowe, under cover. Luckily, the letter conveying those suspicions was either intercepted by Walsingham’s agent at the French embassy (Bruno?), or by Thomas Morgan at the Bastille. At any rate, Cordaillot’s suspicion was not passed on to France. The rest of the story of Mary, Queen of Scot’s downfall is well-known, but a brief recapitulation is appropriate. The priest John Ballard and the ex-soldier John Savage met in March 1586 under the auspices of the Gifford brothers George and William and joined forces. They recruited wealthy young Sir Anthony Babington and several other young Catholic activists. with strong indications of military support from the ex-Spanish ambassador to England, Bernardino Mendoza. Babington was very naive, the perfect puppet. Secret agent Robert Poley, who was married to Tom Watson’s sister, learned that Babington, Ballard and Savage were combining their efforts. Poley kept watch over the inn where Ballard was staying. But apparently Ballard realized he was being watched and managed to escape from Poley’s

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surveillance. Anthony Babington wanted to go abroad, to consult with the Spanish Duke of Parma in regard to coordinating troop movement with the planned assassination in England. Needing a passport, Babington approached Robert Poley as a friend – “sweet Robin”13 – knowing that he had some connection with the Secretary of State, who issued passports, but not realizing that the Secretary of State (Sir Francis Walsingham) was also the head of the secret service {Read, 1925 #245}. Sometime in mid-June 1586 the priest, John Ballard, learned about the mail drop at Burston Inn-brewery, near Chartley, where the beer barrels for Chartley were prepared . He tried to “mail” two letters to Mary by leaving them with the brewer, using the “Gilbert Gifford” identification code. Where did he get it? Nobody knows. But it caused consternation and confusion at Walsingham’s headquarters {Read, 1925 #245; Fraser, 1969 #248}. Kit Marlowe had to be told about this; he was also told to find the missing priest, Ballard. Morgan sent a letter to Mary, via bunghole-mail, recommending Babington as her “friend”. She wrote back on June 28 confirming her understanding and agreement of his status. On July 9 Kit Marlowe and John Ballard did meet, in private. Kit warned Ballard, whom he must have liked and admired, that the case was about to break. He offered

13.Just before his arrest, Babington wrote in a letter to Poley “My beloved Robin (as I hope you are) otherwise of all two footed beings, the most wicked.”

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Ballard a forged passport good for sailing from any English port. Kit had been staying in Phelippes’ office – Phelippes was “Customer of London” – and there would have been blank passports in the office. Kit forged the passport. But Ballard refused the offer and said that he would stay with the others. Kit told Walsingham that he could not find Ballard. The conspirators could have dispersed and perhaps even escaped at that time. But they did not. Instead, Babington wrote back to Queen Mary in early July, describing the details of the plot to free her, including the expected foreign invasion, and the coincidental assassination of the Queen by a six-man raid to be led by John Savage. She wrote back on July 18, praising and commending all aspects of the plan. That letter was deciphered and copied by Phelippes and brought directly to Walsingham. It was the evidence they needed to convict Mary, Queen of Scots of knowledge and active approval of a plan to depose and kill Queen Elizabeth. Nevertheless, Kit had to go over to France to pick up the last batch of Mary’s incoming mail. It included a letter from King Philip of Spain, saying that Elizabeth’s deposition and death must be supported. That letter arrived back at Walsingham’s office on September 3, 1586. The moment had come. The conspirators were all arrested, tried, and quickly convicted. They were executed by hanging, drawing (disembowelment while still alive) and quartering in September. Queen Mary herself was tried and convicted in December of that year. Queen Elizabeth hesitated for weeks, during which she kept trying to avoid signing the

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death warrant. Then, after signing it, she withdrew her approval and tried to blame somebody else for disobeying her orders. But, finally, Mary Queen of Scots was, rather incompetently, beheaded in February 1587. Back at Cambridge, where he was still supposedly studying for an MA, for five weeks and a half, from Christmas 1586 to Lady-day, 1587, Kit Marlowe continued working on Edward III . He included a scene about the virtue of royal mercy. None was offered to the Babington conspirators, although Queen Elizabeth was desperately looking for a loophole to save Mary herself. After his departure from the University in February, the secret service left Kit to his books for the next two months, until the end of March. That must have been when he wrote Tamburlaine the Great, his first big hit.

Chapter 8: The Grand Armada and prison in Paris

Meanwhile the Gifford family in was not satisfied. Where was Cousin Gilbert? He was not one of the accused. Walsingham hoped that Kit’s role as a double agent had not leaked. Gilbert Gifford was supposedly one of the sympathetic moderate Catholics. But nobody knew what had happened to him. Walsingham wanted Kit to "prove" to the real Gilbert Gifford’s father that his son Gilbert was alive and well and living in Paris. To pull this stunt off, Walsingham or Kit had the idea of getting Gifford registered

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as a newly promoted Presbyter back at the English Catholic College in Reims. One of Walsingham’s agents at Reims, appropriately named John Fixer, had himself just become a deacon there on the 19th of December 1586. Fixer knew the ropes. When the time came, Marlowe impersonated Gilbert Gifford, joined the end of the line of aspirants and signed Gifford’s name. It is still there in the records {Knox, 1878 #252}. So, in spring 1587 “Gilbert Gifford” duly became a frocked priest. The Gifford family was duly informed, probably by another missionary priest from Reims who just “happened” to know his colleague. Kit had another assignment for the spring months of 1587; he had promised Captain Kester Carleill he would scout for Admiral Drake in Lisbon, after his “proof of life” stopover at Reims. Walsingham also wanted him to go to Paris to investigate the loyalty of the English Ambassador Edward and the First Secretary Lilly, at the embassy there. Also, if he had time after scouting for Drake, Kit might go to Madrid and help Walsingham’s friend, the painter Zuccaro, a member of the underground resistance to Papal expansionism in Italy. Zaccaro was in Madrid making paintings for King Philip II. With luck Kit might learn more about King Philip’s plan to launch a Grand Armada against England. Walsingham also wanted a few other things, like the location of El Dorado and the Holy grail. On March 31, 1587 Kit sailed from Le Havre for Lisbon to scout for Francis Drake. Drake might have recalled their earlier introduction by Gresham, prior to the embarkation of the Pelican/Golden Hind on its historic round-the-world

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voyage in 1577. There, in Lisbon, he met, for the first time, one Miguel Cervantes, nicknamed “Manco” because of his crippled arm, a souvenir of the Spanish naval victory over the Turks at Lepanto back in 1571. Cervantes was then a part-time employee of the Spanish secret service, as Marlowe was of the English spy service. But they were not treating him well, and Manco had doubts about the “cause” for which the Great Armada was being assembled. Marlowe and Manco got on personally very well, although Manco was considerably older. They had similar jobs. Both had written plays. Manco helped Kit with his Spanish and Portugese. Kit recruited Manco for the English spy network, probably by a simple recommendation to Walsingham. Together they discovered that five galleons loaded for the Armada were hiding at Cádiz harbor. Kit got the message to Admiral Drake. Then Cervantes, on the run, had to leave in a hurry first to Toledo and then on to Seville {Byron, 1978 #322}. But they met again later, worked together and became fast friends to the end of their lives. The full story will be told later. On April 19/2914 1587 Sir Francis Drake successfully attacked Cádiz harbor and burned the five galleons there {Thomson, 1972 #192}. Drake bragged that he had “singed King Philip’s beard.” Kit remained in Lisbon, where he heard

14.The reformed Gregorian calender used on the continent added ten days (at that time) to the dates in the Julian calender used in England. In the later parts of the book dates in the Gregorian calender are identified as such or, to avoid confusion, both are shown, as in 19/29 (the later date being Gregorian).

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of the galleon San Felipe coming from the East Indies loaded with treasure. He hired a pinnace and sailed it to Ságres, where Drake’s fleet was anchored. He told Drake about the San Felipe. Drake set sail and intercepted this prize, some say the biggest prize of all time, for England {Thomson, 1972 #192}. Drake took it to Plymouth, arriving late June 1587. It seems that the official valuation of the San Felipe and her cargo was £114,000 (ibid, pp 212, 213). What it was in reality, no one knows. Captain Drake could easily have secreted part of the treasure, either on his ship, or somewhere (on the Channel islands, for instance) before landing at Plymouth with it. The part he actually delivered was sufficiently enormous. He had no investors to pay off, only the Queen. If he did secrete something, what did he do with it? It is noteworthy that Queen Elizabeth left a debt of just £300,000 at the end of her reign. So Drake’s (and indirectly, Kit’s) contribution amounted to over a third of the national debt! In June 1587 Kit sailed along the north coast of Spain in Drake’s hospital ship, on its way home. He disembarked at Aviles. There Kit pretended to be a shipwrecked nobleman. He identified himself as Arthur Dudley (an imaginary son of Robert Dudley). Arthur Dudley pretended to have been shipwrecked on his way to Madrid, hoping to talk to King Philip II. He got an official escort. In Madrid, Arthur Dudley gave a long statement to King Philip’s English Secretary, Francis Engelfield. The statement still exists {Ogburn, 1952 #249}.“Dudley” was housed in a building next to the palace, where Walsingham’s Italian agent,

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painter Federigo Zuccaro, was also staying. It gave Kit the opportunity to interrogate Zuccaro about conditions in Italy. They got friendly. Zuccaro taught Kit some Italian. In the King’s gallery of secular art, Zuccaro showed Kit Titian’s paintings of Venus and Adonis and Tarquin and Lucrece. These paintings inspired later poems, written for Henry Wriothesley, the young Earl of Southampton. While “Arthur Dudley” was waiting to meet King Philip he snooped around the palace with a pick-lock. While snooping he found a secret passage from Philip’s study in the palace to the studio of the painters next door. Evidently, King Philip liked to come and stand, hidden behind an arras, to watch the artists work {Parker, 1978 #323}. (Kit did finally meet the King, as “Dudley” but the King was not as impressed as Engelfield.) In September “Arthur Dudley” departed for France and the low countries (under guard). After leaving Spain (as Arthur Dudley) Kit may have gone to Utrecht to pick up mail for Walsingham and Burghley. There is a letter dated October 12 from Robert Dudley’s (Leicester’s) secretary at Utrecht: "Morley" was bringing confidential dispatches to Burghley in London {Wraight, 1965 #114}. He had a few weeks off in London, mainly working with Ned de Vere (Lord Oxford) at Fisher’s Folly, finishing Edward III and helping with the production of Tamburlaine I. But Kit was sent straight back to Paris after a meeting with Walsingham in London to discuss his next assignment. It was to test the patriotism of Ambassador Stafford and Secretary Lilly in the English embassy in Paris {CSP Addenda, #481 vol xxx p 229}. Once again, Kit

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assumed the identity of “Gilbert Gifford”a.k.a “Jacques Colerdin”, which he and Walsingham both thought had never been compromised. This was in November or early December of 1587. What Marlowe may not have been told was that Stafford had been introduced to William Gifford back in 1585, and that he was well-informed about the origins of the Babington conspiracy with which he seems to have been somewhat sympathetic. The charade seemed to work, at least for a few days. Kit, as Gilbert Gifford, was propositioned by disloyal persons at the English embassy in Paris and "exhorted to kill the Queen of England, with great promises…" {CSP Addenda, #481 vol xxx pp. 229, 230}. However, for some reason Ambassador Stafford and First Secretary Lilly – who was also a Catholic sympathizer – began to suspect that “Gilbert Gifford” was not who he said he was. One slip of the tongue was all that was necessary to arouse suspicions. More than likely, Ambassador Stafford knew Gifford’s family in Staffordshire, and had met Gifford Gilbert in Paris or Reims. It was a smaller world then. Still under cover as Gilbert Gifford, a.k.a. Jacques Colerdin, Kit unwisely went to a Christmas Eve party in Longchamps, organized by Secretary Lilly. The party was at a brothel managed by Secretary Lilly’s mistress, Madame Florence Bacot. She was supposed to arrange a sticky end for “Colerdin”, whose “Gifford” credentials had come under suspicion. Kit noticed something wrong, or received a warning that he was about to be murdered, probably on the way back to his lodgings. To forestall this, he (still posing as

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“Jacques Colerdin”) declared himself to be a priest who had sinned by being in the brothel, and demanded to be taken to the Bishop’s prison, Four l’Eveque. He was escorted safely to the prison and locked up {DNB, 2004 #334 “Gifford”}and {CSP Addenda, #481 vol xxxi}. He was still alive, he had foiled the murder plot of the Catholic Leaguers. But he was stuck there, in prison, incommunicado, indefinitely. After nearly three weeks (Thursday January 14, 1588) Kit was visited by Edward Grimston, 2nd secretary of the English embassy, who was a translator. Grimston was also an agent of the Secret Service working for Walsingham – who must have learned of Colerdin’s imprisonment, somehow. Grimston brought 30 crowns for expenses. Of course, he had to be told the truth about “Gifford/Colerdin”. Over the coming months Grimston must have helped with paper and other writing needs. One of the three plays Kit worked on during his time in Four l’Eveque was All’s Well that Ends Well It begins with the anagram lines (found by Ballantine) “Chr. M made this in jail. I pretend I’M somebody named G. Gifford ‘n’ fiue nonny a-answers. O, wearee! UUhen bad men are houndin’ U, ‘n’ vomit’s near, U write t’ mimic some acts o’ the dim ‘bon maison’ I seem t’ await bed wi’ Flo. Go t’ business, Flo! Ha,Ha,Ha,Ha! Someday! Tyl then, Hen, I’l uurite at da feo stories ‘n’ al da drama. Kyt M. (G.G.) The anagrams end at that point, with his second signature

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as G.G.. Later, I conjecture that Grimston brought a copy of Dr. Faustus, newly published in Paris, in German, and read it or gave it to Kit. Kit created an English version of the story as The Tragedie of . The first four lines of the play contain anagrams (found by Ballantine) as follows, in compressed form: While he was incarcerated K.M. (Chr.M.) made this find of a German t-tale o’ regrettin’ sins. He writes it as a lo doctor lost in lvck ‘n’ errors ‘n’ one fiendish fee – not uurung i’ the gap... The anagrams continue through line 74, explaining the play and ’s inevitable and horrible end, which Marlowe compares to his own expected execution as a double agent, in the prison. It is interesting to note that Marlowe, writing in prison and still unacquainted with Italian geography, made some peculiar errors. “Having now, my good Mephistopohilis, pass’d with delight the stately town of Trier... From Paris next, coasting the realm of France, We saw the river Maine fall into Rhine Whose banks are set with groves if fruitful vines; then up to Naples, rich Campania.... From thence to Venice, Padua and the rest... hast though, as erst I did command conducted me within the walls of Rome? and Mephisto replies: “Faustus, I have.” It was certainly a

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strange route, from Mainz south to Naples by way of Rome, then north to Venice, also by way of Rome before returning at last to Rome again. There were no reference books in the prison. Sometime in the summer of 1588 a new prefect took over at the prison, a Catholic. Leaguer. The new prefect had learned, somehow, that Jacques Colerdin was “Gilbert Gifford” and that he and Tom Lodge were co-authors of a monograph attacking the Catholic College at Reims. Kit (as “Gifford”) made a difficult deposition to explain it all to the Archbishop of Paris without revealing his identity as Marlowe (or that of Gratley-Lodge). This deposition is extant (MSS of Marquess of Salisbury at Hatfield. Part III #715, calendared August 14, 1588, probably taken earlier.) “Colerdin a.k.a. Gifford” was almost certain to be condemned to death, and if he should escape to the street the Catholic League thugs would be trying to kill him. During his incarceration “Colerdin-Gifford” became aware, somehow, that a group of four Jesuit priests were on their way to England. One of them was named John Gerard, formerly of Oxford and Reims and a close friend of Anthony Babington. It seems that Colerdin wrote a note to Francis Walsingham (probably by way of Grimston) dated October 1: “There be 8 priests over from Rome, whereof John Gerard ... will be in England within five days”{Hogge, 2005 #351} p.16. Gerard later wrote about the journey. He had learned later that they (his group) were expected by the English authorities because a prisoner named “Colerdin” (whom he thought was really the turncoat “Gilbert Gifford”)

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had discovered their presence. Grimston also collected stories of "monstrous ransoms," such as the one Angelo proposes in Measure for Measure, the third play Kit worked on while in prison. Kit may have told Grimston that was how he, Kit, had been conceived {DNB, 2004 #334 “Grimstone”}and {Bullough, 1959-75 #324} Measure for Measure, p 406.) The opening lines of this play (1-7) contain anagrams, as usual. In compressed form, Chr.M. made ye t-tale closed in French priests’ prison. Fed rot-gut food, ‘n’swept ‘n’ moued – E-e-e-e! – foul vomit ‘n’ we- wee ouer t’ city tank. Spent months til’ I chose – I chose – a cu-cu exit as a dead fello, ‘n’ came home a thin weary failure. No success! Yet for no reason I brot my best uuriting t’ you. Th-thy gun’s confiscated in th trap. I’d onlee luck to saue me – Oi oi ... Not clear who he is writing to (usually it was Henry Wriothesley but in this case it might have been Walsingham or whoever gave him the gun). The anagrams continue, recounting the story of his encounter with assassins at the Christmas Eve party, and his escape (so to speak) from the frying pan into the fire, ending with him in prison, an unheated cell in the depth of winter. He nearly died then, of exposure and starvation. The story continues in anagrams through lines 74. Luckily, for him, he was rescued many months later – a cu-cu-exit as a dead fello – thanks to a

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device that seems nearly impossible to modern sophisticates. Somebody, possibly secret service chemist Petruccio Ubaldini, seems to have supplied a vial of some powerful “knockout” drug to Kit, via an agent in Paris (Grimston?) It probably tasted awful, but Kit must have thought it was an easier way to die than the other possibilities. So he drank it and fell into a coma that almost resembled death. Somebody must have bribed several guards, or maybe just made sure they were drunk and inattentive, but it worked. His friends took the body away to a boat in the Seine, down-river past Rouen and across the channel, back to England. It must have been a harrowing experience, but miraculously Kit did recover. He also used the potion idea in . This must have been sometime in the fall of 1588. Traditional history says that Gilbert Gifford died in the Four l’Eveque prison in Paris in 1590. Actually he did not. But that was the end of “Gilbert Gifford”, and nearly the end of Kit Marlowe. However there was a curious sequel. A year later, in the summer of 1591, a letter came to Walsingham from the lady of the brothel, Florence Bacot. (Remember, she was the mistress of Secretary Lilly, who was the Catholic League secretary at the English Embassy.) Flo Bacot wrote to Walsingham’s secretary Thomas Phelippes that “Gilbert Gifford’s case” would soon be coming up, so please send her “beaucoup d’Argent” to help the poor boy in his distressed state {CSP Addenda, #481 vol xxxi p 279}. She did not realize that Kit was already gone from the prison. Why didn’t she know? Because the prefect of the

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prison was collecting the money that came in from various sources to pay for “Gifford’s” upkeep, intending to delay signing his death-certificate till the very last minute before his trial. It was an old army trick called “dead pay”. Actually Lilly persisted. In January 1590 he tried again, under his own name. Secretary Lilly of the English Embassy in Paris wrote to another of Gilbert Gifford’s cousins, Francis Engelfield, who was then English Secretary to King Philip of Spain, asking Engelfield for money to help poor Gilbert Gifford in his “upcoming trial” {CSP Addenda, #481 vol. xxxi, p.297}. The Catholic Leaguers in Paris English Embassy still did not know that Kit had escaped from prison eighteen months earlier. Most important, perhaps, Marlowe’s cover as Gifford had not been compromised, even though the Gifford identity was no longer usable. Walsingham’s agents not only uncovered the so-called Babington plot, which finally led to the conviction and execution of Queen Mary of Scotland. In reality they created the conditions for the plot, encouraged it, and supervised the recruitment of the plotters from the start. Today we would call that kind of operation a “sting”. The young men who so eagerly volunteered to rescue Mary Queen of Scots – and died horribly for it – were mere pawns in a much larger game. All that can be said for them is that they, like the martyr Campion and others, believed ardently in the rightness of their cause, knew the risk and knew the penalty for failure. It seems that Queen Elizabeth trusted Sir Francis Walsingham to protect her. But in the end she also

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hated him, because she blamed him for forcing her to allow Mary’s execution. King Philip II of Spain, who had once offered marriage to Elizabeth and been rudely rejected, hated both of them. The execution of Queen Mary was the tipping point for King Philip of Spain’s final decision to go forward with the Grand Armada of 1588. It was in 1588 – actually only a couple of weeks in August – that the Spanish Grand Armada came and was seen, harried and chased by the bolder English warships. The armada took refuge (as planned) in the harbor at Gravelines to meet with the Duke of Parma’s army. But Parma wasn’t there where he should have been and the armada was forced by Admiral Drake’s fireships out into the Channel. There the armada reformed and most of it sailed north, intending to return to Spain around the west coast of Ireland. But many of the ships were wrecked off the Irish coast due to storms, and only half of the original fleet got back to Spain. The English navy, especially Admiral Drake, acquitted itself quite well, to be sure. But the main cause of the defeat of the Spaniards was poor planning on their part and bad weather. Marlowe missed the whole thing in the Four l’Eveque prison in Paris. Indeed, the distractions among the Catholic Leaguers caused by the imminence of the Spanish attack on England might have actually created the opportunity for his rescue. The word “removal” might be more accurate. Wraight claims to have found literary hints that he (Kit) might have been aboard the Nonpareil during the naval engagements in the channel {Wraight, 1997 #60}.

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However, I don’t believe it.

Chapter 9: Back home and a bit of fame

1588 was also the year that Kit Marlowe became famous as the not-very-anonymous author of Tamburlaine the Great, which had been playing to packed houses for over a year. Tamburlaine (both parts) had been purchased by the Lord High Admiral’s Company and both parts had been produced by November 10, 1587 just before the playwrights departure on his assignment that ended in the Four l’eveque in Paris {Boas, 1940 #154}. It continued running for three more years, until August 14, 1590). Kit Marlowe was already famous by the age of 23. Success went to his head, even though it was not accompanied by money. It also generated some jealousy among older established writers, such as . The cause of jealousy was, above all, his huge talent. His were the first plays to be written in blank verse, a form previously known mainly in poetry. Indeed, Marlowe considered himself a poet more than a playwright. Tamburlaine was an indirect, but nonetheless unmistakeable, attack on the hypocricy of “divine right”. The Anglican religious establishment eventually got the message, of course, and – as action generates reaction – it put Marlowe squarely in their sights. The rumors of his “atheism” probably began around that time, and contributed to some of the circumstances that determined his later fate. During what little was left of 1588 after his return from

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France and before his next departure, Marlowe must have rested for a while at Canterbury and concentrated on writing more plays. It was the period of peak anti-Catholic hysteria, during which a number of missionary priests and Jesuits from the English expatriate community in Reims were captured, tried and executed under the mistaken theory that horrific punishment would discourage others from seeking the same fate. Their demonstration of faith and courage had exactly the opposite effect, however. It made martyrdom admirable, even desirable (for some). The response of the established Church was to match courage with repression. Yet, for reasons already explained, there was a growing market for entertainment. In those circumstances, clever writers had to find ways of discussing dangerous ideas indirectly as entertainment while remaining anonymous and ambiguous for their own protection. Kit Marlowe was the archetype of the entertainer with a serious message to convey. His first attempt was Dido, Queen of Carthage, which was inspired by the and depicted a world controlled by the whimsy of Gods, who behaved with the same cruelty and carelessness toward their subjects as powerful humans. Tamburlaine (I and II), depicted a warlord from peasant stock who called himself the “scourge of God” and who defeated and enslaved several powerful kings, yet was himself defeated by human love. The not-so- hidden message of the play was that even a Scythian shepherd like Tamburlaine could become a warlord and that any successful warlord/rebel who succeeds in taking power

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– such as Charles Martel, William the Conqueror, and Henry VII had done – can claim that his victory is divinely ordained and that the suffering he causes is merely God’s punishment of the victims for their unspecified sins. This turned on its head the common Calvinist-Puritan argument that God would punish sins and sinners. It was also an indirect direct attack on both the divine right of kings (which was the basis of Queen Elizabeth’s claim to absolute power) and on the Calvinist belief in predestination – the notions of ‘original sin’, and that people got what they deserved, so visible prosperity was taken as a sign of virtue, while poverty is an indication of sinfulness. For some reason this story hit a nerve with the London play-going public. Another of his plays, The Jew of Malta is anti-Semitic on the surface (in tune with the times). Yet it made the villain seem human and less villainous, in the end, than the men of power who stole his gold from him in the first place. Doctor Faustus was a fool who made a bad bargain with to gain secret knowledge, but Lucifer keeps his side of the bargain to the letter – unlike many of the dukes and princes Faustus encounters in the course of his 24 year tour of the courts of Europe. It raises the unspoken question: Why should the desire for knowledge require a bargain with the devil, while blind faith is the only road to Heaven? *** It has been suggested that Marlowe may have been employed by Lord Burghley from late 1589 to mid-1592 as “reader and attendant” (i.e. tutor) for Lady Arabella Stuart, then 14 years of age and another aristocratic orphan {Baker, 1997 #160}. If so, the Queen must have personally approved this choice, because Arabella was a member of the royal family. Her father

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seems to have been Esmé Stuart, the Earl of Lennox (King James’ homosexual lover) {Nicholl, 1992 #16} p.428. Having Stuart blood on both sides would have made Arabella a product of incest. But, after the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587, it also made her first in line of succession among royals living in England. Lady Arabella was part of the household of her grandmother Bess (Elizabeth) Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, where Queen Mary herself had lived for ten years. The only (indirect) evidence of such an appointment is a letter from the Countess of Shrewsbury, Bess Talbot, to Lord Burghley dated September 21, 1592. The letter says, in part: “One Morley, who hath attended on Arabella and read to her for the space of three year and a half, showed himself to be much discontented since my return into the country, in saying he had lived in hope of having some annuity granted him by Arabella out of her land, or some lease of grounds on the value of £40 a year, alleging that he was so much damnified by leaving of the University ... I understanding by divers that Morley was so much discontented, and withal of late having some cause to be doubtful of his forwardness in religion (though I cannot charge him with papistry), took occasion to part with him. After he was gone from my house, and his stuff carried from hence, the next day he returned again, very importunate to

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serve.”15 The description partly fits Marlowe, except that he was no longer at the university. But to have worked for Arabella for three and a half years (until summer 1592) he would have had to begin in late 1588 or early 1589. But Marlowe was definitely elsewhere several months in 1589. Also, Bess Talbot would probably have strongly disapproved of the author of Tamburlaine as a tutor. Charles Nichols says “On internal evidence it is possible – not convincingly probable – that Arabella Stuart’s tutor was Christopher Marlowe.” {Nicholl, 1992 #16}p.429. At any rate, Nicholl spend four pages on the possibility. His primary argument against it is that Marlowe was known to be elsewhere some of the time. But Nicholl also admits that “we need not assume that Morley was continuously present at Hardwick House.” Conceivably Marlowe might have got the tutorial job sometime in late 1589, perhaps as a reward for his efforts on behalf of the secret service. If so he might have continued in that capacity – albeit not full-time—until September 1592. It is known from other letters that the Talbot family moved their business headquarters to London and were in almost continuous residence there from 1589 through 1592. The tutorial job, whoever did it, was extremely sensitive politically because of high-level concerns about the royal succession. (Queen Elizabeth was in her late 50s, and there was no heir.) A possible explanation is that in 1589 Burghley and Walsingham

15.This letter was found in State Papers (Domestic) vol. lxxxvi no. 159, cited by Boas {Boas, 1940 #154}.

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wanted to know whether Lady Arabella Stuart was the target of negotiations with respect to a possible marriage with Ranuccio, the son of the Duke of Parma, who was the Spanish commander in Belgium and the Netherlands. There was some reason to worry. In September, 1586 a Catholic exile in France, William Clitherow – who had been at Reims with Richard Baines – addressed a letter to “Monseur Gerarde Bourghet” in London. The Clitherow- Baines connection is obscure. If Richard Baines was still working for Walsingham at that time it is unclear why (or how) Phelippes was getting his mail indirectly, or who Baines really was working for. As noted in an earlier chapter, it seems likely that Baines had switched masters sometime after 1583 {Nicholl, 1992 #16} p. 130. Bourghet could have been a cover name for Baines, or the name of a middleman. At any rate Walsingham’s secretary, Thomas Phelippes, seems to have thought that Baines was the real addressee {Riggs, 2004 #17} p. 258. The letter mentions a report that “Bourghet” (Baines?) had been trying to arrange a marriage between Arabella Stuart and the Duke of Parma’s son, Ranuccio Farnese. Later there was a newsletter from the Catholic League spymaster in France, Charles Paget, addressed to “Giles Martin”. Giles Martin was supposedly a Catholic underground agent in England but he was actually the English intelligencer Thomas Barnes, who reported directly to Phelippes. Barnes’ reply to Paget, drafted by Phelippes, includes the words “I have been sought for as the practiser of a marriage between Arabella and the Duke of Parma’s

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son. which is given out to be my errand to England...” {Nicholl, 1992 #16} p.430. Could Giles Martin (a.k.a. Barnes) have been working with Kit – as her part-time tutor – on the marriage business? In another letter, from Michael Moody to Lord Burghley, there was mention of a Thomas Morley “the singing man, employs himself in that kind of service and has brought divers into danger”.’ But there was a Thomas Morley who got an M.B. degree in music, from Oxford (circa 1587) and who was probably “the singing man” {Proper, 1953 #356} p.138. It is possible that, after the Talbots moved to London in 1589, this Morley was the tutor to Arabella Stuart and that he may have been involved in negotiations for a possible marriage of Arabella to Ranuccio Farnese, while also being a composer and organist employed at St. Paul’s Cathedral. A comprehensively account of the birth, life and death of Arabella (Arbell) Stuart can be found in “Our Elusive Willy” by Ida Sedgwick Proper {Proper, 1953 #356}. Some of Arabella’s sad predicament – it got worse – was woven into the plot of Cymbeline {Steen, 1994 #133} p. 96. Incidentally, intelligence from this assignment – if Marlowe did undertake it – ended up in I Henry VI which was suppressed (unpublished) for thirty years until it appeared for the first time in the First Folio in 1623. All things considered, I do not think Marlowe was Arabella’s tutor, although I think there is a small possibility that he had some involvement in marriage negotiations with Farnese. However, there is nothing in the anagrams to confirm this possibility.

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Chapter 10: The Bloody Question; Archbishop Whitgift and the Star Chamber 1583-90

Again I must digress a bit because Archbishop Whitgift plays a major role in Kit Marlowe’s story. Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne in 1558 reflected a political change that was widely approved by the , but it did not change fundamental religious loyalties. In the 1550's during Queen Mary’s reign, over half of the English population – except in London, Kent and East Anglia – were openly Catholic. Apart from the Northern Rebellion, they remained less openly, but no less Catholic in the 1560's after Elizabeth’s accession, though they mostly obeyed the required “oath of supremacy” and swore loyalty to the sovereign. Mostly they attended the local Protestant parish churches every week, as the law required. But Catholic mass was often celebrated in secret. The Protestant minority was itself split. There were quite a few fanatics then who believed that the Bible is literally God’s word. (Some Protestant sects still do, today). They mostly preached hellfire and damnation. Another growing faction, influenced by the Lutherans and Calvinists tried to adopt the strictures of the Christian message as set forth by the gospels. These became known as “Puritans”. Finally, there was the official Anglican Church headed not by the Pope but by the Archbishop under the King (or Queen).

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The problem that vexed Queen Elizabeth and her government after the papal bull Regnans in excelsis of 1571, which more or less legitimized regicide in the name of religion, was: Whom can we trust in the event of war or invasion? Would the Catholics who swear allegiance to the Queen in peacetime change sides in the event of war? Did their ultimate loyalty lie with the anointed Queen or with the Pope in Rome? These questions had to be posed more and more sharply as the 16th century went on. It became the “bloody question” because priests or laymen who hedged or evaded that question, when it was put to them, were ipso facto unreliable. It was but a short step to conclude that they were already traitors to their country and agents of a foreign power, the King of France, the King of Spain or the Pope. As noted in the previous chapters, France and Spain continuously promoted sedition. Plots against the Queen were continuous. Moreover, the Catholic revival in England was gaining strength, despite the setback due to the massacre in Paris in 1572. After 1558 the established Anglican Church of England, like the Church of Rome, was also under increasing pressure from schismatic Puritans influenced by Luther, Calvin, Knox and others. Walsingham, himself, was a particularly notable example of that persuasion. However, the official Church of England. from its earliest days, was much more like the Church of Rome in most ways, except for its formal rejection of the Pope and the adoption of the English Bible. The forms of high mass and confession within the established Church of England

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(“High Church”) are virtually identical to the Roman Catholic forms. As time went on, the Puritans (“Low Church”) became a thorn in the side of the establishment. The conflict between the two branches of Protestantism was soon a major issue for the Privy Council, and the Queen, who still wanted – above everything except her own survival – uniformity of religious belief and practice. The miseries and horrors of her youth, she believed, were due to religious factionalism. She wanted it to end. The response of the Anglican establishment to the steady trickle of returning Catholic priests from Dr. Allen’s Seminary in Reims was a kind of counter-reformation, parallel in many ways to the notorious Spanish inquisition. In 1583 the moderate but ineffective Archbishop Grindal died. Urged by Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth appointed an extremist – on behalf of religious uniformity – named John Whitgift as Archbishop of Canterbury. Whitgift became the English counterpart of Torquemada, the head of the cruel Spanish Inquisition. He also became Kit Marlowe’s particular nemesis. John Whitgift was the son of a merchant in a small town, Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire. He was about the same age as Elizabeth, having been born between 1530 and 1533. He was educated at first by his uncle, the Abbott of the monastery at nearby Wellow, before its dissolution by order of King Henry VIII. From there he was sent to St. Anthony’s school in London and thence to Queens College, Cambridge in 1549, then to Pembroke Hall in 1550. By 1555 he was a Fellow at Peterhouse. He took religious orders in 1560, the

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second year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Whitgift had a spectacular career at Cambridge, becoming Regius Professor of Divinity in 1567 and Master of Pembroke Hall, then of Trinity College. The two Bacon brothers, Anthony and Francis, lodged with him in the master’s house at Trinity, in 1575, courtesy of Lord Burghley, who had become (among other things, Chancellor of Cambridge University. In 1577 Whitgift was elevated to Bishop of Worcester. Whitgift, helped Burghley to re-write the statutes of the university in 1579 and became Vice Chancellor the following year. He was ruthless in pursuit of ideological uniformity. In that year he had a public dispute on theological matters with another professor, Thomas Cartwright. Though his oratory was judged inferior, he used his authority as Vice Chancellor and Master of Trinity to deprive Cartwright of both his professorship and his Fellowship. In that year Whitgift also became Dean of Lincoln Cathedral. Whitgift, still Burghley’s protegé, became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1583. His policy, with support from the Queen, was to impose absolute doctrinal conformity, partly to prevent a repetition of the religious strife that had devastated the country during “bloody” Mary’s reign and partly to compensate for the resulting scarcity of educated Protestant clergy. This meant suppressing not only the Roman Catholics but also the Puritans. After William Cecil’s so-called religious settlement of 1559, the Queen had approved a list of 39 articles to enforce religious conformity. These articles had to be accepted and obeyed by all clerics.

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Failure to obey was enough to brand a parish priest as an heretic and/or schismatic. The Book of Common Prayer (1552) was introduced by Whitgift as a mandatory substitute for the Mass and the lack of educated parish priests. Later Queen Elizabeth created a Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes, to hear and judge accusations of heresy. The commission originally included several magistrates to assure conformity with the Magna Carta and the common law. Whitgift’s strongest opponent within the legal establishment was none other than Kit Marlowe’s natural father, Sir Roger Manwood. Manwood had been knighted and appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1578, probably at the urging of Sir Thomas Gresham, the Queen’s “merchant” and financial advisor-agent.16 Sir Roger Manwood had been the presiding judge at the trial of , the first among the returning priests from Dr. Allen’s seminary at Douai to become a martyr. Although a Puritan sympathizer he (Manwood) was appointed as one of the judges on Whitgift’s Commission for Ecclesiastical

16.The Exchequer in the 16th century was a government office consisting of two parts. The upper part was a court whose function was a combination of accounting and auditing the semi- annual reports of the Sheriffs, who were in charge of all financial affairs of the counties (both collecting revenues and disbursing payments). The Barons of the Exchequer were, effectively, senior auditors, with some other responsibilities. The lower part of the Exchequer was effectively the state treasury. The Lord High Treasurer (Burghley) was overall responsible for the Queen’s revenues and expenditures.

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Causes, which was intended to root out closet Catholics. However Whitgift gradually converted that Commission into a weapon aimed at non-conformists in general, which included Puritans and Jews (and marrons) as well as Catholics. His very first move, even before taking office in 1583, was to send a list of eleven “articles” to the Bishops, demanding strict adherence and enforcement. Ministers had to agree to the whole package, and sign an oath ex officio (i.e. as a condition of office). The oath declared, among other things, that they had not broken any Church rules. If they had sinned, they had to bring evidence against themselves to the Commission, or be perjured. Next, Whitgift simplified the Queen’s 39 articles of belief to a shorter but tougher list of 28. One of those articles, which many ministers (not only Puritans) disliked, was a requirement to swear that the Book of Common Prayer was the actual word of God {Dawley, 1955 #302} pp162-163. Scrupulous Puritan sympathizers – like Walsingham and Manwood – were unable to agree to that article, and it got them into a lot of trouble. Ministers who did not sign the articles were suspended from the ministry. Ministers from Kent (where Manwood lived) and Suffolk sent remonstrances to the Privy Council. Parliament attacked Whitgift’s use of the oath ex officio {Dawley, 1955 #302}pp 167-168. The Privy Council itself asked him to moderate his approach. But it did no good. In fact, a month after this happened, in 1586, Whitgift was appointed by Queen Elizabeth as a member of the Privy Council itself. Meanwhile, the Archbishop continually undermined,

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weakened or simply over-rode the judges on the High Commission. In October 1588 Whitgift demanded, and was given, inquisitory power. The Commission on Ecclesiastical Causes was converted to a Court of High Commission, to expose and punish any form of doctrinal dissent. The Court of High Commission expanded it’s jurisdiction to allow sentences not only of deprivation (of office) but also of imprisonment, torture and death by hanging or burning at the stake. Francis Kett, formerly one of Kit Marlowe’s tutors at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was one of the first to be burned, in January 1589. His crime was allegedly doubting the divinity of Jesus {DNB, 2004 #334 “Francis Kett”} Puritans John Greenwood (Peterhouse), and Henry Barrowe (Corpus Christi), and John Udall (of Trinity), were tried for suspected involvement in anti-establishment pamphleteering under the nom-de- plume “Martin Marprelate’. (Note the double use of “Mar”). Udall died in prison and Penry was executed. The Martin Marprelate episode was crucial both for Kit Marlowe and his father Roger Manwood. I discuss it in the next chapter. When the Court of High Commission met once a week, in the Privy Council’s meeting roiom, Archbishop Whitgift presided, and did much of the interrogation. The Court virtually never acquitted any accused person. More and more lawyers and judges opposed the Archbishop’s perversion of justice and common law, but with Burghley’s and the Queen’s backing, the Archbishop won every skirmish. After a while Roger Manwood stopped attending meetings of the Commission.

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Queen Elizabeth. who was normally moderate, tolerated Whitgift’s intolerance for two reasons. In the first place, she agreed with his policy of enforcing external religious uniformity – it was her policy to begin with – if not necessarily with the ferocity with which he pursued it. The reason for this policy, of course, was to prevent any recurrence of the internecine religious strife of her youth, especially the orgy of burnings (at least 300) that marked “bloody Mary” Tudor’s reign. But she did not interfere with Whitgift’s methods possibly because, in the second place, she was being blackmailed, at least implicitly. Whitgift was in a position to expose her claim to be the “virgin queen” as the fiction it was, and he was ruthless and unscrupulous enough to do it. Her public affair with Lord Oxford in 1572-73, and the possible child resulting,17 would have been sufficient, although there were also plenty of backstairs rumors that she had other secret children – several of whom were high aristocrats and important personages by 1590 – fathered by Robert Dudley (Leicester), not to mention earlier ones fathered by Tom Seymour and Philip II of Spain. As Archbishop he could have denounced her behavior, and her hypocrisy, from the pulpit of every church in the land. The rumors were widely circulated among the courtiers. It was illegal and dangerous to talk or write publically about such things, but that only made the backstairs gossip more interesting. But the most

17.See “” in Wikipedia fora number of references, mostly associated with the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship. .

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obvious source of his knowledge was directly from the confessional. The Archbishop was, of course, the Queen’s personal confessor – and blackmailer.

Chapter 11: Manwood, Martin Marprelate, and the marron murders

The famous “Martin Marprelate” pamphlets, aimed at Whitgift and his acolytes, began appearing in autumn 1588, soon after Kit Marlowe’s return from the Four l’eveque prison in Paris. It coincided with, and may have provided the excuse for the conversion of Whitgift’s Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes into the Court of High Commission, with inquisitorial power. The anonymous pamphlets, of which the authorship has never been formally acknowledged, were clever attacks on the misbehavior and pretensions, as well as the theology of the Church of England episcopacy. The series continued for a year until September 1589. The Marprelate tracts, which used epithets like “Beelzebub of Canterbury”, “Canterbury Caiaphas” and “Esau, a monstrous anti-Christ” while describing the convocation as “House of the Devils”, infuriated the Archbishop and the rest of the bishops. This triggered an even more vicious crackdown against dissidents. The campaign began with the publication in October 1588 of a pamphlet The Epistle, a satirical attack on the bishop’s behavior, published under the name “Martin

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Marprelate” {Pierce, 1918 #299}. A few weeks later came a second tract The Epitome, a satiric essay. It was distributed at court by one Humphrey Newman, a “cobbler” (really a book man) who hid the printed pamphlets in other goods on a handcart. People laughed, but the Bishops were furious. Next came a tract entitled Minerall and Metaphysical Schoolpoints. It was followed Hay any Work for Cooper? (a street cry) which was a response to An Admonition to the People of England, published in January 1589 by Bishop Cooper, of Winchester. Based on anagrams found by Ballantine (not shown here), I think that The Epistle was written by Roger Manwood and The Epitome was a joint effort of Manwood with his son Kit. They collaborated later on Hay any work for Cooper, Martin Marprelate Senior, Martin Marprelate Junior and The Protestation. There is no direct evidence, but the language, not to mention the wit, suggest that the author(s) were highly educated and knowledgeable, as well as opposed to the actions and pretensions of the existing power-elite. Manwood and Marlowe have the right profiles, to say the least. Whitgift cleverly launched a literary counter-attack on “Martin Marprelate”. He hired several of Ned de Vere’s so- called “University Wits” for this purpose, including John Lyly, Thomas Nashe and Robert Greene. Nashe wrote Plaine Percival; Martin’s Months Mind, A Countercuffe to Martin Junior; The return of the renowned Cavaliero Pasquil of England ; An Almond for a Parrot, under the pseudonym “Pasquil”. In July 1589 Theses Martinianae, by Martin

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Marprelate Junior (actually Kit himself) followed by The Just Censure and Reproof of Martin Junior by “Martin Senior” appeared. The latter was written by Job Throckmorton, a spy working for Archbishop Whitgift, who pretended to be a friend of the Marprelate writers. The Censure and Reproof revealed the identity of several workers. Thanks to this leak by Throckmorton, on July 14, 1589 officers of the Earl of Derby arrested the Marprelate printers, who were working (at Job Throckmorton’s invitation) in a house near Manchester. The manager of the clandestine publishing enterprise was John ap-Henry – or Penry – another Cambridge acquaintance of Kit Marlowe’s. He was a Welsh nationalist who preached not only for religious tolerance but also agitated for the employment of Welsh-speaking preachers. After the raid on July 14, John Penry managed to escape to Scotland where he remained for three years before foolishly returning to London to preach, in early 1593. In September 1589 Roger Manwood wrote the last of the seven “true” Marprelate essays. It was The Protestation of Martin Marprelate, wrongly attributed by some (like the first two) to John Penry. Roger Manwood managed to print it himself, aided by one Verstigan a broad-minded Catholic printer-publisher, who knew Kit from a secret mission in Paris at the same time Kit was there. However Lyly, Nashe, Watson, Harvey and others got some employment from the anti-Martinist faction (i.e. Whitgift and the Church hierarchy) and kept attacking each other under pseudonyms for several years thereafter.

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*** The Marprelate affair had another unfortunate consequence. On September 18, 1589 on a small street called Hog Lane, near Fisher’s Folly (where the University Wits were living), Kit was attacked on the street by a fellow named William Bradley, who was the son of a vintner in Gray’s Inn Lane, nearby. It is possible that Bradley, who needed money, was a “pursuivant” (private detective) working for Archbishop Whitgift, and that he had been looking for “Martin Marprelate”. There was a rumor at the time that Marprelate was called “Jacques” or “Jack”, and that he was “halt, and club-foot” {Pierce, 1918 #299}. Bradley may have noticed that Kit Marlowe did have a clubfoot and walked with a slight limp. He (Bradley) tried to be clever. Perhaps he called out "Jacques!". Kit turned around. Bradley, thinking “Gotcha”, then drew a rapier and supposedly they fought. This is rather implausible because there is no indication anywhere that Kit had learned to fight with a sword, although he might have had some training with a theatrical prop version. Could he have been carrying it? We will never know. Luckily for Kit, who was a wordsman not a swordsman, his friend and fellow secret agent Tom Watson arrived in the nick of time, perhaps having heard the shouting in the street. Bradley, who knew Watson and hated him, allegedly said “Art now come?” He then turned to attack Watson, who was a much more appropriate opponent. There was a feud in the background of the quarrel.

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Bradley had defaulted on a debt to John Alleyn, the brother of the actor Edward Alleyn. He (John) was a producer of plays and employer of playwrights. But instead of paying the money owed, Bradley responded with a law-suit alleging that Alleyn, Watson and Watson’s brother-in-law Hugo Swift intended to kill him. There must have been some basis for this claim, because no court would rely in the unsupported word of a low-ranking litigant. Bradley had asked the court to force the Alleyns to post bond to be forfeited in case of any injury to himself {Riggs, 2004 #17}. The idea was to insure himself against physical retribution. He was a troublesome knave, to say the very least. As the sword-fight (if it was a sword fight) went on, Kit, hoping to aid Watson, struck down Bradley’s sword. This intervention had the unintended consequence that Watson was badly injured in the leg. However, Watson finally did kill Bradley, whether on purpose or not. David Riggs thinks that – having the excuse of being attacked with a witness present – Watson then killed Bradley deliberately as a favor to John Alleyn {Riggs, 2004 #17}. Both Marlowe and Watson were then arrested and jailed in {Eccles, 1967 #303}. Kit was let out on bail October 1, after only twelve days in jail. At the next session of the Old Bailey, December 3 he appeared before none other than his father, judge Sir Roger Manwood, who must have made a point of presiding on that occasion. The case against Kit was dismissed as self- defense. Meanwhile, Tom Watson, still in prison, was writing an

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anti-Marprelate tract for Whitgift. Kit and Tom Nashe, visited him and offered assistance. Together they turned the tract into a nonsense piece, with neat suggestions of the three authors’ initials {Sainsbury, 1892/1970 #304}. Watson was finally freed on February 12, 1590, still suffering from his leg-wound. That leg-wound, which never healed properly, may have caused Watson’s death a few years later. Kit used this set of events in his play Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio was fatally injured by Tybalt, due to a well-meant but misjudged interference in a similar sword fight. Charles Norman seems to have been the first to notice this coincidence {Norman, 1947 #496}. *** Whitgift had begun to see potential subversives, meaning anybody who did not agree with his policies, in high government positions. He may have used the High Commission to assemble evidence – never published – that several of Queen Elizabeth’s most senior and loyal advisors, all intermarried and reputed to be marrano, descendants of converted Jews, through the female line, all from wealthy merchant families based in London were Puritan apostates, if not outright heretics. He thought that some of them might have been involved in the Marprelate episode and that they were opposing his (her) policies of religious conformity. In fact, Whitgift reflected a general suspicion of Jews and marranos, and his persecution – like that of Torquemada in Spain – was as much anti-Semitic as anti-heretic. Whitgift, with the Queen’s reluctant support, decided that four of these men had to be eliminated. They were Sir Walter

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Mildmay, Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Thomas Randolph and Sir Roger Manwood. Lacking any basis for formal prosecution, he arranged for their executions to be carried out in secret. The account that follows is based on Ballantine’s anagrams and is not to be found in any official history, though it is entirely consistent what has been documented officially. As already mentioned, the Archbishop held over the Queen’s head the implied threat of official ecclesiastic denunciation of her sexual activities and her motherhood. She was forced to, allow the secret executions, but she insisted that they should be painless (by bleeding) and that they should be carried out by her personal physician, Ruy Lopes, a Portuguese doctor who she mistakenly trusted. Each of the victims was allowed to choose the date of his death within three months. Acquiescence by the victims was purchased by the promise that family members would not be harmed and property inheritance would be unaffected. However the Queen reckoned without Whitgift’s sadistic nature. The first of the marranos to be executed was Sir Walter Mildmay, a member of the Privy Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1566. He was married to Mary Walsingham, a sister of Sir Francis Walsingham. He was executed in secret on May 31, 1589 by supposedly painless bleeding, as promised by the Queen. The execution was carried out by Doctor Lopes. But Lopes was bribed by Whitgift to add a brutal feature called “rodding” – a sharp pointed stick shoved up the anus into the intestines – to

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make the death as painful and degrading as possible. Mildmay’s death was followed by the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, another Puritan and reputed marrano. As I said earlier, the Queen hated him for having forced her to execute Mary, Queen of Scots, a cousin and fellow royal. He was killed in the same way on April 6, 1590, despite a last desperate appeal to the Queen. Walsingham was buried, according to his instructions “by dark in Paul’s church in London without any funeral solemnity” {Budiansky, 2005 #29}p.213. The cause of death, according to the chronicler Camden, was either a tumor in the testicles or “through violence of medicines”, meaning that nobody really knew (ibid). When Walsingham submitted to his execution at the hands of the Queen’s physician, Doctor Lopes, by order of Archbishop Whitgift, he had been supporting a network of secret agents partly out of his own resources, for sixteen years. His son-in-law Robert Devereux (the Earl of Essex) was present at Walsingham’s death as one of the official witnesses. Lord Essex was there because he was married to Walsingham’s daughter Frances. (It was her second marriage. Her first husband was Sir Philip Sidney who had died of a musket wound at Zutphen in the Netherlands in August 1586). The night of Walsingham’s execution Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex and his servants (including Anthony and Francis Bacon) collected all the documents from Walsingham’s house, including the dossiers on a number of the agents in his networks. Historians assume

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that the papers were confiscated by “the government”, but Burghley and Robert Cecil did not know what was happening until too late. The Essex crew transported all the papers they could find to Essex House. Subsequently, Essex and the Bacon brothers hired several of “Mr Secretary” Walsingham’s former agents to recreate his spy network under Essex’s authority, and at his expense. One recruit was Walsingham’s former page and secretary, Nicholas Faunt who, as a young boy, had carried the news of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in Paris back to London. Another recruit was the cipher expert Thomas Phelippes. Anthony Standen was a third. For the next several years Essex and the Bacon brothers, Anthony and Francis, operated their own unofficial intelligence service in competition with what was left of the official spy network. It is unclear which or how many of the other putative agents made the switch. Essex, who was not especially rich, probably couldn’t afford to hire them all. Like Walsingham himself, Essex and the Bacon brothers had to pay the costs of their network of spies themselves. Walsingham died in debt and his daughter had only a small endowment. Anthony Bacon, who was a younger son, had inherited a small part of Sir Nicholas Bacon’s estate, which he contributed to the cause. It was the family home, York House, where Lord Essex made his headquarters. Francis Bacon, the step-son of Sir Nicholas,

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inherited no property or money.18 The post of Principal Secretary of State, with financing from the treasury and formal authority over the secret service budget, was left unfilled for the next five years. During that time, Lord Burghley (William Cecil) and his son Robert, and Robert’s deputy Thomas Heneage, kept the real authority, as well as some of the agents, notably Robert Poley. In 1595 Robert Cecil finally got the vacant Secretary of State appointment. This infuriated Essex and may have been one of the frustrations that finally prompted his over-reaction and his foolish expeditions to the Azores and Ireland that led to his foolish rebellion and downfall. But that was later. The third Puritan-marrano to die, on May 8, 1590, was Thomas Randolph, also from a merchant family, who had a long career as a diplomat, mainly to Scotland. Randolph was also married to a sister of Francis Walsingham, Anne and after she died his second wife was related to Roger Manwood’s second wife. (The victims were all closely related

18.Baconians believe that Francis Bacon was a secret child of Queen Elizabeth, and that he had been “farmed out” to Lady Bacon, who had been her Lady-in-Waiting at the time of his birth. The name of the father is in doubt. Baconians believe it was Robert Dudley, har acknowledged lover. Roberta Ballantine believes it was Walsingham. The latter fits with her failure to give Francis Bacon any preferment during her lifetime, because she had come to hate Walsingham for his persecution of Mary Queen of Scots. She was also notoriously rank-conscious and Walsingham was a commoner. There are other hints that QE had a number of secret children, many of whom were important in their own right at that time, but this topic cannot be pursued

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by marriage.) He spent a year as Ambassador in Moscow (1568-69), probably on behalf of the Muscovy company. Randolf was Walsingham’s successor as Ambassador to France in 1573, after Walsingham returned to England, and again in 1576. But more interesting perhaps, Randolph had also been an active secret agent for years, as a diplomatic representative in Scotland (1559, 1560, 1563, 1566, 1570, 1578, 1581, 1586). It was he who attempted to negotiate the abortive marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Robert Dudley, Queen Elizabeth’s favorite, then later to prevent her unfortunate marriage to Lord Darnley. He was involved in the Lennox affair and several others. His last assignment in Scotland was to negotiate the peace treaty between the two kingdoms that was finally signed by King James VI of Scotland, who later became King James I of England. Thomas Randolph succeeded Walter Mildmay as Chancellor of the Exchequer when Mildmay was executed in 1589 and simultaneously held the job as Master of the King’s Posts. (He reorganized the postal system during that year and made it much more efficient.) He may, or may not, have been knighted for his services – there is no record – but he was never rewarded in any other way. Kit Marlowe’s father, Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron of the Exchequer (and one of the judges of the Court of High Commission) was the fourth and last victim in that series of secret executions. On December 14, 1592 Roger Manwood was executed in the same manner as Mildmay, Walsingham

here.

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and Randolph. That event, which had an enormous impact on Kit Marlowe’s life, is discussed in a later chapter. It may be significant that three of the four men executed secretly at the orders of Archbishop Whitgift had senior appointments at the Exchequer, and therefore were in a position to know a great deal about the finances of Lord Burghley, who had been Lord Treasurer. Could Burghley have conspired in their deaths? In the first place, Burghley was responsible for Whitgift’s appointment and was his backer on the Privy Council. In this regard, Burghley’s legendary greed could be a factor. He started as a middle class gentleman-lawyer with no fortune, worked in government all his life, and died very rich, albeit not as rich as his son Robert. Part of his great wealth undoubtedly came from his control, as Master of Wards, over the finances of aristocratic orphans such as the earls of Oxford, Derby, Pembroke and Southampton. Some historians have speculated that he embezzled huge amounts – up to £20,000 a year – from the Queen. She was, by contrast, notoriously frugal, except when it came to showering gifts on her lover, the Earl of Leicester. Burghley had been appointed Lord Treasurer in 1573 when he was elevated to the peerage, so he certainly knew where the money was coming from and where it went. Mildmay, Randolph and Manwood all worked in and around the treasury, while Walsingham, who was closely related to the others by marriage and religion, knew a lot about everyone, probably including Burghley. Moreover, the deaths of Walsingham and Randolph sharply reduced the

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power of the secret service, which Burghley may have begun to see as a threat to himself. Walsingham’s opposition to Burghley in the matter of the Queen’s marriage to the Duc d’Anjou could have been a factor also. In any event, by the time Walsingham died, England had become what we would now describe as a police state in all but name. Written materials of all sorts were censored and many books were banned. The Stationer’s Register was essentially a censorship agency after 1587. Certain topics, including contemporary politics, especially with regard to the Queen’s succession, were absolutely forbidden. Another forbidden topic was contemporary news, including court gossip, especially in regard to the “virgin” Queen’s several love affairs and possible secret children resulting. The most notorious line of speculation concerns her rather public affair with the Earl of Oxford and the later consequences. This is known as the “Prince Tudor Theory” on the web. There were some free-thinkers in those days, no. doubt reacting to the oppression. Marlowe was one. But they met in select, private groups, such as the “school of night”, or in secret societies such as the Freemasons or Rosicrucians. In a totalitarian police state, it was too dangerous to write in plain language, or even to talk openly.

Chapter 12: The Stanley plot and the Flushing episode

As mentioned in the last chapter, the sudden death of Sir

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Francis Walsingham on April 6 1590 created a division in the Secret Service. Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex had just married Walsingham’s daughter Frances – who was also Philip Sidney’s widow – just before Walsingham’s death. The connection by marriage created the opportunity for Essex to familiarize himself with, and finally take over, the files and the network of agents, without any formal transfer or appointment. Most of the files, as well as senior staffers such as Nicholas Faunt and Thomas Phelippes were immediately moved to Essex House {Harrison, 1937 #272}. This power-grab was probably urged by Francis Bacon and his brother Anthony Bacon, who saw the Earl of Essex as the next Court favorite – after Raleigh – and a possible future King. On the other hand, the Queen was offended by Robert Devereux’s secret marriage to Frances Walsingham Sidney, as she was always offended by the marriages of her favorites. She also hated Walsingham for his role in forcing her to sign the death warrant for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Finally, she was rank-conscious and she disapproved of her favorite marrying a woman lacking aristocratic status. In any case, formal authority, and the budget, remained under the control or Lord Burghley, who delegated the diplomatic work through his adopted son Robert Cecil and Sir Thomas Heneage, who had been a close friend and long-time colleague of Francis Walsingham. Robert Cecil had just became a member of Parliament for Hertfordshire (since 1589), and he married the daughter of William

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Brooke, Lord Cobham in that year. The Queen did not object to that marriage, for some reason, perhaps because Robert Cecil was not a courtier. But she appointed him to the Privy Council in 1591 at the age of 28, the youngest ever. By 1596 Robert Cecil was de facto Secretary of State and, as such, head of the state secret service. Robert Cecil and Robert Devereux were bitter rivals for the Queen’s confidence. Robert Cecil was older by three years, and smarter by far, but he was lacking in physical beauty and charisma. In fact he was a hunchback, and the probable model for Marlowe’s Richard III. Those two ambitious men were destined to compete with each other, and later with Francis Bacon, for honors and preferments, and ultimately for power. However in the first few months after Walsingham’s death and departure from the scene, Essex was much more worried about the influence of Sir Walter Raleigh than that of Robert Cecil. Burghley was getting old and his influence on the Privy Council and the Queen was gradually being over-shadowed by that of Archbishop Whitgift. Robert Cecil was not yet a member of the Privy Council. To a man like the Earl of Essex, who was obsessed with military glory and the physical appearance of strength and power, it was easy, at first, to overlook the unprepossessing hunchback. For the next two years, at least, Essex viewed Raleigh as his rival for the Queen’s favor. He was making a big mistake. Raleigh was brilliant, greedy and ambitious and he knew how to please the Queen, but extravagant gestures and flattery were not a

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substitute for either feudal rank or government authority, of which he had neither. In fact, his secret marriage and the birth of a son got him banned from the court and imprisoned in the Tower in 1592. But in 1590-93 it was never entirely clear who was doing what, in the intelligence sphere, or under whose authority. The counterfeiting episode in Flushing, which occurred during January 1592 was a perfect example. As mentioned in the last chapter, Sir Francis Walsingham died (by order of Archbishop Whitgift) in early 1590. For the next several years the secret service was split between the private activities of the Earl of Essex, run by Anthony Bacon and Thomas Phelippes, and the official organization – lacking some of its major players – under Lord Burghley and his son, Robert Cecil. This period of confusion may have been seen as an opportunity by some. During 1590-91 there was yet another Catholic plot brewing in the Low Countries, the so-called “Stanley plot”. William Stanley (a cousin of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange) was a renegade soldier. He had fought very well in Ireland years earlier but got no reward for it. Apparently Raleigh was given the lands he had hoped for. He went to fight in the Netherlands originally with the Earl of Leicester in the summer of 1586. He helped capture the town of Deventer, and then, together with Sir Rowland Yorke, switched sides and handed it back to the Spanish on January 29, 1587. Of his regiment of 900 men (some say 1200) about a third remained loyal to the Queen while the other 600 stayed with him in Deventer {Heywood, 1851

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#440; DNB, 2004 #334 “Stanley”}. Walsingham was certainly watching Stanley and looking for an opportunity to penetrate the closed circle of Stanley loyalists in Deventer. But his own death in 1590 precluded any action. It seems that, during his two weeks in Newgate back in September 1589, after the Bradley killing, Kit Marlowe may have met there a counterfeiter named Poole, and learned some secrets about “mixing metals” from him. Evidently the man Poole was there at the time and Marlowe may well have met him, although the conditions in the prison were hardly conducive to private conversations on technical subjects. It is highly unlikely that a writer and poet like Marlowe, acting on his own behalf, would have taken a great interest in alloys and counterfeiting, unless he had it in mind to use that information in a future plot for a play. On the other hand it is just possible that Marlowe was encouraged to meet with Poole in the prison, and that the opportunity to do so was arranged by the secret service , which is to say Walsingham). It might have been a shot in the dark, hoping to establish a connection with Poole in order to open a possible channel to William Stanley, the renegade of Deventer. Poole was a Catholic subversive with direct connections to the English Catholic seminary at Reims and to the Stanley clan {Nicholl, 1992 #16} chapter 26. In fact, Poole was married to Mary Stanley, daughter of Rowland Stanley of Hooton, which made him the brother-in- law of William Stanley, the renegade soldier. Poole may also have served with William Stanley in Ireland.

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When interviewed in prison by an informer named Gunson, Poole strongly defended Stanley’s actions at Deventer {Nicholl, 1992 #16}. In short, Poole was not a potential double agent. But acquaintance with Poole was a possible entree to the circle around William Stanley. Walsingham, or Phelippes, may have thought that Poole’s conviction as a counterfeiter could be the key to a possible approach to Stanley by Marlowe. So maybe Marlowe was encouraged to find out as much as possible about the counterfeiting operations, with such a caper in mind. Perhaps there was even a deal of some sort to get Poole’s cooperation. To support this notion, it seems Poole may have been back in business, in 1593, carrying stolen church plate from Winchester Cathedral to Holland. Marlowe’s presence in Newgate at that particular time (September 1989) was an accident, but Poole had been there for some time, so perhaps it was an accident waiting to happen. Walsingham was not one to neglect opportunities, however they arose. The first mention of the “Stanley plot” in the records seems to be a letter turned over to Burghley by a turncoat priest named Cycell. It was supposedly from the Jesuit Robert Persons to Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange {Nicholl, 1992 #16}. (How did Cycell get this letter? There are suspicions it might have been forged). Anyhow, Father Persons and Sir William Stanley, Lord Strange’s cousin, continued to urge expatriate Catholics to “cast their eyes” on Lord Strange (Ferdinando Stanley) as a possible successor to the Queen, in the event of her death.

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Thomas Phelippes wrote a memo (to Anthony Bacon?) about the plot in September 1591. The scheme, as revealed later, was for William Stanley to bring his renegade army back to England after a successful assassination of the Queen, there to be joined by another army to be raised by his “competitor”. The “competitor” in question was presumed by the paranoids in the secret service to be his cousin, Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange {Riggs, 2004 #17} pp.275-76. A couple of officers in William Stanley’s army, John Tipping and Ensign Garrett, offered their services as volunteer assassins (ibid),{Seaton, 1929 #441}. But, as always, the plotters had visions of spontaneous uprisings by armies of secret Catholic supporters in England, where there were no such armies in reality. There is no evidence whatsoever that Ferdinando Stanley knew anything about this plot, still less committed himself to join it. Ferdinando Stanley became the 5th Earl of Derby when the 4th Earl died in early 1592. Especially since the death in 1591 of Katheryn Tudor of Berain, the illegitimate great grand-daughter of Henry VII, he had became the primary target of Catholic expatriates looking for a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth.19 Shortly after succeeding to

19.Ferdinando’s mother (or adopted mother) was Lady Margaret Clifford, daughter of Henry Clifford and Eleanor Brandon, who was a daughter of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor, the younger sister of King Henry VIII. In fact Margaret Clifford was the presumptive heiress of Queen Elizabeth from 1578 until her death in 1596.

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the Earldom, Ferdinando was approached by Robert Hesketh, the son of a neighboring Lancashire Catholic family. He was representing a group of Catholic expatriates abroad, probably led by his renegade cousin William Stanley. The subject broached by Hesketh was whether Ferdinando was interested in a possible succession to the crown. Ferdinando Stanley denounced Hesketh to Robert Cecil, and Hesketh was captured and hanged in due course. This may have led to Ferdinando Stanley’s later unexplained death, possibly a murder in revenge. But in 1591 William Stanley was alive and well in Deventer, in the Netherlands, and in need of funds to pay his men. It is entirely plausible that he was involved in a counterfeiting operation. In fact, in August 1591 £1800 worth of gold plate was stolen from Winchester Cathedral by a gang led by one Richard Williams that included Edwin Bushell, a servant of Lord Strange {Riggs, 2004 #17} p.276.20 Some of that stolen plate was subsequently melted down and coined in the chambers of a cousin, Sir Griffin Markham. Richard Williams then took the counterfeit coins and joined Essex’s 1591 expedition to France to make contact with the (then) Huguenot, Henry Bourbon, King of Navarre who was fighting against the Catholic League for

20.The dates don’t fit. If the robbery took place in August 1591, Williams could not have joined Essex’s expedition to meet with Henri Bourbon, in France, which took place in July 1591. The robbery in Winchester must have been much earlier, perhaps in 1590.

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the throne of France. But when Williams got to France he deserted and joined William Stanley’s army, then camped in Nijmegen, the Netherlands (ibid). Richard Williams was later captured and executed, as a would-be assassin. It is not clear how much of these goings-on behind the scenes Phelippes or Anthony Bacon knew about at the time. Ballantine’s anagrams suggest that Kit went privateering in the Channel that winter (1591-92), with his old friend Captain Kester Carleill and his friend’s friend, Captain Sampson Denball. Possibly this was to avoid Lord Oxford (Ned) and Burghley, both of whom were very angry at Kit for private reasons I will explain later. In January 1592 Carleill’s ship Tyger dropped Kit Marlowe at Flushing, the English-held port at the mouth of the Schelde river controlling access to Antwerp. It was a small town with a very mixed population, mostly Flemish, but with a considerable English garrison and a floating population of smugglers and other marginal types. Theoretically anybody traveling abroad should have had a passport from the Secretary of State or the Privy Council, and new arrivals were supposed to report to the governor. But Flushing was arguably English territory. Moreover, given his mode of travel, it is likely that Kit did not arrive officially, and unlikely that he was using his own name. The governor was Sir Robert Sidney, younger brother of Philip Sidney and Mary Sidney Herbert. And, curiously, the person in charge of all official secret agents in the low countries, reporting to Vice Chamberlain of the Household, Sir Thomas Heneage (and through him, to Robert Cecil or

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Lord Burghley) was none other than “sweet Robin” Poley {Seaton, 1929 #441}.21 Poley would have been Marlowe’s contact if he had been working for the official branch of the secret service. And who was the other secret agent assigned to the project? It was none other than the possible double agent, Richard Baines. One biographer claims that Marlowe had shared a room with Baines for some weeks in the previous winter, but he offers no evidence and I find no other confirmation {Riggs, 2004 #17}. It will be remembered that Baines was the turncoat priest who, as an agent for Walsingham, had tried (but failed) to poison William Allen at the English Catholic seminary in Reims, back in 1582. Where was Richard Baines after his release from jail and return to England from Reims in 1583? The very fact that he had been released instead of executed in Reims suggests the possibility that he had been recruited by Dr. Allen to act as a double agent. But, after April 1590 suspicious Walsingham was no longer running the State secret service and Burghley wasn’t an experienced spy-master (or

21.Recall that Poley was the agent mainly credited, or blamed, for “honey-trapping” Anthony Babington, back in 1586. That was when Marlowe (in the persona of Gilbert Gifford) was opening the communication channel with Mary, Queen of Scots,

while she was held incommunicado at Chartley Hall.

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counter-spy).22 Anyhow, in early January 1592 Kit Marlowe and Richard Baines found themselves together again, living in the house of a certain goldsmith allegedly named Gifford Gilbert. Baines’ story, as told later, is that they were jointly

22.It happens that in 1587 one Richard Baines, a Cambridge man, was appointed Rector of Waltham, near Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire. According to Charles Nicholl it was almost certainly the same Baines {Nicholl, 1992 #16} p. 130, and Peter Farey agrees {Farey, 2000 #14}. Farey also points out that the appointment as rector at that time entitled the beneficiary to receive tithes, without any particular sacerdotal duties (such as delivering sermons). In other words, it was a sinecure. The award of a sinecure like that must have been a quid pro quo for valuable service of some sort. Given his spy background, it is very plausible that Baines was recruited to work as an intelligencer for Whitgift’s High Commission, which was busy tracking and prosecuting Puritans as well as recusant Catholics. It is also plausible that Baines was assigned to discover the true authorship and publishers of the Martin Marprelate pamphlets. There is every reason to suppose that Baines was working for Archbishop Whitgift as well as for Dr ( Cardinal) William Allen and for Essex. A triple agent!

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attempting to produce and “utter” (circulate) counterfeit coins. The obvious reason for this – apart from illicit personal wealth – would be to worm their way into the renegade William Stanley’s confidence. Baines, who was officially a Catholic priest, still had contacts at Reims (Clitherow for example). Marlowe still had his identity – never blown – as “Gilbert Gifford”, also a priest from Reims (although the Stafford and the Paris branch of the Catholic League thought that “Gilbert Gifford” was still in prison). I think he used it in Flushing. Perhaps it was an error. On paper, Baines and Marlowe (Colerdin) would appear to be well-suited to the purpose of getting into William Stanley’s confidence, if only they could work harmoniously together. But Baines, whether he was trying to work for one or two masters, was paranoid himself and incapable of trusting others. He did not trust the goldsmith, or the “Gifford Gilbert” identity, which was likely to attract the wrong kind of attention among Catholic exiles. Even though he must have recognized Marlowe as a fellow agent from their earlier encounter in Reims, when Marlowe was using a different name (possibly Colerdin) they had not liked each other then, and close confinement together in a small house in Flushing made the dislike worse. At first they tried to work together. Several test examples of counterfeit coins were made by the goldsmith, but he was not really an expert counterfeiter and the results were not convincing. When the first test coin was put into circulation (a Dutch shilling) Baines apparently panicked and decided to save his own skin by betraying his partner. He

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went out, brought in the local guards and accused Kit of “uttering” counterfeit coins. That was a serious crime punishable in England by death (although the counterfeiter Poole who Marlowe had met in Newgate prison, was not executed). Kit, thinking fast, accused Baines of the same crime. As British subjects, they were taken to see the governor, Sir Robert Sidney. Poley might have been there in the background as a witness. Baines, who did not know Kit’s real name, was shouting and repeating the cover name “Gilbert Gifford” in front of Governor Sidney. Was Baines confusing Gilbert Gifford with Gifford Gilbert the goldsmith? Have historians confused the names? (Was there ever a Gifford Gilbert?) The confusion of names is suspicious in itself. Could Baines have been running a covert operation for William Allen to identify Gilbert Gifford as an English agent? Not altogether unlikely. Or was it a deliberate attempt by Baines to blow Marlowe’s cover and thus recover his own lost credibility among the Catholics? We don’t know. But in front of Governor Sidney, both men claimed that they had induced the goldsmith to make counterfeit coins just to test his skill. Governor Sidney, who was not a fool, did not believe that story. He did think the goldsmith had been duped, however. His first thought was that Baines had panicked because he realized that the quality of the counterfeits was too poor to pass, and that they would quickly be caught. However the first to confess has an advantage. Marlowe, knowing that the mission was blown, had to persuade Robert Sidney that he was not a simple criminal. He told

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Sidney that he was a scholar, named “Morley”, who was known to Lords Northumberland (the “Wizard Earl Percy) and Strange (Ferdinando Stanley), both important Catholic peers. This was probably to create enough doubt about his identity to justify being returned to England rather than being tried for counterfeiting as a criminal by local authorities, where the death sentence was all too likely. Governor Sidney probably realized that Marlowe was more than he appeared to be (perhaps Robert Poley whispered in his ear) but he wanted no part of this mess. The Flushing episode ended with Gilbert (the goldsmith) and Marlowe’s arrest (as “Morley, the Scholar”) by Governor Sidney, and their joint extradition back to England on January 26, 1592, as prisoners. It would have been a rough crossing in January. Baines went along as a witness {Eccles, 1982 #263}. Governor Sidney mentioned, in his accompanying letter to Lord Burghley, that Baines and Morley had accused each other of inducing the goldsmith to do the job.23 Moreover, the letter continues “the scholar says himself to be very well known both to the Earl of Northumberland and to my Lord Strange” and that they had also accused each other of “intent to go to the enemy, or to Rome, both as they say of malice to one another” {Nicholl, 1992 #16} pp 279-80. Northumberland and Strange were both important Catholic families, so there was an implication that Marlowe might have been planning to go over to the Catholics. But Poley knew very well that Marlowe a.k.a

23.Letter printed in English Historical Review, April 1976, pp.344-45; also {Marlowe, 2006 #439}.

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Gifford a.k.a. Morley was not a Catholic sympathizer. I suspect he sent a note to his boss, Thomas Heneage at the Privy Council, on the same ship that took Marlow and Baines back to London. But that is just a guess. So, despite Baines’ suggestion of possible Catholic sympathies, Marlowe (“Morley”) was immediately released on arrival back in England. Lord Burghley immediately signed, without fuss, the warrant for payment for the costs of the escort service (£13 6s 8d) to Robert Sidney’s ensign, David Lloyd, on March 3, 1592. Riggs’ suggestion that the whole thing might have been some private criminal enterprise does not fit these facts {Riggs, 2004 #17}. The unresolved question is who Baines was working for, whether it was Burghley, Essex, Archbishop Whitgift or possibly Cardinal (as he was by then) William Allen. Marlowe’s quick release without punishment must be regarded as virtually conclusive evidence that his presence in Flushing was a legitimate secret service assignment on a matter of national security.

Chapter 13: A gold chain and the death of Manwood 1590-92

Kit Marlowe was in England for most of the time from 1589 until Flushing episode descibed in the last chapter (winter of 1591-92). His first big hit, Tamburlaine I had ended its long run in August 1590. Some time that summer Kit went with friends Tom Watson (the man who had saved his life in the

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Bradley duel a year earlier), Tom Nashe and Sam Daniel to meet Countess of Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert. The get- together was at Cardiff Castle in Wales. Sam Daniel was to be the tutor to her older son, William Herbert who must have been 10 years old at the time{DNB, 2004 #334 “William Herbert”}. Mary was herself a talented writer, editor of her brother Sir Philip Sidney’s poetry (Arcadia) and a translator. She was in love with the theater and she was, behind the scenes, the patroness of the theatrical company, Pembroke’s Men. She asked Kit to stay with her (was it the first time ?) and they began – or revived – a long intermittent love affair. He must have been working hard on finishing Tamburlaine II. It is unclear how long he stayed in Wales with Countess Mary. In December 1590 Kit Marlowe went with Tom Nashe to Titchfield (the country seat of Henry (“Hen”) Wriothesley, the young Earl of Southampton) to read Italian with John Florio, who was Hen’s tutor. The relationship between Kit and Hen stemmed from Henry Wriothesley’s brief presence at Cambridge in the autumn of 1583, during which Kit Marlowe and Tom Nashe had together acted as guides and mentors to the much younger boy. By January 9, 1591 Kit & Tom Nashe were still in Southampton with Hen. On this day, the corporation granted Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, “the freedom of the city” presumably in honor of his 17th birthday {Stopes, 1922, 1969 #260} p 39. Next day, January 10, Kit, Tom Nashe and Hen sailed off in Hen’s pinnace along south coast to Dover, stopping first at the ruins of Beaulieu Abbey, part of Hen’s estate.

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Here they read on an old stone the date of death of Henry II’s Queen, Elinor of Aquitaine: April 1, 1204 at the remarkable age of 81. Kit wrote it down to put in his play King John. She was the mother of both the crusader King Richard “Coeur de Lion” and King John, best known as the signatory of the Magna Carta or “Great Charter”.They sailed on to Dover. Kit and Tom Nashe rode from Dover to Canterbury to visit Kit’s family. Hen remained in Dover, too shy to visit a lower class home. By March 1591 Kit Marlowe was back in London rehearsing The Second Seven Deadly Sins, Kit – an actor, in comic parts, as well as playwright – broke his bad leg, the one with the club-foot. It was put in traction, and he had to stay put for some time at the boarding house where the “University Wits” were then lodged. It was Julie Arthur’s house (successor to their earlier place, “Fisher’s Folly”, which had been sold by Ned de Vere.) During those weeks Kit helped his temporary roommate Tom Kyd with his Spanish Tragedy. Tom Kyd specialized in writing about revenge, so they did some work together on a proto- Hamlet. Probably while he was laid up, Kit wrote or finished a set of 17 sonnets for Ned de Vere– who was the paymaster of the “University Wits” – about the desirability of marriage. The marriage in question was to be between de Vere’s daughter Elizabeth, who was Burghley’s grand-daughter, and Henry Wriothesley, the young Earl of Southampton. The occasion was Hen’s 17th birthday. Mostly, while he was immobilized with his bad leg in a casty, Kit worked on a

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trilogy of plays describing the conflict between the houses of Lancaster and York. In July 1591 Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, sailed to France with some soldiers to aid Henri Bourbon, King of Navarre. At the time Henri was still fighting against the forces of the Catholic League, led by the ultra-Catholic de Guise family. Henri of Navarre eventually won that war and later became Henri IV of France. During the last critical years of his campaign Henri of Navarre had received significant military and financial help from Queen Elizabeth, mostly through the agency of the Earl of Essex. Kit Marlowe, as an agent of the secret service, may have accompanied Essex to visit Henry of Navarre in July 1591, despite his bad leg. The play Love’s Labours Lost reflects some of his impressions of that occasion. Henry Wriothesley, the young Earl of Southampton, forbidden by his mother to sail, went anyhow, as a stowaway. It may have been the start of his relationship with the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, which became much closer towards the end of the decade. The little party sneaked through enemy territory to meet with Henri of Navarre, and his generals Longueville and Biron. The visitors had a good time for three days and then managed to sneak back unscathed to camp at Pont l’Arche where they had more discussions with the French General Lord Chartres, a former governor of Malta. Lord Chartres told some stories about Malta that Kit used in The Jew of Malta), written shortly after. In August of that year, 1591, a play, possibly an early version of Romeo and Juliet, was produced by Ned de Vere

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at Eastbourne, the country home of the Viscount Montague. He was the father of Mary Browne, and Henry Wriothesley’s legal grandfather on her side. In late August, Hen had to come back early from France to join the Queen, at Titchfield {Chambers, 1923 #236}. Kit accompanied him. By this time they had been together for several weeks. Because he could swim, Kit was drafted to play the part of Nereus, in the entertainment, which involved diving for a jewel. I guess the cast had come off of his leg by that time. There was another party, with swimming, at Elvetham, on September 21. Ned de Vere produced another entertainment of some sort. There Kit learned about the proposed marriage between Ned’s daughter Elizabeth de Vere, who was Burghley’s grand-daughter, and the young Earl of Southampton (Hen). Kit saw his role as mentor to the young earl undermined. He was jealous! Marlowe decided to do everything in his power to prevent that marriage. As always, his power was words. But difficulties loomed. In the first place, Kit had been hired, and already paid, by Ned de Vere to write the set of 17 sonnets, already mentioned, to celebrate Hen’s 17th birthday. Those sonnets were supposed to celebrate the joys of marriage and parenthood. In the second place, Hen was an orphan and consequently Burghley’s ward. In those days that meant that Burghley had the legal right to arrange a marriage for him. Also, Lord Burghley controlled Hen’s estate and had a financial interest in the matter. Finally, Burghley hated being opposed, especially by a “nobody” like Kit Marlowe. Kit was in a quandary. He had yet to deliver the 17 sonnet

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cycle to Ned, for which he had been paid, and which was intended to urge the boy into an early marriage with Ned’s daughter Elizabeth, whose mother Anne had drowned herself just a few years ago. Finally, working in a fury, Kit finished the sonnets and delivered them. But a few days later Kit told Hen about some rumours, namely that both Ned and he himself might be secret children of the Queen.24 (I think the source of the ‘rumors’ was Ned himself, during an episode of drunken pillow-talk). If the rumors were true it meant that Hen would be marrying his half-sister. Himself a product of incest, he would risk creating damaged children. Later Kit told about it stenographically in the first ten lines of Love’s Labour’s Lost (LLL). Plaintext given in Appendix A-5. The anagrams, deciphered by Ballantine, tell the interior story (compressed): Marlouue made this iesting plaie anent Hen’s revel for Eliza, but th’ tr-tr-trouble (fits ‘n’ fits o’ ire) gave Hen sudden courage to forgo th’ marriage match; ‘n’chid, he went ‘n’ p’d. Kit alter’d bans ‘n’ bed t’ hints o’ future MT years. So how’s th’ change? Ye be Phhhhhreeee! Stay!! I loue U. A fool t’ require you t’ marry a Vere sister! Fah! No cruder fool has eueer been seen!

24.The rumors are still out there on the Internet, as the “Tudor Prince” theory, namely that Queen Elizabeth had a sexual relationship with Henry de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, out of which a child was born and farmed out to the child-less Wriothesley family. The rumors were rife in Marlowe’s day.

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Knowledge o’ wrong arriued iust in time for Hen t’wrest free o’ th’ shaft day! Cessa! Aaah! Marlowe signed his work in the first line, as usual. The jesting play referred to Loves Labours Lost. The anagrams make it clear (as if we didn’t know) that Kit loved Hen (in the Greek sense) and had an additional motive to alter’d bans (wreck the marriage plans). He did not want Hen to acquire a wife and domestic responsibilities. The shaft day would be the day he got married, i.e. attached himself to another cart-horse.25 Kit’s attitude to Ned de Vere had been changing over the years. From early infatuation with an older man who was handsome and dashing, he had begun to see Ned as the corrupt, self-centered and and cruel man he really was. Yet for years he had worked sporadically for Ned, as a hired pen, forced to look the other way when Ned stole his verses and claimed them for his own. By this time, late 1591, Kit had learned to despise the Earl of Oxford. His feelings are spelled out clearly in ciphers in Henry V, Act 1 in hundreds of lines. But I think his feelings were still ambiguous on the personal level. He was still, on occasion, like a moth – his old nickname for himself – attracted to the light. The suicide by drowning of Ned’s wife Anne Cecil in June 1588 upset Kit Marlowe much more than it upset Ned de Vere. One wonders how her father Burghley felt about it? Kit’s feelings on the subject are expressed in a number of ciphers in several plays, especially Henry V above. Later he

25.Henry Wriothesley did get married much later (1598) to Elizabeth Vernon.

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made Anne live again – and die again – as Ophelia in Hamlet. But Kit felt very strongly that marriage and parenthood must be a powerful and lasting commitment, leaving little room for other loves. The fact that he knew about so many unhappy marriages only strengthened this core belief. If Hen were to marry he would be lost to Kit. Anyhow Hen did refuse the marriage, which must have taken some courage, since his legal guardian, Burghley, is said to have set a fine of £5000 for Hen’s refusal. Payment of the fine was due on the day, three years in the future, when Hen would reach the age of 21 and – for the first time – take control of his own property {Akrigg, 1968 #259}pp 31-2, 39. It was a very dark cloud on the horizon, since Southampton’s estate was legally controlled by Burghley until that future time. Elizabeth de Vere subsequently married the 6th Earl of Derby, Fernando Stanley’s successor. That was another of Burghley’s arrangements. Burghley sent for Kit and scolded (chid) him, then forbade any further contact with Hen. Ned de Vere was furious, too. This was a turning point in Kit’s life. It was the end of Kit’s long and relatively productive, if not happy, relationship with Ned de Vere. More or less on the spur of the moment, Ned turned his back on the theater wing of the secret service, which his mother the Queen had subsidized so generously. He abandoned the “University Wits” he had hired; he left Julie Arthur’s boarding house on Peter’s Hill – successor to Fisher’s Folly – without having paid any rent

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{Ogburn, 1952 #249} pp 930-31, also {Nelson, 2003 #250} pp 328, 329 and {Eccles, 1933 #325} pp. 464-465. Soon after that he married Lady Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, and more or less disappeared from Kit’s life. The landlady, Julie Arthur, wrote repeatedly to Ned de Vere and finally the Queen, asking for the rent money that was owed; the Queen finally paid. But Julie Arthur – could she have been related to Kit’s mother Kate? – faded away and died soon after. *** Another flashback: In the winter of 1590 Kit’s fellow secret agent, Francis Walsingham’s nephew Tom, was having financial difficulties. He was in the Fleet prison for default on a debt of 200 Marks. But in late 1589 his older brother Edmund, who had inherited the estate at Scadbury, died suddenly of unknown causes. So the estate passed to Tom Walsingham, who paid his debts and thus overnight became a gentleman of means and a patron of the arts, while remaining in contact with the Essex branch of the secret service. A few months later, in April 1590, when his uncle Sir Francis was secretly executed on the orders of Archbishop Whitgift, Marlowe’s friend, Tom Watson wrote a pastoral elegy, Meliboeus to mark the occasion. In it Tom speaks of a friendship with fellow-poets on the banks of the Seine in Paris back in 1582, thus openly proclaiming his association with the Walsingham-Sidney faction. Not surprisingly, when Tom Watson sheltered under Tom Walsingham’s patronage, Kit Marlowe followed suit. Sometime in the fall of 1591, there had been another

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invitation from Countess Mary Sidney Herbert for Kit Marlowe and Tom Watson to visit her, this time at her townhouse, Baynard’s Castle, in London. They were asked to bring their latest works. There she introduced them to Sir Walter Raleigh. Marlowe and Watson were invited then to join Raleigh, the Wizard Earl of Northumberland (Henry Percy), the Earl of Derby (Ferdinando Stanley), Sir George Carey, Thomas Hariot the mathematician, and poets , Matthew Roydon and William Warner. This group, which later became known as the “school of the night”, met at evening seminars at Raleigh’s apartments in Durham House, on the Strand, and later at his country retreat Sherborne in Dorset. This group may have been a proto- Masonic lodge. They discussed astronomy, mathematical calculations, and metaphysical speculations in Hermeticism {Bradbrook, 1936 #497}that later were characterized by some outsiders as “atheism”. They, or at least Henry Percy, the “wizard earl” of Northumberland, also seem to have carried out a few alchemical experiments. This was how “Morley the scholar” came to be acquainted with those two noblemen mentioned in connection with the Flushing affair which I discussed in a previous chapter for logical reasons, but which actually occurred a few months later, in the winter-spring of 1592. William Honey has commented “It is easy to see why Raleigh was attracted to Marlowe. Apart from the fact that both were poets, both were passionate and hot blooded, and both had in their make-up a streak of cruelty”{Honey, 1966 #498}p. 20. He refers to an episode in Raleigh’s past

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(1580) when men under his command massacred 600 prisoners in cold blood at Smerwick in southern Ireland, during the Desmond rebellion {Henderson, 1937 #500}. In Marlowe’s case, of course, the horrific massacres in Tamburlaine were merely described in verse. According to Riggs, the double agent Richard Baines actually shared a room with Marlowe in Paris during the winter of 1591-92,{Riggs, 2004 #17}. This was before the Flushing episode, discussed in the last chapter. We know not how it came about, or even if it did. Baines may have attended one or more of those meetings at Raleigh’s place, although under whose auspices it happened – if it did happen – is unclear. At any rate, Baines later reported some of the conversations at these sessions in his Note to the Privy Council as evidence of Marlowe’s blasphemy and atheism {Bradbrook, 1936 #42; Nicholl, 1992 #16; Riggs, 2004 #17}. Whether he correctly quoted or correctly attributed the quotes to Marlowe is not certain. But it does not matter since perception is all important. However it appears that Baines tried hard to associate Marlowe with Raleigh, who was out of the royal favor at the time. William Shakespeare, the bit-player, was never a member of the group. His oft-assumed connection with “” is inferred from the apparent references to it in various of “his” plays, especially Love’s Labours Lost and possibly others. In 1591 The Troublesome Raigne of John King of England was published anonymously in two parts for Sampson Clarke. At that period Kit’s father, Judge Roger Manwood was

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involved in a separate contest with Lord Burghley, over the forthcoming trial of Sir John Perrot, ex-deputy of Ireland, a pirate who happened also to be a cousin of the Queen from the wrong side of the blanket. Burghley had been protecting Perrot for a long time, probably at the Queen’s request. But Manwood wanted to convict him. That spring of 1592, back from the Flushing episode, Kit briefly studied law at Gray’s Inn, probably to please his father, Sir Roger. But he did not enjoy it. He was writing furiously finishing The Jew of Malta, and Henry VI and starting Henry II, also writing scenes for King Lear, a play idea encouraged by Mary Sidney Herbert with whom he had spent a number of days in Wales, the previous summer. His play Jew of Malta was already a big hit, and he was a celebrity. On March 3, 1592 Harey the vj a source for the Henry VI series, was acted by Strange’s Men at the Rose Theater. It was registered anonymously, as usual, but posters advertised the authorship. Later Strange’s Men played Titus and Vespacia, a source for Titus and Andronicus several times in April and May. Sometime in that spring Kit began visiting a gambling club in Shoreditch, where others of the “University Wits” occasionally gathered. Gambling was illegal but it was allowed at the club and Kit liked it. His father had taught him to play a dice game called “barcabudi”, similar to modern craps. and he was good at it. He was good at most things. Foolishly, he thought he couldn’t lose at that game. They had let him win, at first. It was the usual tactic for detaching a new sucker from his money.

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The hostess of the club was a spectacularly beautiful, smoldering, black-haired, intelligent and utterly ruthless 22 year old woman of Italian extraction named Emilia Bassano. She also happened to be the mistress of the owner of the club, Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, who was the Lord Chamberlain and a member of the Privy Council. Kit fell head over heels in love with Emilia, and for a while she must have seemed to love him, too. She pawned her diamond ring for him and then regretted it. He proposed marriage. She refused and laughed at him. Despite being a celebrity, on account of Tamburlaine and Jew of Malta, he had no money to speak of. He could not possibly support her in the style she already enjoyed and wanted. Kit was crushed but not about to give up. He wrote sonnets for her, full of interior messages. They are now known as the “dark lady” sonnets. Finally Kit brought young Henry Wriothesley to the gaming club – contrary to Burghley’s explicit instructions – and introduced the handsome young Earl to Emilia. That same evening he had his father, Roger Manwood’s gold chain of office with him, having picked it up from the goldsmith where it had been left for a repair. He lost his head. He thought he could win money to repay Hen’s upcoming £5000 fine for refusing the marriage with Elizabeth de Vere that had been ordained by Burghley.26 Kit gambled with Roger’s gold chain, which was a very special

26.The fine was due – and duly paid – on 6th October, 1594, the day of Southampton’s 21st birthday. It was the first “breach of promise” case {Stopes, 1922, 1969 #260}.

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and valuable gift from the Queen. The design included loops and a rose, symbolizing the union of the houses of York and Lancaster, producing a Tudor rose. It may have been Kit’s inspiration for writing the history plays about of the roses. Emilia cheated by substituting weighted dice and he lost the gold chain. Apparently she had been afraid he wouldn’t have money to pay the fence for her diamond ring. Judge Roger Manwood was furious when he heard about the loss of the gold chain, at his son’s foolishness and naivete. He also suspected cheating. He visited the club himself, to observe the gambling and learn, if possible, how the cheating was done. The following anagrams, deciphered by Ballantine, are from Love’s Labour’s Lost, lines 33-36, compressed. (Plaintext can be found in Appendix A-6): ..[it] was Roger: Oye! Euer an artist uuith dice, at Emilia’s he opened lo on Barcabudee. She, uery hot, casts hi t’win, reset t’cast another try, but he sees her error: a die-tylter! E-e! A “die-tylter” was the Elizabethan equivalent of what are now known as “loaded” dice. Roger knew Kit had been cheated. He thought that a threat of exposure of illegal activities would enable him to recover the lost object from the club, or the goldsmith they had sold it to. A decade after the event it was recorded in the diary of Sir John Manningham: “Lord Cheife Baron Manwood, understanding that his soone had sold his chayne to a goldsmith, sent for the goldsmith, willed him to bring the chayne, enquired

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where he bought it, He told, in his house. The Baron desired to see it, and put it in his pocket, telling him it was not lawfully bought. The goldsmith sued the Lord, and fearing the issue would prove against him, obtained the council’s letters to the Lord...” {Bruce, 1868 #335}. Roger was right about the cheating but clearly in the wrong as regards the goldsmith. He had misused his legal authority as a judge to demand the chain’s return from the goldsmith, who had paid for it, by threatening prosecution for receiving goods obtained from an illegal activity, gambling. The goldsmith, Roger Underwood, gave Roger Manwood the chain. But, of course he complained to Fonsie Lanier, the manager of the club, who had sold it to him. Fonsie complained to the owner, Henry Carey, a member of the Privy Council. A lawsuit followed. Roger Manwood was already a thorn in the side of two other influential members of the council. Lord Burghley was angry on account of Roger’s insistence on prosecuting the Queen’s cousin, Sir John Perrot, for piracy. And Archbishop Whitgift considered him a great legal pest because of his defense of the hated Puritans. Roger’s wife was a Puritan and her cousin had just recently died in prison of “unknown causes”. The Privy Council heard goldsmith Underwood’s story and dismissed him. Then the Council requested Manwood’s presence, with the chain. He responded with a letter, not in person, complaining of persecutions and asking that his goods, the chain, not be taken from him upon private complaint without “due course of justice in some of

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Her Majesty’s public courts.” Always the lawyer. Manwood also included a short Latin verse in his letter. It read “Malas causas habentes, Fugiunt semper ad potentes, Ubi non veritas, Praevalent auctoritas! Curret lex, Vivat Rex!” {DNB, 2004 #334 “Manwood”}. The English translation is roughly as follows: “Those whose case is wrong; Run ever to the strong, Where there are lying tales, Authority prevails; Let law-givers give. And may the prince live!” {Grant, 1970 #137}. The verse was much too cheeky in the circumstances. The privy councillors were not pleased. The Council put Roger under house arrest for several weeks, during which Sir John Perrot’s trial took place without him. He then sent a humble submission to the Council. The Council responded with another demand that he appear, on May 14, bringing the gold chain {Privy Council, Various dates #332}. The Council made him sign an apology, repay the goldsmith who had bought the chain “in good faith” and then demoted him to riding circuit as a justice of the assizes. Worst of all, they took his precious gold chain of office from him, and gave it to another Council member, William Brooke, Lord Cobham, who was a long- time rival in Kent. They admonished Roger to do his job and stick to the letter of the law. *** Two years later, Kit used the gold chain as core element of “Comedy of Errors”, around which the whole complicated plot revolves, involving identical twin brothers, Antiopholus E and S with different employers (E and S). The

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gold chain is commissioned by Dromio E as a gift for his wife, Adriana, but delivered to the servant of the wrong man (S) who promises it to his mistress. Of course Dromio E refuses to pay the goldsmith, not having received the chain, so the goldsmith comes to E’s house with a policeman. But at the end, the case goes to the Duke, the father and mother of the twins – long separated – recognize their sons, and thus are reunited with each other. The mother is named Emilia. The confusion is cleared up and everyone lives happily ever after. In real life the outcome for Kit and Roger wasn’t as good. Three years later in “Merry Wives of Windsor” (Act 4, scene 5, lines 25-32) there is a short colloquy between Simple and Falstaff about a gold chain that was obtained by cheating; SIMPLE “My master, sir, Master Slender, sent to her, seeing her go through the streets, to know, sir, whether one Nym, sir, that beguiled him of a chain, had the chain or no” FALSTAFF: I spoke with the old woman about it. SIMPLE; And what says she, I pray, sir? FALSTAFF; Marry, she says that the very same man that beguiled Master Slender of his chain, cozened him of it. Emilia Bassano had cozened the gold chain from Kit Marlowe at the gambling club. The price of it was her dowry for her marriage to Fonsie Lanier, sometimes spelled Lanyer. *** On June 23, 1592, Queen Elizabeth closed the

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playhouses, partly because of the outbreak of plague but partly in response to complaints from the religious conservatives that the theaters were “the work of the devil” and “posed a menace to public safety”. These complaints were probably mainly from Puritans, but they were orchestrated by other ecclesiastical extremists, led by Archbishop Whitgift. This closure made Kit Marlowe, the superstar, the most popular playwright in London, a particular target of the zealots. During those summer months, and into the fall, Kit still could not quite believe Emilia had deliberately cheated him out of Roger Manwood’s gold chain. He was still crazy about her. Kit and Hen continued to frequent the club. Kit and Emilia made love again – taking advantage of Henry Carey’s absence – and this time she became pregnant, very much against her wishes. Somebody was not counting properly. Kit again asked her to marry him. He thought he might go to Italy, on secret business of some sort, and suggested that they might go to her family home in Bassano. She had absolutely no interest in that proposal. Later, after time for reflection, he realized what a fool he had been. The anagrams from Henry V, Act 1 lines 213-222 found by Ballantine, are as follows, compressed (plaintext given in Appendix A-7): [I]’d a hit, ‘n’ was bein’ such a greedy egotist only Hen rever’d me: I dreamt o’ nonni uuealth, C? Neuer stop ‘n’ see ye extent of my vtter foolishness! Riding’ mi hi horse, I-I hope to marry a p-princess: th’

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louely dark-eyed poetess at th’ gamin’ house oy! ‘N’ oh! U offer her all th’ extra U cd borrow or earn. Many nyghts she ‘n’ I made l’Amour tyl d’ break o’ day, C, when oh so sore, I’d haue t’ go off o’er t’ d’ Cu[t] The letter [I] in square brackets at the beginning and the letter [t] at the end belong to the previous line and the subsequent line, respectively; nonni was a general purpose word often but not always, used with a sexual reference. The “hit” was Tamburlaine. The “cut” was a street on Bankside, near the Rose Theater. She did write poetry. Years later, Emilia Lanyer wrote a book of feminist poetry, herself {Woods, 1993 #264}. Although many scholars have other candidates, Emilia was, in my opinion, the “dark lady” of the sonnets {Rowse, 1979 #330}. Emilia wanted none of the kind of life Kit could offer. She loved her glamorous and luxurious life on the fringes of the court in London. She also wanted financial security. He couldn’t provide it and didn’t seem to understand her need for it. Love turned to hate, at least on her part. And he lost her, finally. It was the second major loss of his life, following so soon after his rejection of , and by, Ned de Vere. Emilia Bassano saw young, naive, wealthy Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, as a way out of her pregnancy predicament. Cold-bloodedly she seduced him. There was a weekend tryst at his country place in Whitely. That was in August 1592. Kit knew that she was dangerous – he was jealous – and he warned Hen’s watchdog and tutor, John Florio. Florio passed the warning on to Hen’s foster mother

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Mary Browne, who quickly sent Hen off to Oxford University {Stopes, 1922, 1969 #260}. Emilia claimed that Hen was the father of the baby and made him agree to pay for the baby’s upkeep, secretly. Then, in October 1592, she married the manager of the club, Fonsie Lanier. Southampton gave Fonsie Lanier (ex club manager) a small income. When the boy was eleven, the year Queen Elizabeth died, Henry Wriothesley arranged for Fonsie Lanier to receive a tithe on every bale of hay or straw brought into London or Westminster for the next twenty years. Emilia named the baby Henry Lanier and never allowed Kit to see him. That boy became a court musician and he had a son named Adrian. Adrian Lanier later went to America and nobody knows what became of him. Meanwhile, riding circuit got Roger Manwood into more trouble later in August 1592. It came about when he encountered a visiting German dignitary, Count Mömpelgard (a suitor of the Queen, no less) in his courtroom. The corpulent Count had been arrested with his party of followers for stealing horses belonging to the Garter Inn at Windsor. The Germans had been told they were too heavy for the available horses, but rather arrogantly took them anyway. The Innkeeper complained. The sheriff intercepted the German party and brought them back to Windsor, to Roger Manwood’s assize court. Of course what they had done was not exactly theft, but Roger lectured them sternly on English law with regard to horse theft (it was a hanging offense) before allowing them to go. Count Mömpelgard

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undoubtedly complained at his treatment. In the circumstances it was another black mark on Roger’s record. Although Kit was not directly involved, an event in the summer of 1592 cast a long shadow. Robin Greene had become disillusioned about the role of the “University Wits” in the spy service. His last printed essay was a tirade against dirty tricks of secret agents, and the machinations of their half-insane boss (Ned Browne in the pamphlet, Ned de Vere in reality). It was supposed to be an introduction to his forthcoming major work The Black Book (which has disappeared, if it ever existed). One night Robin Greene ate supper with Tom Nashe and an unidentified person Tom called Will “Monox” {McKerrow, 1958 #261}vol 1 p. 287. Nashe (on p. 287) says “The secrets of God must not be searcht into. Kings are Gods on earth, their actions must not be sounded by their subjects.” Nashe follows up with examples of writers who overstepped their bounds and got hammered. (Nashe himself got hammered a few years later.) Walking home that night, Greene was suddenly felled by severe stomach pains (arsenic?) He was lucky to be rescued by a kind old man and his wife who took him home with them and nursed him. During the month that he survived he wrote another essay, later published as Groatesworth of Wit {Greene, 1592 #218}. The references are obscure, but I think it was a warning to his fellow “wits” (writers) to get away from their lordly, condescending, half- insane patron (de Vere) who thought he could do anything he pleased and be “the only shake-scene in a country”. This

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phrase, taken out of context, has been cited as evidence that Shakespeare (= “Shake-scene”) was already famous in 1592. He was not. Incidentally, either Greene or his editor- printer Chettle, (who admitted censoring the piece before publication, included an accusation of Marlowe as a heretic. That accusation was included among those leveled against Marlowe the following year. Greene died, of the poison. a month after the supper with Nashe and “Will Monox”. There is no way to know who “Monox” might have been or why Greene was targeted, if he was. That summer Kit and Roger Manwood were not speaking, even when Roger was not riding circuit. For wages Kit was working for the Bacon brothers, mainly Francis, doing secretarial work and working on plays. Jew of Malta was finished, while he worked sporadically on the histories, Edward II, Richard II, Richard III, and King John. Apparently Marlowe was in Canterbury in late September, 1592, because he got into a fight with a musician, named Corkine {Urry, 1988 #97}. Apparently Corkine didn’t like The Jew of Malta. They quarreled and sued each other, then withdrew their lawsuits and made friends again. Kit could be very hot- headed in those days. Kit suffered another personal loss in September. His friend and fellow poet Tom Watson (who had saved his life three years earlier) had been abroad undercover working for the Bacon -Essex branch of the secret service. I think his mission may have been to kill Alessandro Farnese, the Duke of Parma, who was the Spanish commander in the Low countries. (He may even have succeeded; the Duke did die

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(of poison?) in late 1592.) Bacon and Essex did not want Queen Elizabeth (or Burghley) to know all the details of their secret activities immediately; they planned to reveal their glorious overseas achievements to her and all the other members of the Privy Council gathered at the coming Christmas Revels. But Tom Watson was seriously wounded and the word had got out about his premature return. Watson may have disapproved of something he had been asked to do. Bacon and Essex didn’t want the Queen or Burghley to get too curious. Bacon wrote a suggestive letter September 18, 1592 to an agent re keeping their agent quiet {Spedding, 1890 #269}. He asked whether he (Bacon) should send his personal doctor to “attend” Watson for the old leg wound? By a very remarkable and convenient coincidence, Tom Watson died a few days later of unknown causes. Of course, in those days any doctor’s visit could have fatal consequences, even without intention. On September 26 Watson’s body was buried. Kit was there. Watson left a poem for Mary Sidney Herbert, with a note for Kit. Tom wanted Kit to see the work through the press and write a dedication {DNB, 2004 #334 “Watson”} {Bowers, 1973 #126 vol 2 p 534}. Kit undertook to take the unfinished poem to Mary as soon as possible. But in fact, the opportunity did not arise immediately because he was in Canterbury for several weeks. However, in mid-October, Kit met with Mary Sidney Herbert to select two of his plays for presentation by the Pembroke Players at Hampton Court for the Christmas revels. Her Pembroke Players were to make

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their first court appearances at these galas. The dates were December 26 and January 6 {Chambers, 1923 #236}. *** Meanwhile, in early November 1592 Roger Manwood privately printed and delivered his last, personal appeal to Queen Elizabeth, urging moderation in religious affairs. It was anonymous, but he could not resist putting in a whimsical bit about horse-stealing, thinking of the episode with Count Mömpelgard at his court of assizes at Windsor in August. Whitgift knew it was by Roger Manwood as soon as he read the part about horse-thieves. The response was quick and deadly. On November 16 a letter from the Privy Council at Hampton Court was delivered to the Lord Keeper: it said, in effect “All officers and under-officers of the Courts of Records are to take the Oath of Supremacy, in its new form, which includes swearing that the whole Book of Common Prayer is the Word of God. [italics added]. Tell the Judges of both benches and the Lord Chief Baron of Exchequer; any who refuse are to be sequestered from execution of their offices.” Roger pledged his allegiance to the Queen but not to the prayer-book. He was a marrano with Puritan sympathies. But he must have known that it was a fatal decision. Like Mildmay, Walsingham and Randolph before him, Roger was given the option of choosing his date of death, any time within the coming month. Archdeacon Redman delivered the sentence and offered to help Roger revise his will, to include a suitable gift to the Church {Grant, 1970

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#137}Part 2, p 212-217. Roger chose the anniversary of death of a man he greatly admired, Sir John Oldcastle. Oldcastle was a Lollard who had been burned at the stake on December 14, 1417 in the same place, for the same crime for which Roger was now condemned, namely speaking out against religious intolerance. Roger did not bother to tell his son Kit, or his wife, about it. He was still angry at Kit because of the gold chain. On Sunday, December 10 at Chalk Church on the Dover Road Roger Manwood delivered a lay sermon on freedom from fear, keeping English Common Law above ecclesiastical dicta, and against rule by expediency. Kate Arthur Marlowe, Kit’s mother was there. On December 13, late, Ruy Lopes, the Queen’s doctor, arrived on schedule to bleed Roger but actually (at Whitgift’s order) to wield the sharp rod through the victim’s anus, releasing a flood of blood and feces, before death. Roger’s son Peter was there, as was his son-in-law John Leveson, Archdeacon Redman, and secret service agent Robert Poley (as reporter for the archbishop) and Kit’s mother, Kate. Kit was absent, not having been told. Just before one o’clock in the morning, December 14, 1592 Roger Manwood died. At the last minute of this same day, he was buried in the Manwood vault at St. Stephens Church, Hackington, outside Canterbury. (The vault was later vandalized: all male bodies were removed, when or by whom, nobody knows.) The story is told in anagrams (found by Ballantine) in Taming of a Shrew, lines 11-18, compressed. The plaintext is given in Appendix A-8.

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..[c]urch destruction, archbishop murder ‘n’ more! I-I’d tel the world what became o’ Pop – he became a hidden martyr caught in the net fools woue – lost, bled to his death-rest. We go to couuard’s graue if we do not spell out his ghastly doom below: Oye! One good M.D. went in hate to Dad’s house to ope a vein, etc. ‘n’ emit red shyt. C, Peter told! ‘E witness’d th’ kill, C.th’ corse reekt o’ filth. Mi mother Cate, euer braue, washt it al off to de feet. Gee, O, G -- Oye! from oyez! (hear me). M. D. doctor Ruy Lopes, the Queen’s physician. Cate was Kate, Marlowe’s mother, who evidently loved Roger Manwood as long as he lived. Peter was Kit’s half-brother, Roger Manwood’s legitimate son and heir. Peter was a friend to Kit; he may have been the author of the inscription on the wall of the chapel in Stratford-on- Avon. After he got word of what had happened to Roger Manwood (from his half-brother Peter or possibly fellow secret agent Robert Poley) Kit became unbalanced. The awful death of his father was Kit’s third major personal loss in little over two years. Ned de Vere’s angry departure was sad. Emilia’s betrayal was sadder. But Roger’s death was by far the worst. It drove Kit to take a risk he never should have taken. During those December days of 1592, Kit and Mary Sidney Herbert (Countess Pembroke) worked frantically preparing the two plays that her company, the

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Pembroke Players, was to present at Hampton Court, during the Christmas revels. Kit also created an ambiguous epitaph for his father {Bowers, 1973 #126}. The plaintext (in Latin) is given in Appendix A-9. However the anagrams (found by Ballantine), compressed, are almost in the English vernacular: I lost mi pa, slain in bravo horror. O, wail! I, I, I! Mi aim is to assist ruenge. I can’t quit, so I’d bring mi Roi Anger against ‘im for our satiric vvritings led to a cruel end. O, I loue ‘is grit! I’l quote – tell U o’ success o’ fierce prelates against Pa – ruinin ‘im vvi crude l-lies, C, as ‘e turns i’clip-gut beating, done i’ secret, causin’ death. O, mae mi curses fal on al cruel aged hie prelates! O, fa! No forgiv ... It continues. He can’t quit now. He feels the need to stoke his anger against aged hie (high) prelates (the bishops and Archbishop), to revenge his father’s cruel death by clip- gut. The satiric vvritings were, of course, the “Martin Marprelate” tracts. I said above that Kit was taking a great risk in using the Pembroke Players as a means of embarrassing the “high prelates” and the Queen herself. He must have known how risky it was. I wonder what the actors thought about it. Perhaps they hadn’t been told what he had in mind. I wonder what Mary Herbert thought about what they were doing. She was taking a great risk, too, and for the sake of a “nobody” – a mere poet. I wonder.

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*** On Christmas day, December 25, 1592. Francis Bacon and the Earl of Essex presented their Christmas present to Queen Elizabeth: a review of their undercover accomplishments overseas during the year. Among the accomplishments claimed were the deaths of three Cardinals. But the Cecils, father and son, still kept official, financial control of the secret service in their hands. On Boxing Day, December 26, 1592 Mary Herbert’s Pembroke Players performed Edward II at Hampton Court {Chambers, 1923 #236}. King Edward II dies in the play, with a sharp pointed stake up his rectum, exactly the same way Roger Manwood died, but offstage. The royal audience stayed to the end, but there were murmurings. On Epiphany, the Twelfth Night of Christmas, January 6, 1593, the Pembroke Players made their second offering of the Christmas revels, in the Great Hall at Hampton Court. It was presented to the Queen and her guests, including a number of Bishops. It was a mix of scenes from the unpolished Henry VI plays. A line from the first scene that Kit spoke on stage was “May that ground gape and swallow me alive where I shall kneel to him that slew my father.” In a later scene Duke Humphrey had just been murdered by a secret order of an evil prelate on the pretext that the Duke might have been planning to commit a crime! A simulacrum of Duke Humphrey’s mutilated body was displayed on-stage. It reeked and stank. Kit’s idea, of course, was that the play would be the

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thing to catch the conscience of the Queen. It did not work. Ten mitred Bishops got up ostentatiously and left. The Queen rose; the party was over. Queen Elizabeth was understandably furious. She cut off all relations with Mary Sidney Herbert, and never saw her again; and never again were the Pembroke Players invited to work at court {Bowers, 1973 #126}.27 But neither Mary nor Kit suffered any other direct punishment. Perhaps the Queen secretly admired their grit. The Archbishop knew that to punish Marlowe simply for a theatrical production in bad taste would make him look petty. He also knew that Kit was not without support from senior people who knew of his secret exploits with the secret service. Whitgift needed stronger evidence to justify the fiery finale he planned to put an end to all freethinking opposition.

Chapter 14: Interlude at Scadbury

The Epiphany disaster upset the Queen, and the bishops, and hurt Countess Pembroke, but Archbishop Whitgift took a much harder line against the playwright. Early in the new year of 1593 his men raided the Revels Office at the Court to destroy Kit’s writings "and art". The Archbishop’s men

27.Bowers says “it is believed by critics that printer’s copy for the play was the promptbook itself, sold by Pembroke’s company in the summer of 1593 when they ran into financial difficulties." {Bowers, 1973 #126} page 9. The financial difficulties would have been due partly to the closure of the theaters and partly to the royal boycott.

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were foiled on that occasion by producer/director George Buck. Kit tells it in anagrams at the beginning of each of the parts of Henry VI. The most succinct version is from lines 1- 10 of 3 Henry VI: The anagrammatic interior text, deciphered by Ballantine, is as follows: Defiant onstage, I s p e l t m y d o o m

– h u h h u h ! W h i

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p s ‘ n ’ h o r r o r s w e r e d e c r e e d , u k n o w

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, ‘ n ’ h / h e ll i s h f l a m e w a s t h r e a t e n e

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d . B e f o r e l o n g U

w a r n

t h e y ’l l d e s t

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r o y m y a r t a n d o t h e r t h i n g s : d r a m a ,

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v e r s e . O , U ! H e l p ! O , H e l p ! We wait a month for deadly raid, ere Buck re-reckons Reuels records, leauing Dido ‘n’ other drama in a far corner for filing-stab – all to B blank’d – dratted. Aff- ected y mi fear, Buck hid the MSS. Fool raiders look’d, grew sour and soon left us safe from Wh. N[ --

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it continues. The hellish flame he fears is to be burned at the stake (like Francis Kett). Wh. refers to Whitgift. The plain text and correspondence is given in Appendix A-10. George Buck, Kit’s contemporary, worked in the Revels office at the time. He later became Master of Revels. Filing- stab meant to wind (a parchment or paper strip) on a spindle. During the next few months Kit had many worries but writing was his life. He worked intensively on the Henry VI trilogy. Compressed anagrams from the opening lines tell what was on his mind. Kit M. penn’t this trilogy because of his dad’s symbolic chain. Then to avenge y game that went goring his dad’s name, Kit bitterly teased th’ church t’ show yts error in all ages. But SSS uener [ated the clergy...] Square brackets indicate that the anagram continues in the subsequent verse. SSS refers to the state secret service; uener[ated = venerated. The verse by verse correspondence with plaintext is given in Appendix A-11. So January, February and March passed and Kit was not arrested. But Whitgift had a plan, and meanwhile there were other things to think about. One of them was a protest march from Newgate prison to the house of Justice Richard Young in Cheapside. The marchers carried a coffin carrying the remains of a “separatist” (Puritan) named Roger Rippon who had died there in the lightless dungeon called “Limbo” where Kit had spent a few days after his arrest following the

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Bradley killing in 1589. For two years Whitgift’s Court of High Commission had been dumping people there, without trial, to die of starvation or disease, however long it took. On Rippon’s coffin there was an inscription that accused Whitgift – “that great enemy of God, the Archbishop of Canterbury” – of murdering 16 or 17 people by prolonged incarceration in Newgate in the last five years and calling for “speedy vengeance” {Riggs, 2004 #17} p.315. Whitgift, unfazed, just hit back harder. On March 4 his men arrested 26 more people. On March 22 they found and added John Penry to the group. He was the Puritan who had been in charge of the printing of the Martin Marprelate pamphlets. The next day preachers Henry Barrow and John Greenwood, together with the printers who had published their works, were convicted under a 1581 statute that banned and criminalized “seditious words and rumours uttered against the queen’s most excellent majesty.” Whitgift’s interpretation of that law was simple: that religious non-conformity amounted to sedition and hence treason. In other words, an attack against the church leadership was ipso facto an attack on the Queen. The defendant’s arguments, that they acknowledged the supremacy of the Queen and intended no harm to her, were brushed aside. Five prisoners were sentenced to hang. On March 26 the Queen created – at Whitgift’s insistence – a Royal Commission to hunt down, examine and punish Barrowists, separatists, Catholic recusants (those who did not attend Church of England services), and, for good measure, counterfeiters, vagrants and “all who most

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secretly adhere to our most capital Enemy the Bishop of Rome or otherwise do wilfully deprave, condemn or impugn the Divine Service and sacraments”. The last great heresy-hunt in British history was well under-way. While Christopher Marlowe was probably not the original target, the hunt provided a useful smokescreen for Whitgift’s private vendetta. The “smoke”, involving a several dubious characters with past spy links, Thomas Drury, Richard Cholmeley and Richard Baines, will be summarized later. *** After the Epiphany debacle, Kit felt increasingly uncomfortable staying at Baynard’s Castle with Mary, Countess Pembroke. They both knew that his onstage defiance would cause a permanent breach in Mary’s relationship with the Queen and that Pembroke Players would never again be invited to entertain the court. It hurt, and he was the cause of it. She did not blame him, which made it harder to bear. She had other family concerns at the time. The bubonic plague was getting re-established in the slums that winter. After a few weeks they parted, she to Wilton and he to Scadbury, Kent, the country house of his newly rich friend Tom Walsingham, the nephew of the late “Mr Secretary” Francis Walsingham. At Scadbury Kit discovered a new love. She was Audrey (Udrey) Shelton, descended from a cousin of the Queen on the Boleyn side. She was engaged to marry Tom Walsingham around that time. She did marry him, but not until 1597. Anyhow, Marlowe fell in love with Audrey, and

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she seems to have been strongly attracted to him. I think he wrote As You Like It (AYLI) for her. It was never performed on the stage or published until it appeared in the Folio, probably because there were too many identifiable references to recognizable people – such as Audrey herself – and events such as “a great reckoning in a little room” (Act III, scene 3). Grant sees the play as an autobiographical allegory of Marlowe’s life, first as Orlando, insane with love, then as melancholy Jaques, servant of the nobility and worried about the miserable state of the world, and finally as “Touchstone” (a cynical clown). Touchstone meets the naive goat-herd Audrey, and goes off with her at the end on a loving journey but only “for two months, victuall’d”. Based on this hint (in lines 196-7 in Act V) of AYLI and some lines in sonnets 153-4, Grant argues that they spent two months together in Bath, possibly in the House of Lord Chamberlain George Carey {Grant, 1970 #137} p.208. But it is not clear when that tryst might have happened. It could have been March-April 1593 as far as anything known to the contrary. but there is a “Commonplace Book” in the Folger Shakespeare Library that belonged to Mrs. John Thornborough of Bristol, 12 miles from Bath, who was a friend of Lady Audrey Walsingham’s. It contains a manuscript version of the lyric “Come live with me and be my love”. This can be interpreted as an indication that the love affair occurred (or continued) after her marriage, because otherwise she would have still been “Audrey Shelton” (ibid. p.155). I suspect there is another explanation, however.

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There is stronger evidence that they did roam the woods of Scadbury estate, together. Their intertwined initials upsilon-sigma U (mixed cases) could be seen on an old beech tree in the woods, at least until a few years ago. The tree is no longer there, but there is a photograph {Wraight, 1965 #114}. The combination of letters can be read horizontally as the initials of Udrey Shelton in (sort of) Greek while, read sideways it is Chris Marlowe’s initials CM. What did Tom Walsingham think of that fairly obvious inscription on his tree? He must have seen it, but he allowed it to remain untouched. Perhaps it was a reminder that he was the ultimate winner of the contest for her hand in marriage. Incidentally, Orlando, in AYLI carves the initials of Rosalind on the bark of trees, and is teased for it. Grant suggests that Marlowe included some lines in Two Gentlemen from Verona (V, iv, 18-83 in which the perfect gentleman, “Sir Valentine”, forgives “Proteus” for attempting to steal his wife and offers to give her to him! It is easy to identify Sir Valentine as Thomas Walsingham, and Proteus as Marlowe. Yet Marlowe seems to have carried on a platonic love affair with Audrey over a number of years even after Audrey and Tom were married (ibid p.208). While at Scadbury, Kit also worked on , a funny, bitter memorial of Kit’s love for Emilia Bassano, and its ending, as well as his new love for Audrey. It was unfinished by the time he had to leave England. The formal dedication of this poem (published in 1598 by , but obviously written much earlier) is attributed to Chapman, who purportedly finished the poem:

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“To my best esteemed and worthily honoured lady, the Lady Walsingham, one of the ladies of her majesty’s bed-chamber.” The anagram, discovered by my brother Alex, reads: By Chris Marlowe ghost writ to heat my esteemed honoured lady’s bed, ah The lad dies end, only fee heal name of majesty The phrase “ghost-writ” appears again. Leander (“the lad”) dies in the end. The poet hopes for a fee. It is interesting that Hero and Leander was registered (anonymously) on September 28, 1593, which was the 4th anniversary of the Bradley-Watson duel. Chapman probably did not write the dedication, but he must have taken care of that errand at the Stationers. There is one more poem from that period: The Passionate Shepherd {Bowers, 1973 #126}p. 535. Kit probably wrote The Passionate Shepherd with Audrey in mind, although he kept the references ambiguous enough to refer to more than one woman. It seems likely for a number of reasons that Audrey was the model for Rosalind. One of the places where Audrey (née Shelton) is mentioned by name in the plaintext is in As You Like It, Act III scene 3, lines 1-6 (Appendix A-12).Over centuries this poem has been published with several inferior stanzas added. A version was published under “Shakespeare’s” name in (1599). The book also included poems by Thomas Heywood, who protested and forced Shakespeare to remove his name from later editions. There are no anagrams inside those extra stanzas, but in the four-stanza

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form shown in Appendix A-13 the anagrams link sensibly and tell a story. Each line, too, has four beats. On April 18 1593 the narrative poem Venus and Adonis was anonymously registered at the Stationer’s Office. Anonymous registrations were not uncommon, but in this case probably due to the fact that Marlowe’s translation of Ovid’s Amores, on which the poem was based, was likely to be banned, and later was banned, by Whitgift’s religious censors. In fact, all of Marlowe’s plays prior to 1593, including Tamburlaine I and II, were registered anonymously. The first to appear with his name attached were Dido and Edward II, both in 1594. Hero and Leander appeared in 1598, Lucan, Doctor Faustus and Massacre at Paris in 1600, and Jew of Malta in 1633. Plays were normally only published in print after their runs were finished. But the authorship of Tamburlaine, Faustus and the others was no secret. In fact it was advertised on the posters.

Chapter 15: The death of Christopher Marlowe

Now it is important to consider the accusations that have confused so many biographers of Christopher Marlowe and tarnished his reputation. there is a strong tendency to believe that, where there is smoke there must have been some fire. There were three linked charges: heresy, atheism and homosexuality. I will consider the last first, because it is

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the easiest to dispose of. Marlowe lived in a time when boys and men often shared the same bed – in ships and universities, for instance – and homo-eroticism in those circumstances was commonplace. There is sufficient evidence from the anagrams that Kit Marlowe, as a boy, was a willing sex partner of the Earl of Oxford, possibly with encouragement from his father who thought that it could be the key to career advancement. He also had a friendly homo-sexual relationship with Captain Christopher (Kester) Carleill during a voyage to Constantinople in 1578 when he was 14. Later he had a relationship with the younger Henry Wriothesley that might have involved some sexual attraction, although there is no indication in the anagrams that they were actually lovers in the physical sense. However, Marlowe also loved many women, possibly starting with Mary Sidney Herbert, who may have seduced him as a teenager and may well have had his child, who became William Herbert, W. H. In 1592 he fell madly in love with Emilia Bassano, the “dark lady” who cheated him and may also have carried his child. A year later at Scadbury he had another love affair, on the rebound as it were, with Lady Audrey Shelton, later Audrey Walsingham. In his later life, after 1593, he had at least three more love affairs with women. The first was Marina Cicogna, daughter of the ruling Duke of Venetian Crete, where Marlowe visited on a mission for Essex. They eloped to Venice. She died in childbirth at the age of 15 but left him a daughter who survived. In 1605, during a celebration of the peace treaty between England and Spain he also seduced a fellow secret service

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agent named Jane Davenant, who also bore him an extra- curricular son. She was married to a tavern owner in Oxford. That son also survived and later became Sir William Davenant, Poet Laureate of England after the death of Ben Jonson in 1637. Finally, around 1609 he met the Spanish singer-actress Micaela Lujan, in Naples. Despite their religious difference, he finally married her and she outlived him. They had six children, two of whom drowned, one died shortly after childbirth, and three survived. So altogether, Kit Marlowe fathered at least eight and possibly ten children from five women. The other two charges, heresy and atheism, were two sides of the same coin. Heresy meant rejection of some important elements of established religious doctrine, such as the divinity of Christ or the idea that every word of the Bible was the word of God. Marlowe was almost certainly a heretic. He questioned many of the biblical assertions that were supposed to be taken on faith. However atheism was a stronger accusation. Atheism means denial of the existence of God. Therefore atheism is heretical, although heretics are not necessarily atheists. Hence the charge of atheism was the most serious. And from a twenty-first century perspective, looking back, it seems likely that Marlowe was at least an agnostic, and that he really was perhaps flirting with atheism in his own mind, though he did not preach it. The charge of preaching atheism, however inflammatory, was trumped up. On March 20, 1593 a man named Richard Cholmeley was arrested for heresy by Whitgift’s Court of High Commission, just created. He

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allegedly confessed – probably under torture – that he had been converted to atheism by Christopher Marlowe {Webster, 1923 #63}. It appears that Cholmeley, himself, had been accused of atheism by another man named Richard Drury, who was an employee of Anthony Bacon. The crackdown became much fiercer after the night of May 5, when a set of rhyming couplets appeared on the wall of the Dutch churchyard in London. There were 26 lines, four of which are worth reproducing: “Your Machiavellian Merchant spoils the state Your usury doeth leave us all for dead Your artifex and craftsman works our fate And like the Jews, you eat us up as bread” The literary reference seems to be The Jew of Malta, which was Marlowe’s latest hit and had been played by Lord Strange’s Men, back in January just before all the London theaters were closed because of the plague. But the signature on the wall was “Tamburlaine”. It was obviously intended to point a finger at Marlowe, even though he would hardly have signed his name to something so inflammatory, even if he had written it. At any rate, the verses triggered riots in London, mainly by apprentices. The rioters targeted the Flemish Huguenot refugees who had settled in London at the Queen’s invitation, after the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in Paris in 1572. The refugees, mostly skilled tradesman, were explicitly protected by her order. But they were seen by the London apprentices as an economic threat. The Queen was incensed and the Privy Council

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complained to the Royal Commission, so recently created by Whitgift. The Commission met on May 11 and demanded drastic action to find the culprit. The Lord Mayor of London posted a reward of 100 crowns for the name of the author of the verses. Whitgift must have seen it as the opportunity he was waiting for. On May 12, 1593 Thomas Kyd’s premises were searched, by order of the Privy Council. The search was ostensibly seeking the authorship of the “treasonable” anti-Flemish verses. The real target, again, was Marlowe. On the strength of papers found in his possession Kyd was arrested and interrogated. He was certainly tortured, but never tried for anything. Under duress, Kyd accused Marlowe of ownership and possible authorship of some notes (“the Arrian Heresy notes”) that were found in Kyd’s room. At the King’s School in Canterbury Marlowe had once had access to a copy of the (banned) book The Fall of the Late Arrian in the library of his former school-master, Thomas Gresshop. The notes were in Marlowe’s handwriting, possibly copied directly from a page in the book. Evidently the notes were not in Kyd’s normal handwriting, else Kyd would have been executed. Although Kyd was finally released from prison, he died in the following year, December 1594, possibly from after-effects of torture, or ill health attributable to his harsh treatment. In letters to the Lord Keeper, Sir , he was still blaming Marlowe for his situation and accusing Marlowe of atheism. Kyd, who thought Marlowe was dead by that time, and was still trying to clear his own name, was probably responsible

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for some of the misleading rumors that spread after Marlowe’s supposed death. Because of this bias, his published opinion of Marlowe’s character cannot carry much weight today. However, there can be no doubt that the charge of preaching atheism was serious in 1593. Kit Marlowe must have been exceedingly frightened. *** Fast forward to August 1593 after the “murder” of Marlowe,which happened on May 30. A letter written by Thomas Drury (from prison), was received by Essex’ chief of intelligence, Anthony Bacon (cited by {Nicholl, 1992 #16} p.371). Curiously, Nicholl says in another place (ibid. p. 403) that the letter was written to Sir Robert Cecil. Regardless of to whom it was written, the letter itself is revealing: “There was a command laid on me lately to stay one Mr. Bayns, which did use to resort unto me, which I did pursue; and in time, although then I did not once so much as imagine where he was, I found him out, and got the desired secret at his hand, for which the City of London promised, as also by proclamation was promised, a hundred crowns, but not a penny performed and a fine evasion made. “After, there was a libel by my means found out a n d d e

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li v e r e d , a v il e b o o k , a l s o b y m y d e c i p

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h e ri n g t a k e n , a n d a n o t a b l e v il l a i n o

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r t w o , w h i c h a r e c l o s e p ri s o n e r s a n d

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b a d m a t t e r s a g a i n s t t h e m

o f a n e x c

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e e d i n g n a t u r e , a n d y e t n o r e w a r d , b

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u t a ll t h e c r e d it p u ll e d o u t o f m y m o u t h

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, a n d I r o b b e d o f a ll .

“Then after all this, there was by my only means set down unto the Lord Keeper and the Lord of Buckhurst the notablest and vilest articles of atheism, that I suppose the like were never known or read of in any age, all of which I can shown unto you. They were delivered to Her Highness, and command given by herself to prosecute it to the full, but no recompense, not a penny.” Nicholl’s interpretation, probably correct, is that “Bayns” was Richard Baines and that Drury had found Baines, discovered from him the (putative) name of the author of the verses on the wall of the Church, and reported that

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information. Nicholl assumes that the name reported was Thomas Kyd, presumably to account for his arrest {Nicholl, 1992 #16}. The prisoner referred to in the second paragraph was Cholmeley. Both Baines and Cholmeley were well-known to Drury, and to each other, as a result of various dubious interactions in previous years, as documented extensively in Nicholl’s book {Nicholl, 1992 #16}. Drury also effectively claims authorship of a document called Remembrances that attributes to Cholmeley essentially all the atheistic arguments compiled by Baines in his “Note” to the Privy Council. Baines’ claimed that Cholmeley got it all from Marlowe and that Marlowe was therefore guilty of promoting atheism. This, under Whitgift’s interpretation of the anti-sedition Act of 1580, was tantamount to treason and would justify a death sentence. As a matter of interest, Nicholl, in his book, tried to make a case that Essex wanted Marlowe to give evidence against Raleigh and, failing that, to have him imprisoned and tortured for the purpose of incriminating Raleigh {Nicholl, 1992 #16}. Peter Farey has pointed out numerous flaws in Nicholl’s reasoning, while accepting the factual evidence he assembled in his book {Farey, 2000 #14}. The major flaw, of course, is that Raleigh was already out of favor and banned from the court in 1592, due to his marriage. This fact made Essex’s hypothetical campaign against him superfluous. Needless to say, I believe that Marlowe was not killed at all, as I will explain. Drury’s claim that his Remembrances was the crucial evidence was based on his assertion that it was the basis of

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Baines’ “Note” (ibid). But for various reasons of timing, this is doubtful. Peter Farey comes to the opposite conclusion, namely that the “Note” came first and that Drury imitated it in order to claim the reward he had not received {Farey, 2000 #14}. It is not clear how Drury could have seen the Note before it was delivered to the Privy Council. But it is clear that Drury thought he was entitled to payment. In any case, Baines was hardly a disinterested or reliable witness. There are even suspicions that he himself was responsible for the anti-Flemish verse on the wall of the Dutch church, and that he did it – with Whitgift’s approval – in order to precipitate the witch-hunt that followed. It is also possible, even likely, that Baines fingered Thomas Kyd, a moderately well-known playwright, as the author of the verses, either directly or through his dupe, Drury {Farey, 2000 #14}. Possibly Baines had reason to believe that, under pressure, Kyd would accuse Marlowe. Why did it matter? There were more than a few, especially the fiercer Puritans, who saw atheism as the greatest threat to the state and who also believed, and argued in sermons and tracts, that God would personally punish atheists, especially any who preached atheism. Moreover, they thought God would do so in a gruesome manner to persuade unbelievers of the error of their ways. The best example of this attitude is probably the little book published in 1597 by a Puritan divine, Thomas Beard entitled The Theater of God’s Judgments which was partly a diatribe against Marlowe’s supposed atheism. A couple of paragraphs provide the flavor {Beard, 1597 #391}:

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“Not inferior to any of the former in Atheism and Impiety, and equal to all in manner of punishment, was one ... called Marlowe, by profession a scholar...and by practice a playwright and a Poet of scurrility, who ... denied God and His son Christ, and not only in word, blasphemed against the Trinity but also (as it is credibly reported) wrote books against it, affirming our savior to be but a deceiver, and Moses to be but a conjuror and seducer of the people, and the Holy Bible to be but vain and idle stories and all religion but a device of policy. “But see what a hook the Lord put into the nostrils of this barking dog. It so fell out that in London streets as he purposed to stab one whom he shot a grudge unto with his dagger, the other party, perceiving so, avoided the stroke, that withal catching hold of his wrist, he stabbed his own dagger into his head ... The manner of his death being so terrible (for he even cursed and blasphemed in his last gasp, and together with his breath an oath flew out of his mouth, that it was not only a manifest sign of God’s judgement, but also an horrible and fearful terror to all that beheld him)...” and so on.

Thomas Beard was actually the first to report – four years after the fact – that Marlowe had died of a stab wound in the eye. Previously his death had been attributed to the plague.This raises questions about how he knew. But the chief point he was making was that Marlowe’s death was

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God’s judgment, consequential on his supposed atheism and blasphemy. David Riggs makes a very similar argument {Riggs, 2004 #17} chapter 15. He attributes the murder in 1593 to powerful persons who feared an alliance of atheists with dissident Catholics (strange bedfellows indeed!) and were anxious to suppress a supposed outbreak of atheism in England. I find that idea implausible, to say the least. *** On May 18, 1593, thanks to the coerced testimony of Thomas Kyd, the Privy Council, acting as the Star Chamber, issued an order for Marlowe’s arrest at the Scadbury residence of Thomas Walsingham, where he was living as a guest to stay out of plaguey London {Hotson, 1925 #19}. On Saturday May 19 Henry Maunder, messenger of Queen’s Chamber, arrived at Scadbury with a warrant to take Marlowe to report to the Privy Council at Nonesuche castle. Nonesuche was Archbishop Whitgift’s official country residence, where the Queen was currently “on progress” {Wraight, 1965 #114} p. 283. The following morning, May 20, Maunder and Kit rode to Nonesuche. There Kit appeared before the Privy Council. The first interview was a formality. This apparently lenient treatment was almost certainly due to the fact that Marlowe had supporters on the Council and Whitgift was waiting for more and stronger evidence that he, in the name of the Privy Council, had commissioned from the informer Richard Baines. Curiously, Marlowe was not imprisoned and tortured, but was released on his own recognizance and “commanded to give his daily attendance to their lordships until he shall be licensed to the contrary”.

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N.B. the giving of bail to accused persons was hardly usual back then. In fact, it was exceedingly rare. Here Nicholl is worth quoting: “So straight denial is a course open to him when he appears before the Council on 20 May. Yet in a circumstance as parlous as this, denial would not usually be enough. Marlowe’s liberty at this stage seems to demand something more. What it suggests to me is that Marlowe had at this stage some kind of protection. In the realities of Elizabethan politics it was not innocence that kept a man out of jail, but influence” {Nicholl, 1992 #16} p.402. Maunder then accompanied Kit to a goldsmith for bail assurance (who was the guarantor? Was it Tom Walsingham?) and finally to Westminster, where Master William Mill, clerk of the Star Chamber, was doing extra work, it being the Sabbath. Kit admitted that he had owned the “Arrian Notes” to be produced as evidence of his heresy, thereby avoiding days of rigamarole. Thus he was free to go to meet the Privy Council at Nonesuche on Wednesday, ore tenus. Kit then went to find his friend “Hen” (Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton), and gave him a ciphered love poem for Queen Elizabeth Shall I die? Shall I Fly? asking for banishment, rather than death. In Love’s Labour’s Lost – between plaintext lines 123 to 136 – Marlowe wrote about the need for help to get his message to the Queen (anagrams deciphered by Ballantine). The verse-by-verse correspondence is given in Appendix A- 14. The anagrams, compressed, are as follows:

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Awful man! He’d decree that all who pen worthily against his ranting sh’d get a degree o’ tit-tat, ‘n’ die wet! Either death or banishment is my true lot, Hen – e’en within a week! The fee for my sin! Waaaaaeeell! UUill U see life gush from me, or cd a royal edict saue me? By th’ Bible, as he supports th’ kill, SSS stays it. Reech th’ queen’ – let her know my reuerse, n’ beseach her t’Aid th’ escape from English soil o’ a suk-fuk Gew toy wi’ one part poet. UUi’out a qveen’s aid, fear I’M a dead man. If Gabriel come, “rescatti” I crie. Please ask for aid! I’M destined for death, Hen! I’d trie t’breech her cvnt. Read her my secret fly-away poem now: show her all that I hid i’ th’ SSS codes! So U qvit, ‘Arry, I go to ruin! N. B. The Awful man! was Archbishop Whitgift. The phrase “die wet” referred to Doctor Lopes method of stabbing the dying victim through the anus, with a sharpened stake, resulting in a flux of blood and feces. “suk-fuk Gew toy” is phonetically obvious (Gew = Jew). SSS refers to the state secret service, his long-time employer. Marlowe was in a panic. The “fly-away” poem he refers to in the above anagrams was found by Gary Taylor a few years ago and tentatively attributed to Shakespeare, though it is unsigned. The poem begins Shall I Die? Shall I Fly? It is reproduced, together with its interior ciphers in Appendix B. Kit gave the

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poem to Henry Wriothesley (Hen) to deliver to the Queen in person. Kit wrote most of his ciphers to Hen. It seems to have been their private method of communicating. Hen took it to her, as asked, and he also helped the Queen to decipher it. Kit may have been suggesting a sexual advance as a way of obtaining favor from her. At first, this thought will be shocking to many. But the Queen was an aging woman, surrounded by aging sycophants, whose physical attractions were fading. It is not out of the question that she would be susceptible to an advance from an attractive younger man. This poem was (re)discovered in the Bodleian Library at Oxford in 1985 by Gary Lynn Taylor, a co-editor of the New Complete Shakespeare. It was part of a collection donated to the library in 1755 by Bishop Richard Rawlinson, and attributed to Shakespeare by an unknown copyist. The discovery was briefly a cause celebre among the Shakespeare scholars who virtually all dismissed it as “second rate hack work”, “a really bad poem, a piece of doggerel”, “a very silly affair” {Friedrich, 1985 #265}. A more scholarly rebuttal of Shakespearean authorship has appeared recently {Vickers, 2002 #266}. However none of the eminent scholars seem to have noticed that the poem contains coded interior messages, which was really its purpose. It was written as a plea to the Queen, in the days before his arrest when he was living at Scadbury, Thomas Walsingham’s estate. He must have known what was coming after Thomas Kyd’s arrest, if not before. Roberta Ballantine has found that the poem contains no less than

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three coded interior messages: one spelling her name; one pleading for exile, and a compound double acrostic resulting in eighteen ten word anagrams touching his predicament (and his father’s) and signed “Chrish”. In response to the poem Shall I Die? Shall I Fly? the Queen, who was in denial of middle age and was very susceptible to flattery, seems to have invited Kit for a private interview. There are details in the anagrams. She liked him, and admired his poetry, despite her embarrassment by him at the Christmas revels. She decided to spare him and instructed the Privy Council, through Burghley, accordingly. The Privy Council was, after all, only advisory. The final decision was always hers. Marlowe was interviewed a second time on Wednesday May 23 at a session of the Star Chamber chaired personally by Archbishop Whitgift. Baines had not yet submitted his infamous “Note”. The evidence presented against Marlowe on that day was Thomas Kyd’s accusation of atheism (under torture) and a list of statements attributed to him, compiled (at Whitgift’s order) by his former colleague in the secret service, Richard Baines. The list need not be reproduced here, since it had no bearing on the outcome. An anagrammatic description of that interview is also to be found in Love’s Labour’s Lost, between plaintext lines 137 and 152 (deciphered by Ballantine) compressed. See Appendix A-15 for the verse-by-verse correspondence with plaintext: Wow! See how th’ uuite-liuer idiot’s

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arested – hauled to th’ dusty room o’justified lies t’ hear th’ ten aged men shouting. Hot, hot, Hot God! Thud! Hint, hint t-to th’ white idiot. See them scoulin’. “This case referred off to SSS. Stop!” ‘N’ I shout, “C, we w-w-won! WON!” Know: in ease-recess th’ sinful wretch – me – tries leavin’ ye smelly room. See, see? Lest I run off, th’ watch stays me, ‘n’ from need, see, I try to piss in a shrub, ere wet, I scare the Hi Hi Hee. Tho back fast, I’M embarasse’d by mi reekee flood which grieues th’ fragile plant bitterly. Barely time ta register mi name when I was sweatin’ — Oee Oee! Across from ten ol’fakers that e’en restate ‘n’ sort all mi bad deeds in the greatest detail. Ahh, men, Hen – an’ th’ hot uote’s to banich me! So I loose a gush, beg Iesus, tell o’ mute regret. Aee! But no escape, I’M t-to sail in th’ week – th’ Queen’s orders – all at her charge. I like that. It turn’d out she’s a friend to Kit in his trauail. I o-owe her! How tu pay ‘er a fee?… Note that uuite-liuer translates to ‘white liver’ in modern English. The dusty room was the Star Chamber meeting place at Nonesuche (Nonsuch), Whitgift’s country place near modern Croydon. The ten aged men were the Privy councillors. Hi Hi Hee (‘high high he’) was Marlowe’s scornful way of referring to the Archbishop, president of the

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Council. Others present, according to Wraight, were Ferdinando Stanley, Henry Carey , Thomas Sackville, William Cecil (Burghley), John Pickering, John Wolley and John Fortescue {Wraight, 1965 #114}. Several of the ten counted by Marlowe’s anagrams are unaccounted for in Wraight’s list. However, Robert Cecil, Thomas Heneage and Robert Devereux (the Earl of Essex) may not have been present, possibly because the outcome was predetermined by the Queen and they were busy elsewhere making arrangements. Probably Queen Elizabeth wrote an order, under her seal, to the state secret service controlled by Burghley, unofficially but effectively headed by Robert Cecil, with Tom Heneage as his deputy, instructing them to get Marlowe out of England alive. She may have extended this instruction also to Essex and Bacon, who had their own parallel and competing intelligence network, in which Marlowe was also a very important, if occasional, asset. That night, May 23 or May 24, weary Robin Poley, just returned from a mission to the Netherlands {de Kalb, 1933 #138}revealed that, though Marlowe had been exiled by the Queen, Archbishop Whitgift had privately hired him (Poley) to assassinate Kit before he could escape. Whitgift, who hated Marlowe and really wanted to see him dead – burnt at the stake if possible – intended to trump the Queen’s move. Robin Poley, who had worked for Whitgift in the past, was the chosen instrument. But Poley did not want to murder his friend and secret colleague Kit Marlowe. Poley did think of Marlowe as a friend; he once asserted that he “would

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willingly perjure himself rather than do [him] harm” {Nicholl, 1992 #16} p.33.) On the other hand, Poley could not afford to defy Archbishop Whitgift openly and make him an enemy. The “murder” plot was the only way out of the dilemma. Marlowe had to be officially dead. This realization galvanized the secret service plotters. Those definitely involved must have included William Danby, the Queen’s coroner. Danby was also an old friend and colleague of William Cecil, from their days together 50 years earlier at Gray’s Inn. Dame Elinor Whitney Bull was the widow of a Court official, the “Clerk of the Green Cloth”, and a cousin of the Queen’s old nanny, Blanche Parry, as well as a distant cousin of Lord Burghley {Hunt, 2005 #8}. Her husband, Richard Bull had also been involved with Lord Burghley in the Muscovy Company, although details are scarce. Their son Nathan Bull was a classmate of Christopher Marlowe’s at the King’s School in Canterbury, and later may have been Marlowe’s personal assistant (servant, savant). He was probably with Marlowe at Tom Walsingham’s house at Scadbury, Kent, when Marlowe was arrested. His role in the affair might have been to suggest his mother’s house in Deptford as a suitable venue for the “murder”. Apart from these, three men were actually with Marlowe at Dame Bull’s house where he was “murdered”. They were Robert Poley, Ingram Frizer and . All three had secret service connections. Frizer and Skeres were actually in residence at Scadbury at the time, to escape the plague. Robert Poley was the most experienced and most

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reliable secret agent of the three men, as well as a long- time colleague of Marlowe’s since the “Gilbert Gifford” impersonation. But since May 8, 1593, he had been away on spy business, “upon a warrant signed by Mr. vice chamberlayne at the court” to deliver letters “in poste for her majestiees speciall and secrete afaires of great importance from the court at Croydon...into the Lowe Countryes to the towne of the Hage in Hollande...”. His skills were needed. According to one account, Poley arrived back at Deptford by ship from Holland on May 30, just in time, possibly because Thomas Walsingham or another agent working for Essex or Robert Cecil went to wherever he was and brought him back {Farey, 2000 #14}. That is unlikely, because there wouldn’t have been enough time. However, there is also evidence that on May 23 Poley had been at Nonesuche, where the Queen was currently “on progress”, having just returned from Scotland. In any case, Poley was at Deptford on May 31, testifying at the coroner’s inquest {de Kalb, 1933 #138}. The three “witnesses” told their story to the Coroner’s court, undoubtedly concocted with the help of a lawyer – probably Coroner Danby. One question that must be answered by those like Nicholl and Riggs, who choose to believe in the official version of events, is simply this: why was Poley at Dame Bull’s house? Surely it was not a social gathering, even though all three men probably knew each other. In fact, one wonders how Robert Poley came to know about the meeting, and its location? As Nicholl has correctly noted, there must have been an “invisible hand”, organizing things.

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The invisible hand was most likely Robert Cecil, with his deputy Thomas Heneage and Lord Essex’s man Anthony Bacon. Could Poley, Skeres and Frizer have really been brought together to kill Marlowe, as Riggs seems to think? Although several authors have suggested it, they have difficulty answering another simple question: Why would Marlowe have agreed to spend the day “socializing” with such men in violation of his parole, even though they were professional colleagues? It makes no sense. And, if the Earl of Essex, or Robert Cecil (or the Queen) had wanted simply to kill Marlowe, as some writers have suggested, why involve Poley or Tom Walsingham (via his loyal servant Frizer) both of whom were Marlowe’s colleagues and, in Tom Walsingham’s case, a personal friend? From the perspective of some hypothetical high ranking person who wanted him dead, why not simply have him killed and left in a ditch or dumped in the river by some murderer-for-hire, of which there were surely some in the spy network? For that matter, Drury and Cholmeley both had contacts with such people. That, of course, is precisely what Whitgift had in mind. Why the charade in Deptford? Those who believe in the official story never confront this awkward question. The only plausible answer, as Peter Farey has noted, must be that the plotters, with the Queen’s permission, needed Marlowe to be legally dead, while living safely abroad under an assumed identity {Farey, 2005 #15}. The plotters evidently needed a body. They could

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perhaps have found and killed a drunken sailor, as Calvin Hoffman imagined {Hoffman, 1955 #100}. In fact Marlowe himself may have assumed that that is what would happen. Deptford was an active port, at the time, and drunken sailors doubtless were available. But there wasn’t much time and the body had to be available at just the right moment and it had to pass at least superficial inspection by the Coroner’s jury as that of Kit Marlowe, who was a well-known personality. William Honey has made the interesting suggestion of identity theft, i.e. that the body buried in Deptford was that of the bit-player William Shakespeare with Marlowe taking his place thereafter {Honey, 1966 #498}. It seems that the theatrical hanger-on from Stratford looked a lot like Marlowe and Honey thinks that Marlowe took his name. If Marlowe had not been a well-known personality, that might have worked. But plenty of people would have recognized Marlowe under a new name and the Archbishop would have got the news in a matter of days at most. As pointed out by Dave More, editor of The Marlovian newsletter, there was a suitable victim available, about the right age, already tried, convicted and sentenced to be hanged on May 25, and awaiting the hangman {More, 1997 #141}. That person – a former Cambridge acquaintance of Marlowe’s in fact – was the Puritan preacher John Ap Henry (Penry) the last of the “Martin Marprelate” suspects to be convicted. Penry had written a letter from prison to both Lord Burghley, and Lord Essex, protesting his innocence, and asking Lord Burghley to see to his burial. So both

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Burghley and Essex knew about Penry’s pending execution. Unaccountably, Penry’s scheduled execution was suddenly delayed. The poor fellow must have hoped that he was going to be released. But then, suddenly, Penry was taken to a gibbet at St. Thomas a Watering, in , just a few miles from Deptford. And there he was hanged. That happened on May 29, without the usual notification of his family or the public. And immediately thereafter, the body disappeared {Farey, 2000 #14; More, 1997 #141}. At any rate, there is no record of what happened to it, which is also odd because Penry was not a nobody. He was a moderately famous preacher among the Puritans and is still regarded as a martyr in Wales. On the same day as Penry’s execution on May 29, Baines apparently delivered his incriminating “note” to the Privy Council {, 2005 #62; Baker, 2005 #84; Honey, 1966 #498}. Some of the more lurid quotes (or mis-quotes) are worth repeating because they still constitute a good part of the general perception of Marlowe as a disreputable, possibly criminal character, and that the charges of atheism and heresy, as well as homosexuality, were probably true. Here are some of the statements attributed to Marlowe by Baines: “If there be any God or good religion, then it is the Papists, because the service of God is performed with more ceremonies”....“Christ deserved better to die than Barrabas: The Jews made a good choice”....“They [the apostles] were fishermen and base fellows: Only Paul had wit, but he was a timorous fellow in bidding

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men to be subject to magistrates against their conscience”....“St. was bedfellow to Christ and learned always at his bosom; he used him as the sinners of sodoma; and the woman of Samaria and her sister were whores who Christ knew dishonestly”....“That he had as good a right to coin as the Queen of England, and that he was acquainted with one Poole, a prisoner in Newgate who had great skill in the mixture of metals and having learnt some things of him he meant through help of a cunning stamp maker to coin French crowns, pistolets and English shillings”....“They that love not tobacco and boys are fools.” Of course there was a lot more, more than enough to justify a fiery death at the stake in a society that was utterly intolerant of dissent in the smallest degree. True, some of the quotes may have been inventions, but some ring true. Others may have been wrongly attributed. The remark about tobacco and boys sounds much more like a wealthy pederast like Oxford than an impecunious striver like Marlowe. I can imagine Marlowe quoting a drunken jest by his former paymaster to his fellow free-thinkers in the School of Night. But, added to the rest, it would be another nail in his coffin. In short, the overall flavor of rational skepticism about religious doctrine is hard to explain away. If these accusations had been seen by the Queen or the Privy Council before May 23, it is very unlikely that he would have avoided the death that Archbishop Whitgift planned for him. Baines must have been late. The Note was

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not dated. A copy was delivered to the Queen on which were written the words “A Note delivered on Whitsun Eve last of the most horrible blasphemes vtteryd by Christofer Marly who, within three days after (sic) came to a soden and fearful end of his life.” Whitsun Eve in 1593 was June 2, which is three days after the (apparent) murder on May 30 in Deptford. Evidently there is some error. Since it is unlikely that the reference to Whitsun was wrong, the most likely is that the word “after” in bold should have been “before”{Honey, 1966 #498}. According to some records, Marlowe had been summoned to appear once again before the star chamber on that day, Wednesday May 30, a week after his second interrogation, on the 23rd, when he was sentenced to exile. Did Whitgift hope to persuade the Council (and Queen) to reverse their earlier decision? Was it a gambit to keep Marlowe nearby and available for assassination by Poley? We don’t know, because before that third interrogation could take place, Marlowe has been murdered at Deptford. So says the official record. According to the Coroner Danby’s report, Marlowe met with his three fellow secret agents in Dame Bull’s house, on Wednesday, May 30, just about the time he was supposed to appear for his third inquisition, this time at Greenwich. The removal and transportation of John Penry’s body four miles rom the place of his execution to Dame Bull’s house would not have been too difficult for two experienced secret agents. John Baker points out that the body, dead by hanging on the 29th, would have been stiff from rigor mortis

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for 24 hours, and difficult to manipulate, which might account for the plotters delay until May 30 when rigor would have passed {Baker, 2006 #164}. Very precise timing was needed. Incidentally, it is quite likely that the plotters did not tell Marlowe that it was John Penry whose body they were using. Robert Cecil would have known that Marlowe and Penry had known each other at Cambridge, and possibly more recently in the Martin Marprelate activities. So Marlowe was probably (intentionally) deceived on this point. According to an anagram Ballantine found in 3 Henry VI (lines 17-18), compressed: ...to mutate the deed we’ll do[eserue’d deceit: th’ borrowed body of a dirtyhang’d shyster-man serves as me, UC for all sol]ution to this charade... The anagram words in square brackets before and after the central words come from prior and subsequent anagram lines, respectively. It is likely that the Queen did not remain at Nonesuche after May 23. She probably moved temporarily to Greenwich, near Deptford, so as to ensure that the murder and the coroner’s jury would be clearly “within the verge” on May 30.28 Here’s a plausible scenario: May 28, Monday. The Queen had moved to Greenwich to

28.While the court calendar shows the Queen at Nonesuche during May 14-22, there is a gap after that when I think she went to Greenwich {Chambers, 1923 #236}. Farey does not seem to have thought of this possibility {Farey, 2005 #75}.

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be “within the verge”. She (through Robert Cecil) had arranged to provide a safe-house in Deptford. The house belonged to Dame Bull, a relation of the Queen’s old nurse, Blanche Parry. May 29, Tuesday. Ingram Frizer and Kit Marlowe rode from Scadbury to Deptford. Poley had reserved a chamber for four men for the next day at Dame Bull’s house; they would dine in their chamber. Kit, disguised as an old man and using a pseudonym, was lodged in another room there, on the same day. The body of the hanged man (Penry) was “provided” by one of Robert Cecil’s men to agents Frizer and Skeres. The agents had to arrange the details of pickup, transportation (in a cart under a load of old clothes?) and storage until rigor mortis had passed. Before rigor, they dressed the corpse in Kit’s clothes. May 30, Wednesday. Robert Poley, Nicholas Skeres and Ingram Frizer arrive at the widow’s house around noon with the corpse, dressed in Kit’s clothes, supported between them as if he were alive but tipsy. The whole day was a plotted drama, with Kit – as himself – in plain sight in his own clothes during the afternoon and later that night, back in the old-man disguise. The body must have been kept fairly warm, somewhere near the kitchen. Before the simulated fight, Kit – now in disguise – probably left Dame Bull’s house and moved (with luggage) to Edward Marley’s naval-stores warehouse at the dock, where Captain Walton’s ship Salamander was waiting. Meanwhile the

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three men upstairs in Dame Bull’s house created a plausible murder scene, and stabbed the dead body dressed in Kit’s clothes, in the eye. The widow called the Sheriff. For more background see {Hotson, 1925 #19}. Danby, the Queen’s Coroner, now at Greenwich with the court, and within the verge, was informed. May 31, Thursday. A 16 member jury of local citizens was hastily assembled in Deptford. The only official present was William Danby. This was irregular; the local Coroner should have been there also. The testimony was as follows: Christopher Marlowe spent the previous day, May 30, at the private house of Dame Elizabeth Bull in the company of three men, Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley. They were walking in the garden (perhaps to be seen?) eating, drinking and talking. According to testimony of the three witnesses there was an argument after dinner about who should pay the bill (“the reckoning”) {Farey, 2000 #14; Nicholl, 1992 #16; Hotson, 1925 #19}.29 According to the testimony, Frizer was sitting on a bench between the other two men, while Marlowe was lying on a bed behind the other three, who were facing the other way. Suddenly he (Marlowe) became

29.It is noteworthy that Touchstone, in As You Like It, speaking of the consequences of neglect on a poet said “it strikes a man as dead as a great reckoning in a little room”. There can be little doubt that this was a direct reference to Marlowe’s supposed death in a little room in Deptford, and Nicholl took it as the title of his book.{Nicholl, 1992 #16}.

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enraged, for some reason, reached out and grabbed Ingram Frizer’s knife, which was presumably in his belt, and gave Frizer a couple of scalp wounds. Then Frizer, being trapped between the others and unable to escape, turned and grappled with Marlowe, who was behind him, seized the knife, and gave Marlowe a fatal stab in the right eye, above the eyeball. Marlowe supposedly died instantly. Peter Farey wonders, quite reasonably, why the householder, Elizabeth Bull, was not interviewed {Farey, 200 #281}.

Despite the peculiarities of the story told by the three witnesses, Coroner Danby unhesitatingly instructed the jury to find Ingram Frizer innocent “by reason of self-defense”. The jury did as it was instructed. The body was supposedly buried next day (June 1) at St Nicholas Church, Deptford, in an unmarked grave. The Church record of burials said, according to the most reliable transcription (by Leslie Hotson) “Christopher Marlow slaine by ffrancis ffrezer [Frizer] 1-June 1593” {Hotson, 1925 #19}.The church has no record of the location of the grave. The jury’s verdict of innocent by virtue of self-defense and not feloniously or of malice aforethought” was confirmed two weeks later (June 15) by the Chancery Court, as demanded by the Queen’s writ {Hotson, 1925 #19}. Her pardon arrived two weeks after that, one of the quickest royal pardons on record. (This, if nothing else, establishes her personal interest in the case). Ingram Frizer then went back to work for Thomas Walsingham and continued in his

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employ for a number of years thereafter {Hoffman, 1955 #100}. The arrangement of the four men, with Marlowe lying on a bed behind the others and facing their backs, is bizarre, to say the least. It does not fit with the assertion that they were quarreling, even though that is what all three the witnesses unanimously testified. What it does fit, rather precisely, is the legal condition for a jury to find “innocence by reason of self-defense”. The whole scenario must have been arranged by someone well-versed in the law. Incidentally, the notion that Marlowe, however hot tempered, would stab someone from behind – yet ineffectually —is also quite unbelievable, albeit hardly evidence in a court of law. Many writers have doubted the story told by Queen’s Coroner Danby, while still accepting the assumption of Marlowe’s death {Nicholl, 1992 #16; Walker, 2006 #182; Riggs, 2004 #17}. This has led to several other conspiracy theories, including the possibility that Marlowe was assassinated by people working for Burghley, Essex or even by the Queen herself {Riggs, 2004 #17}. But the only plausible reason for assassinating Marlowe – all the conspiracy theorists agree on this – was to prevent him from revealing embarrassing secrets under interrogation. The question remains: What secrets and embarrassing to whom? Nothing remotely plausible has ever been suggested. I cannot resist mentioning that the episode at Dame Bull’s place described in the Coroner’s report bears an uncanny resemblance to an important Masonic ritual. The

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oldest tradition in Freemasonry is the allegory of “CHiram Abiff”, Grand Master of the Dionysiac Architects who was sent by King Hiram of Tyre to supervise the building of King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.30 Masonic lore describes CHiram Abiff as “the most cunning., skillful and curious workman that ever lived”. It was he who supposedly divided the workmen into three categories, consisting of “Master- masons”, hewers of stone or “Fellow Craftsmen”, and laborers, or “entered apprentices” {Anderson, 1723 #121}cited in {Hall, 2008 #502}p.234. These groups were classified by their merits and distinguished by passwords and signs. According to the legend, during the construction of the Temple three of the Fellow Craftsmen were dissatisfied with their classification and plotted to force CHiram Abiff to reveal the password for “Master Masons”. The three were named Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum, One day, at noon, when CHiram came to view the unfinished sanctum, the three lay in wait for him, one at each gate. At the South gate, CHiram refused to give the password and Jubela hit him with a

30.The CH in Roman letters signifies “My father the universal spirit, one in essence, three in aspect. It derives from a combination of three Hebrew consonents Cheth, Resh and Mem. Cheth signifies Chamah, the sun’s light, Resh signifies Ruach, signifying that which transmits sunlight (spirit, air, wind) while Mem signifies majim, the mother of water or Radical Humidity. The combination signifies the Universal Agent or Fire of Nature. “The murdered Master is a type of cosmic martyr – the crucified spirit of good – the dying God – whose mystery is celebrated throughout the world.” {Hall, 2008 #502}p.217.

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gauge. At the west gate CHiram refused again and Jubelo hit him with a square. Finally, at the east gate, CHiram refused for the third time and Jubelum hit him between the eyes with a maul, after which CHiram instantly fell dead. Moreover, in the ceremony of elevation to the degree of “master mason”, CHiram Abiff is resurrected {Knight, 1996 #111}. Still more curious, in the “signature” found by Peter Bull (Appendix D) Marlowe is identified several times as “master mason”. Moreover, a sort of “living resurrection” is part of the core ritual of elevation to the Third Degree of Freemasonry. Could the entire charade have been a deliberate message that would be recognizable only by the Masonic elite? I think it is plausible, although I cannot explain who would have wanted to send this message or why. There is quite a literature on the Masonic elements in two of Shakespeare’s plays, especially Love’s Labor’s Lost and The Tempest e.g. {Dodd, 1946 #122; Dodd, 1933 #275}. More specifically, it has been argued forcefully that Macbeth is an allegory of the murder of the character CHiram Abiff, who is central to the Masonic ritual {Guffey, 2006 #276}. Since Francis Bacon is widely considered to have been one of the founders, if not the chief founder, of English Freemasonry {Pott, 1891 #189}, this sort of evidence is frequently used to justify the Bacon = Shakespeare thesis e.g. {Walker, 2006 #182}, see also http://sirbacon.org. And what actually happened to Marlowe after the quasi-theatrical performance at Dame Bull’s house? There

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are just two possibilities, though only one really fits all the facts. Deptford was a port, and he could easily have escaped from there secretly by ship, especially with help from Robert Poley. Also, he was probably carrying a kit-bag (no pun) with his clothes and a trunk containing unfinished manuscripts, and possibly some source-books, since he expected to be away for a number of years at least. As mentioned already, Ballantine thinks the ship was probably Salamander, owned by William Walton, then waiting at the nearby dock owned by Edward Marley (possibly a relative of Marlowe’s legal father?) Marlowe probably waited for some time at the warehouse, or on board the ship while various chores were completed. Lord Essex’s cipher-man, Thomas Phelippes, probably waited with him, partly to provide him with contact letters, laissez-passers and money. Also Kit had to write a dedication for Venus and Adonis and put Shakespeare’s name on it. The choice of William Shakespeare may have been pure accident. The original idea might have been to create a mythical author. But there was a low-level agent of the secret service, named Will Shaksper(e), an actor of minor talents, who resembled Marlowe physically and was the right age. Anthony Bacon might have known him, or known of him. (They were both gay). The fact that Richard Field, the printer, happened to know him, because they both came from Stratford-on-Avon, might have tipped the balance. Phelippes must have taken the hastily written dedication to Richard Field. He also took the manuscript of Richard III, newly polished.

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Kit must have worked hard at it that last day in Deptford, while waiting for Poley to arrive. Right under the title (Venus and Adonis) there is a Latin verse from Ovid: “Vilia miretur vulgus: mihi flavus Apollo Pocula Castalia plena ministret aqua” which contains a sentimental signature anagram deciphered by my brother Alex Ayres: Cris marlo alive: pens U Sha plas Title poem rit in magic if you valu quot I luv U all. Kit was still feeling some relief and gratitude that Hen, the Queen and the spy service bosses were willing to go out of their collective ways and take risks to save him. He knew there would be a metaphorical pound of flesh demanded. But that would be later. It may be recalled that Marlowe translated Ovid’s Amores while he was at Cambridge. When Marlowe’s translation of Ovid’s Elegies was printed (in Middlebourgh, Holland, in or about 1595){Davies, 1595? #478} there were some seemingly minor changes in the letters, leading to a revised translation: “Let base conceited wits admire vile things Fair Phoebus lead me to the muse’s springs,” which also contains an anagram discovered by my brother Alex Cris Marlowe alive pens Sh plas, abets SS con begd me tied tu deth if I return home As always he signs his name. Next comes the famous dedication, consisting of eight prose lines, including the famous phrase “the first heir of my

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invention” on which Shakespeare scholars put so much weight. At the time, Kit Marlowe probably figured that he was inventing his alter ego, Shakespeare: “I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden; only, if your honor seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised; and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honored you with some graver labour. But if the first heir(e) of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry I had so noble a god- father and never after ear so barren a land, for fear it yield mine still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honorable survey and your honour to your heart’s content which I which may always answer your own wish and the world’s most hopeful expectation.” Each of these lines contains an anagram claiming authorship of Shakespeare plays. For instance the first line contains the anagram (also found by brother Alex): I Kit Marlowe pennd Dido, writ plays of fool Sh lines in nu English you don’t do. Ballantine has found the following anagrams in the text of the poem itself, compressed. The verse by verse correspondence is given in Appendix A-16: Christopher Marlowe penned U this tale. We can’t save the devil. He’s e’en gone off

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up a lunatic road to liue out there, shunn’d. Hee Hee! C th’ ghost! His good name has been killed, U C: hourlie sound a knel. But soft! Kit can gain this good name, even tho’ U mask’d him wi’ mvch ado! See: wheneuer better plays R best, each will hide his name for some of us t’ see, if th’ cheef agree. Follo, —men, to see three words that haue stayed all unseen, imprisoned on a mirror: A Henry, a friend, with this his theme gift: that neat wet laddah that will set the author free. The henchman goes away tu be alone. Adio, friends! Oh, this deep huddled sorro—that thov, the dutiful sweet thin hickory rod, hath no wai to saue th’ author ‘n’ end shame! So set off, diluting beer with mother’s tears (Drinks in dispute). See, see, s-e-e-e where the Channel tosses him! As always, he claimed authorship in the first line. N. B. neat wet laddah with advance knowledge of Kit’s likely future life, or perhaps a specific forthcoming mission, Henry Wriothesley (“Hen”) gave Kit a silk-gut ladder, something portable enough to hide in his clothes. It would have had multiple uses, to get into or out of tight places such as a woman’s bedroom or a Turkish jail. By the same token it was a metaphor for a scheme to escape from the nameless fix in which he found himself. In the ciphers he refers to himself as a devil – as he was viewed by the religious

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establishment – and as a “ghost”, possibly the origin of the term “ghost-writer”. He also promises to “hide his name” in future writings, “if th’ cheef agree”. The “cheef” (of the secret service) must have been either Robert Cecil or Anthony Bacon acting for Essex. N. B. Marlowe did not mention Shakespeare by name in the ciphers in the text of the poem itself. Since this poem was registered on April 18, 1593 it must have been written and ciphered earlier. It is clear that Marlowe already feared what was coming (exile) but not that he would have to lose his identity as an author. Nor could he know who his nom de plume would be. I think that after the simulated murder in Deptford, Robert Poley was deputed to accompany Marlowe to his next destination, Calais. Poley was to see him off on his first mission as an agent, under a new name, working initially for the Earl of Essex. However he (Poley) could not have gone with Marlowe until after serving as a witness at the Coroner’s hearing in Deptford, on May 31, and only after a favorable outcome. Of course the outcome was predetermined: it was “self-defense”. Ingram Frizer was the chosen “killer”, and he was duly imprisoned, albeit only for a month until receiving his full royal pardon. Poley was free to leave as soon as the proceedings were finished, and so he did. The actual departure took place a day late, on June 3. As the Salamander was preparing to cast off to catch the outgoing tide on June 2, Kate Arthur Marley, Kit’s mother, showed up in tears. How did she know where he was?

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Probably Tom Walsingham, who must have been in on the plot – since Frizer was his man – slipped her the word. Captain Walton wanted desperately to get going before the Archbishop realized what was happening, but they couldn’t pry her loose in time. A letter from Lord Essex in early June said: “Earl of Essex to Thos. Phelippes. Hears Walton is not gone; the day for the appointed meeting is near, and the matter is not to be played with. Asks him to wake up, as besides the duty they all owe, his own reputation is engaged in it; will not endure that the negligence of such a fellow should turn to her Majesty’s unquietness and his disgrace.”{CSP Addenda, #481 vol. ccxlv, p.358}. The Walton referred to was Captain William Walton, owner- Captain of the Salamander. The “matter not to be played with” was a scheduled meeting of an Essex representative with King Henry Bourbon of Navarre, in St. Denis near Paris, just a few days hence. Essex had been sending representatives to meet with Henri Bourbon for several years. Marlowe was to be Essex’s representative on this occasion. Poley probably went overland from Calais to the Hague (Hage) to pick up the messages he was deputed to bring back. This fits with the fact that Robert Poley was officially supposed to be carrying urgent messages for the Queen, which he did not deliver until almost two weeks later (June 12). On that day he received payment of £30 (£4000 in

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today’s money) on a warrant signed by Sir Thomas Heneage, who was Sir Robert Cecil’s second in command of the official state secret service. The payment was fairly generous in terms of likely costs incurred. On this occasion, the two branches of the service were evidently coordinating. That must have been a fingerprint of the Queen. If Marlowe had been on his way to France by the most direct route, there was no need for him to be present at all in the house of Dame Bull on May 30, except to be seen in the neighborhood by some of the townspeople (or by Whitgift’s spies). In fact, apart from the (possible) need to be seen – and apparently killed – there was every reason for him to be traveling in another direction. Thus, there is a theory due to John Baker that he went first to Canterbury to say good-bye to his mother Kate, and to dry her tears, thence ride on to Dover, where he could have been received by his mother’s relatives, the Arthurs. As it happens, an Essex agent, Nicholas Faunt was there in Dover, on that night, dispatching English agents to Calais, across the Channel by boat. Faunt was then one of Essex’s secretaries. He and Marlowe were both graduates of the King’s School and of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. They had both worked for Francis Walsingham {Baker, 2005 #4}. In France, Anthony Bacon’s agent – whoever he was – was met by another long-term Walsingham agent, Anthony Standen (“Pompeo Pellegrini”). Faunt wrote a letter to Bacon, from Dover, dated 9 PM, the evening of May 30). From Dover, it is but a few hours sail to Calais. Standen, in turn, wrote a letter to Bacon a few days later mentioning

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that “Faunt’s young man” had arrived safely. Coincidence or red herring? Nobody knows for sure, but I think that red herring is most likely. So ends the first half of Kit Marlowe’s life, as best I can reconstruct it. Several important spy episodes, suggested in the anagrams, cannot be confirmed from “real” historical data. After all, the essence of spying is secrecy. But the most important conclusion of this reconstruction is that Marlowe was not killed in a brawl, or any way at all, in May 1593. He was the target of a powerful and determined enemy, Archbishop Whitgift, supported by inquisitory High Commission. But Marlowe had made extraordinary contributions to English intelligence. It is unlikely that the secret service saved him out of sheer gratitude. What they saved, in their view, was a very valuable secret agent with amazing talents that they had every intention of continuing to use. So it turned out. It should be pointed out that, while Marlowe’s supposed death was immediately announced and widely known in the first few years after the events of May 30,1593, its cause was not. Coroner Danby’s report to the Queen was immediately suppressed, under the 16th century equivalent of the “official secrets act”, and did not see the light of day again until it was discovered in some obscure government archives by Leslie Hotson, circa 1920 {Hotson, 1925 #19}. The first rumors in London were that Marlowe had died of the plague. In 1597, four years later, Thomas Beard published his booklet The Theater of God’s Judgments – quoted earlier – which described Marlowe’s supposed

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death by dagger, for the first time in print, but got all the other details wrong {Farey, 2001 #227}. Later rumors, spread by his enemies, and printed by Frances Meres (1598) asserted that Marlowe had been killed in a fight with “a bawdy serving man” over “ his lewde love” i.e. some homosexual encounter (ibid). This error by Meres casts doubt on the reliability of his other information including the attribution of several plays to Shakespeare. The first mention of Deptford as the location of the fight in a tavern, the dagger in the eye and the name of the murderer (“Ingram”) appeared for the first time seven years after the fact in The Golden Grove by Wm. Vaughan (1600) (ibid). Vaughan apparently knew somebody who knew somebody who had actually seen the coroner’s report. There are indications that Vaughan may have been a secret service agent himself, which might explain his information.

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Part II: Resurrection

Chapter 16: From Calais to Venice

Even among the few Marlovians (up to now) who believed that Marlowe did not die in 1593, there are several extant theories as to what happened to him in the years after Deptford. Calvin Hoffman suggested that Marlowe went abroad, possibly to Italy, and that he might have lived for some time in Padua. Florence has also been suggested as a possible destination. Louis Ule theorized that Marlowe immediately changed his name to Hugh Sanford (with help from Burghley), moved to the Pembroke country seat, Wilton House, and remained there the rest of his life – apart from trips – as secretary to the Earl {Ule, 1995 #94}. There was a man named Hugh Sanford. He was hired by the Earl of Pembroke – actually by his wife, Mary Sidney Herbert – as a tutor for her young sons William and Philip. Ule postulates a trip through Europe with Thomas Nashe, in the retinue of Sir Robert Sidney (the half-brother of Countess Mary), more or less paralleling the earlier trips by older half-brother Philip Sidney. This hypothetical trip could have taken Marlowe to all the cities featured in the plays, Elsinore, Venice, Bohemia, Illyria, Verona, Vienna, Padua, Mantua, Florence and Rome. Most of the evidence for Ule’s theory is literary, much of it based on Nashe’s Unfortunate Traveler. Hugh Sanford’s early life is mysterious, so he cannot be ruled out a priori,

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but somebody named Sanford worked with the Countess on her 1590 edition of her brother Philip’s poem Arcadia {Hannay, 1990 #127}. The same Sanford also worked with her on the 1593 edition. If that was the same Hugh Sanford who remained with the Herbert family, it means that Marlowe and Sanford could not be the same man. In any case, though Kit Marlowe did have a long, warm – occasionally torrid – relationship with Mary Sidney, I don’t think he took that name or that job. Another intriguing theory is that Kit Marlowe (or his friends) killed the actor William Shakespeare and took his name {Honey, 1966 #498}. Mr Honey wasted a lot of ingenuity explaining how Marlowe-as-Shakespeare was able to fool both his London contacts and the Shakespeare family in Stratford. However, while this theory explains some things, it does not explain a lot of others, including “Shakespeare’s” familiarity with Italy and other countries. Apart from that, Marlowe was a celebrity and Whitgift’s men would have soon recognized him, no matter what named he used. There is another theory that Marlowe and Shakespeare were one and the same person, being the youngest of three illegitimate sons of two great royal personages, the other two being known by the names of Greene and Nashe {Proper, 1953 #356}. This theory is also extremely ingenious. But it fails to account for the facts – documented or inferred – of Marlowe’s life and “death” as discussed in Part I, many of which were not known at the time her book was written.

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A more plausible theory, based on clues from the anagrams discovered by Roberta Ballantine {Ballantine, 2007 #364}, is presented hereafter. *** Marlowe’s activities between June 1593 and October 1595 are murky, to be sure. But this scenario is not contradicted by any other information that we know of. It has Marlowe starting from Calais on June 3 1593, on the ship Salamander. The parallel activities in Dover, mentioned at the end of the last chapter, were probably intended to mislead the Archbishop’s agents, if any were still suspicious. Kit was entrusted with messages of support from the Earl of Essex to deliver to Henri Bourbon, the Protestant claimant to the French throne, who was camped at St. Denis, north of Paris. He was provided with laissez-passer’s by Thomas Phelippes, who worked for Essex. He had with him most of his worldly possessions, consisting of some clothes and including a trunk with source books and unfinished manuscripts. He was accompanied on the first leg of the journey by Robert Poley, who was charged with the task of delivering him safely to French soil. The Salamander probably arrived in Calais on June 4, 1593, a day later than originally planned. Marlowe was probably traveling under the name “LeDoux”, since his previous work-names, “Colerdin” and “Gifford” had been blown several years earlier and were no longer safe. LeDoux is a name he probably borrowed from a childhood Huguenot refugee acquaintance of his in Canterbury {Farey, 1999 #191}. He almost certainly used that name later.

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It was – as usual – a rough channel crossing. At Calais Kit Marlowe and Robert Poley would have rested one night in an inn, Kit practiced his rusty French on the locals. He probably learned it from the original LeDoux family back in Canterbury. Next day he and Poley parted, Poley towards the low countries where he had business while Marlowe traveled south towards Rouen and Paris in a post-chaise. He probably spent the second night at Amiens, where the treaty ending the Franco-Spanish war in 1557 had been signed. From there he would have continued to St. Denis, a village just north of Paris (now a suburb) where King Henri Bourbon of Navarre – soon to become Henry IV of France – was encamped with his army while negotiating for the surrender of Paris. Kit probably arrived there on June 6-7, English calendar (June 16-17 Gregorian calendar) where he delivered a message of support from Lord Essex. It was probably there at St. Denis that Henry IV decided that “Paris is worth a mass”, if he ever said it, and agreed to reconvert to the Church of Rome, after prolonged negotiations with the Bishops, the Cardinal and the Pope. Henri, who had previously met Kit on an earlier visit with Essex in 1591, kindly invited him to stay the night and rest (anagrams, 3 Henry VI lines 23-38). Next day, or the day after, Kit departed from Navarre’s camp. He must have been tempted to visit his old friend, and life-savior, Edward Grimsby at the English embassy in Paris. But Stafford was still the Ambassador and Paris was too dangerous for him because of memories of

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“Gilbert Gifford” among the Catholic Leaguers. So he skirted Paris. If he took the northern route, he would have followed the Marne upstream to its source, then cross country to the Saone at Chaumont and thence downstream to Macon. The southern route would have taken him back to the Seine at Melun, then south along the Yonne toward Dijon and then finally to the Saone. Either way he must have travelled by post chaise, hired horses, or wherever possible by water wagon (coche de l’eau) to Macon, thence across the border into less than friendly Savoy. From there he would have passed through Bourg, Nantua and finally up the valley of the Rhone, past the Pert du Rhone and the arsenal of Savoy, to Calvinist Geneva, the source and seed-bed of all the French Huguenots (anagrams, 3 Henry VI lines 47-48). It must have been a dangerous journey through country-side so recently semi-pacified after decades of bloody civil and religious war, especially because he could not travel light, on account of being burdened with his most precious belongings (books). He would have needed a passport or “Laissez-passer” for each of these border crossings. On or about the June 27 (Gregorian) Kit arrived in Geneva and probably proceeded to the house of Professor Isaac Casaubon. Casaubon was a French-born Huguenot and Greek scholar, who was already reputed to be one of the greatest classical scholars of Europe. He became Royal Librarian in Paris in 1598. Still later, in 1610, Casaubon was invited to Canterbury, with a pension of £300 per annum from King James. Casaubon was reputed to spend most of

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his small university salary on books. Kit would have enjoyed his company, even though Greek was his weakest language. He probably remained there for some days, waiting for other arrangements to be made. An anagram in Sonnet 27 says “Marloe wrote this. I’M delayed; I wait with th’ professor every day ... ” I imagine he might have had some interesting conversations with the professor, on many topics. I presume they spoke at first in French. Kit would have been carrying a letter of introduction, probably signed by Nicholas Bacon, the head of the Earl of Essex’s intelligence operation. The letter would have asked for Casaubon’s “cooperation” in providing bed and sustenance for a guest on business somehow related to Henri Bourbon’s quest for the throne of France, with which Casaubon was sympathetic. Anthony must have been a bit vague, not knowing exactly what – if any – Marlowe’s connection with that quest might be. But the professor would soon have detected that his visitor’s choice of words and phrases was a little out of date. He would have noticed, also that his vistor was carrying books. Professor Casaubon loved books – he was noted for spending all his small salary on buying books. He wanted to see the books that Marlowe was carrying. Finally, I have no doubt, he simply asked, in English (in which he was fluent): “I know you are English. Who are you and what is your business here?” I imagine the dialog: M. “Who am I? I am a ghost, nameless. As for my business, it is to serve the Queen and her appointed servitors and guardians. And, to discover my new name.”

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C.. “A ghost you are not, for I see a healthy and virile man before me. One who carries, carrying books with him, which identifies him as a scholar. I think you are a university man, from Oxford or Cambridge. More likely Cambridge if you are on the side of the Huegenots and not the Catholic League. You call yourself nameless, yet you had a name. May I know it?” M. “In the service of the Queen I have been, on occasion, Colerdin, Dudley, Gifford, and now LeDoux. My birth name was Marley. Will that content you?” C. (Smiling) “I fear not. We wait together for young master Harry Wotton. Do you know him? From your face I see that you do not. He is a traveler. He comes and he goes, also on your Queen’s business as I understand it. He rests here from time to time, but on no schedule. So we may wait for days, for weeks or even months. Are you wealthy? Can you pay for board and keep, like the young lords who come betimes, as young Anthony Bacon did, to taste the pleasures of travel ?” M. “No. I am not a young lord. I have no pleasure in travel. I came away from England to escape fiery death, with all my possessions – as you see them – and very little coin. Here you can see my purse. Five guineas was my endowment from Her. I had a few more from friends. For the rest I must soon beg or find employment....” C. “As I guessed. What kind of employment are you suited for?” M. “I can read, cipher, write letters, speak several languages, act comic parts....”

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C. “And you are a scholar, a Cambridge man. You have a Bachelor of Arts? Or mayhap you are a Master of Arts” Perhaps you write poetry?” M. “I have tried, I cannot deny it.” C. “I think you have succeeded. Perhaps your name is ...was ...Christopher Marlowe? You are the translator of Ovid’s Amores. You are the author of Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus (a character of some interest to me, as a fellow academic), The Jew of Malta, and most recently . And other plays, perhaps not yet performed. So, once again, I ask, why are you here, with no name?” M. “Can you not guess, since you know so much already?” C. “I can guess that it has to do with accusations of thinking for yourself. But I think you shall tell me at leisure. It shall be your payment to me for my hospitality...and for my ears alone. I might also teach you Greek. We can discuss the dilemma of Doctor Faustus, and the real price of knowledge, until Master Wotton arrives from wherever he is, to take you on the next step of your journey. To Italy, I guess.” M. “As to that, it is my guess as well. I need to practice the language. I know very little Italian, though I have some Spanish. Can you teach me Italian instead of Greek?” C. “As my guest, the choice of language is yours.” *** Meanwhile, back in England, Robert Poley returned to

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Nonesuche (Archbishop Whitgift’s palatial country residence, where the Queen had returned from her short stay at Greenwich). He was carrying proof – probably a letter – that Kit had left England and arrived safely in France. Richard Field was already busy with the printing of Venus and Adonis. On June 12 (English calendar) it went on sale with the name "William Shakespeare" printed on the dedication. The poem, virtually pornographic for its time, was an extraordinary commercial success. It went through ten printings. But in due course, under Professor Casaubon’s roof, Kit Marlowe met his new secret service colleague, Henry Wotton. Wotton was a cousin of Anthony Bacon, an Oxford man, and a minor poet, who was also from Kent. Four years younger than Kit (who was then only 29), he was living on a very small inheritance, traveling, studying and learning about politics. Wotton was nominally staying in Casaubon’s house during that period, accruing a considerable unpaid debt, according to standard sources. The trunk with Kit’s reference books must have stayed behind at Casaubon’s place. Kit had no occasion to visit France or use the name “LeDoux” during the next several years, but there was correspondence under that name from the year 1595 in the trunk, when it was finally sent (or sold) back to Anthony Bacon, perhaps to pay part of Kit’s – or Wotton’s – unpaid rent {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} pp 22-23. Casaubon may have enjoyed their company, but he also needed money. Wotton and Kit had several mutual friends, and acquaintances. Wotton was already working part-time for

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Essex. It was his immediate task to conduct Kit across the Alps to Mantua, where he (Wotton) had other business. In Mantua Kit was to meet his old friend, and fellow poet, Tom Lodge (a.k.a. Edward Gratley), one of the original “University Wits”, who would accompany him for the last leg of his journey to Venice. He and Lodge had worked together on a writing project for several weeks in Rouen in 1586. Tom Lodge was just back from a failed attempt to circum- navigate the globe, with Cavendish, which left him penniless and in need of occupation, apart from pamphleteering. The meetings with Wotton in Geneva and Lodge in Mantua must have been rather uncertain, since there hadn’t been time for either agent to send a confirmation. But it worked out. Kit and Harry crossed Alps together, skiing part of the way across the Simplon pass. The road downhill from the Simplon Pass was steep and Kit, at least, was a novice skier on primitive skis. At one point they both lost control and fell into an icy ravine. They were rescued by other travelers only after several hours, during which they thought they were going to die (anagrams, 3 Henry VI lines 51-52). But during those hours they told each other their life stories and started a life-long friendship. And they did finally arrive safely at the border of the Spanish-controlled Duchy of Milan.(anagrams, 3 Henry VI lines 49-50). The compressed anagrams, from Sonnet 116 tell the tale. The verse-by- verse correspondence with plaintext is given in Appendix A- 17:

Sea-demon Marlouue penn’d this. I got it al

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t’ fit rite, see, ‘n’ rime, too! U led m-me to mend mie ruf measure—now it reads clearlie. Brother Wotton, e’en with his thot, he aided this sonnet’s form on R uuai to make an exit ‘n’ skee o’er th’ Alps. Knees bent, we SSS go o’er h-h-h-h-high snow t’ Italian border, where we quit at night ‘n’ hvrry t’ take a skouue, ‘n’ go slo to Milon ‘n’ on t’ pledge SSS help to Mantua’s checkk’d forces. We see him—his uoice is shie, ‘n’ I, I, being a fool, said, "Not t’ be worried—bet U feel better nouu we SS’ue made it here!" U thot hee shook wi’ horror. ‘E bouued deep, man, ‘n’ referr’d us to a privee nonni reuel! Monti Notice his repeated use of the abbreviation SSS, for State secret service, which I have tried to avoid – not always successfully – because of the unfortunate WW II Nazi connotation. The rest of the journey to the city itself, via river and lake, was uneventful, although it took several days. After a rest, Kit and Harry Wotton rode out of Milan past St. Gregory’s Well. This could have inspired his choice of a new name for himself: Gregorio de’Monti which he may have used for the first time in the anagram reproduced above. Gregory was the name of the then-current Pope. But it was also the name of the only Pope who had ever been sanctified, and who had died in exile – a fate Kit Marlowe must have expected for himself. “Monti” is also an anagram

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for “Timon”, a name he later used in a play, Timon of Athens, also about a hero who died in exile. Perhaps he had discussed Greek tragedy in Geneva with Casaubon, the Greek scholar. Of course, the name also suggests climbing, or mountains, or both. Kit had a big mountain to climb, and no wealthy and generous protector, unless the Earl of Essex or Tom Walsingham could be counted as such. He did not look on the Earl of Southampton, who was younger, as a protector or patron. except on the occasion where he had asked Hen to contact and intercede with the Queen on his behalf. Kit intended to use other names, such as Jacques (Jakes) Colerdin, and Louis LeDoux only for undercover assignments. From Milan, Kit and Harry Wotton went cross country to Mantua, avoiding the bandit-infested main road. At the Castello in Mantua they delivered Essex’s letter to Duke Gonzaga (promising support against the Pope). They were invited to stay overnight and to attend a party. (In sonnet 116 there is an anagram: “His voice is shie, n’ I, being a fool, said, ‘Bet U feel better nouu we SSS’ve made it here!’ U thot hee shook we’ horror; ‘e’ bowed deep, man, ‘n referr’d us to a privee nonni reuel!” At the party Kit met a number of local celebrities including the composer Claudio Monteverdi, Solomon Rossi (lutist), and Flaminio Scala, a musical comedian. There he also met his next contact, fellow (occasional) secret agent Tom Lodge. Kit learned they were to go on to Venice together.

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Before departing, Kit spent some time studying the famous murals of the Trojan War. Harry Wotton was off to Genoa on other secret business (anagrams, 3 Henry VI lines 53-54). From Mantua the pair passed by Verona, where they saw the crumbling house where Juliet supposedly had lived. At the Duomo they saw the statues of Charlemagne’s heroes, Roland and Oliver. Along the way to Venice, by way of Mantua, Kit got ideas for Two Gentlemen of Verona and the poem Lucrece (the poem intended as a thank-you for the young Earl of Southampton, who had helped him with the composition of the ciphered poem Shall I Die? Shall I Fly? (Appendix B) and its delivery to the Queen).

Chapter 17: Istanbul, Crete, and a child bride

Kit’s new contact in San Bellino, near Padua and Venice, was to be Giovanni Battista Guarini, about 55 years old, a former Professor of literature at the University of Ferrara {Rossi, 1886 #339}.Guarini’s father had once been acquainted with Francis Walsingham, during the latter’s studies in Padua forty years earlier while Queen Mary was on the throne. Gianbattista Guarini was already a well-known poet and author of a tragi-comedy Il Pastor Fido, published in 1590 and translated into English as The Faithful Shepherd in 1647. From 1567 until 1582 he had been a full-time servant of Alfonso II d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara. After resigning his post at Ferrara and retiring to Villa

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Guarina (near San Bellino) in 1582 he continued as a part- time agent of the anti-papal nationalist underground in northern Italy. This was a resistance network originally created and supported by Sir Francis Walsingham, to support opposition to the aggressions of the Popes. It was still nominally supported by the English government, as represented by Robert Cecil and/or the Earl of Essex. Major players in addition to Guarini were Vicenzo Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, Gianbattisto Manso {Manfredi, 1919 #461} and Gianbattista Della Porto in Naples {Clubb, 1965 #462}, and Countess (of Sala) Barbara Sanseverino in Parma. She was the former lover of Alessandro Farnese, the governor of Spanish Netherlands {Ballonci, 1956 #463} chapter 2. When Kit reached Villa Guarini, he was reminded of a deal he had made with his secret service chief (probably Robert Cecil) in exchange for getting him out of England alive. According to the anagrams found by Roberta Ballantine, Marlowe was asked to rescue a group of men from a prison in Istanbul! The background is obscure, to say the least. However I suspect that there was a connection with the affairs of Alvaro Mendes, the Jewish banker, who had been a friend and neighbor of Thomas Gresham in Kent. Mendes was also the Duke of Mytilene (the main city of the island of Lesbos, in Greece) and a confidant of the Ottoman Sultan Murad {Burton, 2005 #422} {Wolf, 1927 #464}. England had opened an embassy in Istanbul in 1579, just after Kit Marlowe’s (hypothetical) first visit as a boy on a trading ship captained by “Kester” Carleill and sponsored in part by Sir Thomas Gresham. After 1578 the Turks were

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involved in a difficult war with Persia on the east and conflict with the Hapsburg territories on their western frontiers. They welcomed England as an ally, especially as a source of tin (for brass) and gunpowder. Jewish merchants had achieved a considerable success and importance in the Ottoman empire at that time, and English trade in the Levant required the good offices of the Jewish network, of which Alvaro Mendes was one of the most important members. Mendes, a shipowner, lived near Roger Manwood in Kent (at Higham, near Shorne) {Wolf, 1927 #464}. He was also related by marriage to Sir Francis Walsingham. He had represented the interests of the Portugese pretender, among other things. The English Ambassador to the Turks, Barton, had send a series of complaints against Mendes and another Jew, David Passi, but Queen Elizabeth sensibly ignored his objections and recruited Mendes as an unofficial representative of the English government, on delicate matters, for several years. The story Kit had been told on that last day in England, before his departure, was that Alvaro Mendes had a half-brother Antonio, who was the Prior of Ocrato (a monastery in Portugal) and the Pretender to the Portugese throne. Portugal had been conquered by the Duke of Alba and ruled by Spain since 1580. It seems Antonio had sent his son as an emissary to the Sultan Murad in Istanbul with a half-baked proposition: Antonio wanted the Sultan to confiscate Alvaro Mendes’ fortune, keep half, and give the other half to himself to finance his campaign to recover the Portugese throne. Somehow, Alvaro Mendes had got wind of

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this plot and had sent pirates to intercept the ship carrying the Pretender’s legates. The pirates were happy to comply, which they did somewhere near the Straits of Gibraltar. Antonio’s son was captured and imprisoned in Morocco (Fez) while some of the lesser members of the group were sent on to Istanbul as slaves, as a gift to the Sultan. The Sultan wrote back to the King of Morocco and Antonio’s son was duly sent on to Istanbul shortly afterwards {Galante, 1936 #465} p.23. So Kit’s first mission in exile for the English spy service was to find and free a group of prisoners being held in the “sublime porte” (Istanbul), possibly including the unfortunate Portugese members of Antonio’s legation. The English government might have wanted to stay on good terms with Antonio, the Pretender, without supporting him openly. There was also an important Venetian among the prisoners, and the Venetian Council had already sent two ships Liona and Silvestra with money and instructions to ransom the Venetian prisoner {CSP Venice, #480 vol. 9}. These ships are mentioned in a dispatch from Matheo Zane, Venetian ambassador to Istanbul. Apparently Guarini had been notified of Marlowe’s coming, and some financial arrangement must have been made, probably through the Mendes bank. At any rate, as he tells it in the anagrams (according to Ballantine), Kit arrived in Istanbul as a passenger on a trading vessel, and introduced himself to the English Ambassador Edward Barton. He must have had a letter of introduction under one of his work-names, either Colerdin or

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LeDoux. The prisoners were not in Leander’s tower, as he had expected. They were housed on the 7th floor of the larger fortress called Rumeli Hisar, on the Bosporus north of the city. Disguised as the English ambassador’s barber, Kit visited the prisoners and provided them with tools (bone saws) to cut their way through the wooden floor of their quarters. The portable “silk-gut ladder” given to Kit before is departure by his friend Hen before their separation enabled 15 of the prisoners to climb down through the hole in the floor to the floor below and then to the courtyard. It was a Friday, and most of the Janissaries were in the mosque at prayers, except for one guard on duty. Kit (the barber) drank with the guard and gave him a sleeping potion. Using the silk-gut ladder the prisoners climbed up to the top of the crenellated wall and then, after re-fastening the ladder to a projection on the outside, down toward the water below. They had to jump the last fifteen feet or so and swim to the waiting boat, where they hid under a sail on the deck. The boat sailed quickly to the harbor were the escapees were transferred to the two Venetian ships that had been sent for them. Despite an attempted interception in the Dardanelles, both ships escaped successfully back to Venice. A brief account of the affair is in one of the anagrams found by Ballantine in lines 57-76 of 3 Henry VI. In compressed form they are as follows:

uue meet cheefe Guarini ‘n’ soon he hires me t’ do one f–bolde prison breake. Th’f– element for th’ mission? Folly! A barber

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enters t’ attend all Gew prisoners who – when – Fuk! Fuk! Catch him! I cut th’ floor. As th’ ensign sleeps, we leap free out a window to a sere brent place. Entrapped here in a yard? UUe’re not lost: through a hi hole I thrust my fine secrit ladder, makin a way. UUe easily climb t’ th’ top ‘n’ look over t’ see – s s s see – oh, th’ folly! Far, far downe is the uu-uuater ‘n’ the tiny sloop I hired to take us to safety. Oh-h chuck me! Obeying necessity I hook th’ silk ladder t’ one queer rib. We truly feel uue R t’ be mash’t. Th fhh-fhh-father o’ fools starts off – then as prime beau silk extends, other men come down. Ah-ah – water saues us, ‘n’ the honest monkey-foote lader destroyed, uue swim to reach the —uhh, leaky – craft nearby ‘n’ to hide there under a saile. Fifteen men! May we not grace a racke! Ei! Magi--- The story goes on for many more verses. Verse by verse correspondence with the plaintext is given in Appendix A-18. This story was reported by the Venetian Ambassador, Matheo Zane, and his letters are to be found in Venetian state papers {CSP Venice, #480 vol 9}. On August 29, 1593 he reported: “About 18 prisoners, who were in the fortress of the Black Sea, have broken the floors and escaped, all but a certain Alexander ... and two Poles who were nearly impotent. About fifteen are off, and as yet nobody knows

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where they are.” However Kit, the organizer of the great jailbreak, was not so lucky himself. He went back to prevent Ambassador Barton from being blamed, but the Ambassador was less generous to him. The Sultan Murad was understandably humiliated and angry. His Grand Vizier ordered Ambassador Barton’s arrest, in violation of traditional diplomatic immunity. Ambassador Barton was forced to deliver his barber or be imprisoned himself. Undoubtedly he thought that this barber who had saved him was just an expendable nobody. The Ambassador complied {CSP Venice, #480 vol. 9 September 6, dispatch from Matheo Zane}. Kit was then jailed and beaten, especially on the knees. He would have been much more seriously hurt except that another ship arrived coincidentally, carrying gifts from Queen Elizabeth to the Sultan, as well as a valuable commercial cargo of tin {CSP Venice, #480 vol. 9 September 6 & October 2, dispatches from Matheo Zane}. The Venetian dispatch said “The Sultan from his kiosk enjoyed the spectacle of the ship’s arrival ... One result of the arrival of these presents is that the [English] Ambassador is released from a difficulty by the liberation of his barber ...”). Kit was released. But he was told in a note that some of the tin was hidden on the ship, to be diverted and sold for the benefit of “chef R.” (probably R stood for Robert Cecil, nominal head of the state secret service). This part of the story is told in anagrams of lines 135-140 of 3 Henry VI. See Appendix A-19. Omitting the plaintext, the compressed anagrams read:

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That day a man found me awake, penning, let me go free, “with Allah,” I think – ‘n’ all ‘A my things, too. A sly note: “Tin hidd’n I’ dri-vat. Hurry! Fence where worth more, for Chef R” He writes o’ far-away Trebisond, near mines. As I’M an ass – “he- hi, he-hi, he-hi, he-“ I mus’ g-g-go! The story implies that Kit Marlowe took command of the newly arrived ship for this extra duty. This is only plausible if he had significant prior experience as a sailor, and that “Chef R” knew about it. But that had significant sailing experience is quite likely, as explained in earlier chapters (based on Ballantine’s anagrams), both as a child from his maternal Arthur grandfather and from two expeditions with Walsingham’s brother-in-law, Kester Carleill. More anagrams in 3 Henry VI tell of a clash with pirates, and a storm that broke up the ship and lost the package of tin overboard. The sailors were beached for some days in order to repair the ship. They were lucky to discover the lost tin on a sand-bank. Finally, they sold it to the brass foundry owners in Sinope, not Trebizond, as instructed. There were copper mines near Sinope, so that part of the story makes sense. The only scenario that fits the time constraints is that the ship that arrived so providentially from England on October 2 {CSP Venice, #480 vol. 9} was not specifically sent to rescue Kit Marlowe but was one belonging to Alvaro Mendes, who had been told earlier to deliver gifts and, by the way, to check up on Marlowe and to convey a message

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to him from “Chef R”. It is plausible that Marlowe went on board as a passenger, with instructions and authority from Robert Cecil, through Mendes, to sell the tin at Sinope on the Anatolian coast of the Black Sea, where he could get a higher price. At any rate, the ship sailed on and met trouble. The Black Sea, is famous for its storms, so the storm that dismasted the ship was only too likely. To repair the ship, reach Sinope, sell the tin, and get back to Istanbul would have taken at least a month, and yet another month, at least, to get back to Venice. As regards the profit from the sale of tin in Sinope, there is no way “Chef R” could know what price was obtained. My guess is that the hidden package of tin was intended to include a share for Kit as payment for his efforts, A split of the profits in such a case was probably normal and understood at that time. Finally back in Venice, in December 1593, Kit sent two new plays back to London, either to Tom Walsingham or Countess Mary Sidney Herbert. They were Taming of the Shrew and Two Gentlemen of Verona, as well as the finished poem Lucrece. Kit’s next mission, almost immediately, was a voyage to Crete, on behalf of the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth had given her then-favorite (Essex) the profitable monopoly for selling sweet wine in England, and Crete was a possible source. The problem was that the supply was very limited: there had been none for sale in several previous years and the first ship to arrive would get the crop, such as it was. Kit negotiated, under the name of Giacomo Coderin, with two

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Venetian merchants, Francesco Rizzardi and Colombo for the lease of a ship, called a marcilliane. His role in the rescue of the important Venetian prisoner would have helped with this negotiation. Venetian law prohibited sailing in December, because of the frequency of storms in the Adriatic, but the merchants bent the rule. Kit sailed for Crete, a Venetian colony at that time, on December 15, carrying a cargo of soap and sardines. The owners took out insurance on that day. The documents are on record and the captain was identified as “Jacques Coderin”, similar to the name “Colerdin” previously used by Kit Marlowe in France {Ballantine, 2007 #364} note 219, p. 124. This voyage ran into trouble in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Albania. The ship’s difficulties were seen by another vessel, which reported it. In a storm the cabin broke loose, slid down the deck and broke the mast! Kit’s trunk, containing his best clothes, slipped into the bilge and had to be rescued. However, the crew jury-rigged the vessel and got it into the forbidden Illyrian port of Durres, where he made friends and got his mast replaced. Then he sailed on to Crete. At the capital city they were met by the ruling Duke Giandomenico Cicogna. Kit presented Essex’s proposals, which the Duke accepted. Payment must have been via a draft on a Venetian bank, probably one associated with Alvaro Mendes, the shipowner and international banker of Kent. The casks of wine were duly loaded onto the vessel, under the Duke’s personal supervision. Meanwhile, Kit had explored the neighborhood and

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found the ducal palace, where a beautiful dark-eyed girl was watching the proceedings from a third floor window. Kit asked the Duke who she was, and was told that she was his daughter, soon to be married to a Venetian Count named Avogadro, who was scheduled to arrive in the coming year, as one of the treasurers of the colony. (However, when the time came, Count Avogadro refused the posting for some reason.) The likely reason is that Kit fell in love with the Duke’s daughter on first sight. It was like Romeo and Juliet. He asked her name. It was Marina. Kit usually called her Rita, but he gives the real name in an anagram in The Comedy of Errors II.17-18. “ ‘In Canaan, in canaan’ Marina says ‘sir Roger’s free fit, best in Yauue’s eyes.’ ” See {Ballantine, 2007 #364} p.125 n.225. Yauue = Yawe (Jove) is the Hebrew god. This is the only literary indication I have seen that Marlowe might have been a marrano. Kit spoke to her and told her that he was the son of a great man. He was thinking of his father Roger Manwood, but she probably thought he meant someone of her father’s rank or higher. She was barely 14 years old (like Juliet). He sent her a bracelet made from his hair. He sang to her from under her window, and asked her to run away with him and marry him. She agreed! When the ship Rizzarda et Colombo sailed, Marina and her nurse were aboard. She also brought her pearl-embroidered wedding dress and her dowry, in a packet. They arrived back in the Venice lagoon in late March after a three week voyage.

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When the vessel was late returning the owners applied for the insurance money, and this information is in the Venetian records. The insurors requested salvage rights on March 23, 1594 when the ship had not returned. But of course nothing was paid or salvaged as the ship finally returned safely, with a cargo of wine for the Earl of Essex {Ballantine, 2007 #364}p.124 n.219. Kit and Marina-Rita Cicogna were married in a church of Santa Maria. With his fee for the wine purchase and his commission on the sale of tin at Sinope, they seem to have bought a small house in Padua and lived very happily there for the remainder of the spring and summer of 1594. Kit attended the university at Padua, where he probably he studied law or medicine. He may have sent reports of student activity back to England, by way of occasional meetings with Battista Guarini who lived nearby. Marina was pregnant. But in September 1594 Kit was reminded of the third chore he had agreed to do for the bosses of the spy network as a condition of their help in arranging his exile. It was to finish the job he had twice failed to accomplish previously, namely to kill the Queen’s fanatical enemy Dr. William Allen, who was now a Cardinal living in Rome. Having given his word, he reluctantly left Marina and rode to Rome. There he managed to join the Cardinal’s household staff on Via Montserrat as a new shoemaker, named “William Warton”. Kit’s foster father in Canterbury was a shoemaker; Kit knew enough of the trade to pass. Another English servant was also present in the Cardinal’s household, his chaplain

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“Thomas Honley” from Milan. “Honley” could have been Tom Lodge or even Tom Walsingham, who was known to work in Milan. Somehow one of them managed to mix sublimate into the Cardinal’s honey butter. By October 16, 1594, after a painful 16 day illness, Cardinal Allen finally died. Unfortunately, there was a visitor in the Cardinal’s household, the former English secretary of King Philip II of Spain, Frank Engelfield. Engelfield had lost his eyesight. He was blind, but his hearing was acute. He recognized Kit’s voice, either as the voice of “Arthur Dudley”, once a spy in King Philip’s palace in Madrid. Engelfield alerted the Inquisition and Kit barely escaped, finally losing his pursuers in Siena. On October 17, 1594 records say that a young English spy "flies" over the Apennines towards Padua {Moryson, 1903 #337} p.159. Kit finally got back to his home in Padua just in time for the birth of the baby, which was a week or so premature. But his luck was out. The baby girl survived but Marina, the young – too young – mother suddenly hemorrhaged and died. Anagrams in lines 113 and 114 from As You Like It written years later (circa 1600-1601) when he found himself back in Venice – provide the gist of the story (which continues for many more lines: [memo] ries stir’d. I weep so m-much th’ quill shakes, for my Rita became all white, C: en-t-tombed at Hallowe’en. The letters in square brackets came from a previous verse. Kit was suddenly left with a baby. He named her Isabel. He

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also had dry nurse to look after th child but no wife. To feed the baby, Kit bought a cow and learned to milk it. He petitioned his father-in-law, the Duke Cicogna, who had returned to Venice, for permission to bury Rita in the family tomb. But permission was refused. She had run away to marry a foreigner and shamed the family. Kit was lucky the Duke didn’t choose to expiate the shame in a more personal and lethal way. Finally Kit had to bury Marina in a home- made tomb on the beach, where he laid her remains on Hallowe’en night. It was another wrenching loss, especially on top of his painful rejection by Emilia Bassano (“the dark lady”) who had his baby but refused to let him see the child, the horrible execution of his father Roger Manwood, with whom he was not reconciled at the time of his death, and the loss of his personal identity as a poet. In lines 117-120 of As You like It he actually rejects the idea that love affairs are governed by the stars, like the “starre-crost” lovers in Romeo and Juliet, but blames ill fortune on random chance. In Romeo ‘n’Juliet my effort t’ uoice our queer emotion of too much ioy hath an ache for her. Why we fall, you see, may haue to do with Fortune’s rollin’ globe– damn her! ‘tis mere il chance, not the stars mouin hi-hi I’ th’ sky! Gr-- [ief, the il, th’ tragic end ‘n loss I sing,...] The letters in square brackets come from the next verse; (uoice = voice; ioy= joy). There are several mentions of Marina (Rita) in later

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anagrams. He mourned her for many years, and there is no doubt in my mind that she was main inspiration for Midsummer Night’s Dream. In early November 1594 a messenger from Anthony Bacon came to Padua, with money. The messenger could have been Bacon’s maternal cousin Cooke. He wanted to take back a play for Christmas presentation at Gray’s Inn and another for the wedding of Ned’s daughter Elizabeth Cecil Vere – the girl who Henry Wriothesley had declined to marry – to the new Earl of Derby. Comedy of Errors and Midsummer Night’s Dream were both ready. He had written Midsummer Night’s Dream for Marina, but she was now only a dream herself. On January 26, 1595 at Greenwich, in the presence of the Queen, Elizabeth Vere married the 6th Earl of Derby. He was the successor to Ferdinando Stanley, who had died, possibly of arsenic poison, earlier in the year. Midsummer Night’s Dream was presented that evening at court {Looney, 1920 #306} vol 1 p 521, and {Chambers, 1923 #236} vol 4 p 109). During the next few months in Padua Kit also finished Romeo and Juliet, worked on Pericles and tried to rewrite The Troublesome Reign of King John. He may have lectured on medicine at the University of Padua, during that period. He seems to have bought a book on medicine, for that purpose. It was later found in the so-called LeDoux trunk {Farey, 1999 #191}. Finally a letter came to Kit, at Padua. It was from Miguel Cervantes, an old friend and collaborator from his earlier visit to Spain whom Kit called “Manco” meaning

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crippled. Cervantes had lost the use of his left hand from an exploding cannon during the sea battle of Lepanto. Cervantes invited Kit to bring his family to Seville, where Manco was then living. Kit must have written to Manco about his exile and about his marriage and the baby. Compressed anagrams from lines 123-126, from Ballantine, say [can a] man stay to liue in th -home of his dead loue, with their child? Is he queer t’flee? Know my Kit’l fly t’ Sevil, t’stay free i’th’ home of an honest man. Dumb, I’d depend on a horse carryin’ me ouer bad riuer boulders, but see, we stop, h-hi.. The tale goes on for many more lines. Anyhow, in April 1595 Kit sold the little house in Padua, bought horses, crossed the Apennines with the Venetian nurse, the baby, and the cow. They intended to board ship at Genoa, destined for Valencia in Spain. The cow refused to go on board, and had to be sold. Feeding the baby during the voyage was a major crisis. In fact, the trip was so rough that nobody could eat. But, somehow they all made it. From Valencia there was another long overland journey south to Seville, with a new cow (the story in ciphers from line 126 to line 260, still in As You Like It). During that trip they encountered an exhausted young nobleman on a mountain road, who said he was dying for love. The nobleman’s name was Cardenio. They managed to save him and get him home to his castle. Compressed anagrams in lines 243-252:

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Tremblin’, th’ madman said, “C mi home castle hidden nearby. Go there; ae’l not forget U!” We go, intrepid, encouraged, ‘n’ there behind trees is th’ castle! M-most willing, we approach th’ lodge ‘n’ try tu go in. Oh, no! N-n-nix! Flee! “Honn” He spoke t’ th’ bear. “She’s chained, C? ‘t’s safe t’ enter wi’ th’ babe now. Keep her stil-l-l-l, C! Sh!” ‘N’ silent, he led everyone in t’ rest-t-t. W-we’d remember that th’ rest of R life. Th’ parents kiss him. We reek but bathe (chilli- i-i-i), eat, feed M-moo’n’ R thin h-h-h-h- horses. We l-lie down. Cardenio’s true, sad story c’d make me a tenth good play – not couert, hidden or Irish-shhhh. There! Hen, feel [sure there’d be but smal thot of us as th’ parallel tale ... ] The words in square brackets are from previous or later lines. Cardenio’s stammer was quite severe, even more than Kit’s. M-moo was their cow. Irish-shhhh was the play Troilus & Cressida (written about 1600) about the horrors of Essex’s disastrous Irish campaign. At Cardenio’s castle they were well treated and got a needed rest before finishing their own journey to Seville. Once arrived, Kit and Manco played with the baby, he worked on improving his Spanish, and worked on the play Richard II during those months. He probably started writing Cardenio, the lost play. Was it his tenth “good” one? Manco was always having trouble with the Spanish tax

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authorities who seemed to have targetted him. Kit helped him to get some funds from the local English secret service chief, who must have been working for Essex, to resolve the problem, albeit only temporarily. However, the secret service, as usual, wanted its pound of flesh. Kit and Manco received word that the Earl of Essex was planning a naval expedition against the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, more or less in imitation of Drake’s successful raid in 1587. They were asked to scout the town and report on military dispositions and the state of the fortifications around the harbor of Cadiz. When she heard of this, baby Isabel’s nurse became frightened and wanted to return to Venice, with the baby. Kit had other ideas. He wanted to send the child back to England with one of the returning ships, after the forthcoming raid. He did accompany the nurse back to Venice (probably September 1595).The baby remained in Seville, with Manco and a new nurse.

Chapter 18: Re-enter LeDoux

I suggested earlier that, for purposes of travel in France, Marlowe probably borrowed the name of a childhood neighbor in Canterbury, Louis LeDoux. The basis for this theory has been explored (up to a point) by A. D. Wraight {Wraight, 1997 #60} part 2, and followed up by Peter Farey {Farey, 1999 #191} {Farey, 2005 #75} and most recently by Christopher Gamble {Gamble, 2009 #452}. The first evidence was found twenty years ago in the Anthony Bacon

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papers, in Lambeth House, where there is a series of letters to Anthony Bacon, Lord Essex’s spy-master, concerning a “French Gentleman”, and agent, named Monsieur LeDoux. Remember that Anthony Bacon was in charge of the intelligence operations financed and controlled by the Earl of Essex. As the letters tell it, this French gentleman, Louis LeDoux seems to have been in residence for several months at the home of Sir John Harington, Burley-on- the-Hill, near Exton in Rutland. Perhaps he was there as a tutor to Harington’s young son, starting in October 1595 and extending into spring 1596, but surely there were other reasons. Anthony Bacon had sent his personal secretary, Jacques Petit, a Gascon, to Harington’s house to act as valet to M. LeDoux and, not incidentally, to report on his activities. Evidently LeDoux was regarded as an important person, but not wholly trusted, to be treated thus by Anthony Bacon. Bacon, totally committed to Essex, was probably worried that Marlowe (LeDoux) might have also been reporting to Robert Cecil, who was Essex’s rival for the Queen’s favor. My guess is that Marlowe was, indeed, reporting also to Robert Cecil, but that he was much too clever for Jacques Petit to find out about it. Anyhow, LeDoux’s activities at Burley were reported regularly by Petit to Bacon. LeDoux left Sir John Harington’s house on January 25, 1596. He received a passport signed by Essex, on February 10 in London. He apparently traveled to the continent briefly and returned to England early in March.

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This information is in Anthony Bacon’s papers. Another similar passport was issued in his name on March 10, at Richmond, together with a long list of instructions regarding intelligence desired by Essex concerning affairs in Germany and Italy, plus any possible news of Turkey. LeDoux maintained contact with Jacques Petit for a while. His last letter to Petit in Anthony Bacon’s papers was posted from Mittelbourgh, Netherlands, dated June 22, 1596. That would have been the Gregorian calendar, or June 12 on the Julian Calendar still used in England. The question arises as to whether LeDoux could have got from their to Cadiz in time for the English raid that occurred in early July, according to the English calender. The answer hinges on the differences between the calendars. I return to this point later. The reasons for thinking LeDoux might have been a work-name for Kit Marlowe arise from the list of contents of what must have been a trunk full of books, also found in the Bacon papers at Lambeth {Farey, 1999 #191}. It was Catalogue des livres de mr LeDoux le 15me de Fevrrier 1596. the list included 8 lexicons and dictionaries in several languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, German, Latin and Greek, plus several dialects (Tuscan, Florentine, Castilian). Curiously, there was no English dictionary. This suggests that M. LeDoux was actually English, not French, and that these books had been purchased by him, abroad, especially in northern Italy. Apart from the lexicons, the collection included twelve books in Latin, twelve in French, ten in Spanish and sixteen in

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Italian while four were in both Latin and Italian. Only one book, a Bible was in English, though there were some English manuscripts by Francis Bacon. There were several religious or theological texts in the collection, plus texts in medicine, history, and literature (poetry, prose and plays). There were also some letters from Lord Burghley, and a clavis steganographia or code-book. This alone suggests that LeDoux was not only English, but an intelligencer (spy) working in and around France, Spain and Italy. One of the letters from Burghley, dated April 20, 1596, mentions Sir Antonio Perez, a Spanish expatriate, who had once (1567-1579) been Secretary of State of Castile for Philip II, but had subsequently been charged with murder and had spent twelve years in Spanish prisons. He escaped or was released, and moved to France. He arrived at the Court of Catherine, the sister of Henri of Navarre in November 1591, just before Anthony Bacon returned to England after a decade abroad. Perez subsequently moved on to England in April 1593, where he remained for two years working with Anthony Bacon and the Earl of Essex, on behalf of Henry of Navarre, who was shortly to become Henri IV of France. Curiously, LeDoux’s trunk also included a copy of a book by this same Antonio Perez, entitled Pedacos o Relaciones, in Spanish. The book had been translated into English and the English edition, supposedly written by Raphael Peregrino, was dedicated to Lord Essex. Perez’s book refers to himself as “el peregrino” in reference to his misfortunes, and uses the rare word “peregrinate” a number

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of times. The same word appears in Love’s Labours Lost (V.i.12-14) but nowhere else in Shakespeare’s works. Some scholars, including Robert Gittings {Gittings, 1960 #459}and Perez’s biographers, Gregory Maranon {Maranon, 1954 #451} and Gustav Ungerer {Ungerer, 1974 #449} believe that Perez was the role model for Don Adriano de Armado, the “fantastical Spaniard” in that play. Peter Farey asks (about LeDoux) why should a highly educated, multilingual intelligence agent who was almost certainly English, need to travel in England under another name? {Farey, 1999 #191; Farey, 2005 #75}. The answer might well be that he could not travel under his own name. Kit Marlowe fits that description perfectly. Beyond that, it appears that the list of books included sources for some of his plays, included at least two on the history of the Turks, De Origine Turdarum Libellus by Baptista Egnatius and Leunclavius’, translations of two parts of the Annals of the Turks – background for his Tamburlaine and Jew of Malta and two more on the history of George Scanderbeg, an Albanian warrior who fought against the Turks, plus a history The Four Empires (including the Babylonian and Persian empires) by Johannes Sleidanus. Peter Farey has also traced the name LeDoux (or LeDoulx). First, he found a wax seal from the sixteenth century, with a picture of a man with the face of a baboon and the letters LOIS LE DOULX. He interprets the baboon face as a mask, indicating a false identity. There is also a possible interpretation as the Egyptian god of wisdom, Thoth, the inventor of writing. Kit Marlowe would have loved

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the double entendre. The Book of Thoth is part of the Hermetica, dating from the early centuries after Christ and later linked to the alchemists, astrologers, and Freemasons. Huguenots were also depicted as monkeys or baboons in a drawing found in a 16th century book called “De Tristibus Franciae” {Farey, 1999 #191; Farey, 2005 #75}. Farey subsequently traced the name itself, using the tremendous database of names compiled by the Mormon Church. To summarize his extensive research, there was only one man in England named Loys (Louis) LeDoux (or Le Doulx) living in England, and he lived in Canterbury at the same time Marlowe was growing up there. The LeDoux family were Huguenots and probably migrated from Northern France after the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in Paris. They would have worshiped at the Walloon (strangers) Church in the crypt of the Cathedral, next to the Kings School where Marlowe was a pupil for two years. There is every reason to suppose that Kit Marlowe could have encountered the Le Doulx family and that he could have known young Louis, who was his own age. As mentioned earlier, I think it is very likely that Kit Marlowe actually learned to speak French initially from Louis LeDoux. Farey has found even more. There is a literary reference in a play by Thomas Dekker (The Pleasant Comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1599) where Dekker (as Fortune) refers to a group of four fallen or deposed kings, now enslaved, chained and used as footstools. Fortune identifies “Louis the Meek” as the third in this group, as a “wretch [who] once wore the diadem of France.” He was

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followed by “Poor Bajazeth, old Turkish Emperor, And once the Greatest Monarch in the East” who was cast down by “that great Scythian swain, Warlike Tamburlaine”. LeDoux can be translated into English as “the meek” and the reference to Marlowe’s downfall is obvious and unmistakable. Farey (and I) think Thomas Dekker knew Marlowe’s fate, and possibly that he was still alive and wretched.31 Where did LeDoux go during that month from February 10 until early March and again, after March 10 1596? It looks as though the first trip was a quick one, to act as escort to John Dionisius, Baron Zeirotine, who was the Ambassador from the Holy Roman Emperor and who wanted to visit Scotland. The Privy Council provided suitable travel papers for him. (Something doesn’t quite fit: If the Baron only wanted to visit Scotland, why didn’t he go direct to Edinburgh by sea? There was probably a secondary reason.) LeDoux’s second trip in March was presumably back to the Netherlands with the Baron, whom he accompanied for some time. But after that his location is unclear. I think that sometime in late April 1596 Kit went back to Spain, still traveling as LeDoux with the Laissez Passér from Essex.

31.There is a theory that Dekker may have been the second incarnation of Thomas Nashe, after Nashe got into trouble with the Church, and went underground, just as Marlowe had {Murphy, 2000 #460}. Nashe and Marlowe were both members of the University Wits, and they had been friends at Cambridge, so Nashe (Dekker) would have known of Marlowe’s fate.

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Then he and Manco went to Cadiz, where Manco was disguised as a new commissioner of ordnance, Kit acting as his clerk. There they undertook a risky kind of sabotage. In early 1597 they visited all the great guns trained on the harbor and prepared false lists of ammunition for each, arranging for cannonballs of the wrong sizes to be stacked next to each gun. As a result, when the English expeditionary force came in early June itwas able to enter the harbor virtually unopposed. We do know that “LeDoux” wrote his last letter to Jacques Petit from Mittelburg on June 22 (Gregorian calendar). It speaks very precisely of current events, including the visit of Cardinal Albert (Archduke of Austria and Duke of Brabant) to Neuport (“four days ago”), and the immediate departure (“tonight”) of the “Count Maurice” (of Nassau) “to forestall the designs of Archduke Albert on Hulst, Axel and Ostend” {Wraight, 1997 #60} pp 60-61. That specificity seems to confirm that LeDoux was actually where he said he was on June 22 (Gregorian). This fact would seem, at first glance, to preclude any possibility that he (LeDoux) was present for the battle of Cadiz. However, it does not, as I will explain shortly.

Chapter 19: The Cadiz raid (1596) and Admiral Tom Howard

On June 21, 1596 (English Jukian calendar) the port city of Cadiz in Spain was attacked and sacked by a combined

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British-Dutch fleet. It was a huge effort, involving 45 English ships, 5000 sailors and 8,000 soldiers. There were four commanders, Admiral Thomas Howard on the Ark Royal, the Earl of Essex as commander of the army and joint commander in the Repulse, Walter Raleigh in the Warspite and Sir Francis Vere as Marshall of the army. The sabotage of the Cadiz artillery by Manco and Kit back in April was effective: “artillery fire from the forts fell short of he marauders; many of the land guns were assigned ammunition that did not fit them; a number simply blew up” {Byron, 1978 #322} p.382; also {Harrison, 1937 #272} p.114. It seems that one of the Spanish ships in the harbor, an argosy, had been loaded up with heavy guns as ballast. That one was captured and sailed away back to England {Smith, 1999 #178} chapter 13). Unfortunately the harbor was not secured quickly enough and most of the Spanish merchant vessels in the harbor were successfully scuttled by order of King Philip, with the supposed loss of twelve million ducats. This is told in anagrams of the opening lines 1-6 of Henry IV, which Marlowe was apparently working on at the time. The anagrams for those lines, found by Ballantine, are as follows: Kit M. penn’d this show of war, peace, fat Ned ‘n’ Roger to ease a ceasefire wait- awhile before an order came t’ shoot once more ‘n’ win-n-n-n th’ fort. SSS’d made a start, C: we’d cribb’d uniforms, entered ‘n’ piled all th’ worst balls beside the hi

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stations here, C? Ho ho ho, he! Clown rey, R.I.P. The plaintext and verse-by-verse correspondence are given in Appendix A-20. Evidently Kit was working on this play (Henry IV) “to ease a cease-fire” during the raid on Cadiz. Fat Ned ‘n’ Roger were characters in the play, based on his real life models for the historical characters. Ballantine thinks “Fat Ned” was modeled on Edward de Vere (17th Earl of Oxford). Possibly his model for Prince Hal, later King Henry V and “Roger” was Roger Manwood, Kit’s father, who was also his model for Falstaff. In early versions of the play Falstaff was called “Oldcastle”. But the Brooke family (Lord Cobham) were descended from the real Sir John Oldcastle, and they objected strenuously to use of the name. The Cadiz episode is also recalled more briefly in anagrams from lines 293-300 of Henry V, Act 1. N.B. Marlowe – no longer playing the part of LeDoux, could have seen enough of the action in only two or three days to explain this anagram, especially if Manco (Cervantes) was already there, “holding the fort”, so to speak. Could he have traveled from Mittelbourgh to Cadiz between June 22 and July 10 or so? The answer is yes, especially if the date of posting of the Mittelbourgh letter was in the Gregorian calendar, whereas the dates of the battle as recorded in the English Julian calendar were really 10 days later, Gregorian. On July 15, 1596 (English) or July 26 (Gregorian) after occupying the city and harbor for several weeks, the English fleet departed from Cadiz at night. Kit, with 21 month-old baby Isabel, had arranged for a ride back to

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England with Admiral Tom Howard on his flagship, the Ark Royal. Admiral Tom Howard probably knew of Kit’s role as a spy in the earlier Cadiz expedition, ten years earlier prior to the launching of the Grand Armada. The story of Kit’s departure on the Ark Royal with Isabel-Eliza is told in anagrams in Henry IV lines 175-186; plaintext and correspondence are given in Appendix A-21: We won, ‘n’ fled for ye road to get my girl home. Both sad to leaue our dear Manco to bleed. He’d come to the child’s house – I think ouertly –t’try t’ see her, ‘n’ had been wounded by my guard. E-e! I’M Kit, but I am a traitor to no honest man. Th’ wet hurt dress’d, I said farewel, led girly ‘n’ took ye t-t-t-‘ tide at land-pan. Aboard, I thot t’ uuas a treat t’ see Isabel toddlin’ around ‘n’ hear th’ men cooin’ to the agreeable cute girl, who, free o’ fear, talkt to ‘em of home ‘n’ me. Uh hvh! I hid ‘n’she told th’ men how Pa waked her t’ get ready t’ clime in- into a skiff alone, unknown, Ei ‘n’ let it B. it continues. Evidently Manco (Cervantes) had encountered an over-suspicious guard at the house where Kit’s child Isabel was staying. At some point Kit had implored the Admiral to help find a good home for his little girl, in England, and Tom Howard offered to take care of her himself. Official history says that, back in England, the Earl of Essex was a public hero, having single-handedly saved

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England once again from Spain, “the great ” {Hammer, 1997 #456}. But the Queen did not praise him as he expected for the successful raid. She had advanced a lot of money £30,000 (or £50,000), depending on historian, to pay for the expedition. That loan (as she saw it) was based on great promises of loot by Essex to replenish her treasury. So, thanks in part to criticisms in Council by Burghley and his son Robert Cecil, as well as complaints about his behavior on the expedition itself by co- commanders Admiral Tom Howard and Sir Walter Raleigh, she was extremely angry. She berated Lord Essex not only for failing to bring back any gold (which he denied having recovered), but for actually demanding more money to pay off the sailors. In the end she paid, but this left her with a big deficit {Strachey, 2002 #175} chapter 8. She also discovered to her dismay that Essex had created no less than 60 knights, based on his supposed authority as commander in battle, but far beyond any precedent. What he was doing, of course, was creating a group of personal loyalists. The Cecil’s, father and son took notice of this behavior and used it to further weaken Essex’s standing with the Queen. Raleigh had also spent a lot of his own money to finance the expedition, and he also got nothing back. As mentioned, the Spanish merchant ships in the harbor had been scuttled by order of King Philip, with no interference on the part of the English navy and a loss (according to King Philip) of twelve million ducats {Smith, 1999 #178}. Worse, the English commanders allowed this to happen because

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they were too busy quarreling among themselves. Was there really no portable loot? Certainly there was loot. Essex lied about that. In fact, Kit – back in London – was working part-time during the post-Cadiz period, under cover, of course, as an Italian shipping agent, based in the Royal Exchange, the institution created by Thomas Gresham. There he arranged for Essex’s Cadiz loot to be shipped to Venice for sale there. Joseph Hall, a minor poet of the period, one of the first to question Shakespeare’s supposed authorship of plays and poems, noticed the stranger. He wrote: "Tattelius, the new-come traveler, with his disguisèd coat, & ringèd ear, tramping the Bourse’s marble twice a day” {Hall, 1969 (1598) #338}. Kit seems to have remained in England for part of the next year (1597), living under cover at Tom Howard’s house, Audley End, and maybe part-time at Mary Sidney Herberts’ home at Wilton, writing . For that year Kit had no more spy business to do and he wanted to be near his daughter Isabel-Eliza. Ballantine thinks that Kit must have sent a message to the Queen, announcing his presence in London. (Having given the order to facilitate his escape, back in 1593, she knew very well that he was not dead.) On March 5, 1597 Kit was once again invited to the palace where he and the Queen made love in her "lair". Or perhaps he imagined the whole thing in his anagrams. The (new) Lord Chamberlain – who had just replaced her deceased cousin Henry Carey – was William Brooke, Lord Cobham, an elderly man of 70. Cobham walked in on them,

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when the Queen was in deshabille. He did not recognize the Queen without her wig, and made hurtful remarks that made her weep. He then turned and left. But then curiosity triumphed over prudence. Cobham returned to watch the show from behind a curtain, like Polonius in Hamlet and gave himself away somehow. Kit heard noises, dragged him out, and hit him. Kit and the Queen bandaged Brooke’s head, gave him a drink and Kit escorted him to his chamber, where Brooke turned around and hit Kit. The Queen had noticed the character Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV Part I and she expressed a wish to see Falstaff in love. Kit obliged by putting Falstaff (now fat) in the play he was working on at the time, Merry Wives of Windsor. Kit made Falstaff a bit of a caricature of the fat and pompous German Count Mömpelgard, who was back again, still seeking a possible marriage with the Queen. He was the same fellow whose party had “borrowed” some horses from the Inn at Windsor, and whom Roger Manwood, acting as magistrate, arrested and lectured on English law with regard to horse theft. A little hint of the contretemps between Kit and Brooke in the Queen’s chamber can be found in the anagrams of lines 23-28, compressed as follows. The plaintext and verse-by-verse correspondence are given in Appendix A-22): tasteless iest! Mi play’s ful of rich effrontery – I’M an infantile boor! Helo, U sufficient fool! U damn’ angel! What cd U do t’ me Cobham, V cad? I sail my ship t’ greet her; U haue spoilt the innocent

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melody between us, you nastee Brooke! So, come t’ me, tell me, teach me – can U read Ioue’s lorn frolic, or the last touching erotic chat, tete a tete? O hear its final minor note – Ie-ie-ie! As it happens, Lord Cobham was a neighbor of Kit’s father Roger Manwood, in Kent, and they had disliked each other intensely. It was Lord Cobham, a member of the Privy Council, who had received and kept Roger’s gold chain of office after the contretemps with the gambling club and the goldsmith, as described earlier. Kit hated Cobham, because of that experience, and was very pleased to see him humiliated, even though he (Cobham) suffered no further punishment. There are a number of other local characters in the play, who need not be identified here. There was another, more current reason for Kit’s antipathy. On being appointed Lord Chamberlain after the death of Henry Carey in 1597, Cobham had perforce, but unwillingly, inherited the rather costly sponsorship of the Lord Chamberlain’s men (to which William Shakespeare, the actor, was attached). But the 21 year lease of The Theater at Holywell expired in early 1597. Moreover, the lease- holder, Giles Allen, disapproved of theatrics, so he raised the renewal price to an exorbitant level, forcing the company to look elsewhere for a home. Giles Allen hoped to profit from their departure by dismantling the structure and selling the timbers. The company moved for a while to The Curtain theater. But Burbage found a clause in the original lease

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allowing the lessors to dismantle the building and re-use the materials. The whole company of actors pitched in and the job was done at night. A mysterious man named William Smith came to help them get the timbers across the river at the end of December 1597. He also brought money to pay for the cost of the barges {Stopes, 1970 #235}pp 74-77. Burbage had found a suitable site, on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark. It was the old bear garden, no longer in use. The reconstruction, and renovation, was done by carpenter Peter Smith The construction went on for much of the year, 1598. It was renamed the Globe Theater. With the subsequent death of William Brooke (Lord Chamberlain Cobham) and the appointment of young George Carey as his successor, the temporarily homeless Lord Chamberlain’s Men became again the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The Globe theater company, meaning the owners of the new structure and the theatrical properties (but not the land), at that time had eight partners, of which William Shakespeare was one. How he got the money to buy a partnership is a matter of speculation. Certainly an actor’s wage would not have sufficed, and payments for scripts or for the rights to print quartos (which he did not own) could not account for this sudden affluence. The most likely source of money was Robert Cecil, and certainly not the Earl of Southampton, as many Shakespeare scholars have

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assumed.32 For Robert Cecil, keeping Shakespeare attached to the theater may have been a means of keeping some control over the most effective secret agent in Catholic Europe, Kit Marlowe a.k.a Gregorio de’Monti. Perhaps he (Cecil) realized that the “Shakespeare” plays were becoming a major part of English literature and that Marlowe would have no outlet without Shakespeare as a front. As regards the re-construction cost of the Globe, apparently there was an angel behind the scenes. Oxfordians think it was the Earl of Oxford (certainly a possibility, and no surprise that they would think so). They also think that his behind-the-scenes backing proves that he was the real author of the Shakespeare corpus, but that doesn’t follow. Some hints on that point are found in ciphers found by Ballantine from I Henry IV , starting with line 47 through 64, compressed. (The verse by verse correspondence is given in Appendix A-23): If this is soon ouer, I’l bring Isabel t-to some safe Hebe nest ‘n’ hurtle off t’ the dark they’d have me haunt. Let me know your thots—wd I come t’ England in error, which false Vere’s criminal mind cd use t’ damage R plans? Th’ fool, the rotter –hated horror! Don’t hope to hurry ye Theater construction; dry Bear Garden property

32.Remember that Southampton, barely into his majority, had to pay Burghley £5000 on his 21st birth day for having refused to marry Elizabeth de Vere, at Kit’s urging. He was in no position to give or lend money to William Shakespeare.

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available! Ah, houu can U pay? Had d’Uere held on, al wd B done. He’s odd-odd, ‘n’ may yet promise that half he said he’d bring i’ loan. O, it wd cost less t’ redo ye shell—keep it for a year. Ha, Ha! We cd get dead drop on them: H-h-o! h-h-h-o! Ferry it o’er the river at nite ‘n’ situate it on the bank far awaie ‘n’ rent-free. They cdn’t do us any hurt, see? Our deed’s enuf, sans Vere! I, I! I, I! If we go on from there, dry, renovate ‘n’ do business what a theatrical thrill! I, I— whilst his ... and so on. He was writing to Southampton, as usual, during the Cadiz raid, thinking ahead to the problem of bringing his daughter Isabel back to England. However the rest refers to theater problems mentioned above. Vere refers to the Earl of Oxford. It reads like he was present and personally involved. Maybe he was. Marlowe stayed at Audley End all of that summer of 1597 while Admiral Tom Howard was away with Essex in the Azores. He spend his time playing with his baby daughter while working on Othello and The Merchant of Venice. At the same time he was pretending to be one of that merchant breed in real life at the Royal Exchange, under another name, of course. This play was obviously modeled on his earlier Jew of Malta, but much more mature. Richard III was registered and printed anonymously by someone called A.Wise in quarto form, that year. Possibly it had been playing for a while in one of the theaters, without fanfare.

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*** Admiral Tom Howard was created Knight of the Garter on April 23 1597. On that night Merry Wives of Windsor was performed before Elizabeth at the Garter Feast at Westminster. Kit wrote that play to make Elizabeth laugh, and he put in it a snoopy man named Brooke who made it his business to ferret out sexual misdemeanors. This could have been a Theater Wing celebration. Everyone was glad to get Cobham out of the way. In June, Admiral Tom Howard was promoted to Vice Admiral of a fleet sent to the Azores in the summer of 1597, also commanded by the Earl of Essex. It was a promotion for Tom. The objective was to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet and capture its silver and gold. The expedition was, however, another failure for its leader and promoter, Lord Essex. There was no specie for the Queen or the treasury. On his return, in December 1597 Tom Howard was created Baron Howard de Walden. Later he succeeded George Carey as Chamberlain and he was the commander of the forces that besieged the Earl of Essex in his house after the failed rebellion in 1601. Tom was also a member of the jury that convicted Essex of treason, but that was later. After the failed Azores expedition of 1597, Francis Bacon, who had advised caution to Essex (to no avail) must have decided to switch his allegiance to Robert Cecil. He had hoped that Essex, the Queen’s favorite before Cadiz, would eventually be her successor, with himself as the senior advisor and power behind the throne. But Essex was both willful and impetuous, and not very bright. He was too

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arrogant, and too fascinated by military glory and public acclaim at the expense of prudent policy. Egged on by his step-mother, Lettice Knollys Devereux, who had been jealous of Queen Elizabeth since they were both girls, Essex saw himself as Crown Prince and future ruler, by divine right. He did not see the need to take advice from anyone. Francis Bacon, who still thought that he, himself, had a no less divine right to rule, but who was capable of distinguishing between rightys and probabilities, was beginning to worry about his own future under such a man. Back in Italy, according to an entry in the Padua University Register, three men registered together on August 23, 1597 to audit a law lecture. They were: Ottavio B. (Ottavio Baldi was Henry Wotton’s Italian undercover name, known to historians), Henricus Cuffe (Henry Cuffe was one of Essex’s secretaries, later hanged at Tyburn for involvement in the Essex rebellion), and Franc Bocons (a not-so-pseudonym for Francis Bacon). The three men were on some mission, probably for Robert Cecil. They were probably liaising, at a place called Grisons, with Battista Guarini and the underground resistance in Northern Italy. The political situation there was increasingly dire, as Kit Marlowe was soon to discover.

Chapter 20: A short English interlude, and more of LeDoux

From anagrams in the text it seems likely that the theatrical

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part of Kit’s relationship with the secret service had already been taken over completely by Robert Cecil, and that Kit personally hated the man. Playwrights usually hate producers, but in this case it was extreme. In fact, the “crookback” presentation of the evil King Richard III in that play was modeled on the real and equally unscrupulous Robert Cecil. Marlowe’s compressed anagrams from the First Folio edition, lines 1-44 (deciphered by Ballantine) follow below. See Appendix A-24 for the plaintext and verse by verse correspondence: In this thing Kit Marlowe wrote of Robert C.’s demon rise, ‘n’ some fouydouys on us: How, on false claim ‘n’ deuious plot, no doubt he’l euer be protected ‘n’ heard as he doth vomit forth his envious words to undermine our progress. S.O.B.! Au unaware, we borrow much but never get money that’s due us, C. Marlo’s messages R all left undeliuer’d. Crude, grim rat, huh! Normal for a bitter man who grew to feel his mother wrong’d, abandon’d him as Tudor kin. Saddest findings svrround him before birth: her illness clearly damages his fetus. Result: a cape of a faintlie odorous cartilaginous mass ouer his back. "Please tu put that off i’ the pitt." No way to remoue it! O, it sticks there and growes most naturally — a mound past all a gaon M.D.’s authority of Phs. Stil, it cannot

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preuent growth of a brain able to doom an imprimatur. Fie! He did free me (cut off, dry), but gives my drama, stolen, to his friend, ‘n’ banns me!! Feet, B fast ‘n’ send me far; this brooding devil has a privyl eman ‘n’ wants a battle! Hold hoe! A challenge: Shakespeare, he against me, to act it I’ th’ gym: we both wyki-pap him i’ bed. A fiting way to settle that madman’s insane dispute. Ho ho, Hee hee! U see vs so newly fed or striuen - ‘n’ I a winner! Cecil not to deede any drama to fops or con- men. Heauen relent! Witnes I’M alive! Please, defend me ere I die: Kit, an author o’ plays! To rate one unuuorthy of authorship deed? That’s an asinine idea. All plaies seceded to "less degenerate brother," like coddl’d ninny Shakespeare? Yes, men, hatred stings me: b-blur! Cop drunke Ned’s ioint, and rot, banished! He held fate. Haue wit, get set, try again! A day of retribution’s ahead, so these dull dumps can be cleared away, chvms, else call some chef brothers to write it all: say, sad he pray’d as he grew up, but here, hah, he’s set to wrong mee, destroy author identity, all because o’ a damned dog- whore’s greed. He’s rham’s chum. Chou! As usual, Marlowe signs his name in the first line of dialog.

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Robert C was Robert Cecil; fouy-douys were tricks Cecil played to put down Bacon, Essex (and Kit); gaon. Hebrew. genius, learned. M. D.’s. medical doctor’s; Phs. physic (medicinal); imprimatur. (Kit’s own) license for publication; Leman from early Middle English, a lover (OED). Here Kit spells it out: Will Shakespeare was Robert Cecil’s homosexual lover; gym. in the buff, naked. Kit makes it childish — ridiculous! fops. fools, in 16th c. use; con-men, altered form of “cony-catcher; a cheater, hoaxer”; brother, fellow secret service member (e.g. Shakespeare); b-blur. the sailors’ raspberry; drunke Ned. Edward de Vere, who might have saved Kit; chef. chief. often spelled this way in the ciphers; Dog-whore’s greed refers to greedy Shakespeare, who wanted to be known as a playwright. This play (Richard III) was evidently revised sometime in the mid 1590s. The anagrams suggest that Marlowe thought that Robert Cecil was actually a secret son of the Queen - one of several – and that he was born deformed due to the Queens’s illness from smallpox and measles during her pregnancy in October 1562. Richard the Third in the play was physically modeled on Robert Cecil (the hunchback) who was plotting to destroy his chief rival (and possibly half brother) Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who Marlowe admired. Francis Bacon, who had been Essex’s chief political advisor for a while, may have commissioned the original version of the play back when he saw Robert Cecil as Essex’s greatest rival in the succession stakes, and himself as the future power behind the throne.

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Marlowe evidently thought that Robert Cecil, chief (or acting chief) of the state secret service, was giving his plays to his homosexual lover, Will Shakespeare, as a reward. The fact that Will Shakespeare, the actor, had abandoned his wife and children, and had no known lady-friends in London might be indirect confirmation of his sexual preference. Robert Cecil apparently indulged Shakespeare. No doubt he thought that, having saved Marlowe’s life, he had the right to do as he pleased with the “anonymous” plays in his possession. *** After spending nearly a year with his daughter at Audley End, the secret service (probably Robert Cecil, since Essex was away with Tom Howard in the Azores) came calling for Kit. On 3/13 September 1597 Kit was sent back to Venice as a factor (agent) to sell two ships and a cargo of cochineal (red dye) that were captured at the Cádiz raid the previous summer (anagrams in Henry V rewrite). His trip took him to Sevilla, Cartagena, and Leghorn on the way. Kit finally debarked at Venice, sold the ships and the cochineal, then rode to Villa La Guarina in San Bellino (south of Venice), to winter with his friend poet-spy-master Gianbattista Guarini. It wasn’t a relaxing time, however. The political situation and the personalities in Italy at the time are described at length starting at line 199 of 1 Henry IV and continuing for 140 more lines. The eight verses (199-206) of I Henry IV set the stage: Plaintext and verse-by-verse correspondence are given in Appendix A-25. The compressed anagrams, found by Ballantine, are as

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follows: In England I hid out at her home til’ SS sent me to roam Venice to try to draw ten maps o’ d’ routes o’ th’ city, ‘n’ to work SSS wi’ Guarini. I swear he looks much ashamed, more aged. A war erases reason. A battle o’ deals at Rome had left only a shred o’ the o-old wit. Yet O he shouus U that he’s guiding policie wi’ all care – unpaid as added burden – ‘n’ th’ last seal’d affair going to ash so soon. Rush! Reach home!. Gh [osts harrow him in bed...] Letters in square bracket from the next verse. N. B. her home in the first line was probably Mary Sidney Herbert’s home, Baynard’s Castle in London. Robert Cecil asked Kit to help Guarini negotiate with the Pope Clement VIII who wanted to swallow the whole of the Duchy of Ferrara. To simplify very greatly, the English objective was to bribe Pope Clement. In November 1597 Kit and Guarini rode to Rome bearing English gold. They came back with a compromise. The city of Ferrara itself was taken over by the Pope but Modena and Reggio were ceded to Cesare d’Este, and he was allowed to keep the title of Duke of Modena. As it turned out, this was bad luck for the Guarini family. On May 4, 1598 Battista Guarini’s daughter Anna – one of the most famous virtuoso coloratura sopranos of her time – was brutally murdered in a hunting lodge, by her husband, Ercole Trotti, assisted by her brother Girolamo. It

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was an “honor” killing, apparently planned for some time, but apparently based on false information possibly planted by Guarini’s political enemies. Anna had been falsely accused two years earlier of having an affair with an officer in the Duke’s armed forces, but Duke Alfonso had ordered Trotti to leave her alone. However Duke Alfonso died in 1597 and the new Duke (now of Modena), Cesare d’Este, took a different view of the matter. Ercole Trotti took the lady to his hunting lodge at Zenzalino, and killed her—not with a pillow, as in Othello, but with a knife or hatchet {Rossi, 1886 #339}. This source contains an eyewitness account of the murder, a letter from the Zenzalino steward which Kit later used for touching details of Desdemona’s death. Amazingly, Ercole Trotti was pardoned, not punished, for the crime. In fact he gained in stature and prestige at the Duke’s court. Much Ado about Nothing is about this killing. He created three separate anagrams (found by Ballantine) from nearly the same ten to twelve lines of dialog at the beginning of the play. He also signed them three different ways, once as Marlowe and the other two times as Greg and Monti (Gregorio de’Monti). Note that anagram B is based on a slightly longer fifth verse and anagram C is based on an extended set of six verses. The verse-by-verse correspondence in given in Appendix A-26.

(A) Christopher Marloe made this art in anger, to set this fool gent in ‘is net—a net he wove belieuing the wearisome yffy

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street lies. The fresh Ann h-had been tru, ‘n’ yet he saw only th’ fals game, ‘n’ O, I cannot win him soon enuff to any moue to see truth before ruining his love, ‘n’ e’en her life, with a slimie brutish act. Ecce! Fide me! What an argument! Both ride in to th’ country place, ‘n’ he deals lo—how lo! End of Code *** (B) Monti pens this froth re an inocent’s sly betrayal: her time on earth—her egregiovs death. I see in it stealthy foolishness with a woeful result: he came in heet envf to hit a woman—then my going enabled his crime, for now it’s out ‘n’ ouer, C, ‘n’ yet the fat shit can waive f-e-e-e-e-e, ‘n’ wait on fauor here, C? No, the snuff’s not punished, but who’d remember a thin bled girl, tho’? He? Me! ‘N’ dead Anna: my queer play’d saue U from Ercol’s lood coital crime, ‘n’ U ‘n’ he’ll B right. De End. *** (C) Greg made this merry sho o’ infinite insanity, hopin’ t’ serve t’ teache better sense to all others in R half–male society re: young love–its gain ‘n’ loss, how t’ meet in a huff to mate–he he he! What ‘n’ when in courtin season t’ believe, ‘n when t’ dout th’ chancie story of faint fem! Ie, ie! Few

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are willin’ t’ wait for huge reason t’ sho thru, come t’ h-her defense, ‘n’ bend R phubbed homme t’ leaue lo nonsenseical MCCL behauior ‘n’ return a good man. All d- d-d-did query my free phantasy o’ ye fobb’d off, beseiged girl disappearin’ ‘n’ returnin’ t’ life. M-M-M Good! Ho-ho-ho! He-he he! Hebe.

Kit seemed to feel some responsibility (anagram version B) though it is not clear why, unless it was because his assistance to Guarini had enabled Cesare d’Este to retain power, thus unleashing Ercole Trotti to murder his wife, Guarini’s daughter. In any case, the horrific “honor” murder of Anna Guarini Trotti was certainly the inspiration for his later Othello.33 *** Marlowe did not remain long with Guarini in Padua. Perhaps it was too depressing. Recent research by Christopher W. H. Gamble has uncovered evidence that LeDoux was working in the Netherlands during late 1598 and part of 1599 {Gamble, 2009 #452}. Indeed, LeDoux, almost certainly the same man already identified in Anthony Bacon’s papers, may have continued working for Essex’s

33.Shakespeare scholars attribute the plot of Othello to an Italian short story, Un Capitano Moro, published in 1565 by Cinthio, but do not explain how Shakespeare could have known of it. On the other hand, there were undoubtedly copies all over Italy, accessible to Marlowe. Guarini probably had one.

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intelligence service, possibly in Italy, until sometime in 1598. Then he seems to have left Bacon’s service to take up a full-time position as diplomatic courier between the French Embassy in the Hague and the Court of Henri IV in Paris. During that time he was apparently working mainly for the French Ambassador to Holland, Paul Choart, Seigneur de Buzanval {Vreede, 1846 #454}. Choart was a Huguenot who had personally witnessed the massacre of Huguenots in Paris in August 1572. There he had met Francis Walsingham, who was the English ambassador at the time. They probably stayed in touch. Subsequently Buzanval became Henri of Navarre’s official ambassador to England (1585-1589) before moving to the Hague in 1591 where he remained for many years. Correspondence and items in the Calendar of State Papers (CSP Elizabeth), indicate that Buzanval was highly regarded in the English court, where he knew everybody of importance, as well as the Protestant circles in France and Holland. He knew both Francis and Thomas Walsingham, as well as Anthony (and Francis) Bacon. There are manuscripts in existence proving that he was providing intelligence to the English, with regard to plots against the Queen, and other matters (ibid). For example, in June 1589 Buzanval wrote a letter to Lord Burghley, on behalf of Henri of Navarre, requesting an advance of 200,000 crowns to support his fight for the French Crown, against the Guise’s Catholic League (CSP Elizabeth, Vol 23). There is also a personal letter from Buzanval to Sir Francis Walsingham (dated July 9, 1589).

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Buzenval was sent to England again by Henry IV in November 1596. There he met with Anthony Bacon. The purpose of the mission was to persuade Queen Elizabeth, through Bacon and Essex, to loosen her restrictions on the use of the 2000 English soldiers then secretly in France. Essex was promising to meet with her, but the letters do not say if he did, or what happened {Birch, 1754 #455} Vol 1 p 157, 215. Buzenval was back in England the following April, possibly on the same mission. The following year, 1598, Robert Cecil – now officially Secretary of State for England – spent three months in France (February through April) seeking an audience with King Henri IV, in the hope of persuading him not to sign a peace treaty with Spain. England was happier when the two continental superpowers were fighting each other. This part of the mission failed; France was exhausted from 30 years of civil war and wanted peace. Essex’s influence at Elizabeth’s court, which peaked following the militarily successful but financially disastrous Cadiz raid in 1596, declined significantly after the failed Azores naval expedition a year later, that was supposed to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet and its gold, but came home with nothing but unpaid sailors. There is little doubt that, after his return from France and throughout the rest of 1598, Robert Cecil was further undermining Essex’s position at court and setting him up for his foolish Irish expedition, his quarrel with the Queen and house arrest, his pathetic attempted coup d’etat and his subsequent execution. All of this is discussed further in the next chapter.

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Henry (“Hen”) Wriothesley had accompanied Robert Cecil to France in February 1598. Not only that, he stayed on in Paris, presumably at Henri IV’s court, for another six months after Cecil’s departure (until November), apart from a quick trip to England in August. During that period it is likely that LeDoux (Marlowe) spent a good deal of time writing plays and spending time with Hen, between courier assignments. Southampton may have carried several new plays back to England with him in the fall of 1598. LeDoux was then operating at a fairly exalted level in France. In Vreede’s collection of Choart’s letters (only those written from October 18 1598 through December 1599), four letters were addressed directly to King Henry IV and another forty-four were addressed to his Secretary of State, Nicolas de Neufville, Seigneur de Villeroy {Vreede, 1846 #454}. Of those addressed to King Henry, LeDoux was the bearer of three, not to mention others addressed to Villeroy. Evidently LeDoux had been highly recommended by Anthony Bacon, or Essex, or both. Of Buzenval’s letters to Villeroy no less than eighteen actually mention LeDoux, often in very respectful terms, praising him for his reliability and trustworthiness. Indeed, it appears that LeDoux was also entrusted, at times, with the conveyance of large sums of money (silver), probably to pay troops fighting in the low countries. Some letters deal with specifics of packing, routes, military escorts, etc {Gamble, 2009 #452}. At any rate, Ungerer states positively that LeDoux quit Anthony Bacon’s service in 1598 {Ungerer, 1974 #449} Vol II p. 241. It would have been the smart thing to do, given

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the rise of Robert Cecil’s influence at court, and the decline of Essex. However, Kit was not quite ready to dump Essex and he kept in touch. Robert Cecil, for his part, would have been interested in building his own network of agents in Italy. Recruiting senior agents must have been a priority. It is quite likely that Robert Cecil would have encountered LeDoux, the courier-diplomat, on one of his visits from Holland. Indeed, I think that Cecil recruited LeDoux (Marlowe) for an important mission in Spain, the following year. LeDoux (Marlowe) was the obvious candidate, if he could be recruited for the job. By the way, Marlowe published some of his translations of Ovid and Lucan, under the title Elegies, through a Dutch publisher in Mittelbourgh in 1599, signed C.M. Clearly he was getting tired of seeing his work appear in London under another name. This was probably arranged while LeDoux was working for Buzanval in the Hague. Where was LeDoux in 1599? Gamble says that the Buzenval correspondence indicates that he was away from his regular Paris-Holland territory three times during the year, first from late February until June, then from mid- August to mid-September, and finally briefly in October when he carried a letter to the French Ambassador to England, M. Bolsize. After that he was in the Hague briefly, but seems to have left Buzenval’s service before December, when he was replaced by a person named Du Temps or Temporarius, who had been LeDoux’s assistant. Buzenval’s letter dated December 19 says of the new man “He has always assisted the said LeDoux in the receipt and

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conveyance of funds as far as Dieppe, where I sent them” {Vreede, 1846 #454} p.323. Where did LeDoux go? During his August-September absence he could have been with Essex in Ireland, possibly working for Cecil, but still friendly with Essex, albeit unhappy with the earl’s stubborn unwillingness to take advice. During the early spring of 1599, I think he was probably in Spain, as explained in another chapter. According to standard chronology, Henry IV Part 2 was written in 1598 while Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, As You like It and Julius Caesar were all written in 1599. Hamlet was supposedly written in 1600. Gamble points out that As You Like It is very “French”, and that the Forest of Arden was quite likely to have been the Forest of Ardennes. It also contains some cryptic references (apart from anagrams) to Christopher Marlowe. He notes that whole scenes of Henry V were actually written in French. Most interesting, he notes that the dissolute behavior of Prince Hal, followed by a remarkable maturation, as characterized in Henry IV Parts1 and 2, and again in Henry V, has a remarkable resemblance to the actual career of Henri IV of France {Gamble, 2009 #452}. Another “French” play was Love’s Labours Lost, which almost certainly was set in Navarre. John Michell quotes a Professor as follows: “All the details of Love’s Labours Lost are pure French. In their conversations his ladies and gentlemen are completely French – lively, alert and full of spirit...even their bad taste is totally French...” {Michell, 1996 #48}p.200. Of course, Marlowe had been in

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France earlier, but not for such an extended time, and not in such exalted circles as LeDoux frequented in 1598-99. Gamble also suggests a connection with the plot of Hamlet, arising from a number of references to Danish- Polish affairs to be found in the Buzenval correspondence {Gamble, 2009 #452}. One of them concerns the purchase of arms. In a letter dated May 17, 1599 Buzenval says: “These gentlemen are sending an embassy to the King of Denmark, who has urgently requested of them certain munitions of war, which they have allowed him to purchase; ... it would be desirable that LeDoux had arrived to sustain our credit a little and to remove the misapprehensions that they have towards us”. Evidently LeDoux was now much more than a simple courier. Gamble is reminded of a line: “... such daily cast of brazen cannon, and foreign mart for implements of war.” (Hamlet 1.i.73-74). In another place in the play Polonius instructs his emissary Reynaldo to “Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris” (i.e. to keep an eye on his son Laertes) (Hamlet II.i.7). Several other letters also contain references to current affairs in Denmark that bear similarities to events in the play.

Chapter 21: The Fall of Icarus and the Tudor twilight

Essex was like Icarus; he flew too close to the sun and couldn’t take the heat. Having failed in his attempt to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet off the Azores, he

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desperately needed (or thought he needed) a great triumph, as well as money. Egged on by his “friends” – such as Francis Bacon –he demanded to be appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland with the mission of quelling a rebellion led by Hugh O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrone. The plan was to pacify that turbulent country once and for all. He asked the Queen to appoint the Earl of Southampton as his second in command. The reason for this choice is obscure, since Southampton had little or no military or political experience up to that time. Personal loyalty must have been a factor. The Queen disagreed with this choice, but approved it anyway. In April 1599 Essex took with him to Ireland a large army, about 30,000 men. Harry Wotton, Tom Lodge and Tom Nashe (perhaps under the name of Thomas Dekker) went with him as secretaries. Kit Marlowe may have accompanied them (under another name, of course), or he may have arrived later. How do we know they were there? We don’t know for sure. The only evidence is anagrams in Troilus and Cressida and As You Like It, both of which were written shortly afterwards. The first 12 lines from Troilus and Cressida contain anagrams (deciphered by Ballantine) as follows, in compressed form (see Appendix A-27): Fool G. Monti pens the Irish satire, CCC-E: hellish bloody errors fly high enough t’referee! Detec th’ note o’ satire. Tush! These men that prepare n’ perish die not in th’ high war – in MT fvss-fuss t’ rob a fello fall’n warrior-man, C? ‘N’ a wretched Essex

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euer waitin’ t’ try ye great h-h-hit, ‘n’ not findin’ any good reason to attack. So we rest up, worry, revue, miss what e’er h- horrid hap we might ‘t-‘t quell these wild queer warriors that hem us in ahead‘n’ tease us, ‘n’ happen t’ shell an enter R night camp wi’ no thot o’ ar tents. E-e-e-e- e! Oh, d-do seek, beg ye d-degraded ... and so on for 301 lines! As always, the signature (in this case G. Monti) is in the first line. The long-drawn-out defeat in Ireland and Essex’s too hasty return to England to defend his behavior is described elsewhere at length; there is no need to reproduce the sad tale in detail here. The aftermath, as described in anagrams in As You Like It, is also too well known to recount in this short space. The story as told in the anagram ciphers corresponds quite well with the official history summarized below. Things started to go wrong for Essex from the start. On April 16, 1599 after a rough crossing—The Lord of Kildare’s ship was lost on the way—Essex landed his forces at Dublin. Bad advice kept arriving from Bacon and Cecil for the gullible commander. On May 8 the Eire Council in England allowed Essex to move his army into Leinster {Spedding, 1890 #269}vol ix p 137. Essex foolishly pushed on through Leinster, into Munster. He found himself fighting a guerilla war against an enemy that would not stand and fight. (It was an early version of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.) The expeditionary force could kill lots of Irish rebels but their own losses were painful. There was an endless supply of

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rebels, and no way the expeditionary force could pacify the country. Essex returned to Dublin on July 3 with about half his army missing {Spedding, 1890 #269}vol ix p 138. At one point a group of 250 deserters were recaptured. Essex got angry and decided to “decimate” this group, Roman style: he hanged one in ten of their number to enforce “discipline”. No doubt other soldiers decided to desert because of this cruel, unfair and ultimately stupid action. Kit’s description is anagrammed in Troilus and Cressida lines 75-80 (plaintext omitted): Essex’ terror! He’l kil the tenth o’ the fettered, loyal men! He agrees t’ rip mi medal ‘n’ let me stay – ye rest o’ R troop must d-die! I know him! Ae! Run around near appeal to ‘im: don’t kil fine men! We’l deal, ‘n’ aid, save, restore U! A-a lean hope ... It is also in Sonnet 125. The same sonnet, with minor changes in spelling, had served as plaintext for a different set of anagrams describing Kit’s breakup with Emilia Bassano. The anagram ciphers, found by Ballantine, follow in compressed form. The plaintext and verse-by-verse correspondence is given in Appendix A-28: Greg wrote th’ rhyme. Note th’ thin texture o’ each word I may bow out – pen an Idiotic report for Robyn. He wants a heavy list o’ R men’s error in th’ huge egress t’ward defeat. No! Betray ‘n’ hang poor

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souldiers? No, no! Let ‘em live safe! We’l only hear U command whipping! Stop! Realize! If more lives R lost, uuinning’s farther off, C? G-go out on M.T. trips let thy poor queen mom uuait for letters! O, think a–about ye end, Bobbie hon! Each nonny error stokes th’ enmitie at home with extra fuel, ‘n’ wd U B lost in d’low scum? B lost in d’swan–‘n’–sparrrouus, C? Try nouu, man, for when d’ clem hits, then it’s too late! Oe! Tee hee! Chr. M. Note that Robyn and Bobbie are nicknames for Robert Devereux (Essex). He believed that he was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite – albeit secret – son; she was his queen-mom; swan–‘n’–sparrrouus was slang for male and female prostitutes; clem means a “put-down” or squelch. Marlowe signs as Greg at the beginning and his original signature Chr. M at the end. Was Kit Marlowe there in person? It would seem so, if he was asked to “pen an idiotic report for Robyn” (Essex) blaming others for everything that went wrong. We’ll probably never know for sure. What comes through loud and clear is his anguish at the suffering of the soldiers and the unforgivable behavior of their leader, a man Marlowe had once admired and loved. The rest of the story is tragic, but some of it needs to be told here to explain Marlowe’s role in later years. *** Back in Ireland, Essex remained in camp at a place

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called Ardbracken for two months, from June through August, surrounded by little groups of hit-and-run guerillas. His army was certainly short of food, since armies in those days lived off the countryside as they passed through. But there was nothing to steal in that part of Ireland. On August 30 1599 (Julian calendar) he sent the queen a self-pitying letter including the words: “Since my services past deserve no more than banishment and proscription into the most cursed of all countries, with what expectation and to what end shall I live longer? ... And if it happens so, your Maj. may believe that you shall not have cause to mislike the fashion of my death, though the course of my life could not please you.” On September 5, 1599 Essex refused an offer by Tyrone to parley {Spedding, 1890 #269}. The next day he challenged Tyrone to fight. Tyrone wanted only to talk. Finally Essex, realizing the military weakness of his position, agreed on a truce for six weeks with an option for 6 more – and so on, “to Mayday next, not to be broken without two weeks warning” (ibid.) Kit’s anagrams in Troilus and Cressida say that he and Tom Nashe were employed by Essex to draft this “toy treaty”. It was full of unenforceable provisions. Sir Warham Sentleger, Sir William Constable and Henry Wotton met Tyrone’s men in his camp to offer this truce {Harrison, 1937 #272; Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}. Having achieved this truce Essex “dispersed his army; and went himself to take physic at Drogheda, while Tyrone retired with all his forces into the heart of his country”

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{Spedding, 1878 #475} op cit. p 141). On September 14 the Queen sent a letter (written by Cecil or Bacon) telling Essex he had done everything wrong, which was essentially true. She did not agree with the terms of the proposed deal with Tyrone. Essex received this letter in Dublin on September 22, {Harrison, 1937 #272}. Two days later he left his army and sailed to England to “explain” his decisions. Harry Wotton accompanied him bearing the treaty of truce to show the Queen. Harry W. remained in England for a year after that, until November 1600, when he seems to have left for Italy {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} vol ii p 36. On September 28, 1599 Essex barged into the Queen’s chamber as she was dressing, to tell her his side of the story. She was en deshabille, not even having had time to put on her wig. She was understandably angry with this presumption on his part. He was behaving like a spoiled child. He needed to be taught manners. He was not yet her anointed successor, whatever he might assume. One biographer wrote "her mind had been poisoned by the little Secretary with his suave, official subservience" {Harrison, 1937 #272}. But Robert Cecil was also one of her sons (at least Kit Marlowe thought so), and though not so beautiful, he was older and smarter than Essex. Yet, most biographers liked Essex much better than Cecil, despite his faults. Charismatic Robert Devereux, the earl of Essex attracted followers (including Southampton, Marlowe, Nashe and Wotton), even after his downfall. The legend persists to this day.

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Essex was censured by the Privy Council. Robert Cecil spoke of his return to England before he was bidden. Once again he had knighted a number of officers (again) contrary to the Queen’s prerogative. The invasion had cost £300,000 and achieved nothing. Essex was then charged with “great and high contempts and points of misgovernance” and committed to house arrest at York House through October, under the supervision of Sir Thomas Egerton. He wrote submissive but still defensive letters to Queen Elizabeth. (In anagrams, in As You Like It, Kit says he should have written loving letters.) At the end of October, 1599 Essex’s monopoly on the import of sweet wine expired. It was not extended. He was broke. Four days later his hundred sixty servants were dismissed. Essex would not see his wife Frankie (Frances Walsingham), afraid it would irritate the Queen. She was notoriously unkind to favorites who got married without her permission. It was not until December 12 that his wife was able to see him. Sick in bed, on that occasion, he had to be lifted out to change the sheets. Queen Elizabeth wept when she heard. She still loved him, but he didn’t seem to reciprocate. Finally on November 28, 1599 Elizabeth visited Essex at York House (E. K. Chambers. Eliz. Stage. A Court Calendar.) But the house arrest continued. In fact it lasted eight months until a judicial censure took place for disobedience by a special council at York House in August 1600. Francis Bacon, Essex’s former advisor, was the last to speak. He presented a comprehensive legalistic indictment. Essex

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apologized, but not very convincingly. He kept complaining about the wrongs being done to him. The commissioners ordered house arrest. Essex was then deprived of all his offices and banned from the Court. Also banned were his allies Lord Mountjoy, Sir John Harington, Sir Charles Danvers, and the Earls of Southampton, Bedford and Sussex who had helped him.. *** Ben Jonson’s play Cynthia’s Revels premiered about this time. Ben Jonson was Francis Bacon’s protegé and loyal follower. This play infuriated Kit because it suggested Essex should die, and Kit was still trying to save him, although Kit’s primary interest was not Essex so much as Essex’s second in command, “Hen”, the Earl of Southampton. *** In August 1600, having been kept under close watch – essentially house arrest – for nearly a year, Essex was tried for his actions in Ireland. He was accused also of plotting against the Queen. Instead of begging forgiveness he again blamed his “enemies” for his troubles: “When the vilest of all indignities are done unto me, doth religion enforc e me to sue? Cannot princes err?

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Cannot subject s receive wrong? Is an earthly power infinite ? Pardon me, pardon me my lord! I can never subscri be to these principl es. Let Solom on’s fool laugh when he is struck.

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Let those that mean to make their profit of Princes show now sense of Prince’ s injuries . As for me I have receive d wrong. My cause is good and whatev er

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comes all the powers on earth can never show more consta ncy in oppres sing than I am sufferi ng whatso ever can or shall be put upon me” {de Chamb run, 1956 #341}

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pp 227- 228. Essex then conceived the idea of using the young gallants in his train, some of the 60 knights he had created on his own during the 1596 Cadiz venture, and some of the 40 he had created in Ireland, to detain and kill the Cecil faction at court and give his own faction predominance. He persuaded himself that he meant no harm to the Queen, but only to get rid of her evil advisors. He probably even believed it. Essex obviously considered himself a prince. He (correctly, as it happens) blamed Robert Cecil and his former advisor Francis Bacon for his troubles. But he had no idea how to defend himself against their subtle slings and arrows. All through the year 1600, during the months before and after the trial, Henry Cuffe, the most loyal of Essex’s secretaries, kept bringing groups of discontented people to York House. In effect, Essex was holding a rival court that was hostile to that of the Queen. Was Henry Cuffe secretly working for Robert Cecil as an agent provocateur, as has been suggested? If so, he was later abandoned and sent to the gallows. Essex repeatedly requested an opportunity to see the Queen in person. He was repeatedly denied. He grew more and more frustrated and bitter. Sometime during those months he said, or was quoted as saying about the Queen “Her conditions are as crooked as her carcase” or “She is an old woman, crooked both in body and in mind”. Those words got back to Elizabeth (of course) and infuriated her. She

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was, indeed, getting old but she was still vain about her appearance and did not want to be reminded of her age. Sir John Davies was definitely a provocateur.34 The Essex loyalists somehow persuaded themselves that the solution to their troubles was to storm the palace, arrest Essex’s enemies on the Privy Council (the Cecil faction) and proclaim “Long live the Queen and after her, Long live King James of Scotland, only legitimate heir to the English throne” {de Chambrun, 1956 #341} p. 229. In that scenario Essex would automatically become the Lord Protector and de facto King under a distant King James. They were still imagining that London would cheer. On Thursday January 30, or Friday January 31 a group of Essex’s supporters, including the Earl of Southampton (still only 25 years old), Sir Charles Percy, Sir Jocelyne Percy and Lord Montague, persuaded the Lord Chamberlain’s Men to play Richard II including the scene – previously censored – in which the King is deposed and killed. According to one of the actors, Augustine Philipps, who gave testimony at the trial, the company had planned to put on a different play, and did not want to do Richard II because it was “so old and out of use that they should have small or no company at it.” But the actors were persuaded

34.The Sir John Davies who was a co-conspirator in the rebellion of the Earl of Essex is not the same as the author of Epigrams and Elegies in whose book Marlowe published his Ovid translations in or around 1595 {Davies, 1595? #478}. Standard histories suggest publication dates between1595 and 1599, but with a question-mark, since no copies survive.

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by the offer of forty shillings extra each to play it. Accordingly, they agreed {Chambers, 1930 #241} vol 2 p. 325. On Saturday February 7 Richard II was played by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men at the Globe Theater. The Essex faction had hoped that it would provoke the Londoners to rise in support of their popular “prince”. The audience had more sense and nothing happened. On Sunday, February 8, 1601, the pathetic Essex “rebellion” reached its climax and fizzled out. Supporters and provocateurs (paid by Robert Cecil?) gathered around Essex at York House. There was a stir. The Lord Keeper and other important men arrived on the scene to mediate. Essex shouted that his life was sought-after—that false letters had been written in his name!! He locked the mediators in his study, to be guarded by John Davies, saying that he would be right back. Then, accompanied by a group of about 300 loyal supporters, no doubt many of whom were “his” knights from Cadiz and Ireland, he went to Whitehall Palace. They intended to force entrance to the Court and capture the Queen. They met armed resistance. (The Archbishop John Whitgift, among others, showed up in the Queen’s defense, at the head of a troop of fifty men, although they played no significant role in the outcome.) After a riotous but ineffective day, the Essex crowd returned to York House, defeated and diminished. Essex then climbed out onto the roof, hoping to address a friendly crowd. That did not happen either. Admiral “Good Tom” Howard commanded the troops surrounding York House.

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Robert Sidney finally persuaded him to come down, and the remaining members of his party submitted quietly to arrest {Stopes, 1922 #260}. The trial followed a few days after, on February 19, 1601. The lead prosecutor was none other than Francis Bacon, now Queen’s Counsel. (Baconians insist that he did not want the job, and was forced to do it by the Queen’s direct command.) The senior judge was Edward (Ned) de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Admiral Tom Howard was also on the jury. The plot of the play, Richard II, which Essex had hoped would raise public awareness of the corruption of the court, was used to make a different point entirely. One of the judges, Sir , made the following comment: “I do believe she should not have long lived after she had been in your power. Note but the precedents of former ages, how long lived Richard the Second, after he was surprised in the same manner? The pretense was alike for the removing of certain counselors, but yet shortly after it cost him his life” {Chambers, 1930 #241}. *** The play Richard II was originally published anonymously (like most) but the second edition (1598) was “signed” on the title page by “William Shakespeare”. Why was the man who claimed authorship never punished for it? The only reasonable answer is that they all knew he didn’t write it. The anagram ciphers discovered by Ballantine, indicate that Richard II must have been revised again after

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the events of 1601, since the last act of Essex’ rebellion is described vividly. The plaintext and the correspondence are given in Appendix A-29. Undaunted, Marlo authored this no action tale of good-bad Ryche, ‘n’ things that on a choral readin’ seem egregious to those prepar’d t’ hound Rob, ye boy rebel— oh,oh—they that flok hurtfuly arovnd the earl. U see, they wait, asking for the worst. Oh, he’l be known a hoodlum! Cosmetised tale o’ ye walk t’ th’ palace is a lie. He held good chief men at home, ‘euer V.I.P., ‘n’ he immobilis’d ‘em there, in fear o’ death, while U cross’t, cryin’ "Go! Good work!" Oh, moans! Nouu no U cross’t one appears ignorant of Hen’s eager inuoluement in this damned matter. His mascarade of chaste, fragile innocence may conuince a mother t’ shelue U, yet she’l operate t’ tame, check ‘n’ peer far into U sly rebels who’d sugar- coat ‘n’ defend coarse behauiors. U R all w- w-wet! U see Rob has failed ‘n’ he’s going t’ die for his rash act—yet—Faa! He had me, after al. Kit Kit signed his name, as usual, in the first line but also (less usual) in the last line. The U in these anagrams is Hen (Southampton), to whom Kit was almost always “speaking” in his private anagrammatic voice. In this case he was scolding. But he had liked and admired the charismatic Earl

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of Essex and willingly worked for him, hoping that Essex could displace Robert Cecil (“crude grim rat”) in the Queen’s favor. Of course Rob in the ciphers was Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex; Kit acknowledges the damning fact that the mediators sent by the Queen (and Cecil) had been kidnaped and held under guard (immobilis’d ...in fear o’ death) by John Davies. Apparently Southampton (Hen) was cheering the would-be rebels on, and was observed to do so by others. The Queen did shelve Hen in the Tower, and at the trial he was sentenced to death along with Essex. The day after his trial, Essex provided a list of his followers to share the guilt. Some did, some did not. The Earl of Southampton spent some time in the Tower, but he begged the Queen’s forgiveness and was released. (He was later pardoned by King James.) In fact, up to the last moment, the Queen had hoped to receive a loving message from her favorite, Essex, asking her forgiveness and promising better behavior, giving her the excuse she needed to commute his sentence. She had even sent him a ring, with the message that if he ever needed a favor from her he had only to display that ring. He never did. He was too proud to humble himself. On February 25 Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex was beheaded. He died with dignity. Several of his supporters also suffered the ultimate penalty, including his Secretary Henry Cuffe. Anthony Bacon, half- brother of Francis and head of the Essex intelligence network, disappeared. He died soon after, of unknown causes – probably including heartbreak – at the home of

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Essex’s wife Frances, daughter of Francis Walsingham and widow of Philip Sidney. The main provocateur, Sir John Davies, avoided the axe. On March 2, 1601 he wrote a letter to Robert Cecil, saying he had not had the help he expected from others [Bacon?] but owed everything to Cecil: "you gave order unto Sir Walter Rawley that if I were indicted, that it should be stayed…" {Stopes, 1922 #260} p 223. At some point in the proceedings, Francis Bacon incurred the wrath of Sir Edward Coke, who was by reputation the greatest jurist in England. Bacon complained about it in a letter to Robert Cecil, saying that Coke had said to him “I think scorn to stand upon terms of greatness towards you, you who are less than little, less than the least” and more of the same. Coke was probably offended by Bacon’s legal pretensions: having virtually no legal experience, he had been appointed as Counsel to the Queen on the basis of favoritism – or was it nepotism? Bacon seems to have responded “Mr Attorney do not depress me so far, for I have been your better, and may be again, when it please the Queen.” (He was hinting at a royal heritage, of course.) Bacon hated Coke after that, and years later when he became powerful under King James, he took the opportunity to humiliate and disgrace him. But Coke had the last word.

Chapter 22: Valladolid, Ireland and Venice again

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The five years of Marlowe’s life from 1599 to 1604 were very complicated, to put it mildly. He spied in Spain (Valladolid) for Robert Cecil part time, but he went to Ireland with Essex and tried hard to save Essex from his fate, thereby endangering himself. The end of Lord Essex depressed the Queen beyond bearing. She had nothing left to live for and she let Robert Cecil run the country. Meanwhile, Kit kept a low profile, wrote plays and kept an eye on the affairs of his daughter Eliza. It was messy and dangerous, as transitions often are. The following entry appears on the register of the College of St. Albans at Valladolid, Spain– the third English Catholic seminary in Catholic Europe inspired by William Allen’s first English college at Douai and Reims: “John Matthew of Cambridge, was admitted to this college on March 30, 1599 and took the oath on February 1600." In the margin someone has written “alias Christopher Marlerus” {Ule, 1995 #94} p.448. “John Matthew” – a name probably chosen because of its biblical significance – successfully passed through the elaborate screening process such applicants had to undergo (described in a book Liber Primi Examinis). The author of the marginal note identifying Matthew as Marlowe is unknown and hard to guess. Kit Marlowe could have been John Matthew on March 30 (Gregorian calender)in Valladolid, which was March 19 (Julian). Thus he could also have traveled with Essex to Ireland, starting in early April (Julian). The anagram ciphers

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in Troilus and Cressida about his time in Ireland are vague as to dates. It seems that LeDoux was away from Holland from late in February until June, and then again for a month between mid-August and mid-September. John Baker places Marlowe in the English seminary at Valladolid on May 20/30, 1599 {Baker, 2005 #3}. Did he follow Essex to Ireland in April, return to Valladolid in late May, then to Holland on Buzenval’s business during June and July and perhaps catch up with Essex in Ireland just in time for the shocking mass executions of deserters later that summer? Exhausting, but possible. I think he probably accompanied Essex back to London in September, and then continued on to the Hague for another – his last – assignment from Buzenval before moving back to Valladolid. He was away from Cambridge during much of the time he was supposedly studying for the MA. He might well have done the same thing at Valladolid. The dates seem to work, assuming that Marlowe could move around freely. Given his French/Dutch bone fides, as LeDoux, as well as English papers provided by Cecil, he probably could do so. This scenario makes sense if, as part of his secret service work for Robert Cecil, then Secretary of State, Marlowe was sent to Valladolid as an intelligencer, under the nom de plume of John Matthew, in early 1599, just before Essex’s invasion of Ireland. This happened very soon after Robert Cecil had officially taken over his father’s role as chief advisor to the Queen, who was getting old. It was absolutely forbidden for all courtiers and diplomats to talk

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about the succession. But Robert Cecil and others had to think about the future, and they did. The question, which nobody was allowed to discuss openly, was: who will succeed to the throne? Essex was in the process of disqualifying himself. Of the other obvious candidates, Oxford had shown himself unqualified, Robert Cecil had no public following and was not liked and Bacon was both not liked and not sufficiently high-born (in her view). The other royal candidates were (1) James VI of Scotland (the son of Mary, Queen of Scots), (2) Arabella Stuart, a grand- daughter of Henry VII or (3) Isabella, the daughter (Infanta) of Philip II of Spain. The purpose of planting Kit Marlowe as eyes and ears in Valladolid would probably have been to keep an eye on the recruitment of English Catholics who might be planning to support the claims of Isabella. (She was married to her cousin, Archduke Albert, with whom she ruled over Spanish Flanders, directly across the English Channel.) Isabella’s claim to the English throne was based on her direct descent from Edward III. Her father, King Philip II had previously (before 1588) claimed the English throne on her behalf. Robert Cecil and others would have wondered whether he would he do so again. Or, on the other hand, would Philip support the claim of the Lady Arabella Stuart, whose Catholic sympathies were suspected by some (probably a case of wishful thinking on the part of Catholic expatriates) and who was unmarried, with excellent Stuart credentials? We know that, in the event, Robert Cecil supported the accession of James VI of

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Scotland to the throne. But Robert Cecil’s rival, Lord Essex had tried hard to persuade King James of the contrary, i.e. that Cecil was backing the Infanta. This rumor was promoted on the continent by English Catholics such as Robert Parsons, the influential English Jesuit who had originally accompanied Edmund Campion on “the mission” that ended with his martyrdom {Herber, 1998 #32}. In 1599 Parsons, Jesuit Provincial, was active at Valladolid. However, the rumor was so obviously designed (by Essex) to win James’ favor in anticipation of his accession that it was not taken very seriously, even by King James himself. Nevertheless, it would have been useful to Robert Cecil to know how seriously it was taken by the Spanish Court. With Miguel Cervantes’ help, Kit could have found out. Marlowe was the ideal person for such a mission, given his prior experience masquerading as a priest in Reims. Not many secret agents could get away with such a masquerade; in fact, he was probably the only one who could. In 1598 King Philip II of Spain had moved his Court and government from Madrid to Valladolid (where it remained until 1607), near the seminary. This made Marlowe’s situation more useful to Robert Cecil, because he could also keep an eye on the factions in the Spanish government. But it was more dangerous to Kit himself, because Valladolid was bound to attract more attention from other spies, some of whom might recognize him from past encounters. (In fact, he was recognized, by an English agent named, normally stationed in Italy, who provided his description to the Secretary of State, Robert Cecil. Of

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course, Cecil already knew what Marlowe looked like, but it was a convenient way to detach Marlow from his priestly colleagues, when they were sent back to England.) Apparently Kit did go to Ireland, at least for a few weeks, with Essex. But after Essex’s return to England and his house arrest, Kit went back to Valladolid to re-establish his presence there, catch up on theology and take the oath, as required in February 1600. After that, whether he remained in Valladolid or Italy, possibly at the university of Padua, he worked on As You Like It and started working on Troilus and Cressida. In this year (1600) Kit took some really old plays, perhaps out of storage at John and Kate’s place in Canterbury, and donated them to the players: Sir John Oldcastle to the Admiral’s men, Lord Cromwell to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. At some point during his weeks at Valladolid, Marlowe, as Matthew, was recognized by a fellow secret service agent, Vaughan, who described him as an English priest-in-traaining who was intending to return. He wrote a letter of warning to Robert Cecil. Vaughan did not know Matthew’s real name, of course. *** Life went on elsewhere, of course. During this year (1600) Kit’s baby daughter Isabel-Eliza was legally adopted by William and Judith Basset. They were friends of Viscount Montague (Southampton’s grandfather) and the “Good Tom” Howard de Walden family, with whom Isabel had been living at Audley End. Judith Basset had lost a baby girl and could not have more children. Although Isabel was then 4 years old, she was renamed Elizabeth Basset. Kit was grateful. He

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included a bit about Basset-hounds in a rewrite of Midsummer night’s Dream. But a year later, 1601 William Basset, Elizabeth Basset’s adopted father, died suddenly. He was buried on December 11, 1601. He left no will. Kit’s daughter, Eliza Basset (aged 5 years) overnight became a wealthy orphan and a tempting future prize for the Master of Wards, Robert Cecil. Judith Basset asked for Isabel-Elizabeth’s wardship and was turned down {Hurstfield, 1958 #342}pp. 301-304. In January, 1601, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, also became a widow. Kit was there, or arrived soon after. He wrote Twelfth Night for Mary, for a play-party at Baynard’s Castle. She was offered the choice of playing Olivia or Viola, but chose Viola. In anagrams for this play, Kit advised her to remain a widow. She did. Also in 1601 a quarto Love’s Martyr was published by Robert Chester with poems by Kit (“Shakespeare”), Marston, Geo. Chapman and Ben Jonson, all dedicated to Sir John Salisburie, one of the loyal Essex followers who had been executed. Kit’s poem was The Phoenix and the Turtle, and Chester put a note up front:" Mar: Mutare dominum non potest liber notis." Ballantine found the following anagram in that note: "Marlowe: to change your master won’t alter your free celebrity." Being on the run, under cover with no patron other than Robert Cecil, whom he loathed, Kit was having money trouble. He may have played Amorpheous in Ben Jonson’s first draft of Cynthia’s Revels. Ballantine thinks Kit was

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earning his meals as a comedian at the Marco Lucchese’s Italian restaurant.35 Finally, a few days after the execution of Essex, he dared to go to the palace. Having failed to deter Essex from his self-destructive path, Kit concentrated on trying to disassociate his friend, Hen from poor doomed Essex. The Queen was surprisingly kind to him, and he did his best to persuade her not to kill Hen (Southampton) and even to give him a decent room in the Tower. He tells it in ciphers in As You Like It, lines 61-68: plaintext and correspondence are given in Appendix A-30. Ballantine’s anagrams, compressed: ‘l let Queen Eliza condemn their imprison’d boy t’ death. I’l fail again. Glug. U saue ‘im, ‘n’ make R naked effort to win, ‘n’ she’l let ‘im go free, tho’ I’M reeling ‘n’ wrestling wi’ death o’er our payment o’ ars-rolling o’er Hebe Molly Ma’Am, C, ta try ta free Southampton from Essex’s guilty march, C? Eeeeeeeee! W-w-w-win! Mutter out: “It’s best not to behead al th’ goy-lad youth in th’ family.”Angel Bess ‘n’ I hide in th’ lair wi’ th’ pillows, n’ we woo. U’ll say “Loue? No – th’ better glug”, But th’ – oy uey! I pled, ‘n’ our fool Hen remains full o’ life i’

35.Paolo Marco Lucchese ran a restaurant in the parish of St. Olave and lodged Italian visitors. In Othello the Duke asks, "Marcus Lucchese, is he not in town?" {Schoenbaum, 1975 #50} p. 127.

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th’ Tower. By tomorrow U may escape – moue y’ grey mud off o’ ye. Some of the words and references (Glug, Hebe Molly Ma’Am) are insider references to the Queen. Goy-lad youth refers to Catholics: Angel Bess was the queen. The U in the last line probably refers to his friends Tom Lodge and Tom Nashe (Dekker), who were also caught up in the mess, by virtue of having served Essex in Ireland. Dekker lost his connection with Henslowe at this time. Kit himself went to ground (as it were) at Wilton House, where he wrote Troilus and Cressida. Anagrams in lines 75-76 say: At Wilton I hide belowt’ pen a dark sour comedy-revue show o’ Cressyd. Ho hum – ... (plaintext omitted). Later in As You Like It (lines 109-110) Ballantine found another interesting autobiographical anagram: Th’ queen underwrote this year: uue’l go t’ roam Venice to train my dandy attaboys to Christian trim, A grac [ious crown spared this fool!] The words in square brackets come from anagrams in the next following verse. The Queen really was gracious to Kitm short of a full rehabilitation, which she dared not attempt with Whitgift still in power.. In June 1601 Kit conducted a group of novice secret agents to Venice to learn how to act like born and bred Catholics. He himself had just been through the priest intake procedure at Valladolid. Ben Jonson was with them,

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under the name “Simon Fox”.36 Arriving in Venice with his band of neophyte spy-priests, Kit went first to the Lido beach to see the little tomb he had made for his dead wife Marina Cicogna (Rita) back in November 1594. He went inside. The water level was rising, so he wondered whether it was a safe permanent resting place. He raised the tomb up on pilings, then went to find Rita’s father, Duke Cicogna. He asked the Duke once more to take her body into the Cicogna family vault. The duke came, looked, wept and carried his daughter’s remains to his boat; he and Kit rowed the body to the “tomb isle,” and laid Rita’s body next to her mother’s in the vault. The duke was kind and invited the group of visiting SSS trainees to a ball at his palace. Through the rest of that year in Venice, Kit wrote frequently to Hen, in the Tower, encouraging him to read and write loving letters to the Queen, and to decipher sonnets. In Venice, Ben Jonson wrote a first draft of Volpone (“the Fox”) and Poetaster, with characters Crispinus (Bacon), and Asinus Lupus (Ned de Vere, the “wolfish earl”)? *** On May 18, 1602 Kit’s daughter Elizabeth Basset’s wardship was sold y Cecil to Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, who kept it two days, then sold it to Walter Raleigh with

36.Records of payments made by the Exchequer to these intelligencers exist: Acc’t of intelligencers employed abroad this year and sums they have received: [Simon] Fox, in Venice, £20" {CSP Elizabeth, #482 1601 p. 140, v.6, v. CCLXXXII. no. 72}. Jonson’s most famous play was Volpone (“fox” in Italian) .

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Robert Cecil as witness. On the same day Raleigh bought the wardship, he entered into an agreement with Robert Cecil providing that, if Cecil should die within two years, Raleigh will transfer the wardship to Cecil’s executors. This arrangement is explained at the beginning of the agreement: "the passing of which grant [to Raleigh] is truly meant to be in trust, and to the only use and behoof of him, the said Sir Robert Cecil and his assigns" (ibid) Cecil wanted the lucrative wardship because, under normal circumstances, he could have married the girl to a favored candidate, when sh was old enough. But since he was Master of Wards it would not look right to grant it to himself. Cobham’s and Raleigh’s agreements were entered in official records, and Cecil executed a private trust with Raleigh, which, as a trust and not a re-sale, did not have to be put in official records. Eliza Bassett was heir to a large fortune, worth £2400 a year to her husband (ibid). Luckily it did not happen as Robert Cecil had planned. When Kit returned from Venice, in mid 1602, he went to see his friend “good Tom” Howard de Walden. There he learned that the wardship for his daughter Isabel (Eliza) Basset had come under the control of Robert Cecil. But in late January 1603, after the Court had already moved upriver to Richmond (where the Queen planned to remain until her death) Queen Elizabeth appeared for the last time) at the Charter House, where the royal wards were housed {Chambers, 1923 #236}. There she met with Tom Howard, who apparently persuaded her to disallow Robert Cecil’s wardship of Elizabeth Basset. There is no direct evidence,

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but the Basset estate remained intact thereafter and Elizabeth Basset was later allowed to make her own choice of a marriage partner, very unusual for the time. Miguel Cervantes wrote a story in his book Novelas Ejemplares called “La Espanola Inglesa” about a seven year old girl, brought to London by an admiral, dressed in a pearl- embroidered gown, who charmed the queen by speaking both English and Spanish {Cervantes, 1981 #374}. Kit Marlowe might possibly have been present at the interview. *** Back in England (spring 1602) Ben Jonson and a secret service brother named Aurelian Townsend investigated a couple of con-men claiming to be alchemists. It may have given him (Ben) the idea for his play The Alchemist {Davies, 1967 #343} p. 145. In the summer of that year, just returned from Italy, Kit and Ben Jonson worked together on additions for Tom Kyd’s Geronimo and split the unusually generous fee from Henslowe {DNB, 2004 #334 “Ben Jonson”}. Ben Jonson spent that year living with Aurelian Townsend. On August 1 or 2 while the Queen as ‘on progress’, she was a guest of Sir Thomas Egerton at Harefield. Burbage’s Men performed a trial version of Othello for her {Collier, 2007 #494}. She was stung by the thought that a beloved person could be manipulated by others into seeming like a betrayer. Anagrams suggest that Kit (who still admired Essex) intended for her to get that message. *** In late January 1603 the Queen returned to Richmond

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Palace She mourned the execution of her favorite, Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, and his stiff-necked refusal to admit any fault or ask for her forgiveness. She probably mourned other deaths, not least that of Mary Queen of Scots whom she had been forced to condemn sixteen years earlier. She refused to name an heir. She was ill, but she refused medical attention, refused treatment. For several days she remained standing, or sitting in a chair. For four days towards the end she lay on cushions on the floor. Finally, when she was too weak to protest, her servants put her on the bed. She asked the ageing Archbishop Whitgift to come and kneel by her bed, praying. He was forced to do that for hours. Perhaps it was a small punishment for blackmailing her with the implicit threat to expose her fictional virginity from all the pulpits of England. On March 24 1603, Elizabeth Rex died. Robert Cecil read the proclamation of her death, and the succession of James VI of Scotland to the throne, at Whitehall Palace, and at Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Her body was embalmed and buried, in a lead coffin, at , next to the body of her half-sister, Queen Mary Tudor. *** The succession of James VI or Scotland to the English throne proceeded smoothly, without incident, as had been pre-arranged and organized by Robert Cecil. The new king designate, and his entourage started traveling overland from Edinburgh to London, on April 3. There were no untoward incidents on the trip. They reached London on May 7, where they were warmly welcomed. For the first several

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days they stayed in the . On May 22 “Good Tom” Howard was appointed official Chamberlain of the Royal Household On April 6, 1603 Francis Bacon wrote to Southampton, who was still immured in the Tower: “I may safely be now that which I was truly before.” Four days later, Hen was released from the Tower. On August 26, 1603 King James was at Salisbury, near Wilton House, the Pembroke country seat. Mary Sidney Herbert wrote a letter to her son William asking him to bring the king to Wilton to see a performance of As You Like It. The letter contains the words, "we have the man Shakespeare with us" {Slater, 1931 #348} p 78. Critics have pointed out that Countess Pembroke would not have described the actor William Shakespeare in that way if she was really referring to him. My guess is that she was hoping to introduce Kit to King James as the real author of the “Shakespeare” plays and to ask him for a royal pardon and rehabilitation. The words in the letter make more sense if “Shakespeare” had quotation marks or if it was intended to be read as “the man [who calls himself] Shakespeare”. But after the publication of Francis Meres’ Commonplace Book in 1598, Shakespeare had begun to establish an independent identity, William Shakespeare, the actor, was probably there with his acting company. Mary surely knew he was not the author of anything, but it would have been her word (as a woman) against the printed word. She must have seen that with Robert Cecil backing Shakespeare, it was hopeless – to Kit Marlowe’s increasing

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frustration and fury. On August 29 the King did see As You Like It at Wilton.

Chapter 23: Gregorio goes to Venice with Harry Wotton 1604-09

On December 5, 1603, Secretary of State Robert Cecil told the Venetian envoy, Nicolò Molin, that Sir Henry Wotton had been appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Venice {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} vol 1 p 45. For once, virtue was rewarded. Kit was alerted to this opening by his friend and correspondent Dudley Carleton, who had just been appointed as Secretary to Henry Percy, the 9th Earl of Northumberland.37 Kit applied to be a part of the Embassy and was appointed, under the name Gregorio de’Monti, to the salaried job of “Secretary of Compliments” (social secretary) with added responsibility as liaison with the Venetian Collegio. (The collegio was the counterpart of the privy council, or cabinet). Kit probably remained at Wilton or at Baynard’s Castle, Countess Pembroke’s house in London, through the first two months of 1604, just to be as near as possible to his growing daughter Eliza Basset. What was he doing? Apart from writing plays, of

37.Dudley Carleton became a good friend to Kit (mainly as Greg de’Monti). He was Secretary to Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland at the time of the Gunpowder Plot, but was acquitted. He was knighted and appointed ambassador to Venice in 1610 and to the Netherlands in 1615 and later became Secretary of State (1628).

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course (Hamlet among them) there are just a few hints. There was a letter in January 1604 to Dudley Carleton, signed J. Cardén. He (the writer) writes how broke he is— land-lord took his cloak—lend me one? Was that Kit? {CSP Addenda, #481 xxxvi p 452}. On February 6 Kit Marlowe was 40 years old. He may have been working part-time as a shipping agent out of the Royal Exchange, no longer for Essex but possibly for Robert Cecil or clients in Venice. Ben Jonson wrote about how “Amorpheous” (Kit?) likes Italian food. In early March, still working for Robert Cecil, Kit went back to Valladolid for the last time as a would-be priest (to get his marching orders?) In the summer of 1604 someone named “Christopher Marlowe alias John Matthew” was arrested in London – possibly as a result of Vaughan’s warning – and imprisoned in Gatehouse prison, London {Ule, 1995 #94} p. 449. The wording of the official record is revealing: “Committed by my lord chief justice, Christopher Marlowe alias Matthew(s), a seminary priest, oweth for his diet and lodging for 7 weeks and two days being close prisoner at the rate of 14 s the week, £5 2s. For washing 2s 4d. [total] £5 4s 4d”. The prisoner was obviously treated as a special case, and Marlowe-Matthew did not remain in gaol long. Moreover, the bill for upkeep was sent directly to, and presumably paid by, Sir Robert Cecil, the Secretary of State and head of the state secret service! Later in 1604 John Matthew, alias “Marley of the city of Canterbury”, already out of prison,

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was pardoned – in absentia – by none other than Archbishop Richard Bancroft, the newly appointed successor to Archbishop Whitgift, according to the pardon rolls {Anstruther, 1968 #278; Baker, 2005 #3}. Pardoned for what? We don’t know for sure, but presumably it was for the offense for which he was charged before his imprisonment, i.e. being a Catholic priest and intending to preach treason. It seems clear, in any case, that Marlowe/Matthew was not treated as a real Catholic Priest would have been treated. The “pardon” from Bancroft may have been intended to protect him from harassment by lower levels of law enforcement. The remaining point of possible doubt is whether “Marlor”or “Marley” and Kit Marlowe were the same person. The secret service did have other agents and there could have been others with a name similar to Marlowe (Morley, Marley, etc.) or that could be confused with Marlowe. Nevertheless, whoever it was was important enough to get very special treatment from Sir Robert Cecil; I think it was probably Kit. Wherever he was during the months before Sir Harry Wotton arrived in Venice (in August 1604), Kit was also working on plays. On June 24, 1604 Ned de Vere (Oxford) died at a house in Newington, Middlesex, after long illness {DNB, 2004 #334 “Edward de Vere”}. He was buried on July 6 in the churchyard of St. John of Hackney {Nelson, 2003 #250}. Ned’s son Henry became the 18th Earl at age 13. When Kit heard about it he began a major rewrite of Hamlet (Ned was the model). The line “goodnight sweet prince, may

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flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” was added then. Kit’s feeling for Ned were as ambivalent as Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be. That is the question ... ” Marlowe specialized in contradictions. In the back of his mind he might have meant “to love him or to hate him, that is the question.” He also rewrote Measure for Measure and started to rewrite Othello, after showing it to Guarini. Roberta Ballantine has found the following anagrams (compressed) in lines 1-10 of the play: Kit Marlowe hath spvn yu this story: old, yt came kiuing, Uhu-hu!. Take heed! Amen/ So safe in bed she submits to guiltful Trotti, who kills her there – hys own Ann! Woe! Do/th this mudded true death remind U of a tedioso authored her-him story? Both teach me: m’fallii./ To mourne his loste childe, Guarini makes Anne’s fitte epitaphe noted in ye streete. Fools meet it/look, broach, destroy it – with no pity for th’ innocent wifffe. “Paw! Mama Mamah!” PACE. As I mentioned earlier, Guarini’s daughter Anne, a famous Italian soprano, was murdered in bed by her jealous husband Ercole Trotti, on the basis of false information. Guarini was devastated. Othello was Kit’s remembrance. Out of Gaol, Kit also began to convert the original Leir into King Lear, for Mary Herbert. He saw a parallel between Lear’s rejection of Cordelia and his own rejection by his father Roger Manwood. Some of this is hinted in the anagrams. In July he said goodbye to his family at

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Canterbury and left them with an entertainment written for them, inside a revised play of his) and departed for Venice, probably by way of Frankfurt. There (at Venice) he leased the Palazzo da Silva for the Embassy, and a villa with a garden at Noventa as a retreat for his new boss, Sir Harry Wotton. Sir Harry himself arrived a little later (September) with Sir Albertus Morton, as Secretary and Nathaniel Fletcher as Chaplain. Fletcher was replaced a couple of years later by William Bedell. Nathaniel Fletcher had a brother, John, who was a playwright and had also studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Nathaniel soon realized Kit Marlowe’s true identity, When he returned to England after a couple of years, he surely told others. Kit wrote to Cervantes at Valladolid telling about his new job in Venice. They exchanged news. Cervantes reported that the Spanish were as anxious to restore peaceful relations as King James. If the treaty was signed, there would be a big celebration in Valladolid next spring (1605), financed by Manco. Meanwhile Don Quixote de la Mancha was finished, seven years in the writing, and sold to publisher Francisco de Robles. The Venetian Embassy staff arrived in late September. There was a ceremonial introduction to the Collegio on September 30. They were in temporary quarters for two months, but they moved into the Palazzo da Silva on December 1, 1604. The staffers were not allowed (by Venetian law) to socialize with Venetian nobles, so they had to amuse themselves. It was a good environment for poetry reading and play-acting.

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Shortly after their arrival, the Doge, Marino Grimani asked Harry Wotton for an irregular favor. He wanted three of his kinsmen, named Cavagioni (father and two sons) killed. He said they were extorting money from licensed prostitutes and depriving the city of revenue. Worse, they were relatives of some sort, possibly in-laws. He did not want to be personally involved. Harry Wotton, the new Ambassador with no local contacts, didn’t know how to refuse diplomatically. He felt heavy pressure to agree. Having reluctantly done so, he passed the dirty work to his resident spy, Kit Marlowe. Kit did not want to do it but he was far too vulnerable to refuse. He also knew a little bit about the Venetian underworld, enough to make contact with suitable assassins for sale – he thought. Under another name, “Augustin Carpan”, he hired two “bravi” (broken men) to help with the assignment. Venice was a dangerous place. As Horatio Brown says “The bravi were a source of constant alarm and in 1600 the government passed a stringent decree of banishment against them all; but in vain. These ruffians were thoroughly acquainted with all the hiding places of the intricate city ... Spies, bravi, courtesans, footmen, barbers, quack doctors – in short all the evil spirits of the place stood together in a kind of freemasonry of iniquity with which the police were quite unable to cope”. {Brown, 1907 #417}Vol II pp261- 262. “Augustin Carpan” and his hired bravi planned to kill the three Cavagioni men at the Easter service in the Cathedral of Vicenza. It went seriously wrong. The hired

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bravi were useless. Kit personally knifed and killed the father Mauritio, who died on the Episcopal Throne, but the two sons got away in the crowds. He himself was observed and marked but not arrested at the time. This happened just before Kit, in his official capacity, had to depart for the promised celebration of the peace agreement between England and Spain at Valladolid. He was by far the best linguist in the embassy, so he was needed if only as a translator. In Valladolid he met with Miguel Cervantes and exchanged gossip. Cervantes was suddenly famous, thanks to the publication of Don Quixote de la Mancha, as Kit had been famous during the long runs of Tamburlaine and Jew of Malta.38 The gossip led to the idea of organizing a news service, which they began in a small way. One item of news was that Francis Bacon had not been promoted to Solicitor-General in October 1604, as he had hoped. The main event of the month was formal ratification of the English.-Spanish Peace treaty, which occurred on Corpus Christi Day, June 9, 1605. Next day there was a

38.The whereabouts of Miguel Cervantes are officially not known between 1597 when he left Seville (after three months in jail there) and April 6, 1603, when he was definitely in Valladolid (according to Encyclopedia Britannica). This question is interesting because the novel El Quixote was registered in 1604 and published in Madrid a year later. The novel was reputedly written earlier when Cervantes was in

prison.

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great royal entertainment and a bullfight. The international dignitaries – 400 from the English side alone – entered the plaza in their splendid coaches, thousands of jewels on display, but accompanied by bodyguards and sycophants. Leading the parade was a “Don Quixote” on Rosinante, followed by a “Sancho Panza” on Dapple {Byron, 1978 #322}. From June 11 to June 18 the English visitors were entertained at a fabulous Peace Party. Kit mixed with several other secret service intelligencers who were there for the party. Among them were John and Jane Davenant, whom he had known fifteen years earlier, at the St George Tavern by the Old Bailey in London. The Davenants had relocated to Oxford, where he ran a tavern (The Crown) and they watched and reported on the activities of Catholic students. Oxford was still very much the center of English Catholicism. Kit was feeling very bad about the murder he had been forced to commit in Venice. Putting poison in someone’s soup, as he had done twice under secret service orders, seems somehow less heinous than stabbing a person with a knife and seeing the blood flow. The soup might spill or the intended victim might not be hungry, or he might recover. Kit needed female comfort. He had tried and failed to get Jane Davenant into bed with him in the past. But this time, perhaps sensing his desperation, she agreed. They had a brief coupling, which he regretted the next day. On June 12, 1605 Kit had to leave Spain and head back to Venice to finish the botched Cavagioni assassination. On July 14, Kit (as Augustin Carpan) hired new men, and set up

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a stakeout at the posh Murano bordello of Anzola Mazina. They waited, hoping to catch the extortionists at work. During previous visits to Venice Kit had known an import- export man named Carlo Helman, well enough to think of him as a friend. Carlo Helman had died the previous month, while Kit was at Valladolid for the English-Spanish peace celebrations. Helman’s home was nearby in Murano. To kill time while waiting for a sight of the Cavagionis, Kit visited the family, offered his condolences for Helman’s death, and struck up a conversation with their gatekeeper. That turned out to be a lifesaver. Apparently the Cavagioni bothers had seen Kit on the street and recognized him as the killer of their father. They planned a clever frame- up. One of the prostitutes had a 9-year old sister. A few days later (July 19) Kit was awakened in his room at the Anzola brothel to see a drugged female child lying on his bed. Unconscious, she had been brought upstairs in a large basket by the Cavagioni. Pig-blood has been poured on her; guardsmen were coming up the stairs. Kit had to escape by jumping out the window, naked. It must have been very painful, especially considering his clubfoot and bad leg. He ran – or limped – to the Helman family’s gatehouse and with their help, and borrowed clothes, finally made his way back to the Embassy. “Augustin Carpan” was convicted, in absentia, of “having commerce” with the little girl, rape and sodomy and condemned to perpetual banishment from Venice. The madame went to gaol and the girl got 500 ducats (from Kit). The girl had been deflowered by her own father, in hope of a

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dowry. This story (in Italian) is in the archives of the Council of Ten, Processi Criminali, reg. 22, April 9, 1605. But somebody, possibly the men he had hired, had revealed his real identity (“Girolamo Monte”) and his place of residence. When he got back there he found officials had raided his room and confiscated everything, including all his money. He had to borrow money (from Wotton?) in order to leave the country. But Guarini’s position was too precarious for Padua to be an option. There were only three places Kit could safely go, Spain, France or England. He had more friends in England, so he went there. Also there was family business. Letters had arrived at Venice in his absence informing him of the death of his foster father John Marlo in Canterbury. His state-of-mind during that long and difficult trip must have been very low In those days, the ordinary post, Venice to England, took 22 days. Kit would probably have arrived at Dover on or near August 12, Gregorian, or August 2, English calendar in 1605. The first thing he would have done would be to go to see his sister Meg in Canterbury and find out more about the deaths of his parents. He found that his step-father, John Marlo had died in January and his mother, Kate, followed a few weeks after, of natural causes. Except for sister Meg and half-brother Peter Manwood, his family was gone. While he was there it seems he took several manuscripts out of the trunk full of his old writings that he had left at his mother’s home. They included The London Prodigall, The Puritan Widdow, The Merry Devil – plays he touched up to give the players—and a reportorial drama

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about a fiendish psychopath, a work he rewrote, naming it The Yorkshire Tragedy. In London he left three of these dramas with the King’s Company and one, The Puritan Widdow. with his friend John Marston, who was then at the peak of his brief fame. Towards the end of August 1605 Kit went to visit colleagues from the theater world in Oxford. King James was due to visit and his visit was to be celebrated by a gala series of entertainments. He met old friend and former “University Wit”, Sam Daniel, to see one of his plays performed for the king. He also met Jane Davenant, who told him she was pregnant. He must have told her about the second Cavagnoni disaster. In his despondent mood her pregnancy and his responsibility wasn’t wonderful news. But, she did not blame him and was not antagonistic. The Davenants were willing to raise the child as their own, and so they did. As King James and his family approached Oxford for the fiesta they were greeted by Mathew Gwinnes’ three Sibyllae. This gave Kit an idea for three witches to be used in Macbeth. {Evans, 1974 #209}p. 1308, and {Bullough, 1959-75 #324} vol 7 “Macbeth” p. 429-30. Plays were presented by several of Kit’s other old friends {Chambers, 1923 #236} vol 1, p 130 footnote. Kit may have earned his keep as a juggler or magician. See Kit’s ciphers in King Lear: “Ay, I can juggle, too”. Back to London (September 1) Kit saw John Marston’s Sophonisba played by the Children at Blackfriars and used some ideas in Macbeth {Bullough, 1959-75 #324}vol 7 "Macbeth" p 425-26.

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He didn’t stay in England long. Robert Cecil had other ideas for his best agent. By the end of September 1605 Kit was back again in Valladolid, with Cervantes, to report on Spanish opinion respecting the Peace Treaty. (He could not return to Venice as long as the Doge was angry about the botched Cavagioni job.) In early October he met Harry Wotton’s nephew Pickering, who was in Valladolid. He was sick, feverish, suffering from some unknown disease. On October 17 Pickering received the last rites; the next day he died. Cervantes and Kit attended the church funeral, and there Kit met Pedro de Castro, 7th Count of Lemos, who was Cervantes’ occasional patron. Kit remained with Cervantes till the end of the year. Manco tried to teach him more about how to write in Spanish. While there, Kit wrote Milon y Berta, and started a book of stories for children, with his daughter Isabel in mind. The dedication of Noches, in Spanish, reads as follows: “A dios doy gracias, (señor Fabricio) de la buena occasion que se ofrece con vuestra venerable presencia, para gozar en esta sitio de los apazibles rayos del Sol. Hurta (n) dome aueys.” which contains an anagram claiming authorship and making it clear that he was writing for his daughter Eliza, now in England having been adopted by the Basset family. He must have written it just before she became an orphan. So Gregory de’Monti penned al ov these crazee colloquies for ye consideration of R Eliza Basset’s brain. Uarious severe appraisals ov loue, decency ‘n’ reason are

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discussed. Baa-ae Baa-ae! Unusually for the age, several of the stories portray strong and courageous women. Luckily for Kit, Marino Grimani, the intransigent Doge of Venice who had “commissioned” the failed Cavagioni assassination, died in the last months of 1605. In January 1606, after the death of Doge Grimani, Kit returned from Valladolid to the embassy in Venice, bringing with him a draft of Noches de Invierno {Eslava, 1609 #238}. In those weeks he was polishing Macbeth and working on King Lear. During the winter months Kit translated Don Quixote into English, to increase sales for Manco. *** On March 3, 1606 Jane Davenant’s new baby boy William, fathered by Kit was christened in Oxford. Jane apparently recruited Will Shakespeare – who occasionally visited the tavern – as the boy’s Godfather. Perhaps it was a convoluted way of reminding the boy of who his real father was. Or was it a barb aimed at Kit? The Davenants raised the boy with their other children. Fifteen years later, William Davenant dropped out of Lincoln College (Oxford). A few years later he got involved in politics (on King Charles’ side). During the Civil War, he was twice captured and sentenced to death, but was finally knighted. In 1637 he succeeded Ben Jonson as Poet Laureate of England. He spent the year 1651, during the Protectorate, in the Tower. Yet he was the most influential playwright during the Restoration. In later years a rumor spread that the father was Will Shakespeare! Apparently he told people later that

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he “wrote in the spirit of the bard”. *** The new Doge of Venice, Leonardo Donato (a Resistance man) was more friendly with Sir Harry Wotton than he was with the new Pope Paul V. Venice had always taxed the clergy and required State permission for the erection of churches and monasteries. The new Pope wanted to change that. At the end of 1605 Venice arrested two priests for non-payment of taxes, and refused to hand them over to Rome {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} {Hinds, 1909 #415}. It was a local cause celebre. Harry Wotton was working with Venice’s Theological Councillor Paolo Sarpi in the cause of temporal princes against papal aggression. On April 17, 1606 the Venetian quarrel with the Pope came to a head. Pope Paul V issued a bull of Interdict & Excommunication for the Republic of Venice. He allowed 20 days for Venice to “repent”. Venice issued a counter-edict: the bull was to be ignored; clergy should work as usual. The Jesuits refused and were expelled. Kit’s friend and mentor Gianbattista Guarini was sent to Rome as a secret observer for Venice. He remained there for the next year, until a settlement was finally reached {Rossi, 1886 #339}. Sir Harry Wotton rashly promised Doge Donato that there would be English aid, and suggested strengthening an undercover union of Protestant Swiss and free north-Italian states. He sent Kit out on a mission to intercept Catholic posts, using his old trick of removing wax seals from the letters with a thin, hot shoemaker’s knife {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} {Hinds, 1909 #415}. This is mentioned in

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anagrams in King Lear Act 4.6: Leaue gentle waxe, and manners: blame vs not/ to know our enemies mindes, we rip their hearts; Their papers is more lawful.) During this year Kit also finished and sent it off to Robert Cecil via courier. Work was his anodyne. In September 1606 King James sent a letter to Doge Donato saying he would help Venice against the Pope as much as possible. Harry Wotton then formally promised forthcoming aid from England to Venice, in the form of ships and soldiers. By mid October Venice was ready to agree to King James’ formal offer of an alliance. But at that point King James backed off (Cecil urging caution behind the scenes?), leaving Ambassador Harry Wotton seriously embarrassed. While King James hesitated, Henri IV of France, quietly intervened. He arranged for an end to the papal Interdict with good terms for Venice, giving her a dignified victory. The Papal Interdict ended after a year in April 1607, Venice was absolved and taken back into the Catholic fold. Meanwhile, Harry Wotton had made contact with a strong anti-papal party in Venice, with links to Guarini. Thereafter Wotton continued working to strengthen the underground League, using Kit to help Guarini’s publisher (Ciotti) print fliers. Kit hated printing jobs, possibly because he had vivid memories of the Martin Marprelate episode that led to the death of several of his friends and his father, Sir Roger Manwood. But he went along with it.

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Despite his embarrassment over the non-delivery of promised English aid, Harry Wotton had gradually become persona grata with the Council of Ten. He finally felt able to ask a favor. On March 27, 1607 Sir Harry Wotton formally requested the Venetian cabinet to clear Girolamo Monte of Vicenza & Augustin Carpan (o) of Venice of charges arising from the Cavagioni case and asked that they be forgiven. Carpan proclaimed his innocence. The following month (April 1607) Harry repeated his request for Girolamo Monte (Kit) to be cleared {Hinds, 1909 #415} p.487 . On April 24, Harry in Collegio thanked the senators,"for the pardon granted to the gentleman of Vicenza…" {Hinds, 1909 #415}. *** Early in 1607 Kit somehow acquired a copy of the new Brussels edition of Don Quixote de la Mancha, in Spanish. A brief digression from the chronology seems necessary here. The English translation, of Part I, by “Thomas Shelton”, was published by Marlowe’s friend Edward Blount in 1612. Part II appeared in 1620, with neither translator or author mentioned. The supposed translator of Part I, “Thomas Shelton” has never been firmly identified, though Wikipedia takes him to have been a relative of some defunct Thomas Sheltons who had been related to the Earl of Sussex (Tom Howard). But according to the Dictionary of National Biography none of the then- living Sheltons were plausible writer-translators {DNB, 2004 #334 “Thomas Shelton”}. Yet the English version of Quixote was widely praised, and appears to be, if anything, an

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improvement over the Spanish language version. Several scholars have suggested that Shelton was Marlowe e.g.{Carr, 2005 #9}. My brother Alex believes that Kit chose the name Thomas for his friend Tom Walsingham and Shelton as a remembrance of his love for Audrey Shelton, with whom he frolicked in the woods of Tom Walsingham’s estate, Scadbury Hall. Roberta Ballantine has found the following anagram ciphers at the beginning of the English translation (plaintext first){Ballantine, 2007 #364}:

There lived not long since in a certaine village of the La Mancha. the name whereof I purposely omit; a Yeoman of their calling that used to pile up in their hals olde Launces, Halbards Morrions, and such other armours and weapons

Chr. Marlowe English’d the vvole tale for U, Manco – not an easy feat! Ei, ei, ei! Many a pen gone t’pot in my chr- onicle o’ the mad adventures of a great don ‘n’ a small Sancho! Hush! Wait! Printed properly it shall run i’ los corrales! Hush! B-

Evidently the anagrams continue but Ballantine did not take her decryption beyond the first four lines. N. B. Los

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Corrales were the playhouses of Madrid. Cervantes evidently wanted Don Quixote to be a play, but Kit advised him to write the book first. A further clue may be found in the letter written by “Thomas Shelton” to Lord Thomas Howard de Walden, the dedicatee of Part I. It says: “Mine Honorable Lord; having translated some five or six years ago The Historie of Don Quixote, out of the Spanish tongue, into the English, in the space of forty days: Being there unto more than halfe enforced, through the importunity of a very dear friend, that was desirous to understand the subject: After I had given hime once a view thereof, I cast it aside, where it lay a long time neglected in a corner, and so little regarded by me as I never once set hand to review or correct the same. Since when, at the entreatie of others of my friends, I was content to let it come to light, conditionally, that some one or other would peruse and amend the errors escaped; by my many affairs hindering me from undergoing that labour. Now I understand by the printer, that the copy was presented to your honor; which did at first sight somewhat disgust me, because as it must pass, I fear much, it will prove far unworthy, either of your noble view or protection. Your honour’s most affectionate servitor, Thomas Shelton”

In fact, Lord de Walden was “Good Tom” Howard, the same admiral who took Marlowe back to England from Cadiz in

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1597 and took responsibility for finding foster parents for his one-year-old baby daughter, Isabel. Little wonder that Kit dedicated this translation to him. *** In this year (1607) Kit’s The Puritan Widdow was played by the “Children of Paul’s” (a theatrical company). His rewrite of The Yorkshire Tragedy and his Merry Devil of Edmonton were performed by the King’s Company (1608?). On St. Stephen’s Night, December 26, 1606 King Lear was played at King James’ Christmas revels. In August 1607 a young English traveler named Sir Francis Verney arrived in Venice, seeking contacts and advice for his intended travel in the Ottoman Balkans. (He eventually converted to Islam). In the course of his visit he found out somehow that Kit Marlowe was alive and living in Venice. Verney subsequently traveled on to Jerusalem where he signed the Pilgrims’ Book there on October 12. He sent a four-line poem about Kit back to Sir Robert Cecil: “Marlo the splendour of our worthlesse time…" This verse is still held in Cecil Papers 233/9, at . Also {Eccles, 1982 #263}. Of course, Robert Cecil already knew perfectly well that Marlowe was not dead. Was Kit the “sec’y.” who sometimes went to visit the Collegio (Cabinet) in Venice to speak for Harry Wotton? Very likely since, of all the Embassy employees, he was by far the most fluent in Italian and Venetian dialect {Hinds, 1909 #415} vol xi, p 34. Kit was working on Antony and Cleopatra at the time. He sent it off to the Kings Men in January or February.

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On January 8, 1608, a young man named Juley Caesar, son of the Julius Caesar who was Master of Requests for King James, and to whom Mary Herbert had addressed her complaints about the behavior of Tobie Matthew, died in a freak fencing accident at Padua where he was studying. In fact, he was impaled by his fencing master Brochetta (the origin of “en brochette”?) The case caused diplomatic ripples. Harry Wotton had to send someone to investigate, possibly Kit. The Collegio was asking questions. The coincidence of the name – after all Julius Caesar was a major character in the play Antony and Cleopatra which he was just polishing – may have started him writing a sequel about the fate of the original Roman Caesar himself. *** On April 11, 1608, the Papal Nuncio officially informed the Collegio that two cases marked “books” had been sent to English Ambassador Sir Henry Wotton and his chaplain Bedell (Nathaniel Fletcher’s replacement). The Nuncio speculated that these boxes must contain propaganda material concerning the English "sect" (Anglicanism) and that the books would soon to be distributed throughout the city to “befog” the good Catholic citizens of Venice. He said he’d come back to report when he had proof of distribution {Hinds, 1909 #415}vol xi, p 121. No distribution seems to have occurred. The contents of these boxes has never been made public. Is it possible they contained galley proofs of King James’s Bible, then being created in England? The doctors of divinity working on that Bible were good theologians but not

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poets, and there are places of great beauty in the King James version. Phrases such as “the powers that be”, “salt of the earth”, “from strength to strength” and “ house divided against itself” come from the King James Bible. Gregorio de’Monti a.k.a. Christopher Marlowe, a student of theology and poet of considerable genius, was living at the Embassy. He may have done some rewriting. London, May 20, 1608. Edward Blount entered "a booke called Anthony and Cleopatra." in the Stationers’ Register. On June 2 in Mantua, Gianbattista Guarini, after nineteen dry years, premiered his comedy, Idropica. Kit was there. It included stage plays and music. "An entre’Acte sent by Monco." {Schrade, 1950 #353}. That was probably a misprint for Manco, who wrote Entre’Actes; eight have been translated {Morley, 1948 #354}. In Monteverdi’s 8th Book of Madrigals are lyrics by Guarini, unascribed songs identifiable as Marlowe’s by first-lines-anagrams, and others by Kit’s friend G. B. Marino, also an underground agent in Milan. These madrigals were probably part of the party {Bach Guild, 1950 #355}. *** Venice, July 4, 1608 (Gregorian): a traveler named Tom Coryate arrived in Venice from Padua to stay a month and a half at the embassy. He may have been an member of the fraternity of spies. On August 18 (Ven.) Coryate headed home from Venice. Possibly he carried Kit’s sonnets with him with a letter asking agent William Hall to collect others that were still in England. The idea was to give the whole collection to Thomas Thorpe to publish (for money? Money

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was getting tight at the embassy). A good writer, Tom Coryate kept a wonderful diary, and published it (after some difficulty) when he got home (Coryate’s Crudities, pub. W. S. 1611), It was enjoyed as comedy in England but was also a valuable handbook for travelers. The part about Venice is best—Kit showed him odd places around town, and made up stories about them. Meanwhile money for the Embassy in Venice was increasingly irregular. Kit dug up some old pot-boilers that could be revised and sold. The best of the lot was an extensively rewritten version of a play originally written by Ned de Vere, which he called Cymbeline. In September 1608. Kit departed Venice for Spain, pretending to be Antonio de Laredo, a Spaniard, taking scripts of Don Quixote, translated, and Noches de Invierno to show Manco. Soon Noches was officially approved. (Aprovacion por Fray Gil Cordon para Noches de Invierno, por Antonio de Eslava) In English anagrams – already noted – the book was dedicated to Kit’s daughter Isabel-Elizabeth; there is an anagram for her in the opening lines of the book. Kit went with Manco to see Manco’s patron Pedro de Castro, Count of Lemos. There was good news. They were told that both Cervantes (Manco) and Antonio (Kit) were welcome to join the group of artists Lemos intended to bring with him to Naples at the beginning of his forthcoming term as Viceroy, starting in 1610. Cervantes also passed on to Kit a tidbit of intelligence he had heard from an acquaintance, Francisco de Quevedo y

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Villegas.39 The rumor Cervantes passed on to Kit about that time was a plan conceived by Quevedo for a sneaky “fifth column” scheme to take over Venice from the inside. The purpose of the scheme, of course, was to open a route through the Brenner Pass – the only pass accessible to a Spanish army that was linked directly to Hapsburg territories – enabling Spain to reinforce its northern armies overland. Kit thought the plan had potential, although it was not a serious threat as long as Lemos had the viceroyalty. It became much more serious in 1613 when Osuna succeeded Lemos as viceroy with Quevedo as his secretary. On February 20, 1609. Marcantonio Corner, the Venetian Ambassador to England, wrote in a letter that he had not been invited officially to the Masque of the Queen. (But she got him in privately, somehow). Queen loved theater {CSP Venice, #480 1609; Proper, #356 p. 471}. However the official non-invitation did not improve the overall relationship between the Republic of

39.Quevedo (b. 1580) was a satirist, poet, theologian and political theorist and eventually one of the great names of the “Golden Age” of Spanish literature. By 1611 he had become a friend and advisor to Pédro Téllez Girón, the Duke of Osuna, a great statesman and general. Quevedo and Cervantes were friendly acquaintances; Cervantes had admired his early writings, probably a draft of his picaresque novel Vida del Buscón ( Life of the Scavenger).

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Venice and official England. Did the Spanish ambassador play any role in this affair? In Spain, June 26, 1609 Kit’s Noches de Invierno was published (in Pamplona, by Carlos de Labayen), with by-line by Antonio de Eslava and a second official approval, this one by Juan de Mendi. In the same year the mysterious quarto, Shake-speare’s Sonnets, was published in London. It was printed by G. Eld for T. T. [Thomas Thorpe], to be sold by William Aspley. A second edition of Kit’s Noches de Invierno was published, a year later, this one by Roger Velpius in Brussels. Meanwhile, in September 1609. King James published a book. written by himself, entitled Premonition to All Most Mighty Monarchs. (Was it a reaction to the Gunpowder Plot and the anti-catholic hysteria that followed?) It was a theory of government, based on the ideal of King as father of his people answerable only to God, but full of offensive and bigoted anti-Catholic assertions. He sent copies to all the Kings of Europe, but none acknowledged it. The Venetian Senate was incensed and rejected the book. On May 14, 1610 King Henri IV of France was assassinated. Aided by the Prince of Savoy, he had been preparing a military strike on Milan that could have pushed Spain out of Northern Italy. The death of Henri IV was an immense setback for the underground resistance in the north (supported by Guarini and his network). The momentum shifted in favor of the counter-revolution from that oment on. The shaky proto-alliance between the Republic of

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Venice and England was further jeopardized. Ambassador Sir Harry Wotton went to the Collegio and offered to resign his post as Ambassador. The Doge Donato was sick at the time. When he returned, Donato persuaded Harry to stay on, at least temporarily. But Harry Wotton felt used. He wanted to get out of the ambassadorship. (In fact, he hoped to be promoted to the job of Principal Secretary of State. It meant going back to London, where the political decisions were made.)

Chapter 24: Interlude in Naples and a new love, Micaela Lujan: 1610-13

In Italy, things were happening in Naples. Kit, as Antonio de Laredo, went to Naples in time for the arrival of the new Spanish Viceroy Pedro de Castro, 7th Count of Lemos. Castro and his wife arrived on June 10, 1610 with 15 galleys and a great train. There were lots of poets and writers, plus the Sanchez Company, known as the best troupe of actors from Madrid, but no Manco. Quevedo had somehow turned Lemos against him. But on that same day Kit saw Micaela Lujan, star of the Sanchez Company. He fell in love with her at first sight. She reciprocated. They set up housekeeping together in a hut on the beach. Micaela Lujan, in her mid-twnties, was already a famous Spanish singer and dancer as well as an actress. She was recognized as one of the top performers in Spain. Previously she had been the mistress of the Spanish poet

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Lope de Vega, but de Vega was already married. She wanted children who would be great writers and she selected Kit Marlowe (a.k.a. Antonio de Laredo, a.k.a. Gregorio de’Monti) as the father. Kit (as Antonio Laredo) got a job in the palace as secretary (letter writer), play-party director and Venetian double agent, reporting news from Venice as well as to Venice. All that summer, till late August. Kit and Micaela behaved like honeymooners. Daytime work took her to the theater and Kit to the palace. He wrote a play with a good role for her: Gregorio de’Monti L’Ippolito. (First edition 1611, third edition 1620), dedicated to the Guarini family. There is a copy in the Biblioteca of Venice, one in the drama school archives in Milan and one in the Folger Shakespeare Library. A baby was soon on the way. Kit had to get back to Venice by the end of August. Sir Harry Wotton was getting ready to leave. His replacement was to be Sir Dudley Carleton (who had originally alerted Kit to the possibility of the job in Venice) starting at the end of the year. In September Kit sent to England his new Winter Night’s Tale, based on one of the stories in his Spanish Noches de Invierno, along with a complete make-over of an old Ned de Vere play, which Kit named Cymbeline. The anagrams in Winter’s Tale tell the story of Kit’s romance with Micaela Lujan. (written in August 1610) A compressed version from the first 8 lines: Marlowe wrote this foolish fable. Coy Micaela thinks U may choose to live ouer eons – a nonni choice! ‘N’C, I/ wish it cd be

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true! If I labor, uueary al day, she has excelent vagani for mi ease. I do so incline to Micaela! She’s the most famous singing beauty in ye theateh – mi hostes to mi hi,hi prickiwikie – mi ho-hvm wi’ rest. We run, swim alone. She feeds me. I read t’ her, n’ I tel tales of how I liued – ... The word “vagani” is a pun and an anagram. It means “rambling walks” in Italian, and something else in English (interchanging the letters i and a). The anagrams continue for many lines, all addressed to “Hen”. He wanted Hen to come for a visit. He says (in lines 19-20) ...[Hen, If I cd claim ch]oice, I’d exit th’ S.Service ‘n’ announce th’ n-new job of father, C? Worth much more than t’ be a hunter ‘n’ catch th’ bad ssw[arms o’euil doers.] Square brackets are previous or later lines. Later (lines 63- 66) the anagrams revert to politics: I hear Queuedo advises Lemos t’ try t’ fry free Venice ‘n’ win ye reward. If the English let tender aid to a weary ve-Veneto, who’d help? “Who? I – me – G.Monti” “Who? My Chris, ye dreamer?” U/ ... It goes on for many more lines, anticipating later events. He returned to Naples at the end of September, again as Antonio de Laredo. In October 1610 two guests arrived in Venice to stay at Harry’s Embassy {Proper, #356; Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} vol 1 p498 footnote. They were Lord

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Cranborn (Robert Cecil’s son) and young Henry Howard (Admiral Tom Howard’s third son). Henry Howard had come to ask Kit for Isabel-Eliza’s hand in marriage. She was now 15. Both boys may have been hoping to win her—she was rich. Cranborn soon retired to Padua, his nose somewhat out of joint. On November 22 Kit (Gregorio) returned to Venice from Naples by way of Padua, bringing a letter from Sir Dudley Carleton who was waiting in Padua for word that Sir Harry Wotton was ready to leave town. Carleton would, only then, take Harry’s place as ambassador. On that same day, young Henry Howard talked to Kit about marrying Isabel- Eliza. Kit was very happy to approve the match. It was, after all, Henry’s father Admiral Tom who had carried Kit and the 18 month old baby back to Plymouth on his flagship Ark Royal after the successful Cadiz raid back in 1597. Besides, Admiral Tom Howard was now the First Earl of Suffolk. On December 7, 1610, at a farewell audience, Sir Harry Wotton introduced the new Ambassador Sir Dudley Carleton. He departed for England three days later. About that time (December) Dr. Matt Lister, Countess Mary Sidney Herbert’s newest admirer, brought to Venice a packet of news for Kit, including a copy of William Strachey’s letter from the new Virginia colony, addressed to an “Excellent Lady”, who might have been Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. Actually Kit might also have got a copy of the letter from the Earl of Southampton, who was also a council member. This letter included extensive details about the

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wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda. Kit wove these details into the opening shipwreck scene in The Tempest, which he started writing as soon as he got back to Naples. Some Stratfordians are convinced that this letter was the basis of The Tempest, but they have difficulty connecting it to Shakespeare in any way. Indeed, some have gone so far as to put the argument in reverse: given that Shakespeare was the author of The Tempest, they conclude that this proves his “intimacy” with some members of the investors council. On the other hand, the Baconians assume that the fact that Shakespeare had no access to the letter – which was supposedly kept very secret – proves that Bacon was the author of the play. The true story is simpler. Kit got the news from one of his friends, either Countess Mary or, more probably Southampton. The play itself was dedicated (in anagrams) to Kit’s daughter Isabel- Eliza and young Henry Howard, who were soon to be wed. From January to May 1611, in Naples Kit (as Laredo) was employed again as a secretary to Spanish Viceroy Lemos, who encouraged public works for the first (and only) time in the history of the Spanish occupation. Kit suggested some of those improvements. In March, Kit sent a first draft of The Tempest north to the players. Micaela’s first baby fathered by Kit was born in May of that year. On May 15 The Winter Night’s Tale, shortened to The Winter’s Tale played at the Globe Theater. Kit was back in Naples by late summer 1611. In September Kit and Micaela was pregnant again. On November 1, 1611, the first draft of The Tempest

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was performed on Hallowmas Night at Whitehall {Proper, #356}p 563. Also {Evans, 1974 #209}. Ballantine suggests that Francis Bacon may have been in the cast as Prospero in carnation-colored stockings. On November 5 Winter Night’s Tale was entered in the Account Book of Revels at court {Proper, #356} p. 563.) In December Kit’s translation of Don Quixote I, was delivered in London, to be published for Manco (Cervantes). On January 19, 1612 the Stationers’ Register has an entry by Edward Blount & Wm. Barrett, “The Delightful History of the wittie knight, Don Quixote.” The King James Bible was formally published in this year. Some Baconians think that it was edited by the universal genius Francis Bacon and that he also provided the illustration on the title page. Robert Cecil’s physical weakness, probably from cancer, enabled Francis Bacon to regain operational control of the State secret service. A plan to export silver bars (stolen from the mint) to France was uncovered somehow at the small port of Exeter. Someone had leaked part of the story {Spedding, #312}. There was a need for damage control. Kit Marlowe must have been in London on publishing business at the time. He was probably in contact with harry Wotton, who was there, hoping to be promoted to Principal Secretary of State. In late January 1612 Bacon, now acting head of the secret service, thanks to Cecil’s illness, sent Kit Marlowe – who was still on the secret service roll, if not the payroll – to Exeter to “plug a leak”. At Exeter, Kit walked into a scene of torture. He dispatched one of the victims to end his pain,

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but the torturers laughed at him. A young neophyte, William Peter (Peeter), just down from Oxford was present. William Peter foolishly wondered out loud if he should leave the secret service. Before he had any chance to do so he was murdered on his way home. The murderer was a hired thug (a groom) who was promised payment by the local section chief. To avoid payment and stop further leaks, the local section chief then betrayed the murderer, who was duly executed. It was a shocking and disgusting day, described in Kit’s ciphers in A Fvnerall Elegye in memory of the late Vertuous Maister William Peeter. The elegy was secretly commissioned by Bacon. On February 13 (only 19 days later) this elegy was recorded by the Stationers’ Register: to Thos. Thorpe {Foster, 1989 #202}. It was imprinted at London after March 25 by G. Eld. Bacon had intended the work to show that Wm. Peeter had been struck down by a highwayman—could happen to anyone—nothing sinister going on. But in his cipher Kit managed to stuff this interminable Elegy with the truly horrid details. He departed for Naples, immediately afterward, thinking it was time to quit the secret service. But how? On March 18, 1612 Harry Wotton, who had been in England since the beginning of 1611, set out for Savoy with a party of young noble riders and 50 beautiful gift horses for the Prince. The gift horses were part of a deal for a Savoy princess as bride for Prince Henry. This trip touches Kit’s later life-story, as one of the young riders was William Cavendish, who (1618) became Isabel-Eliza’s second

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husband. *** In March 1613 the new Ambassador in Venice, Sir Dudley Carleton, wrote to his friend John Chamberlain {Lee, 1972 #365} about a long uncomfortable winter—“but now the sun brings lizards and nightingales”. Carleton was expecting to see Peter Manwood’s eldest son, Roger Manwood (grandson of Kit’s natural father) who was expected in Venice shortly. Kit was back in Naples with Micaela at the time. Carleton noted in his letter that his pay was in arrears. In April Carleton wrote again to Chamberlain about an artist, Tintoretto, who was the son of the famous painter and very good himself. He may have painted the Flower Portrait of Kit, called "Shakespeare" now kept at Stratford-on-Avon. (As mentioned earlier, Shakespeare may have been selected as Marlowe’s “doppel-ganger” because of their physical resemblance.) In May the Spanish Inquisition moved into Colorno, chasing members of the anti-Papist resistance. Among the victims were Barbara Sanseverino, Countess of Sala. a long- time member of the anti-Papal resistance. She had her own private network of agents – dwarves — who traveled with other courtier-agents. She and her whole family were convicted and promptly executed. Other resistance workers were tortured and killed. Kit must have wondered: What secrets have they revealed? Is this the death-blow for the resistance? Henri IV of France was dead, Duke Gonzaga (Mantua) was dead, Doge Leonardo Donato was dead. Who would be next to go?

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August 14, 1612, Kit returned – as Gregorio de’Monti –from Naples to Venice {Lee, 1972 #365} p 132. Tobie Matthew, Bacon’s favorite acolyte, and George Gage were at the embassy at the time, on the way to Naples "to winter". Gregorio referred to Tobie as "il veccio" (the old man). Tobie may have taken the opportunity to familiarize himself with the embassy staff and arrangements. They must have been in disguise, and Gregorio must have been going back with them to show them the pageant there. Gregorio directed the great fiesta in September — a mountain, elephants. Micaela Lujan must have performed. Cervantes wrote in his long poem Viaje del Parnaso about how (in a dream) “Promontorio” helped Manco go to a good place (a promontory?) to see it all. October 7 Kit (Gregorio) went back to Venice and made himself known at the Embassy. Then he went to Gianbattista Guarini’s apartment in the parish of San Moisé, expecting to welcome the old man arrive back from Rome. Finally, Guarini staggered into the room at the end of his strength. He had traveled from Rome, while seriously ill, first to his home at San Bellino, then to Ferrara, then at last to Venice. He died that night in Gregorio’s presence. His body was buried in the church of San Mauritio {Rossi, 1886 #339}. There wasn’t much left of the anti-papal underground resistance. *** At the Christmas revels, 1612, there was a performance at court of Kit’s Cardenio, the play now lost {Chambers, 1923 #236} p 128). In January 1613, Kit sailed

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back from Venice to England to attend the wedding of his daughter to Admiral “Good Tom” Howard’s third son Henry. It was the same Tom Howard, now Earl of Suffolk, who had brought the baby girl back to England after the Cadiz venture, at Kit’s request. It was also he who intervened with the Queen just before her death to keep her ward-ship out of the hands of Robert Cecil, who would have arranged a marriage to some political crony. Eliza was one of the rare examples of a wealthy girl allowed to choose for herself. Another reason for Kit’s return to London in early 1613 was that Harry Wotton had sent messages indicating that he desperately needed Kit in London to help fend off an attack by Bacon. Wotton had learned that, although Robert Cecil had recommended him – in a sealed letter to the King – for the job of Principal Secretary of State, which would have made him boss of the secret service, Bacon had spoiled Harry’s chance by circulating Harry’s old dinner party joke: "What is an ambassador? A man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” King James was shocked. Despite black clouds obscuring Prince Henry’s recent death, King James’ daughter Elizabeth did marry Frederick, the Elector Palatinate on St. Valentine’s day, 1613, shortly after Prince Henry’s death. (This was the foundation of the Hanoverian dynasty 100 years later.) The wedding cost £50,000. All of the guests wore sumptuous and costly finery. To celebrate the royal nuptials there were plays, masques, festivals and general rejoicing {Akrigg, 1962/1974 #360}. On February 11, 1613 there were

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fireworks costing £9000; on the 13th there was a river triumph (pageant); the royal wedding took place on Sunday February 14. On the Monday following there was a George Chapman entertainment: Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln’s Inn {Chambers, 1923 #236} vol 1, p 173, and vol 1v, p 74) In the wings, shadows suggest that Kit was playing Caprizzio, a Man of Wit. Masquers arrived in chariots from the house of the Master of the Rolls, with outriders. Moors held the horses as all dismounted in the tiltyard. The play included Virginians, a gold mine, anti-masque with monkeys, Caprizzio and fire-juggling. King James was so intrigued he invited the cast to a meal afterwards. This was followed next day February 15, by Beaumont’s Masque of the and Grays’s Inn in honor of the wedding of the King’s favorite, Robert Carr, who had been created Earl of Somerset, to Frances Howard, (Tom Howard;s daughter) who had previously been Countess of Essex. The show arrived by water, but King James said he was too tired to watch it. (Bacon paid £2000 for this one. King James was angry with Bacon, but also scared. For King James was now in the dangerous position of being seen as a possible accessory in the matter of Prince Henry’s death.) However, on February 21, King James finally went to see Inner Temple Masque; several of Kit’s plays were also performed that week (Julius Caesar, The Tempest, etc.) Sir Tom Walsingham and his wife Audrey – Kit’s one- time lover – were in charge of the wardrobes for all the masques {Bakeless, 1937, 1942 #157}vol 1 p 165. In the

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Banquet Hall at Whitehall they supervised a pack of seamstresses and tailors cutting costumes for coming entertainments. As this was going on, pipe rolls and other records Bacon wanted to destroy were covered with fabric, carted to the Great Wardrobe and stored in a secret underground passage for later disposal. In late February, during and after the wedding celebrations Kit was staying at Sir Harry Wotton’s lodging in King Street, Westminster, near Whitehall. Harry complained again that Bacon had spoiled his chances to be appointed Principal Secretary of State. He also told Kit that Bacon intended to burn the Globe Theater, packed with unwanted –potentially embarrassing –government records (records of the Mint, records of the Star Chamber, records of the secret service and the intelligence activities of the Earl of Essex, among other things) that he planned to stash there. Secret service brothers, possibly also Freemasons, were expected to cooperate without question. This led to the first direct conflict between Kit Marlowe and Francis Bacon. On March 10, 1613 actor-agent Will Shakespeare signed his name as ostensible owner of Blackfriars Gatehouse. He was fronting for Bacon. Bacon had always wanted to own this place, where his natural father Francis Walsingham, had lived once upon a time and from which he had operated his spy service. Thirty years earlier, Walsingham had showed Francis Bacon some ancient secret passages to the Great Wardrobe and down to the river. Bacon thought of using that facility for purposes of a great “cleansing” of potentially embarassing records.

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Sometime in April the unwanted records waiting in the Wardrobe were carried by secret agents through a subterranean passage into Shakespeare’s (Bacon’s) Gatehouse. The next step was to transport them down to Puddle Wharf on the river. From there they were rowed across the Thames by boat and carried into the Globe Theater’s storage rooms (a cellar?). This was accomplished between June 10 and June 26, a few bundles of papers at a time. On June 27 chief spy Francis Bacon personally checked on everything, found it satisfactory and went home. Harry Wotton, Henry Wriothesley and Kit Marlowe had other ideas. The next ten lines of The Tempest (lines 27-36) contain anagrams found by Ballantine that tell more of the story of the rescue of the documents. The corresponding plaintext is given in Appendix A-32. The section in square brackets came from lines 15-16 (Appendix A-31). [O you men, o]pe the deep vault! Take ye records awaie, free! No! We won’t let him trash our honor. Ei open Fini! -- on ye flood, uuhen he’s gone auuaie! Kit’l rouu ye records back again on ye flood ‘n’ saue ‘em. Ay I’d not lie! I fear our chef’s a traitor to ye state! I hope he’l soon rue his mad chef- chug. Oy,Oy who for th’ fee of a lo king w’d wreck ‘n’ rvin the pattern of English historie? Mom, O mom. Ha Ha. Mom, O Mom! Kit wonders what Bacon’s step-mother, Lady Bacon, now 81 years old,would have thought of Francis Bacon’s actions? (She died a year later.) Lines 29-38

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continue the story. Here I reproduce only the anagrams, for brevity. For the complete correspondence see {Ballantine, 2007 #364}. I row, row, row t’ saue, so th’ crime may be brot t’ light ere year’s end! Phew! Roast in ‘ell! I-e! No one hateful ruler may toy wi’ th’ great huge hive of neat English records we own, which appear to tie a knot in history. O, U uain Rey, we’l see U pay! O, row an extra hour—we haue to do a good deed—Ha! Me! He’ s so bad other h-h-high killers now seem loueable. N-n-–nay, I groan, U cut your own gay cub owing to a phlepbotomy that w-weaken’d th’ lad for a hit. He had a s-strong digestion. He’s merrie ‘n’ free now. I raue ‘n’ row. Hurr— N. B. Rey = king. U cut your own gay cub you had your son killed. Phlepbotomy apparently refers to the cutting or excision of a vein. Did the royal physician do some sort of surgery on Prince Henry, perhaps to simulate the effect of leaches – the standard treatment for a fever? It seems the secret executions of the four marranos, including Kit’s father, were supposed to be by painless bleeding. However, apart from this hint, there is no evidence that Prince Henry was killed, by bleeding or otherwise, and the hint is not nearly specific enough. However, there seems to have been suspicions in later years that King James was somehow complicit in the death of the prince. It is ironic that a successor as the royal physician, William Harvey, was

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credited with the discovery of the circulation of the blood. Sometime in May Kit traveled to see his half-sisters, still living in Canterbury. While there he found his never- produced, play Henry VIII in the old trunk and took it back to London. During that period he also went to see his young son Will Davenant (then 7 years old) at Oxford. He took the boy to London to see a play. On May 20, 1613 Princess Elizabeth and Frederick, the Elector Palatinate, finally sailed away, en route to Heidelberg. Lord and Lady Arundel traveled with them. On June 8 the King’s Players performed Cardenio for the Savoyard envoy, Marchese di Villa. On June 28, early in the morning, Kit and Hen took a big rowboat to Bankside. With the help of some sympathetic secret service colleagues, they retrieved the records Bacon had wanted burned, from the basement of the Globe, got them into the boat, and headed up river, aided by an incoming tide. Their destination was Denmark House (formerly Somerset House) the residence of Queen Anne. The documents were safely landed at her lobby. But Hen hurt (broke?) his arm unloading the boat with the crane, and was delayed. Kit, waiting in the boat, thought he was inside, cleaning up. Hen came back too late. The boat was swept away down-river by the outgoing tide. They took shelter at London Bridge, but their boat was hit and swamped by a floating tree. Both of them nearly drowned in the river but were saved by fishermen with a net (anagrams in the rewritten version of The Tempest). On June 29 a performance Henry VIII, or All is True, started at the Globe. The house was full of secret agents on

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that day. Bacon had wanted to further damage Harry Wotton’s reputation by saying that he had set the theater on fire because he was angry with the players. Kit said no, not that; he rewrote a scene in the show requiring a cannon to go off. A burning wad of rags from the cannon landing on the thatched roof should start the fire. The gun fired on schedule, but the fire didn’t start, so Kit had to go up onto the roof himself to get it going. The Globe Theater burned down, with its archive of theatrical materials but – surprise! – nobody was badly hurt (anagrams, The Tempest). In the evening of June 29, at Denmark House, Kit talked personally to Queen Anne. He wanted the recovered documents to be shown in public to reveal what King James and Francis Bacon had done. Sadly, she said that only future generations should judge her husband. Kit and Hen put the records back in their original repository (back in the Banquet House ?) He tells this, also, in anagrams in the revised The Tempest. The end of the Globe Theater was, of course, the end of the acting career of “Will Shakespeare” the actor, whose connection with the theater wing of the State secret service had essentially ended with the death of Robert Cecil. Francis Bacon, the new man in charge, was not really interested in the theater. So Will Shakespeare retired shortly thereafter to Stratford to live the life of a country squire. His retirement only lasted two years, as it happens. It ended on April 23, 1616, his birthday, according to accepted history. By some sad coincidence, Miguel Cervantes died of diabetes on the same date in 1616 (but not the same day or the

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same way) as William Shakespeare.

Chapter 25: The Bermuda Triangle 1613- 14

Kit and Hen left London a few days after the fire at the Globe Theater by ship, probably Hen’s. Kit (Gregorio) departed from England, never to return and never again to work with (or for) the spy agency under Bacon’s control. Hen also wanted to disappear for a while, if only to let his broken arm heal. It is possible that he went along to keep Kit company, with a few sailors. He didn’t tell anyone where he was going {Stopes, 1922 #260} p.362. During that voyage Hen told Kit about his investment in the Virginia Colony and the Bermuda Colony. He was a member of the council of investors. He also explained his hopes to obtain a royal pardon for Kit, so that Kit might be appointed Governor of the Bermuda Colony. Also, he mentioned that the Bermudan colonists were very short of everything, especially food and water. Kit was intrigued. In fact, he was hooked. The idea of moving himself and his family to an island far away, where he could try out his own ideas of governance, was enormously appealing. It was a dream that he desperately wanted to come true. They arrived in Naples mid-July 1613. Hen stayed only long enough to meet Micaela Lujan and Count Lemos, a strictly social meeting. Kit exchanged letters with Manco (Cervantes) , who had been left off of the Lemos entourage

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at the last moment. Manco was having financial difficulties as usual. He had decided to join the Tertiary Order of St. Francis at Alcalá de Henares in Madrid, to follow the examples of his wife and sisters. He also wanted to find a publisher for his Viaje del Parnaso {Cervantes, 1973 #375}. In August, still hopeful, Cervantes dedicated his just- published Novellas Ejemplares (“Exemplary Stories”) to Count Lemos {Cervantes, 1981 #374}. Kit sent Manco some money from Naples, pretending it was a pension from Count Lemos. In October Kit returned finally to Venice. As Gregorio de’Monti, he wrote the dedication for Guarini’s convoluted comedy Idropica, which had just been published posthumously by Giorgio Ciotti. *** During the year 1614 Kit’s life took a completely different turn. Again, I need to provide some background. The Virginia Company of merchant-adventurers had been formed in 1606 by eight promoters, not including Francis Bacon. The colonists were expecting to get rich by trading with the Indians and exporting to England. They were utterly unprepared for what they found, or did not find. By 1610, after three miserable years most of the original colonists had died and the rest were extremely discouraged and anxious to return to England. In 1609 the Virginia Company got a new Charter, and was expanded to include a great many more stockholders and a council (board of directors) with 52 members. Francis Bacon was both a shareholder and a member of the council, as was the Earl of Southampton. In June 1609 a fleet

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departed from Plymouth to strengthen the colony, but they encountered a storm near Bermuda. The flagship – The Sea Venture – went aground, though 150 of its passengers got ashore safely. This ship carried the Deputy Governor-to-be Sir Thomas Gates and his secretary, William Strachey. The other ships, carrying little in the way of food and supplies, made it to Virginia, but their arrival added more mouths to feed and made the immediate problems of day-to-day survival even worse. The people on the Sea Venture, having remained in Bermuda, led by Sir Thomas Gates, managed to build two ships from the wreck of the old one, plus local timber (cedar) and to sail them to Virginia, where they arrived in May 1610. What they found was incredibly discouraging. Two months later Gates was replaced by Lord de la Warr, who was determined to make the colony permanent and defensible. Gates left and returned to England with Strachey, carrying with him a very long (20,000 words) and embarrassing account of the history and terrible current situation of the colony. The contents have been described as follows: “It...describes with vivid fidelity and unvarnished detail all the happenings of the intervening period [June 2 1609-July 1610] discouragements, mutinies and murders, factions, misgovernment, wanton sloth and waste, misery and penury, fraud and treason, death by starvation and disease and cruel encounter with the savages.” {Gayley, 1917 #448} p.50. It was addressed to a lady (name unknown) who apparently passed it to the Council of investors of the Virginia Company, where it was hushed up.

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A copy was later found in the papers of Richard Hakluyt, a member of the council and one of the eight original promoters or “patentees”, when he died in 1616. To compensate for the negative rumors, the Virginia Company put out a document titled: A True and Sincere Declaration of the Purpose and Ends of the Plantation begun in Virginia. The document was neither true nor sincere, but was needed to attract still more money and colonists. Baconians firmly believe that the document was written by Sir Francis Bacon. At the end of 1610 the council of the Virginia Company put out an other document, also alleged to have been written by Bacon. It was A True Declaration of the state of the Colony in Virginia with a confutation of such scandalous reports as have tended to the disgrace of so worthy an enterprise. It claimed that the problems had been exaggerated and all the remaining problems (due to “faction”) had been solved by the arrival of the new governor, Lord de la Warr, who replaced Gates. The early history of the Bermuda colony itself is obscure. However, it was colonized as such, for the first time, in 1612 by the newly re-formed Bermuda Company, of which the Earl of Southampton was a prime mover. By 1614 it had a small population and a governor, Richard Moore, who concentrated all his efforts on building fortifications to defend the island against the Spaniards, without giving much attention to growing food. It is known that earliest visitors had depended on turtle meat for much of their diet, but by 1614 the turtle population had probably been decimated and the settlers in Bermuda were literally facing

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starvation. *** Kit (as Gregorio) went to Naples with Hen in 1613 after returning from London with Hen after the fire at the Globe and the efforts to save the records that Bacon wanted to destroy. Hen had been telling Kit about the Bermuda colony during their voyage from London to Naples and he had raised Kit’s hopes that he might be be appointed as governor of Bermuda. Now, a year later, Hen had a specific project in mind, and was in touch. Early in July 1614, Kit wrote to Manco, said farewell to Micaela, and returned to Venice with money and commission papers from the Earl of Southampton. The earl had been appointed by King James as a commissioner to undertake a campaign against piracy in the Mediterranean Sea. (This was a concession to the Spanish, since many of the pirates were English). As agent for Hen, Kit purchased two new ships (marcilianes), in Venice, equipped with guns and good crews. One of the crewmen may have been Roger Manwood, the son of Peter Manwood, his half brother. From Venice they headed for Tunis to hunt English pirates (anagrams in Bargrave’s Polisie). Hen’s bold scheme was for Kit to take whatever booty he could capture from a pirate, plus extra guns and food, to the (literally) starving colonists on Bermuda, leaving the two new well-armed marcilianes for the Bermuda colonists and returning to Italy in the captured vessel or vessels. The captured pirate cargoes were to become the property of the Bermuda Company, at the disposal of the Earl of

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Southampton. At first, the plan worked even better than they had hoped. The first pirate ship they encountered was one Kit recognized as the old Tyger, on which he had sailed to Constantinople many years earlier with Captain “Kester” Carleill. His men were fighting their way onto the Tyger when its captain unaccountably surrendered. It turned out that they knew each other. The captain was Carleill’s (and Kit’s) old colleague Captain Sampson Denball (a.k.a. Ali Reyes), who had meanwhile become a Turk on account of some intervening misfortune. Such conversions– known as “turning” – were not uncommon at the time {Burton, 2005 #422}. The Tyger contained a valuable cargo as well as a lot of Spanish reales. Sampson agreed to join the Bermuda expedition in exchange for his freedom. With Tyger’s help Kit succeeded in capturing another good ship (Buonavia), which became his flagship. They put the Turkish sailors in the smallest of the captured vessels (a petache) to sail back to Tunisia. He took the other four ships to Malta for refitting and arming. where they were noticed. A letter sent from Domenico Domenici: “Monsu de’Monti’s marsigliane have captured at Tunis an English [pirate] ship which was coming from Algiers with a great quantity of reales. He has also taken another good ship [a ‘buonavia’] and a petache. He is at Malta, and is said to be arming all the vessels which he takes, and he thinks it to be to his advantage, as in the case of the English ship, that they should have 22 pieces of artillery; and that he intends to procure the abandonment of

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the affairs of Barbary" (Senato, Dispacci Firenze, filza xxix, cc. 132 r.—134 v. Venezia: July 23, 1614: Poorly translated copy held in English State Papers, calendared SP Venetian 1614) A footnote to that item is part of a letter from Carleton to Chamberlain, July 15, Eng. style: "We hear of an English ship, the Tiger, taken at Tunis by two marciliane sent out against pirates" {McClure, 1939/1979 #352}. In late July 1614 the little fleet took off for Bermuda, with Sampson Denball as navigator. The first part of the voyage went smoothly. In five or six weeks from Malta they docked at St. George Harbor, Somers Isles (Bermuda). Governor Richard Moore feared the little armada at first, and made the four unfamiliar ships, bristling with guns, anchor on the other side of the bay. Kit rowed across in a skiff to present his credentials, including a letter from the Earl of Southampton. This calmed the governor enough to permit unloading of supplies. Governor Moore lived in the only frame house on the island, and the rest of the colonists were living in makeshift huts. The visitors were expected to house themselves as best they could (luckily the climate of Bermuda is mild). The governor evidently cared nothing for the welfare of the 60 colonists. He was worried about the possibility of a Spanish attack. He had declared martial law and forced all the colonists to work night and day on fortifications, neglecting agriculture and shelter. The Virginia Company, at the time, was interested in agricultural profits from growing tobacco, which never thrived in Bermuda, but interfered with self- sufficiency. Predictably, this resulted in famine and

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starvation, but Moore was indifferent. He just wanted to get back to England himself. Marlowe showed him the letter from Southampton, who was then the head of the Bermuda Company, directing administrative changes to aid the starving colonists. Roberta Ballantine found anagrams at the beginning of Bargrave’s Polisie that set the scene: Plaintext and couplet by couplet correspondence are given in Appendix A-33. Beginning with the title the anagrams read as follows: Monti penned this l-legal effort, again (paid-aid), in response to the need for a nevv government. Yes, ye goal is e’en for all, all o’ us, man! Ai, yai!Marloe writ this re: planting the yslandes so utterlee far away. Bad, wette weather ‘n’ pestes t’ bee o’ercome hunger, e’en thirst. Profitable trading starts after harvest, Yu see? Ie, ie! Not e’en the duty—bound servants can produce vvealth out o’ nothing for U. Cease, vain gentlemen! Desist—sol ve! Ecce! I tel evidence in code! Al who R bound strive fiercely to B free, endure hard times tu gain love ‘n’ egality in society. Soo vice offers instant aid. Apparent iustice quels the evil wretch, sends him far o’er sea t’ start the happy colony. Bie, bie! I-e-e-e!! He dies o’ starvation. "Ungrateful stiff! Send a new man - wee deem each plai o’ his dice worthie t’ checke R hie debt. I’ve seen every thing now! Keepe that Naples dead-head off R turf he’ll see present ad hoc, blow a year’s note

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into ye sea to save idiots by sending out—in error—a fleet they can’t sail! Whate’er we spend is critical. Tut! I regret t’ meet t’ vet U al – t’ indite God. He signs both as de’Monti and as Marlo. N. B. the yslandes. Refers to Bermuda; thirst. Much water on Bermuda was brackish; there were few good wells; sends him. King James favored sending criminals to the colony as was done in the case of Australia; Naples dead-head. A stockholder who criticized de’Monti (Kit). With authority from the Bermuda Company, Kit forced Moore to relax martial law and discuss the proposed changes. The captured Spanish reales, being Company property, were left in chests, buried somewhere on one of the outlying islands. For ten days Kit proposed ideas and the governor resisted. One of the proposals was for a representative assembly of the surviving settlers. But the governor refused to consider “these new things”. Instead, he challenged Kit to a sword fight. In the end they did not fight. Club-footed Kit Marlowe, with no training in swordsmanship would have been a sure loser. But nothing useful was accomplished. Nor did Governor Moore acknowledge the assistance he had received. Meanwhile Tyger, under Sampson Denball, went on to Virginia, where his pirate history would probably be overlooked. The two armed marcilianes remained at Bermuda {Smith, 1624/1884 #359}. One of them was sent back to England for more supplies and Kit returned to Italy

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in the other captured Buonavia.40 The aftermath was bad for both Kit and Hen. The Spanish Ambassador Gondomar, in London, was angry that the Bermuda colony had been saved and he knew, probably from Bacon, that de’Monti and Southampton had played a role in that. Gondomar, also through Bacon, persuaded King James to reduce Southampton’s influence in the Virginia company. The King scolded Hen for “pernicious government” of Bermuda. Kit’s ideas, as expressed in Bargraves “Polisie”, were far too democratic for King James. Shortly afterwards, still in 1614, the Bermuda Company was wound up and swallowed by the Crown. A new royal charter for the Bermuda Company, renamed The Somers Company, was issued in 1615, independent of the Virginia Colony, and with no role for Hen. On March 6, 1616 (Eng.) a meeting of the re-organized Virginia Company shareholders was held, and a new list of shareholders was issued. Bermuda was no longer part of the Virginia Colony and the Earl of Southampton was shut out of influence {Kingsbury , 1906-1935 #215} vol 1 p.125, and Bargrave’s Polisie ciphers). For Kit, any hope of taking his family to live on Bermuda was gone. His hopes of a royal pardon also waned and sank. There is some correspondence between Dudley Carleton and his friend John Chamberlain that throws some

40. Most of this story is told in anagrams in Bargrave’s Polisie {Bargrave, 1621 (?) #372}. It is too extensive to reproduce in this text, but the rest can be found in {Ballantine, 2007 #364}pp 507-544.

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light on the situation {McClure, 1939/1979 #352}. However, Kit retained an interest in colony governance for the rest of his life. His last major work was a model constitution prepared, as Gregorio de Monti, for a gentleman named Bargrave. This will be discussed later. *** By November 20, 1614, Kit was back home (Naples) with Micaela, after ten storm-tossed weeks at sea. Their new baby, pale and tiny, died in his arms. There were messages waiting. The most important was from Ambassador Dudley Carleton, who had been called away on some government business, probably to the Netherlands, where he was appointed Ambassador in the following year. Carleton needed Kit to act as chargé d’affaires at the Venetian embassy during his absence. Kit and Micaela sold their little beach house in Naples, packed up and took the two children to Venice, probably on the captured buonavia . A few days later it turned out that Carleton’s travel was delayed. But Carleton was a thoughtful man. He arranged an interim job for Kit, as Gregorio, namely a readership in medicine at the University of Padua. Apparently Kit had held this job previously, possibly during the year 1599-1600 when he had to disappear in the wake of Essex’s Irish debacle. Two letters on the topic by Carleton survive: Carleton to Collegio. {CSP Venice, #480 xiii, pp 260-261}: "There is a Venetian subject of a foreign nation at U of Padua. He asks for an increase, not in salary, but of dignity. As he is of high character and a dear friend of mine, I recommend him …".

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There is another note, Carleton to Collegio: "Dr. Gio. Prévotio asks for the readership in medicine rendered vacant by the death of Sig. Tarquinio Carpaneto ..." Carpaneto was another cover-name for Kit. Evidently Kit had held this job before, under that name. At any rate Kit and his family moved temporarily into a tent as mentioned in anagrams in Bargrave’s Polisie and {CSP Venice, #480}. Later, cold weather forced them to shift into quarters onto a boat tied up on the river Brenta. It was probably the buonavia, back from Bermuda, minus its guns, converted into a houseboat. It would explain why Kit didn’t ask Carlton to arrange for an apartment. But it was a disastrous choice of residence. The two young children, still toddlers, somehow fell into the swift stream and drowned. Kit was devastated. Overcome by guilt feelings, he tried to hang himself. But Micaela saved his life. Nevertheless he spent some time recovering in a hospital (anagrams, Bargrave’s Polisie).On February 14,1615 Dudley Carleton informed the Collegio in Venice that he had to go to Turin, the capital of Savoy on official business and that Gregorio was to be Chargé d’Affaires during his absence. However, the appointment was delayed until October and Gregorio stayed in Padua or Naples during that time. The Spanish Viceroy of Naples, Count Lemos, had been thinking of sending a naval force to surprise the “underbelly” of Savoy – Nice or Villa Franca – but for unknown reasons he abandoned that scheme {CSP Venice, #480 xiii p 420}. Kit may have visited Naples to persuade Lemos not to attempt it. Perhaps he fabricated a story about

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French intentions to take advantage of Savoy’s difficulties by invading the Mediterranean coast of Savoy from the West. It might have been true. This would have been very bad news for the Spanish control of the Mediterranean. It was a neat trick, because the rumor of French interest was both undeniable and unprovable. But it had the desired effect. It was the sort of game Kit seems to have played very well. In June 1615 Count Lemos decided to send his galleys to attack the Turks, not Savoy. For some reason that didn’t happen either. Two months later Count Lemos’ fleet, instead of going to Turkey, arrived at Sevilla with 20, 000 men, doubtless needing supplies and recreation. King Philip III did not know what to do with them (Letter from Ambassador Foscarini, writing from England.) On 18 September 1615 Dudley Carleton wrote to his friend John Chamberlain about the bad effects of summer heat—pestilence {McClure, 1939/1979 #352}.) Carleton left Venice for an indeterminate period in October 1615. He probably went to Savoy. England was still helping Savoy to resist Spain. In fact, six months later, on April 16, 1616, King James actually gave 100,000 crowns to Savoy to aid in this endeavor. Carleton probably negotiated the deal, or at least part of it {CSP Venice, #480 xiii p.417}. Gregorio de’Monti was left as Chargé d’affaires for the next several months, from November 1515 until the following June, 1516. Kit and Micaela lived at the embassy house until Carleton returned in mid-September. During that period of seven months Gregorio de’Monti wrote weekly letters to Sir Ralph Winwood, the Principal Secretary of State.

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Unfortunately, those letters have not been found. Winwood died suddenly, and inexplicably, soon after that time. Chapter 26: The astonishing rise of Francis Bacon 1603-13

This chapter may seem like a digression, but Francis Bacon’s life was increasingly intertwined with that of Kit Marlowe – to the latter’s detriment. I need to provide this background, because I think that it was Bacon who ordered Marlowe’s murder and eventually collected and arranged for the publication of Marlowe’s works, under the name of William Shakespeare, but leaving hints that he himself was the author! Why did he do those things? It was because (in his view) Marlowe was a a low-born nobody who kept interfering with his plans, as we will see. Until 1601, Francis Bacon had been living as a Gentleman Pensioner of the Queen at Gray’s Inn. He had no government job, preferment or income from land and hae had not yet been knighted. In 1595 the Queen gave him a 21 year lease on a beautiful estate at Twickenham, across the river from Richmond Palace. Francis Bacon couldn’t afford to live there at first, and used it as an occasional retreat. In 1603 he moved to Twickenham Park, on a full- time basis. But by 1603 his financial affairs had improved, thanks to fines from the Essex affair, and his creditors were paid off. Soon after Queen Elizabeth’s death and even before the crowning of King James, on July 2, 1603 at Windsor

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Crown Prince Henry Stuart was dubbed Knight of the Garter, as were four other young noblemen, including William Herbert, newly elevated to the earldom of Pembroke after the death of his father. On July 7 the Earl of Southampton (out of the Tower, where he had been incarcerated on account of his participation in the Essex rebellion, was made Captain of the Isle of Wight. On the 23rd of July King James created 300 new knights at Whitehall, in the rain. Francis Bacon became Sir Francis. Henry Wotton was also knighted on that occasion.. The coronation of King James I occurred on July 25, 1603. Robert Cecil was the man in charge, then. But Bacon was slipping along in his wake. On November 17, 1603 Sir Walter Raleigh was tried for treason. The real reason, almost certainly, was because he was too anti-Spanish whereas Robert Cecil and the King (and Bacon) were eager to make peace with Spain. The details were almost irrelevant. There was a silly Catholic plot, the “Main Plot”mentioned earlier, to dethrone King James and to place Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne. The leaders were George Brooke, brother of Lord Cobham, Sir Griffin Markham and Lord Grey of Wilton. Arabella was approached by a Catholic agent and asked to write a letter to King Philip III of Spain, approving the plot. She informed King James instead. Her reward for loyalty was typical of the times. She was sequestered – nobody knows where – for the next four years. This plot collapsed quickly and led to the execution of George Brooke and two Jesuit priests, Watson and Clark. They were probably innocent, but got caught up in the

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dragnet by virtue of acquaintance with the actual plotters through the confessional. But the plot led to a peripheral allegation against Sir Walter Raleigh, who was probably quite innocent of any connection with it. The claim was that he had conspired with Henry Brooke (Lord Cobham) to raise implausibly large sums of money from Spain through the Count of Aremburg, representing the Archduke Albert of Austria. The Archduke was married to the Infanta Isabella, daughter of King Philip II and she was also theoretically still a possible contender for the English crown. The money was supposed to be brought to the Isle of Jersey, where Raleigh was Governor, and thence distributed to other plotters. Raleigh had nothing to do with any of it (if there was, indeed, anything to it) but apparently Markham and George Brooke implicated Henry Brooke (Lord Cobham) who implicated Raleigh to save his own skin. The trial at Wolverton Castle, resulted in Raleigh’s conviction. Bacon probably helped the prosecution. On December 5 1603 Raleigh was sent to the Tower. His death sentence was reprieved by the king, but he remained there for the next thirteen years. This story is relevant only insofar as it illustrates how fast and far anti- Catholic paranoia had progressed in England since the days of the Armada. It was ironic that anti-Catholic Raleigh got caught in it. Incidentally, both of the brothers Brooke were in-laws of Robert Cecil, not that it made any difference to the outcome. On January 14, 1604 the English clergy convened at Hampton Court to begin work over revisions to the Book of

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Common Prayer. which was now half a century old. It was the same book that Archbishop Whitgift had forced people – including Roger Manwood –to agree in writing that it was the “Word of God”, or suffer possibly fatal consequences. King James also wanted a new English translation of the Scriptures. Whitgift was too sick to protest. On February 29 1604, Kit’s bête noir, Whitgift, finally died. When Kit heard about it, he must have felt some lessening of the weight on his back. Richard Bancroft, the Archbishop’s deputy– who had been doing Whitgift’s administrative work for several years –was immediately elevated to take his place. Anti-Puritan persecution began to die down, albeit far too slowly. During 1605 a peace treaty with Spain was signed and duly celebrated. There were celebrations in Valladolid, the seat of the Spanish Court at the time, which Kit Marlowe attended on leave from his job in Venice. But the era of good feeling was remarkably short. On November 4, 1605 the famous “Gunpowder Plot” exploded in London, although the gunpowder itself did not. The idea of the conspirators was to blow up Parliament on an occasion when all MPs, Lords and the King were expected to be present. The actual explosion was mostly political. It started with an anonymous letter to William Parker, Lord Monteagle, advising him to be “elsewhere” on the day, without saying why. Monteagle, a Catholic, passed it on to Robert Cecil, who unaccountably waited six days before telling the king – who was away hunting {Durst, 1970 #349}.

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The letter to Monteagle was unsigned but it has been attributed to one of the plotters, Sir Frances Tresham. The letter prompted an intensive search, carried out by Lord Monteagle and Admiral Tom Howard, the Lord Chamberlain, subsequently Earl of Suffolk. They discovered a suspicious cellar, with a man named Guy Fawkes in it, although the barrels of gunpowder, that were there too, were hidden under piles of wood and coal. A more thorough search followed and Fawkes was arrested by Sir Thomas Knyvett, Justice of Westminster. Fawkes finally talked, under torture. He named at least ten other co-conspirators, including Robert Catesby, the leader of the plot. The Jesuits and the Pope were immediately blamed, although the Jesuits were quite innocent. It unleashed an hysterical anti-catholic purge that lasted for months and, incidentally, destroyed the Jesuit’s network of “safe houses” in England.41 Some cynics, including the playwright Ben Jonson himself a Catholic – thought that the plot was concocted behind the scenes by Robert Cecil, using Catesby as a “cats-paw”, for the express purpose of scaring the King and Parliament into further tightening the anti-Catholic laws {Dutton, 2008 #479}. Those laws had already been tightened in 1604 after the Main plot – the one that led to

41.Safe houses constructed since the 1570s frequently boasted “priest holes” where a visiting priest could be hidden from searchers for up to several days. Many were designed by a man named Nicholas Owen. In the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot one house was discovered that had no less than eleven such hiding places.

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the conviction and imprisonment of Raleigh – was uncovered. That episode led to a number of executions of prominent Catholics, which may have triggered the new plot. Anyhow the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot was a great political triumph for Robert Cecil, even though he had also been instrumental in making peace with Spain. But there were enough fishy features about the whole affair to create an odor. By the time Robert Cecil died seven years later, much of the British public had become convinced that the Gunpowder Plot was a put-up job. There is now a good deal of evidence that the Jesuits, far from being part of the plot, were extremely anxious to prevent it. They never favored violence and when they found out about the plot, probably from confessions, they did everything they could to stop it without violating the sanctity of the confessional. It was an awful dilemma and some priests suffered terribly for failing to resolve it. The anonymous letter to Monteagle with its hint was probably the best they could do. Father Henry Garnett, a Jesuit priest, was actually convicted of “concealment of treason” and was hanged, drawn and quartered in the following year. During the year of the gunpowder plot, 1605, Francis Bacon had been hoping for preferment and not getting it from the King. Possibly the King knew or suspected – there must have been rumors – that Francis Bacon was the natural son of Sir Francis Walsingham who had trapped and executed his mother Mary, Queen of Scots. Bacon had also betrayed and prosecuted Queen Elizabeth’s favorite, the Earl

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of Essex. Anyhow, Francis Bacon was bitter. Robert Cecil stepped in and suggested that if Bacon would marry one of his (Cecil’s) daughters, good things might follow. Bacon did marry the young lady on May 10, but the marriage was a failure, possibly not even consummated. The three chief guests at the wedding were Robert Cecil’s three confidential secretaries. But no lucrative preferments followed. Bacon’s role in the government at the time was minor. He had favored the peace treaty with Spain but got no credit for his role. He seems to have favored a proposed marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta Isabella of Spain, thinking he would be rewarded by the new Spanish King, Philip III. He spent a lot of effort courting – if that is the word – the Spanish Ambassador, Count Gondomar with this project in mind. However that royal marriage project was shot down by Robert Cecil and the Privy Council. Meanwhile, in 1606 Sir Francis Bacon, still without a job, married again and this time for money. At age 46 he married a 14 year-old girl, Alice Barnham, daughter of Lady Packington. For the wedding Bacon dressed himself in “royal purple”, a clear statement of his princely pretensions. King James did not react to this. Bacon’s break with Robert Cecil began at that time, possibly starting with the failed marriage between Bacon and Cecil’s daughter. Bacon was a theoretician and dreamer, writing and publishing books. Now that peace with Spain had come at last. Bacon thought a “peace dividend” could be justified. He proposed an expensive peripatetic "scientific" college to collect new knowledge and, incidentally, as cover for secret agents. He

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wanted the state secret service to finance a group of traveling naturalists who would go from university to university and combine intelligence work with collecting scientific data and observations. He suggested phasing out the theater wing of the secret service to pay for this innovation. Cecil, for whatever reason, summarily rejected Bacon’s idea and distanced Bacon from operational control over the secret service. Perhaps then, perhaps later, Bacon began thinking about other ways to support a possible Spanish invasion of England that would make him – as he thought – a natural candidate to be the Governor General or Viceroy. Closer to home, on June 25, 1607 Francis Bacon finally got the office of Solicitor-General, after seeking it for 13 years. King James was a spendthrift. (The debt in 1608, when the Treasurer Dorset died, was £700,000 and the King was spending £80,000 a year more than his income {McElwee, 1958 #501} p.189. His big projects, such as the new Bible, were very expensive. He maintained lavish separate households for himself, Queen Anne and his son Henry, Prince of Wales. In London June 1608. Robert Cecil gave a speech at the Customs House, imposing new taxes of £60,000 a year on the – mainly London – merchants {Spedding, 1890 #269}vol xi, p 157). English government finances were getting worse. Robert Cecil was trying to cut back on government expenses, while increasing revenues. He managed to cut the debt significantly by selling £400,000 of Crown properties, collecting unpaid debts to the Crown and

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increasing some fees, but expenses kept rising. Cecil had a “great contract” settlement in mind, but it involved some royal concessions in regard to some feudal entitlements in exchange for a permanent revenue for the Crown of £200,000 per year. The King was willing but Parliament balked. Cecil failed, in part because of increasing suspicions about the Gunpowder Plot and the sources of his own increasing personal wealth. In London, July 16, 1608, William Mylle, Clerk of the Star Chamber, died. Francis Bacon had held “reversion of the office” for several years, meaning that he was next in line for the appointment. On the day of Mylle’s death, Bacon was sworn in as his replacement {Spedding, #312}xi p 21. This gave him a salary of £2000 per year, his first paid job. It also put all the trial records and background investigations in Bacon’s hands. On August 19, 1608 another set of records, the "Kallender of Orders" was delivered to Bacon: it consisted of “Sentences, Decrees and Acts of Star Chamber, engrossed in a fair book with the names of Lords and Judges and others present who gave their voices." The records began with the reign of Henry VII and continued to the 30th year of Elizabeth’s reign (1589). Were the last years of Queen Elizabeth, including all the events of 1593 already missing? Today, all of those records are missing. There is no evidence as to their fate, one way or the other. In London, August 1609. Francis Bacon, having given up any hope of arranging a marriage between the Spanish Infanta and Prince Henry, decided on a risky strategy. He

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devised an original plan for furnishing King James, and himself, with funds without Parliamentary appropriation or approval. As mentioned, Bacon had ambitious plans for publications and scientific research projects. His book- learning provided a hint. Researching old myths to make a book of ancient legend, to be entitled “de Sapienta Veterum ... available for the instruction of modern man”, he found a tale about the “Trophonian Den”. This story was about an ancient prince who needed money. In this story the prince made a hole in the wall of the treasury, and took out as much as he wanted. Bacon was inspired. Moreover he just happened to know a playwright-secret agent who had brick- laying skills. This playwright was Ben Jonson, who was also his half-brother, both being illegitimate sons of Sir Francis Walsingham, but with different mothers. Some Baconians associate the “Trophonian Den” with the temple of Solomon, having a Rosicrician-Masonic significance. I do not propose to pursue that idea. On August 6 Bacon wrote a letter to Mike Hickes, a private banker: “there’ll be a meeting at Mike’s house Tuesday afternoon. All will have to eat with Mike, but he ‘may have allowance, the Exchequer being first full…’ " {Spedding, 1850 #267} xi p 131. Others involved were Julius Caesar, Master of Requests, and Baron Thomas Knyvet, the actual discoverer of the kegs of gunpowder under the House of Lords. At the time he had been Justice of Westminster and a minor retainer of the Court. He was promoted after that and by 1608 at the time of the meeting with Hickes and Bacon, he was a Privy Councillor and

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Warden of the Mint. On that day, Tuesday, August 8, according to a note to Sir John Bennet, “a commission touching King’s service" was executed at Mike Hickes’s house in the afternoon and evening {Spedding, 1850 #267} xi p 131. Bacon’s half- brother Ben Jonson, the brick-worker, would open the Trophonian Den. Ben Jonson was persuaded to make an inconspicuous reclosable opening in the side of the Mint building, so coins or bullion could be removed without walking in the front door. The scheme was to give some of the money to King James, while diverting some of it for themselves. Bacon became surprisingly wealthy around this time, despite having inherited nothing from the estate of his foster father, having received no perquisites from Queen Elizabeth, and none of significance up to that time from King James. Of course, it was necessary to fiddle the royal household’s accounts, which was Knyvet’s task. As a reward for his helpfulness in regard to providing spending money, King James rewarded Bacon soon after by making him Solicitor General. Someone wrote an anonymous book on the subject {assessors, 1645 #357}. Several pages of this curious work have been reprinted in books about Francis Bacon {Durning Lawrence, 1910 #273; Slater, 1931 #348}. Francis Bacon, "The Lord Verulam" was "Chancellor of Parnassus”, and below this title there was a list of workers in the field (secret agents) with their occupations: William Davenant, Kit’s illegitimate son, was “the Scout”. Kit Marlowe a.k.a. William "Shakespeere” was "the writer of weekly accounts" – when

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he was Chargé d’Affaires at the embassy in Venice – and Ben Jonson was “Keeper of the Trophonian Denne”. The break-in to the mint took place on the next day, Wednesday August 9. The preliminary work must have been done earlier. On Thursday, August 10 Bacon wrote a letter to Robert Cecil re “Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Att’y and transportation of gold and silver”. Later the letter says “The Frenchman never came or called about it. Henry Neville sent up a solicitor about it. Mr. Calvert says you want a copy of his answer" (Letter in State Papers printed in {Dixon, 1861 #358} pp 405-406). Over the next few months Bacon continued to think about the Trophonian Den while writing his book of myths. In February he had sent a copy to his friend and acolyte Tobie Matthew. Parliament was obsessed with the problem of finding money for the King. Despite Cecil’s efforts to rationalize, the Crown debt was again above £400,000, and the annual deficit was increasing. The King and his lawyers wanted to retain all the royal prerogatives without any sacrifice. Bacon argued, for a change, against the King’s position and for the liberty of the subject and advocated redress of the grievances of the Commons. Robert Cecil tried again to obtain Parliamentary agreement to his “great contract” offering the King an annual grant of £200,000 in exchange for some concessions, but it failed, again. This was partly for the same reasons as before – his own reputation for ill-gotten wealth and lingering suspicions about the gunpowder plot – but mostly because the merchants who dominated the

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Parliament wanted permanent limitations on the royal authority to tax, under various labels, that the King was unwilling to grant on principle. The seeds of the Civil War were being planted. *** Dr. Theodore Turquet de Mayerne was installed in midsummer 1611 as physician to the English royal family. He diagnosed Robert Cecil’s illness as a tumor {Akrigg, 1962/1974 #360} p.107. In January 1612 Robert Cecil was not feeling at all well. One wonders if he could have found out about the Trophonian Den operation to steal silver from the mint. In March 1612 some others began to wonder why there was so little silver. In response to the concern Bacon wrote a comic double-talk report: A Certificate to the Lords of the Council upon Information Touching the Scarcity of Silver (Spedding. xi, pp255-259). About this time a Commission of auditors showed King James just how much money Prince Henry was spending {Spedding, 1850 #267}xi, p 359. Prince Henry was called in to justify his expenditures. Privately, Bacon explained to King James how much he could save without Henry’s extravagance. Robert Cecil was fading from the scene. He died painfully on May 24 of an abdominal tumor. From his position as Solicitor-General, Bacon took over as head of the state secret service when Cecil died. With help from his control of the secret service and silver from the mint, Francis Bacon was finally on the road to real power in the Kingdom. October 12, 1612 the Stationers’ Register recorded an

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entry “Essays of Sir Francis Bacon, Knight”. Bacon dedicated them cynically to Prince Henry, the heir. Meanwhile, Prince Henry played tennis, feeling fine. A few days later he was not feeling fine. Apparently he had wined and dined too well while entertaining guests arriving for his sister’s upcoming wedding to Frederick, the Elector Palatine, scheduled for the following spring. Dr. Mayerne attended Prince Henry, but he could not find a cause or a cure of the malaise. On Friday, November 6 Prince of Wales Henry Stuart died at 8 PM of unknown causes. It was probably typhoid fever from polluted water, but other causes were suspected at the time. According to John Chamberlain, writing a few days later (November 19) Prince Henry died "of this new disease" {McClure, 1939/1979 #352} p.208. King James had dreamed of a European religious settlement, with himself and the Church of England as the peace-maker {McElwee, 1958 #501} p.198. It was this dream that prompted his attempt to marry his son Henry, Prince of Wales, with a Spanish Infanta – hoping, incidentally, for a dowry of £1 million, which would have nicely covered his debts – while marrying his daughter Elizabeth to a Protestant (Calvinist) Elector Palatine. But he lacked both the military and economic power, as well as the Machiavellian diplomatic skills to accomplish such a coup. With Robert Cecil behind him, and Francis Bacon behind Cecil, there might have been a (distant) hope of success. But when Robert Cecil died that hope died. Meanwhile, Prince Charles, the new heir, was adamantly anti-catholic. And King James’ Catholic subjects

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were unhappy about the laws he had agreed to after the Gunpowder Plot, while the Protestants in Parliament were angry because he wasn’t enforcing those laws. Moreover, he could not afford to alienate the wealthy anti-Catholic Protestant merchants of London, who paid most of the bills. Harry Wotton, diplomat extraordinaire, thought, even then, that the Prince’s active anti-Catholicism might have been the problem for Bacon. It was certainly a problem for the powerful Howard clan, led by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton. The Howards were very pro-Spanish. Bacon, in particular, yearned for royal power, which he thought ws his by right, and thought he might get it under Spanish rule. There are some grounds for suspicion that Prince Henry’s disease had financial origins. James I of England was very insecure on his throne. He was only there because of a political compromise, engineered by Robert Cecil (Salisbury). With Cecil gone, that compromise was in danger of unraveling. If the death of the popular Prince of Wales should be revealed as caused by something other than “the new disease” the King was in deep trouble, and he knew it. Bacon knew it, too, and made the most of it. The full story may never be known but Kit Marlowe, who might have known more than we do, blamed King James himself, at least for complicity in the Prince’s death. Here are the compressed anagram ciphers from the 16 opening lines of The Tempest, found by Roberta Ballantine. The plaintext and correspondence are given in Appendix A-31: E-e-e-e. Here’s Marlowe’s patch’d tale for Isabel ‘n’ Henry’s marriage that took ye

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two to heights ‘ere SSS brot trouble. Henry, I regret my Rey’s cruel lie – he’s euer shamed. O Rey U R an arch willful murderer hopen to wrest money out o’ thy pet son’s death! What gain is that ye low beast? Here, like better men, ye need help to keep the secret; U R a mess! Ai! Go weep. Betray al who bow in awe. Oh, a crime o’ yours has robb’d ‘n’ hurt us. It’s our hope to make o’ ye a more honorable Rey– Ai! We euen efface thy arrant shame, cook’d by hot persuasion he-he-he. Now, tho, we’re in a sore distressed state o’ engagement. I’M in hel. Bacon ouer us. He told me not to save Goy-Bob’s record. I row the MT boat, enslaued. Ye chef means to fire the theater ‘n’ not let us lo, lo men come in close to reclaim ‘n’save. [O you..] -] The last few words in square brackets belong to the next section of the ciphers, which follows in a few pages. SS brot trouble. Involved in damage-control after the Prince of Wales’ suspicious death, Bacon’s secret service victimized some of its own workers, as well as Tom Howard’s daughter Frances. Rey = king; cook’d by hot persuasion he-he- he. Marlowe (and Wotton) believed that Bacon had persuaded the King to order, or permit, the murder of the Prince of Wales and that he (Bacon) then carried out a bloody cover-up to blame the death on others, including some secret service people. The aftermath, known to history

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as the Overbury murder trial, is told in the next chapter. The last few lines of the anagrams refer to a huge and comprehensive destruction of treasury and secret service records, especially the records of the mint. Goy-Bob’s record were the records of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, whom Bacon had first supported, then betrayed and finally wanted to expunge altogether. The chef (of the secret service) at that point was Francis Bacon himself and his intention was to burn all the incriminating and embarrassing records in a great fire. As noted in the previous chapter, that fire did occur at the Globe Theater on June 29, 1613. On June 7, 1614 Parliament, meeting in London, was ever-more confused and truculent over how to supply King James’ escalating financial needs. Parliament was not in a mood to pay more taxes. King James dissolved Parliament and tried to rule by decree. On July 13 “Good Tom” Howard (the Earl of Suffolk), who had formerly been Chamberlain of the Household, was made Lord Treasurer {Akrigg, 1962/1974 #360} p. 95. Rumors began to spread of missing silver. Tom Howard was being set up (by Bacon) as a scape-goat to take the blame for the thefts from the Mint. At his point I want to go back to the story of Gregorio de’Monti. But the spectacular rise of Francis Bacon wasn’t yet finished. Here is a flash-forward: On January 7, 1618 (Eng.) Francis Bacon became Lord Chancellor of England. On July 12, 1618 Francis Bacon was ennobled. He became Baron Verulam of Verulam. At the same time, George Villiers was raised to Marquis of Buckingham. On that day

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“someone” made a complaint against Kit’s friend Tom Howard, who was then Lord Treasurer for misconduct {Spedding, #312} vol xiv, p 1. Who could the accuser have been? This was Kit’s friend, the man who found a home for Kit’s motherless daughter, Isabel-Eliza, and her father-n- law, when she later married his third son. That small event started another avalanche, which is the subject of a later chapter of this book. On January 27, 1621 Francis Bacon was promoted yet again; he was invested Viscount St. Albans. There was a splendid ceremony at Theobalds, Cecil’s former home. Bacon (again) wore royal purple. King James again looked the other way.

Chapter 27: The Overbury scandal and trial 1613-16

In a previous chapter I mentioned, in passing, that King James’s ex-favorite Robert Carr, who had been created Earl of Somerset, wanted to marry Frances Howard, the daughter of Tom Howard (Suffolk) and now Countess of Essex. But she was already married to the Earl of Essex. Carr had been King James’ favorite – and his second homosexual lover – since 1607 when the young man was first appointed as Gentleman of the Bedchamber. By 1610 he had been given Walter Raleigh’s estate Sherborne – thanks to a faulty title – and had been promoted several times until he was created Duke of Somerset. More

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important, Carr had exclusive control over access to the King – via the bed-chamber – and thus, except for Robert Cecil, Viscount Salisbury, he had virtual control of the government. According to the legend that has come down to the present day, Sir Thomas Overbury and Robert Carr (Duke of Somerset) had also been homosexual lovers until Carr switched sides (so to speak) and fell in love with Frances Howard, Lady Essex. She wanted a divorce from Essex to marry Carr. This was also desired by the head of the Howard clan, the earl of Northampton, who wanted her – and thus Carr – locked safely into the Howard family, which included the earls of Norfolk, Northampton, Suffolk and Arundel. The divorce was messy, because Northampton wanted a decree of “nullity” so that she would be untainted. Of course, the Church raised doubts. A commission of ten was appointed to adjudicate, but the Archbishop and half the members could not agree. Then Overbury – who was was intensely jealous of Carr’s new love– let it be known that he had evidence that could undermine the claim of nullity. Northampton responded behind the scenes. Thanks to Carr’s influence at Court, Overbury was offered an ambassadorship far away from England (Venice? Russia?) He refused the offer, thinking himself immune, thanks to his friend Carr’s influence. To complicate matters further, Overbury had written a poem, The Wife, that was circulated in manuscript form. It was about wifely virtues that Lady Essex either lacked or found offensive, or was alleged to find offensive.

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Some modern writers see her as an early version of the emancipated woman, whose very existence, not to mention her independence, offended the patriarchal old guard. However, that view reflects modern sensibilities that may not have been applicable in the 17th Century. Overbury also unwisely hinted that he knew something about the death of Prince Henry. At that point he was arrested and sent to the Tower on a ludicrous charge of “disrespect to the king”, presumably for refusing the ambassadorship he had been offered. In the Tower he was gradually poisoned by repeated doses of copper sulfate, put in his food or water by a bribed jailer, who was a low level secret agent working for Francis Bacon. The poison was not working fast enough. On September 15, 1613 Overbury was finally killed in his cell in the Tower by a dose of mercury sublimate. Three months after the murder of Overbury in the Tower, Frances Howard and Robert Carr were married in a lavish wedding, with King James’ approval. In fact he gave her jewels worth £10,000 as a wedding present {McElwee, 1958 #501} p.173. Apparently the murder of Overbury was forgotten. In fact it was ignored for the next two years. However, in the late summer of 1615, the English envoy in Brussels asked Ralph Winwood, Secretary of State, to be recalled to London so he could pass on some information too dangerous and sensitive to commit to paper. It turned out to be the testimony of an ex-apothecary’s assistant, William Reeve, who thought he was dying and confessed that he had murdered Overbury in the Tower.

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Winwood did some checking on his own and easily found enough supporting evidence to justify a formal investigation. Winwood then went to the King and laid before him the evidence. He received permission to investigate further. The King must have known that his favorite was at risk, but the fact that Overbury had been murdered while under his protection in the Tower made it a matter of the Kings Justice, something very dear to him. He did not attempt to impede the prosecution or influence the outcome. The murder of Tom Overbury soon became a cause celebre. It had to be tried in the civil courts and a scapegoat was needed. Carr’s wife Frances was the obvious candidate for this role. She was already notorious for her divorce, her promotion of foreign fashions (the famous yellow ruff), and rumors of sexual emancipation. Meanwhile, Robert Carr’s behavior in power was becoming a problem even for the Howard clan who had helped put him there. But others were even more frustrated, and a syndicate formed including Sir John Graham, one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber, the Herbert brothers (Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, respectively), Sir Thomas Lake, junior Secretary of State, Ralph Winwood, Secretary of State, Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford, and Archbishop Abbot{McElwee, 1958 #501} p.214. The Seymour family was also represented. The purpose of the syndicate was to provide the King with a new favorite. They knew his tastes. John Graham initiated the plot by persuading George Villiers – a handsome, ambitious younger son of an impoverished

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family – to take a walk-on part in a Cambridge University undergraduate production called Ignoramus. The King saw him and was interested. So the syndicate bought Villiers the position of Royal Cup-Bearer. This was in the summer of 1614. The King seems to have wished and expected Carr to accept the new boy as an equal co-favorite. In fact, the King tried hard to persuade Somerset that his own position was not threatened. But Carr was extremely jealous and resisted Villiers’ advance by every means at his disposal. His efforts to do so failed utterly. A year later, in the summer of 1615 George Villiers was knighted and became a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, despite Somerset’s objections. The antagonism and enmity between Carr and Villiers intensified, over that summer. But the King grieved and still tried to convince Carr to change his attitude. All to no avail. The syndicate began looking for a way to discredit Somerset without directly accusing him of any crime – which would have been dangerous. The Overbury case turned out to be the answer, at least so they thought. Villiers rise continued unabated, In the summer of 1516 he was promoted to Viscount. And by that time he had become the effective head of the government, replacing Carr in that capacity. Only Francis Bacon, who was not a courtier, remained as a rival. But Bacon was also vulnerable. *** On May 24, 1616 Isabel-Eliza’s sister-in-law Frances Howard Carr, the notorious former Lady Essex, was put on trial in the Lord High Steward’s court, for the Overbury

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murder. She was accused of hating Overbury for writing that poem (The Wife) and of arranging his murder. In other words, she was accused of paying the youth who actually did it. Next day, May 25, Overbury’s ex-friend, Robert Carr, was also put on trial for the same murder, in the same court {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}. Frances Howard had been divorced on the phony grounds that her husband – the third Earl of Essex, son of the second earl, who had been executed for treason – was impotent. She had married King James’ ex-favorite, in a lavish wedding. The scandal-mongers were sure to love it. They did. Sorcery and witch-craft were added to the mix. King James promised that she and her new husband, Robert Carr, would be spared and pardoned if they agreed to keep Overbury’s supposed secret about Prince Henry’s death, in order to protect the “King’s good name”. Of course the official reports of the trials do not reflect any secret service involvement in this, although the agency’s “fingerprints” were all over the affair. According to the official story Frances Howard, Countess of Essex, confessed to having arranged the murder of Overbury because he opposed her marriage to Carr. But the question arose: Why should she go to such extremes to punish a man who was locked up in the Tower anyhow? The official story does not explain that. And why did she confess if she was not guilty? The answer is possibly that she was promised a pardon in exchange for the confession but threatened with prison or execution if she refused. Nobody knows.

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The same month the Overbury murder trials commenced for the secret service people snared by Bacon into helping kill Thomas Overbury. Sir Jervis Elwes, Lieutenant of the Tower, was the first of several of his agents to be prosecuted by Bacon. Elwes was hanged in that month. Richard Weston, Anne Turner, and James Franklin were also convicted and condemned to death. On November 11 the second son of “Good Tom” Howard, Isabel-Eliza’s uncle by marriage, was imprisoned for some alleged link to the murder. The proceedings, starting in 1615, went on for the next two and a half years {Howell, 1616 #367}. In the end, Frances Howard and Carr did get their pardons, even though all the secret service pawns in the affair were executed. On May 28, 1616 (Eng.) Venetian Ambassador in London, Barbarigo, who had been reporting the progress of the Overbury trials, sent home a letter about Prince Henry’s suspected murder. This was exactly the subject that Bacon wanted to cover up. Evidently Barbarigo’s official correspondence was being monitored by the secret service. Suddenly Barbarigo fell ill of a high fever. He was attended by Dr. Mayerne, the royal doctor who had attended the Prince. Barbarigo died a few days later, leaving his two little boys orphaned. It could have been “the new disease” or poison. Kit Marlowe, stuck in Venice, must have feared for his daughter, who was married to Frances Carr’s brother, Henry Howard. In fact, his worry was justified. On October 12, 1616 (Eng.) John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton

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{McClure, 1939/1979 #352} vol 2 p. 24: "Since I wrote last … Master Henry Howard died sodainly at the table without speaking one word as most say. His wife is thought to be with child, being a fresh, younge and rich widow." Henry Howard – third son of “Good Tom” Howard (now the Earl of Suffolk) was the young husband of Kit’s daughter Isabel- Elizabeth. He was suddenly dead! He had visited his sister Frances (lady Essex) in jail. Had he made some brave noise that scared Francis Bacon? People who seemed to pose a threat to Bacon had a habit of dying suddenly. There was a lot of sudden death going around. When the Overbury trial started Sir Edward Coke was the Chief Judge and Attorney-General Bacon was the prosecutor. But in the middle of the trial, on June 9, 1616 Francis Bacon was promoted yet again, to Privy Councillor {Spedding, 1850 #267} xii, p 349. Privy councillor Bacon immediately initiated a charge in Chancery Court against Sir Edward Coke, the Chief Judge of the Kings Bench. It was the next step in a life-long feud between the two men. the charge was for a supposed legal error concerning the King’s power to over-rule a lower court. King James, supported by Bacon, wanted absolute power. For the first time in his long and very distinguished career, Sir Edward Coke was defeated on a legal matter. On November 16 (Eng.) Sir Edward Coke was suddenly removed as Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, supposedly because of his refusal to accept King James’ demand, supported by Bacon, that the King should be consulted – if he so wished – before the judges could rule

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on any case. Chief Judge Coke, who had gathered the evidence against Francis Carr, was suddenly out of the picture. The real reason for Bacon’s attack on Coke was probably not the legal dispute. It was probably Bacon’s fear that Coke – an honest man – would find that the evidence against Carr was fabricated and that there was no case. Worse, Bacon must have worried that Coke would find a connection between the prosecution of Francis Carr and the matter of Prince Henry’s unexplained death. In fairness, I should say that official history puts the blame for the murder of Overbury on Countess Frances Howard Carr alone e.g. {McElwee, 1958 #501}pp 221–25. The subtext involving secrets about the death of Prince Henry is so difficult to document that it might be nothing more than gossip. Whether or not there was a dangerous secret about Prince Henry’s death, a lot of important people (including Edward Coke) seemed to have smelled smoke and suspected fire.

Chapter 28: “You don’t love me” June- October 1616

On March 21, 1616 (Ven.) Kit (Gregorio) delivered a new manuscript to the Ciotti Press. It was a book of poems contributed by Guarini’s friends, in his memory. Each friend made a sonnet for the work {, 1616 #373}. On March 29 (Ven.) Carleton wrote to John Chamberlain from the Hague: “If you can give Gregorio any

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comfort I shall be very glad, for the poor man doth much languish after it." Another letter from Carleton to Chamberlain, May 14/24 included the words “I shall be glad to hear from you whether Sir H. W. (Harry Wotton) signed the letter in Gregorio’s favor or let the suit fall, which I rather believe” {McClure, 1939/1979 #352} p.201. It is quite possible that this letter referred to something else, since I doubt that Kit had told anyone but Hen about his hopes for the governorship of Bermuda. Whether Harry Wotton tried hard or not, nothing happened. The end of his hopes for governorship of Bermuda were a major disappointment. What Gregorio languished after mostly, of course, was the formal pardon that Hen had promised (so he thought) as an inducement to become a pirate, capture ships and take supplies to Bermuda. Pardon would have meant rehabilitation and recognition as the author of “Shakespeare’s” works. In those weeks he rewrote Timon of Athens, a rough rewrite of an early college play of his, Timon. The compressed anagrams from the first 14 lines of Timon are almost self-explanatory. For the verse-by-verse correspondence see Appendix A-34. Laugh! Howl! Oldy Gregorio de’Monti has loosely wouen, dyed water, again. See, his witts rust away--loss irreparable. ‘E waits to walk, run, charge in the water! Grant witt to set surch t’ shadow, catch ‘n’ kill his married wife before he goes to play Tymon! Men, picture ‘im, check’d, alone, then

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bemoan that horrid state! Now think he’l write th’ hoot? What pla-man in extremis writes o’ holiday? M-Manco! Brother’s sad t-t-t-t-to B so far away! Euen as hope was stale, as ye resolve to die alone in Spain, Sancho’l be there yet t’ greet ‘n’ ade U. Wait for me t’- test! I’l arriue. U’l B seein’ th-th-th-th’ ol’ Fido-foot.– Chr. M. Kit’s married wife (in his own mind) was Micaela de Lujan, who had abandoned him. Actually they were not married– yet– at least in her eyes, or the eyes of her church. Play Tymon = commit suicide. Manco was Cervantes nickname. He stammered. Manco was far away in Madrid, deathly ill. The test for diabetes, back then, was to taste the urine for sweetness (i.e. sugar). Kit (having lectured in medicine at Padua, knew something about such things. Sadly, Manco was already dying or dead when this was written, and Kit had no possible way to get to him. As I mentioned earlier, on April 23, 1616 (Ven.), Kit’s great friend Miguel de Cervantes died in Madrid, alone, in a diabetic coma. On the same date (Eng.), but actually ten days later, William Shakespeare died in Stratford-on-Avon, of a “fever” allegedly caught after having had dinner with former playwright colleagues Ben Jonson and Mike Drayton. A contemporary is reported to have said “Shakespeare, Drayton and Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted”{Ule, 1995 #94}. Why did such a dinner take place? Just possibly they were collecting any manuscripts or

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quartos that Shakespeare might have had lying around. But they must have known that Shakespeare was not the author of anything and had nothing to contribute to the Folio. Could it be that Shakespeare knew too much about the reasons for the fire that destroyed the Globe? I think there is a good case for that conjecture. Was Francis Bacon, head of the secret service, through his half-brother Ben Jonson, disposing of a possible witness to his actions in connection with the destruction of records by fire at the Globe Theater? Had Shakespeare, who was quite litigious, threatened a lawsuit? In any case, Shakespeare immediately got deathly sick and died. It could have been poison. In early May, 1616 the furnace of the central heating plant of the English embassy in Venice blew up, ruining every room. but killing nobody except Signora la Scala, Kit and Micaela’s arthritic dog, who had been sleeping on the boiler. A few days later, in June, Harry Wotton returned to be Ambassador again. He did not worry about the state of the house—he just rented a different one. About mid-June 1616 the Count of Lemos and his train planned to return to Spain, but Micaela, who was formally attached to Lemos’ entourage, expected to stay with Kit (Gregorio) at the English embassy in Venice. She also wanted him to marry her. Harry and Kit made the unwise suggestion that she should go with Lemos to Madrid for news, and bring it back. Deeply hurt, she shouted that Kit had never really loved her; that he was only using her for intelligence purposes – as her former lover, Lope de Vega had done – and that he would not even marry her in the

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Catholic church. Yes, she would go, and never come back. In a very high state of Spanish dudgeon Micaela Lujan left Venice and went to Naples on her own. Kit followed her to Naples. He missed her terribly and he wanted to win her back. but she would not see him. The futile chase after Micaela to Naples left Kit stranded. He needed employment in Naples to live. He was still feeling very low about his lack of recognition from his own country. He got a temporary job working for the Oziosos Players Club, directing a farce about Persephone in the underworld. But it went wrong. He was playing the God on a human pyramid, when he lost his balance and fell awkwardly on stage. In the fall he re-broke his bad ankle, the one that he had first broken in much the same way back in 1591. Worse, he was away from home, with no money to pay a doctor. Worst of all, Micaela sailed away to Spain with the Lemos train, still angry, without even saying good-bye. Abandoned and desolate, in severe pain, Kit managed to get the ankle patched up in a rough cast. Somehow he made his way back to Venice. The Venetian Charge d’affaires in Naples, Gasparo Spinelli might have helped. The pain of his ankle might have distracted him from the pain of her loss. Or perhaps it was the other way around. Back in Venice he stayed in Guarini’s old apartment. He returned to the embassy, hoping for employment, and did some proofing work for Ciotti Press. Around June 20, 1616 (Ven.) Micaela and the Lemos party reached Barcelona with the Sanchez Company Players, including Micaela. The players remained in Barcelona almost

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a month, performing comedies. On June 24 (Ven.)Sir Harry Wotton – just returned – and Sir Dudley Carleton, the former ambassador, jointly petitioned King James for a gratuity for Gregorio de’Monti {CSP Venice, #480}. Kit was in bad shape, both physically and mentally. As usual, nothing came of it. His spirits sank still lower. Carleton wrote to Chamberlain, from the Hague: "I send you a letter which I met with here on my return [to the Hague], from Gregorio at Venice, by which you will see in what ill state the poor man stands and how much worse he fares for his friends’ recommendations" {McClure, 1939/1979 #352}. Evidently Gregorio’s friends had tried to get him a full pardon, and preferment, but without success. I think this point is worthy of emphasis by repetition. Sir Harry Wotton and Sir Dudley Carleton – both senior diplomats – were trying hard to get some preferment from the English government for their supposedly Venetian secretary, Gregorio de’Monti. There is no possible way they could or would have done that for a Venetian native. Their attempted intervention on Gregorio’s behalf virtually proves that they knew him for a fellow Englishman with a long record of service to the Crown. They must also have known of his literary past. In fact, regular correspondence between the embassy and publisher Edward Blount in London, discussed later, virtually guarantees that connection also. *** On July 15 Micaela arrived in Valencia. Lope de Vega, Micaela’s old lover, had been in Valencia for 17 days, waiting for the Sanchez company, and Micaela, to come

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from Barcelona. Lope de Vega was hoping she would return to him, as his mistress. She was not interested. She said a cool hello and goodbye to Lope, and went on to Madrid to work {Barrera, 1890 #214}. Lope followed her. For 20 days Lope tried to win her back; they argued in the doorway of her ancestral home (Lujan tower), but without success. She told him something about Don Gregorio, and that he was the greatest playwright in the world. Lope called her “la loca” (the crazy one) because she was resisting his supposedly irresistible advances. Lope de Vega later wrote a series of letters to his patron, Duke Sessa, describing these encounters with “La Loca”. They still exist {Barrera, 1890 #214}. Lope de Vega didn’t like to lose “his” mistress to a mysterious foreigner, but found a new girl rather quickly. He wrote in a letter to Duke Sessa, that she was “intelligent, clean, amorous, grateful and compliant.” *** In mid-August, 1616, at her theater in Madrid, I think Micaela received a letter from Kit (Gregorio), who was back in Venice. The letter must have said, probably in more poetic language, “Please Come back. I love you. I need you. Our children need us to be together. Come over the Brenner Pass; I will meet you there and I-will-m-m-marry-you!” – meaning in the Catholic Church. That was a major concession from one whose career had been focused on discovering and defeating Catholic plots. Anagrams supporting this scenario have been found by Ballantine in Bargrave’s Polisie).

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On or around September 20, 1616, Micaela and her maid, dressed as men, with a page, disappeared from Madrid, very much like Rosalind in As You Like It. They planned to ride over the mountains. Micaela was several months pregnant by then. On or about October 1, 1616 Micaela and her party arrived at the Brenner Pass, having made very good time. She must have passed through Zaragoza, crossed the Pyrenees into France at Bagnares de Luchon, then on to Toulouse, up the Rhone Valley past Geneva, cut across Switzerland to Basel, or Lake Constance, then across Bavaria to the Danube Valley, down the Danube Valley to the junction with the Inn river, and up the Inn valley to the Brenner. She was heavily pregnant by that time with the baby she and Kit had started in February. Kit did not know yet. She had hoped he would be waiting at the top of the pass, but she was early and he was not there. Kit had no way to know, within a week or so, when she would arrive. The border guards must have let the pregnant lady pass through without the usual delays. The travelers continued down the pass to an inn, possibly at Bolzano. The baby was born at an inn; both mother and child survived in good shape. The page was dispatched to Venice forthwith to find Kit. They met somewhere along the way. Kit and the page returned to Bolzano (or wherever she was staying) as fast as possible, despite Kit’s sore , not fully healed, ankle. There was quite a reunion at the Inn (anagrams in Bargrave’s Polisie). As soon as Micaela was back on her feet, they were married by a Catholic priest in a

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chapel on the mountain. A few days later they arrived back in Venice, but with no place to stay except the bachelor apartment that Kit had taken over from Guarini. Kit (Gregorio) sent a formal letter to Ambassador Harry Wotton, begging Harry not to abandon him: “I have married a wife who is poor and homely, so she will never be proud and I will never be jealous.” Harry must have had a shock when he finally saw Micaela dressed and at her best. A copy of this letter is in Public Record Office, State Papers, reference SP 99-21-X/L09704). Harry kept the letter – it still exists – and he gave Kit and his family a good apartment in the new embassy house (ciphers, Bargrave’s Polisie). While Kit was otherwise engaged in repairing his personal life, the Spanish were plotting.

Chapter 29: Quevedo and the Spanish Conspiracy 1516-18

There have been several monographs on the Spanish Conspiracy {Ranke, 1831 #426; Romanin, 1853-1861 #427}. However the following information is almost entirely taken from Horatio Brown’s 1907 treatise Studies in Venetian History, Volume II, which contains archival material not available to the earlier authors {Brown, 1907 #417}. It is thoroughly documented by archival material, including scores of dispatches to and from the Council of Ten. I will summarize it because of its intrinsic interest, and

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because Gregorio played an important part in it, not yet known to history, as I will describe later. However it began with Francisco Gomez Quevedo y Villegas, better known simply as Quevedo. Francisco Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas was an extraordinary man. He was a polymath – the Spanish equivalent of Francis Bacon – a classics scholar from the University of Alcalá; he studied theology at Valladolid, knew Latin, Greek, Hebrew and several modern languages. He published his first poem at the age of 25. In the course of his life he wrote books on theology, ascetics, philosophy, politics and literary criticism. He engaged in literary controversies and wrote numerous satirical-moral essays. As I mentioned earlier, he had encountered Cervantes in Madrid, at some point, and had explained his idea for the conquest of the Republic of Venice to open access to the Brenner Pass. Cervantes had told Kit Marlowe about it. Having killed a man in a duel in 1611, Quevedo fled to Naples. There he eventually found a place as secretary to Pedro Têllez Girón, Duke of Osuna, who later (1616) became Lemos’ successor as Viceroy of Naples. Quevedo followed Osuna in various posts, starting with Sicily. In November 1613, he was in Milan, reporting on the political situation to his patron,"the [political] poison is coming from Venice; Venice is also poisoning Bohemia” {Marin, 1945 #368}, p.209. The Republic of Venice, though declining in power, was still a significant thorn in the side of the Spanish Empire. Quevedo was starting to think about what could be done about Venice.

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In Venice itself, English Ambassador Dudley Carleton wrote to his correspondent, John Chamberlain: “Venice is dealing with the Grisons to renew alliance, because the Valtellina (Brenner) Pass is there, a vital link between Hapsburg possessions in Milan and the Tyrol” {Lee, 1972 #365}. In fact, The Republic of Venice was already fighting a low-level border war with the Archduke Frederick of Austria, although Frederick could not support large military forces on the Italian side of the Alps. Some time during the months before Dudley Carleton’s departure in October 1615, Gregorio (Kit), still in Naples, may have encountered and made the acquaintance of a notorious French corsair named Jacques-Pierre. Marlowe was just back from his Bermuda adventure which started as an anti-piracy campaign. They may have exchanged stories about piracy in the Mediterranean, although Kit would not have wanted to reveal his English connection. This is sheer speculation, but it is plausible. Jacques-Pierre had left France around 1610, possibly on account of the change of regime after the assassination of King Henry IV. He went first to Tuscany, where he was received by the Dowager Duchess but failed to get her approval to operate as a privateer under the grand ducal flag [Arch. di Stato, Senato, Secreta, Dispacci Firenze] December 25, 1610. With no ducal sponsor, Jacques Pierre sold his ships to Philibert, the Prince of Savoy. This is confirmed by two Venetian records, one from Savoy ([Arch. di Stato, Senato, Secreta, Savoy] November 27, 1611, reporting that he was asking the Duke for money (8000

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ducats) for the use of his ships and the second [Ibid], January 8, 1612, reporting that he had been paid. With that capital he was able to move on to Rome and then to Naples. In Rome Jacques-Pierre introduced himself to the Venetian ambassador Contarini, during November 1615, where he offered his services to the Republic of Venice, promising to reveal all the Spanish plans of conquest. Contarini pressed him for details but he could add nothing to what was already public knowledge. Pressed further he became vague and Contarini became suspicious and decided not to support his proposal. Jacques-Pierre moved on to Naples in December 1615, where he got into the ship- building business. He also provided seamanship training services, which are mentioned in Corbett’s book about British sea-power in the Mediterranean {Corbett, 1917 #432}. Speaking of Osuna’s efforts to build up Spanish naval power in the Mediterranean he says, on p. 24 “... taking a leaf put of the pirates book, he had secured the services of some French corsairs, chief among them the notorious Jacques Pierre.”. Again, on p. 27 “In Osuna’s service was one Francisco de Ribera, a half pay ensign, but what experience of the sea he had, if any, we do not know. His seamanship may be safely set down to Jacques Pierre’s tuition.”A description of Ribera’s dramatic victory over a much larger Turkish fleet of galleys at Cape Celidon, on p. 28, concludes with the line “Doubtless much of the credit should be put to Jacques Pierre, whom Osuna began to treat with a familiar intimacy that shocked Spanish notions of propriety, but Ribera was the hero of the hour.” In fact, the

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Spanish commander, Francisco Ribera apparently was taught seamanship by the ex-corsair Jacques-Pierre {Brown, 1907 #417} p.264-5). Jacques Pierre, himself, was virtually uneducated, having been a seaman all his life, but he had a French associate with an upper class background, named Nicolas Regnault, who wrote letters for him, among other services. They also had, with them, a military engineer and explosives expert called Captain Langrand (various spellings). Regnault had known the Venetian resident in Naples, Gasparo Spinelli, several years earlier when they were both in Constantinople (Istanbul). Soon after arriving in Naples (December 1615), Regnault introduced himself to Spinelli, and they renewed their acquaintance. In fact Regnault was soon dining twice a week at the Venetian legation. This cosy relationship continued for the first months of 1616. In late December 1615, the Venetian ambassador to England, Barbarigo, reported back to the Collegio to the effect that more than one English minister was soliciting Spanish pensions. Francis Bacon has already made a noticeable alliance with Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador. Barbarigo wrote home again in early January 1616 reporting that Sir Robert Cotton, known to be Bacon’s friend, had been arrested on charge of having given a document of state to the Spanish ambassador, Gondomar {CSP Venice, #480 vol xiv, p 104}. The new Spanish Viceroy, Osuna, and his advisor Quevedo, arrived in Naples in July, 1616 after the departure

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of Lemos. Soon Jacques-Pierre and his associates were working for Osuna, to help him build up Spanish naval power in the Mediterranean. One stated purpose was to combat the – mostly English – English piracy, but another was to break the Venetian control of the Adriatic Sea and, if possible, to relieve the Venetian military pressure on Archduke Frederick of Austria. Osuna’s objectives in that regard were openly stated and well known to the Venetians. Spinelli, was quite well informed on these matters, and he reported regularly to the Council of Ten in Venice. The Venetians, in turn, reinforced their base in Corfu and began raising auxiliary naval forces in England and the Netherlands. Quevedo’s bold scheme for a “fifth column” to defeat Venice from the inside must have been set in motion about this time. Quevedo’s plan was theoretical. Implementation required a very bold adventurer. Jacques-Pierre was their man. The first part of the plan was to implant Jacques-Pierre and his two associates, all of whom were soon in Osuna’s pay, into the Venetian defense system. To achieve this, they took advantage of Regnault’s friendship with Spinelli, the resident, and, over a period of months, they persuaded Spinelli of their sincerity. On September 12 (Ven.) Spinelli was asked to recruit officers for service with the Republic. There is a confusion of dates in Horatio Brown’s book, but this must have occurred in 1616. Having been persuaded of Jacques-Pierre’s sincerity Spinelli recommended the three men, plus a fourth, Captain Alessandro Spinosa, who had a reputation as

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a soldier. After some time Regnault was sent secretly to Venice to negotiate terms. On September 28, 1616, the new Viceroy, Osuna, paraded through Naples with his diplomatic advisor, the spy-poet-adventurer Francisco Quevedo. Quevedo had been working for Osuna since 1613, with the aim of securing the Viceroyalty for him. During the years 1613 to 1615 he carried out several diplomatic missions in Italy and Venice. Now he was busy selling Osuna his great scheme for capturing Venice cheaply and opening the way across the Brenner Pass. Gregorio had got wind of this scheme somehow, most likely from Miguel Cervantes, who knew (and admired) Quevedo as a literary man. Gregorio also had other contacts in Naples, perhaps even with Jacques-Pierre himself, from his days working for Count Lemos. *** On October 25, 1616 the Venetian cabinet (Collegio), perhaps also having received whispers about Viceroy Osuna’s (Quevedo’s) intentions, feared heightened Spanish aggression. It asked Ambassador Harry Wotton if King James could help, preferably with warships. Harry replied that, if King James could not or would not help, he himself would go to talk to German princes {CSP Venice, #480 vol xiv pp 338, 339}. But Francis Bacon, under Ambassador Gondomar’s spell, was pro-Spanish. He was pressuring King James to oppose any and all anti-Spanish – pro-Venetian – policies. So, in the end, the King did nothing for Venice. Quevedo’s scheme for conquering Venice from the inside was not new, but the newly installed Viceroy Osuna

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was showing signs of putting it into practice. Quevedo’s plan was to infiltrate a “fifth column” of undercover mercenaries into Venice, prepared to stockpile explosives to blast holes in the walls of the great Venetian arsenal, storm the Mint and subsequently to start fires there and around the city generally. The purpose was to distract and weaken the city’s formidable defenses. Once the Venetian arsenal had been breached, soldiers from galleys offshore in the Adriatic were to cross the lagoon in hundreds of small boats to take control of the city itself. At the same time, a Spanish army would invade the Republic at Crema, from the Spanish controlled territories of Milan and Ferrara to the west. Kit, as Gregorio, had learned more of the details of Quevedo’s plan thanks to his contacts in Naples. He concocted a low cost, non-violent scheme of his own to counter it, which he laid before Doge Bembo. Gregorio proposed to provide the undercover mercenaries on which Quevedo’s plan depended, except that they would not be real soldiers. Instead they would be actors imported from England to play the part of mercenaries. It was, in effect, a large scale theatrical production. But the Doge must have asked Harry Wotton to ask King James to approve Gregorio’s idea. A few weeks later, surprisingly, King James did approve. Apparently Secretary of State Winwood managed to by-pass Bacon on this. On the next to last day of December 1616 (Ven.) Gregorio received a “thank you” letter from King James. Was it a substitute for lack of pay? A copy of this letter, in Kit’s Italian hand, is kept in the Public Record Office. SP 99-

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21-X/L09704. Kit must have sent the original of the letter to his son, William Davenant, who later said he had such a letter in his possession {Patterson, 1872 #433}. During January 28, 1617 (Ven.) Cardinal Millino was thinking of hiring Gregorio as an intelligencer. For what purpose is not clear, but given the timing I imagine that it was part of Kit’s scheme for penetrating Osuna’s Venetian operation . The Cardinal asked Berlingerio Gessi, Bishop of Rimini, who was the Papal Nuncio at Venice, for an evaluation of Gregorio. Gessi wrote back to the Cardinal as follows (translated from the Italian): “I have received from you the orders of his Holiness upon the proposals of Gregorio di Monti, secretary of the English embassy, and to throw all the light I can upon what may be expected from his activity and his offer. I have the fullest information about him, as I have frequently heard him discussed since I came to Venice, and I have even considered whether anything could be got out of him for the service of his Holiness. He is a Venetian clerk and for some time served the Cavalier Guarino, after which he entered the English Embassy, where he lives entirely, both eating and sleeping there. He declares that he is a good Catholic, but his close and intimate relations with the heretics makes this very doubtful. He is a very astute man, and those who know him do not believe he may be trusted, and as regards his present offers, I think it very likely that he would play a double game if a bargain were struck. All those who know him best

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think the same, I believe, especially considering his intimacy with the ambassador and the great affection he bears him and the affairs of the king ...” This is followed by another paragraph along the same lines (January 28, 1617 Borghese, T 2, Vatican archive, Appendix One and {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv. p 596}. Presumably Gregorio did not get that particular job, but he was well- known to the Catholic authorities in Venice. It is interesting that nobody “who knows him” doubts that Gregorio was a native Venetian. Stratfordians may probably argue that this proves that Gregorio was not English and thus could not have been Marlowe. However, I would argue that it only proves that Marlowe was an extraordinary linguist. *** In early March 1617 (Eng.) King James and his court were preparing for a summer in Scotland. On March 7 Francis Bacon got another promotion, becoming Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. On March 14 King James and his entourage left London for Scotland. The new favorite, George Villiers (Buckingham) went with him. Francis Bacon was now the most powerful man left in England. He was Viceroy in all but title. But the treasury was empty and the English government could not pay its bills, including the salaries of its diplomats. On March 15, 1617 (Ven.) Gregorio de’Monti received from King James a "patent" re-confirming him in the diplomatic service, dispatched just before his departure for Scotland. In effect, this meant that King James had approved Kit’s scheme to protect Venice from Quevedo and

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Osuna. A week later, March 22, at the Collegio, Harry Wotton handed over the patent {CSP Venice, #480 vol 14, item 701, p 473}. In response, Doge Bembo gave Gregorio permission to go forward with his proposed scheme to protect Venice against the would-be Spanish invaders. Meanwhile, back in England, while King James was in Scotland, Bacon neglected to publish the king’s contra- conspiracy proclamation. The proclamation instructed the gentry to go home to their country seats—not to remain in London. On March 23 Bacon wrote to King James with a suggestion, originating with Spanish ambassador Gondomar, for sending English warships to join with Spanish naval forces “to extirpate the pirates in Argier” (Turkish Algeria). It was a move that would have left the coasts of England unguarded, as other advisors pointed out. Bacon was working for Spain! Again the King could not make up his mind and did nothing. In Venice, on April 10, 1617 (Ven.) Harry Wotton visited the Collegio in Venice, with Queen Anne’s cousin, Joachim Ernest, Duke of Holstein, the principality of north Germany adjacent to Denmark, where Queen Anne had been born. It was a Lutheran territory. Was Joachim there to offer aid? In Naples, April 16, Quevedo, eager to proceed with his scheme to subdue Venice, traveled to Rome on Osuna’s behalf, seeking help from the Vatican, probably to support the planned invasion from Milan and Ferrara {Marin, 1945 #368}. Gregorio’s offer to spy for the Pope – the reason for Cardinal Milino’s enquiry to Bishop Gessi – may have been

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intended to forestall this move. In Venice, April 27, Doge Bembo welcomed Ned de Vere’s son Henry Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford {CSP Venice, #480 vol xiv, p 495}. Secretly, Henry Vere was there to help Venice, contrary to Francis Bacon’s pro-Spanish policy. He offered to bring 20 "mercenaries" – meaning actors – for the play. For public consumption the Doge said, in effect, that everything was fine. Jacques-Pierre and his two companions, having been recruited through Spinelli’s agency, arrived in Venice in May 1617; Spinosa followed a little later. Spinosa was immediately given an important command, as Governor of the Castle of Chioggia, but the others were kept waiting. Captain Spinosa, having secured a post in the Venetian service, made friends with a disaffected Venetian, Girolamo Grimani, whom he recruited into the Spanish plot. They made the mistake of visiting the Spanish embassy and conferring with Ambassador Bedmar. Grimani resolved to seek service with Osuna. Later he introduced Jacques-Pierre to Bedmar. Things were getting complicated. To increase his own credibility, Jacques-Pierre later denounced Spinosa and Grimani to the Council of Ten. There were several maneuvers by Osuna (or Quevedo) to convince the Venetians that the three men were sincere. One of them was a letter, intercepted by the Venetians, urging Osuna to treat Jacques-Pierre’s wife harshly so as to convince the Venetians of his anger at Jacques-Pierre’s supposed defection. It was a blind. By July the three “recruits” were frustrated and angry that their contracts

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were not being fulfilled on the Venetian side. Spinelli received a threatening letter, which prompted him to intervene again with assurances that he was sure of their sincerity. Finally, by August 5, 1617, they all three were on the Venetian payroll, but still without responsible posts. Jacques-Pierre began to tell the Council of Ten what he knew, which was not news to them. On August 10, he made a more formal report to the Council of Ten. He also took that opportunity to denounce his fellow-adventurer and agent, Alessandro Spinosa. On August 11, 1617 (Ven.) a nasty letter arrived from Giovanni Lionello, the secretary of the Venetian embassy in England. It was addressed to the Doge and Council of Ten. It said, in effect, that Henry Wotton had a terrible reputation in England. Lionello apparently had collected all the unfavorable gossip about Wotton he could get together (paid by Gondomar?) It was a deliberate character assassination {CSP Venice, #480 vol xiv pp 74-75-76}. (Letter of Lionello, Ven. Arch. Communicate, December 29, 1617). Francis Bacon, who had run the country for last five months, was probably the master-mind. The most plausible explanation is that Bacon had approached Harry Wotton, through the Spanish Ambassador to Venice, Bedmar, asking for, or ordering, cooperation with Spain, only to be rebuffed. Something was going on between Bacon and the Spanish. On August 30, 1617 (Ven.), Captain Jacques-Pierre submitted a ten-page report to the Council of Ten with full details of the Spanish plot to take over Venice {CSP Venice, #480 xiv pp.590-591; Senato Secreta Venezia, 1617

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#483}. On September 2 a brief of Captain "Jiques-Pierre’s report" (sic) of August 30 was sent to the Savii of the Collegio, after enjoining everyone to secrecy {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv p.2}. Alessandro Spinosa was arrested in late August 1617. He was interrogated, tortured, and executed by strangulation on September 23rd. Grimani escaped to Naples. Osuna feigned anger and blamed Jacques-Pierre, which also got back to the Venetians This did finally convinced the Council of Jacques-Pierre’s sincerity. Around that time, Viceroy Osuna sent an English merchant, Alex Rose, to England with money to buy from 4 to 6 good ships to send to Naples with cover of salt fish. Osuna intended to use them for the planned attack on Venice {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv}.

*** On October 11, 1617 (Ven.) Harry Wotton wrote a letter to Secretary of State Ralph Winwood (with inclusions privata) saying his expense account would be presented by his attorney {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}. The expense account included an allowance for Gregorio—30 ducats a month “... which amounteth to less by some forty pound yearly than is allowed Signor Maggio, who hath an entertainment [allowance] from the French King for the same service here under his ambassadors. And I am bound to say in truth that he hath merited it, and more, from His Majesty not only for ten years service

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under Sir Dudley and me, and for those months he supplied the place alone during Sir Dudley Carleton’s absence in Savoy, but likewise for some hazards he hath run here, besides the spoiling of his fortune forever in all other places of Italie by this dependence. In which consideration I have thought fit to beseech His Majesty to sign a few lines for his better protection to the effect of the enclosed, which will give him security and courage in his service..." He also wrote "With my solicitor, the merchant, Mr. Blunt [Blount] will likewise repair unto you with all due information…. I have written my solicitor to send me one hither whose hand I shall use in copying of some things; whom, if it shall please you to dispatch with a packet of those points I have now handled, your Honour shall do me a special favour. And he shall be brought to receive your pleasure by my said solicitor."

Evidently Wotton was aware of, and supportive of, Kit’s literary activities. The reference to Blount (Marlowe’s primary publisher) and the timing with respect to a copyist is significant. William Shakespeare, the front man for all of Marlowe’s greatest plays, had just died. There could be no more plays by “Shakespeare”. The idea of collecting the extant plays in a single book (folio) must have been in the air. Kit’s publisher in London, Edward Blount may have started it. Harry Wotton thought that Kit might be reconciled to the end of his connection with the theater in London by

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revising and editing his scripts for such a collection. Other evidence suggests that Kit’s old friend Ralph Crane was sent down to copy manuscripts. It is now believed that the scrivener Ralph Crane prepared at least eight of the Folio versions of "Shakespeare" scripts {Evans, 1974 #209} p. 1636: The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merry Wives, The Winters Tale, Measure for Measure, Cymbeline, Henry IV Part Two, Timon of Athens. (After Kit’s death in 1621 Ralph Crane wrote a ciphered eulogy, which is included in the Epilog of this book). The timing is significant for another reason. If the letter from Wotton to Winwood was sent on Oct 11 Venetian, or Oct 1 English, it would have arrived at Winwood’s offic on or about Oct. 23. If Bacon’s secret service was intercepting monitoring Winwood’s mail – not unlikely – Bacon might have decided to intervene in his usual way. In late October or early November there was another sudden death in England: Principal Secretary of State Ralph Winwood , the man who had conveyed Kit’s idea for the protection of Venice to King James, suddenly became ill and died. He, too, was attended by Dr. Mayerne, the same doctor who had attended the death’s of Prince Henry and Ambassador Barbarigo. The replacement for Ralph Winwood as Principal Secretary of State was Sir Robert Naunton. Bacon seems to have been by-passed on this appointment, presumably by Villiers (now Buckingham). However, Wotton’s request for an allowance for Gregorio was ignored, as usual.

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*** In late October Micaela gave birth to a baby girl, named Cleo. She must have been a few weeks premature. *** On November 5, 1617 (Ven.) Harry Wotton responded to the Collegio, saying he had sent information to King James, by courier, two days earlier. Harry asked the Venetian Senat to decide on specific jobs for Henry Vere, Captain Bell, and John Vere. They were able and willing to provide men (ibid. p 39). On November 7, in Naples, an English ship was detained and armed against the wishes of its owner. Alex Rose was planning to send galleons from England to Naples under cover of the fish trade. The religious Knights of Malta were sending a galleon built in Amsterdam (ibid. p 40). All were planning to join Osuna’s planned attack on Venice. However, on November 10, 1617 the Venetian fleet under Admiral Lorenzo Venier defeated the Spanish fleet under Ribera, off Santa Croce, with a Spanish loss of 300 dead and 300 wounded. Venier drove the damaged remnants into Brindisi harbor, where they had to be repaired and refitted. Meanwhile, with Osuna’s fleet temporarily out of the way, a strong Dutch contingent of soldiers under Levenstein arrived in Venice accompanied by a squadron of 11 ships commended by Hildebrandt Quast. The soldiers were unwisely interned at the Lazaretto, due to Venice’s general suspicion of foreigners. At the Lazaretto they were not well treated and soon became mutinous. Jacques-Pierre had hoped to use them in his scheme to

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storm and burn the Arsenal. However, Osuna’s expected supporting fleet was not ready and the Dutch soldiers mutinied prematurely, in December, despite Bedmar’s urging them to wait for outside support. The mutiny was put down easily. On November 14, Chris Surian wrote a letter that mentioned ex-ambassador Dudley Carleton’s friend and correspondent Pietro Asellinio, (sic) “who frequents homes of French and English ambassadors at Venice” {CSP Venice, #480 xv pp 42, 43}. Ballantine thought that Dr. Asselinau played a role in Gregorio’s forthcoming counter-operation, possibly as Regnault. This could only have happened if Regnault was out of town (back in Naples?) or after he had been detained. On December 1, 1617 (Ven.) the Venetian Ambassador in England, Barbarigo’s replacement Piero Contarini, reported to the Doge that a "very leading member of the Privy Council" in London (Bacon?) was bad-mouthing Harry Wotton. This man was alleged to be saying that Harry Wotton was having secret nightly talks with the Spanish Ambassador in Venice. And this privy counselor had alleged that, at a crucial time, Harry had withdrawn himself from the city {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv pp 65-66}. A few days later, December 13, the Venetian Senat conveyed to Harry Wotton a declaration: "that King James’ declarations and resolutions be no longer delayed, as it is impossible to place any trust in the promises of Spain" {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv p 71}. The Venetian Senate asked Harry Wotton to ask King James for immediate help; Don

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Pedro de Toledo (Duke of Milan) was threatening to invade the Republic of Venice from the west. Viceroy Osuna was preparing to send 22 ships against Venice from Naples {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv p 34.}. Venice was particularly interested in getting some English warships into the Adriatic. Wotton was helpless and he knew it. He had to hope that Gregorio’s scheme would work. On December 18, 1617 (Eng.) Ambassador Contarini and his chaplain were admitted to Denmark House, via the secret stairs from the river, to see Queen Anne {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv. p.85}. She agreed to send the men of her company of players, with their director John Holland, as well as Sam Daniel’s Bristol Company and other groups of actors, to Venice to play the part of "mercenaries" in Gregorio’s play. She offered to pay the costs. Contarini said that the actors would all be paid with Spanish gold. Contarini also said that Dutch ships were being provided (by Venice) for ex-pirate Sir Henry Mainwaring – scourge of the pirates – and the most famous English sea captain of the time. Henry Mainwaring was (unofficially) given the admiral’s job of directing the Dutch ships that were assigned to chase away Osuna’s fleet when the time came. The Queen’s Players played their last date in England on December 16, 1617. They were absent for the next ten months until October 1618 {Murray, 1910 #378}. I think they had a vacation in Venice. On December 28, 1617 (Ven.), Harry Wotton visited the Collegio to hear that Osuna was readying a galleon for himself along with all the other galleys in the Arsenal of

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Naples. Harry wished everybody a good New Year and hoped that Gregorio really had everything under control. *** At this point (December 1617) Jacques-Pierre was not suspected, and he still hoped to find a way to fulfill his promise to Osuna. By then he had gathered a small group of co-conspirators, including two French brothers, Jean and Charles Desbouleaux, a young Frenchman, Gabriel Moncassin, one Berard and another Frenchman, Margogliet. (There is confusion about this name; it might have been Nolot.) These conspirators, in turn, were busy recruiting among the bravi and idlers on the Plaza San Marco: “They had established apparent connections with the great embassies in Venice; they might be seen going in and out of the French and Spanish ambassador’s palaces, familiar with the side doors and known to the servants. They could use these powerful names and hint at more powerful in the background. The mere attraction of a plot was sufficient for these lawless spirits; that the outlines were vague only rendered it more fascinating; the imagination had freer scope to magnify the possible prizes. They drank in with childlike avidity Pierre’s high-sounding schemes for murdering the Senate, or the Maggior Consiglio, it did not much matter which, for sacking the Mint, rifling the armory of the Ten, blowing up the arsenal.” {Brown, 1907 #417}pp.286-287 and Senato Secreta, Communicationi, May 17, 1618. ***

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So, what was Gregorio De’Monti doing while the conspirators conspired? In the first place, he had more and better contacts in Naples than resident Spinelli, who was scared of Osuna and mostly stayed at home in the legation. I think he knew of Quevedo’s role in the affair back in 1616. I think he guessed that the first step in the Quevedo plot would necessarily be to send a trusted spy into the city, that the spy would have to pretend to be a defector, and that he would have to recruit a significant number of other conspirators, and provide them with arms, to accomplish even a fraction of what he was promising. The identity of the supposed defector (Jacques-Pierre) soon became obvious. I think he knew, or suspected from his Neopolitan contacts (not just Spinelli) that Jacques-Pierre and his two companions were still in Viceroy Osuna’s pay, while pretending to work for the Republic. Gregorio could have found out, for instance, that the reports of harsh treatment of Jacques-Pierre’s wife in Messina were untrue, and he could have guessed that the report to that effect sent back by Spinelli was intended to convince the Council of Ten that Osuna was angry at their “betrayal”. Having identified Osuna’s (Quevedo’s) main agent as Jacques-Pierre, the next steps would be to cause confusion and delay, while gathering incontrovertible evidence of the plotters intentions. A premature arrest might remove a known plotter, who could simply be replaced by an unknown plotter. Moreover, the Venetians were always very cautious about confrontations with Spain, so the evidence of Spanish complicity, preferably letters from Ambassador Bedmar or

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Secretary Robert Brouillard, would have to be very strong. Kit would have remembered, very vividly, the problem that Walsingham had faced – and ultimately solved – of gathering evidence to convince the Queen Elizabeth that Mary, Queen of Scots knew and approved of the Babington plot. It would not be enough to arrest Jacques-Pierre alone. Others less visible conspirators might lurk in the shadows, ready to take his place. In brief, the problem was to expose the whole plot at a stroke, thus ending the threat and embarrassing the Duke of Osuna. (It turned out later that Osuna was acting on his own, contrary to direct orders from Madrid). How to do it? The answer was also obvious to Kit Marlowe, who always thought in terms of the theater: it was a question of making a scene that would be convincing to the audience. The audience was the Doge, the Council of Ten, the Senat and the citizens. The method was to import actors from England who could pretend to be the sort of adventurers Jacques-Pierre wanted to attract, and let nature take its course. With any luck one or two or a few of them would be recruited, allowed into the inner circle of the conspiracy, and would then be able to identify all of the others. And so it finally worked out. *** Early in the morning of January 1, 1618 (Ven.) there was a fire in Harry Wotton’s house, in Venice, starting in a store-room under the kitchen. The house key was on the kitchen table and consequently inaccessible; the occupants had to break down the front door to get out ({Pearsall

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Smith, 1907 #287}vol ii p.125 ). The English Embassy in Venice had to move, once again. On January 22, 1618 (Ven.) leave was granted for Harry to look at the house of Juan Antonio Valier, son of Piero Valier, with respect to renting it {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv p 109}. There is a later mention of the new address of the embassy: "to Gregorio de’Monti, sec’y of the Ambassador of Eng. in San Mauricio, Venice" (ibid. p 323). Sometime in January or early February 1618 the mayor of Exeter complained that was traveling with a patent for a theatrical company called The Children of Bristol, but most of the actors were men. There were only 5 boys among them {Chambers, 1923 #236} vol I p.386. The reason was that Sam Daniel’s company was going to Venice, at Kit’s request, to play the part of mercenary corsairs. Also, twenty players were being subsidized by the Earl of Southampton and 20 more were coming with Henry Vere. John Holland was in charge of all the actors. Kit gave roles to some of his friends: Dr. Asselinau of the French Embassy, was given a role as a pseudo mercenary whose task was to sit in Micaela’s "Greek" restaurant over coffee, teaching French phrases to all the English actors who showed up. All arriving player-mercenaries were told to register with the Spanish Ambassador in Venice, Bedmar, or Secretary Brouillard, to convince Quevedo that they had come as promised to burn the city. They were to be housed in unregistered pensions provided by Jews in the Venetian ghetto. An eyewitness named Diana Palermitana, widow of

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an Englishman named John Bartlett, later described the housing situation to the Inquisitors {CSP Venice, #480 v. 15}.42 Several large houses were occupied during the “troubles” by as many as 20 men who were not licensed. In case of any problems they contacted the English Embassy and a secretary (Gregorio) came to fix things. Nobody was arrested. The enlistment of conspirators by Jacques-Pierre was remarkably casual, if Horatio Brown is to be believed. “...one day, as he was in the church of San Marco, he [Jacques-Pierre} passed a young Frenchman, whom he at once resolved to enlist. This was Gabriel Moncassin, a gentleman of Languedoc, about thirty years of age, who, after some wanderings ...had reached Venice about the middle of March and had enrolled himself in Venetian service. Pierre accosted Moncassin, offered to show him his way about the town, took him to dine, and finally installed him in his own lodging. Little by little, by means of dark hints and mysterious utterances, Moncassin’s curiosity was aroused, and finally, under oath of secrecy, he was informed that there was a plot against Venice, and was invited to join. which he did” {Brown, 1907 #417}Vol II p.287. This version is not very credible. It is far more likely that Moncassin (Montecasino) initiated the contact, but in such a way that Jacques-Pierre thought he was the recruiter. In fact, Ballantine thought, and I now agree after

42.The Inquisitors of State in Venice were a rotating group of three members of the Council of Ten, responsible for counter- espionage.

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some doubts, that “Moncassin” was none other than Kit (Gregorio), who – as we know – was perfectly fluent in French. He was 54 years old at the time, probably overweight, and certainly walked with a limp, yet he was able to act the part of a much younger man, and do it convincingly over a period of weeks. There is a further possibility that Gregorio re-introduced himself to Jacques- Pierre, as the same adventurous fellow who had met with him back in Naples two years earlier, and exchanged gossip about piracy. In that case, his age and limp would not have been a problem. Shortly after that, Jacques-Pierre and “Moncassin” sailed to Brindisi, at the bottom of the Italian boot. From there they rode across to Naples to discuss the developing plot with Quevedo and Osuna. Moncassin insisted that all the mercenaries he had recruited must be paid before the great burning of Venice. Then the three men—Quevedo came along too—carted the gold back across the Boot of Italy from Naples to Brindisi, and sailed up the coast to Venice. Quevedo wanted to be there on D-day {Marin, 1945 #368} pp 262, 263 ff. Quevedo later wrote of the trip to Venice with "Xaquepierre and another janissary" {Rivadeneyra, 1859, 1981 #379}, Tomo (Vol.) 1 p. 792, Tomo (Vol.) II p. 876. He discusses the plot in Tomo II pp 934-955 and on p. 943 mentions that “Jacques-Pierre’s nickname was ‘el Bornío’ meaning a small hawk, in Spanish." He mis-remembered; it was Moncassin (Kit) who had this nickname. Kit’s college nickname was "Merlin". An hour before sunset, on March 16, 1618 Doge

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Bembo suddenly died. He was succeeded by Doge Nicolo Donato. On April 9/19, 1618 several ships left London for the Adriatic. Leaders included Colonel Henry Peyton with men; Capt. Bellingsley and Captain Roger Manwood {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv p. 196}. Henry Mainwaring was already in Venice. On April 9 (Ven.) “an anonymous letter was found in the chamber of the cabinet, and handed to the Inquisitors. It threw grave doubts on the loyalty of Captain Langrand, and incidentally attacked Jacques-Pierre as well. Thereupon the government ordered Langrand to Zara to carry on his profession of Greek-fire maker. Jacques-Pierre, with his secretary Rosetti (Regnault?) was ordered to join the fleet, while the commander, Barbarigo, was informed of the suspicions under which both were laboring. This is what Jacques-Pierre had dreaded, and he tried to parry the blow by a ruse. He submitted to the government a long memorandum on Spanish designs and on Osuna’s projects, which, with the leave of Venice, he desired to forward to the King of France, by means of Regnault” {Brown, 1907 #417} Vol II pp.290-291. On April 24 (Ven.) the Council of Ten voted unanimously to send a "copy of the advices presented by Capt. Jacques-Pierre and Nicolo Renaldi (Regnault) about the designs of the Spaniards, and which Capt. J. P. says that he is about to send to his Most Christian Majesty [the king of France], if it please his Serenity, by Nicolo Renaldo (sic) to the Savii of the Venetian Cabinet, after enjoining due secrecy” {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv p 207}.

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Meanwhile, according to Horatio Brown another young Frenchman, Baldassare (Balthazar) Juven, a Huguenot, appeared in Venice. He had letters of recommendation from his uncle, Marshal Lesdiguièrres, to the French Ambassador, Bruslart, seeking help in obtaining an appointment in the service of the Republic. Bruslart tried to dissuade him. But as it happened, he lodged in the same hostel “Trombetta” where “Moncassin” was staying. According to Horatio Brown, Moncassin sought him out, and introduced him to Jacques- Pierre, to enlist him in the conspiracy. Juven agreed on condition that he be fully informed as to the entire plan, in detail, in writing. The conspirators, incredibly, agreed to that condition. At least, that is how it was reported later. The truth must have been somewhat different, but we will never know. Juven must have been one of Kit’s actor friends who was fluent in French, but his real identity remains obscure. By mid May the group of conspirators consisted of Capt. Jacques-Pierre and Nicolo Renaldi (Regnault), Langrand, Rosetti, two brothers Jean and Charles Desbouleaux, a man named Berard who was supposed to deliver the fortress at Crema (on the border with Milan) to the Spanish, the man named Margogliet – never heard from again – plus two late additions, Gabriel Moncassin supposedly from Languedoc, and the most recent recruit, Balbassare (Balthazar) Juven. On May 4 (Ven.) Captain Henry Bell sailed from Venice with secret information from Henry Wotton for England {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380} p.13. It was probably an appreciation of the situation, to Secretary of State Naunton.

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Horatio Brown continues: “Thus fully informed and furnished, Juven.....resolved to reveal all to the government. Taking Moncassin with him one day to the ducal palace, on the pretext that he wished to speak to the minister of war about his engagement, he led him into the Doge’s antechamber, where there were a number of gentlemen, among them Marco Bollani, to whom Juven had already imparted the secret. Moncassin, taking alarm, said ‘What do you want with the Doge?’ ‘Oh!’ said Juven, ‘I am just going to ask his leave to blow up the mint and the arsenal and to hand Crema to the Spanish’” (ibid. p.291-2). A joke? That sort of joke gets people arrested nowadays; it probably had the same effect then. In any case Juven, having reassured Moncassin, went in alone to see the Doge. Moncassin and the third man, Marco Bollani were then taken in to see the Doge, where “Moncassin” confirmed all that Juven had already reported and provided more details. Bollani – unidentified by Brown, but possibly Gregorio’s old friend Prospero Colombo – was a witness. The Council of Ten then publically issued a command to the Venetian Captain General at Sea (Barbarigo) to put to death "in such a manner as your prudence may suggest, without any display," Captain Jaques-Pierre, Captain Langladé, and Capt. Jaques’ secretary Rossetto (sic). Jacques-Pierre and Rosetti were immediately drowned. Langrand at Zara was shot. “Moncassin” even offered to capture Robert Brouillard (the Secretary of the Spanish embassy) with Osuna’s letters on him. However it was deemed too dangerous, and a violation of diplomatic

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immunity to force the embassy, and Brouillard could not be tempted to leave it. The Desbouleaux brothers were arrested at Chioggia as they were preparing to travel to Naples, with letters from Bedmar to Osuna, in their stockings. The letters complained “that the favorable moment for carrying out the plot had been allowed to slip” {Brown, 1907 #417} Vol II, p.293. Letters from Osuna were never found, however. Gregorio’s secret job for Doge Bembo was now finished – his contract fulfilled. There was a public announcement that the captured mercenaries had been hanged at Friuli or strangled and thrown in deep canals. In reality, the actors dispersed and sailed home with happy memories and souvenirs. Later, the pseudo-pirate Gabriel Montecasino (Moncassin) was given £100 for his timely warning. The part about the £100 reward for his information, together with his signature, can be found in the dossier of the Council of Ten. In his own later account, Quevedo claimed that he had evaded two sinister assassins {Marin, 1945 #368} p 267. The Spanish fleet, hovering offshore had nowhere to go but back home. Osuna was humiliated. But when he got home, Quevedo was knighted! Without a secure land route across the Alps, Spanish power in the low countries began to ebb, slowly but surely. *** Here is Horatio Brown’s appreciation of what happened {Brown, 1907 #417} Vol II. p. 245 et seq. “The Spanish conspiracy, by the timely discovery of

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which Venice was believed to have narrowly escaped destruction in 1618, is one of those episodes in history which at once arrest attention by focusing the conditions of a period and throwing a flood of light upon subsequent events. In diabolical picturesqueness this conspiracy takes rank with the Gunpowder Plot or the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Owing partly upon doubts thrown on its reality at the very outset, partly also to the silence of the Venetian government, to the mystification of some contemporaries and the declared skepticism of others, the whole affair has acquired the fascination of a riddle. “The subject has attracted abundant research and has even found its way into dramatic literature in the best of Otway’s plays, Venice Preserved.43 “At the time there was a French answer, a Spanish answer, a Neapolitan answer, a Turkish answer to this riddle, and subsequent historians, Capriata, San Real, Chambrier each adopted one or other of these solutions. No one of these answers is, however, quite satisfactory nor covers the whole ground of our information. It may be impossible now to read to the bottom of this muddy pool; and von Ranke, the most distinguished of those who have attacked the problem, has confined himself to researches in the fact with out expressing a decided

43.Thomas Otway was a restoration playwright. The play, staged in 1682 in London, had nothing to do with Venice except a feeble analogy.

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opinion in any direction. He has been followed by Romanin, who has gone still further into the documentary evidence, though neither has exhausted the material at our disposal. Indeed it would be difficult to find a more tangled skein for the historian to unravel; ... “And first for the outward and visible facts of the case, as they appeared to the Venetians in the spring of 1618. Early in this year the city was full of strangers – Italians from the mainland and foreigners wandering in search of adventure ... They were attracted thither by the splendour of Venetian state ceremonies, which were gradually growing more and more sumptuous, ... The locande therefore were all full; so, too were the lodging houses which served as dependencies to the overcrowded inns. The piazza at night was thronged with foreign forms in long cloaks, slouched hats, and high leather boots, promenading and swaggering, now in shadow, now in moonlight, and filling the air with the adventurer’s language, French in all its endless modifications of patois.” “The air seemed charged with vague uneasiness, and Venice had reached a highly nervous condition between her amusements and her fears. For some time past the conduct of the Spanish Governors in Naples and Milan had been the cause of serious alarm to those politicians who were not entirely dazzled by the blaze of pageantry and lost in the hunt after pleasure; but there was a wild swirl of reckless

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enjoyment all about them, and a warning voice, had they raised one, would have been drowned in the din of the revel. “On the morning of May 18, the day after the election of the doge, Venice awoke to another day of enjoyment – to her midday siesta, the evening al fresco upon the lagoon, the ‘masques and balls begin at midnight, burning ever to midday.’ But a thrill of terror awaited her. This morning of the 18th the early risers found the bodies of two men, hung each by one leg to a gibbet in the piazza, in sign that they had been executed for treason. On the 23rd, two days before the Sposalizio del Mare, another body, bearing the marks of terrible torture, was also exposed in a like manner.44 The public emotion became intense. ... The silence of the government heightened the alarm. The executive made no motion to postpone the ceremonies of the next few days; the three bodies hung there, unexplained, but relieved in horrible colors upon the brilliant background of civic pomp.” “No one knew these men who had been put to death. They belonged to the mob of vagabonds and adventurers whom Venice attracted, and upon whom she, in a measure, lived. One thing alone was clear: they were all Frenchmen. Conjecture was allowed free play; and the public soon pieced together, out of the

44.The first two bodies were the brothers Desbouleaux, the third was Regnault, at least according to Horatio Brown’s scenario (Brown, op cit.).

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endless rumours of the town, a consecutive story. These men were the agents of the Duke of Osuna, Viceroy of Naples, and of the Marquis Bedmar, Spanish Ambassador in Venice. In accordance with a preconcerted design, the city was to have been seized by a Spanish fleet, which already lay outside Malamocco, the arsenal fired, the mint and the treasury of St. Mark’s rifled, the doge and his council blown up. When Venice had been sufficiently cowed she was to be handed over to Spain. The plot had been discovered in time, the guilty arrested and tortured; more than five hundred of their accomplices had been drowned by night in the canals. In proof of this the inns, full to the garret a few days before, were now nearly empty. Such was the story which gained immediate acceptance. The reticence of the government neither affirmed nor denied anything and the popular fury exploded in an attack upon the Spanish embassy. Bedmar’s palace, and even his life, were in serious danger.”

In the aftermath, the French ambassador Bruslart, was embarrassed by the fact that all the executions were of Frenchmen, but he denied that the plot was Spanish, but asserted that it was somehow directed against the Turks! The French historian Daru came up with a more fascinating conjecture, that the Venetians had been plotting with Osuna to make him King of Naples, but that Osuna’s treason was discovered in Madrid and the Venetians eliminated all

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possible witnesses, namely agents and emissaries of Osuna. Thus, according to Daru, Venice had cleverly turned the tables by claiming that the plot was indeed Spanish and that Venice had discovered and defeated it. The doge celebrated a te deum in St Marks square for this salvation. *** On May 18 Doge Nicolo Donato died after only a month in office. The excitement must have been too much for him. The new Doge was Antonio Priuli. Other consequences followed: on May 25 Harry Wotton wrote a letter to Thomas Lake re the "French" conspiracy in Venice {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380}pp 17-18. He was referring to the nationalities of the individuals who were executed. However, a note to the Venetian Ambassador in Rome said that “the Spanish Ambassador in Venice took part in a conspiracy against the city of Venice. Venice has asked Spain to remove that Ambassador” {CSP Venice, #480 xv p 226}; on June 14 Spanish ex-ambassador Alfonso de la Cueva, Marqués de Bedmar, left Venice, heading for Milan {Marin, 1945 #368 p 269}. The fort of Vercelli was returned to Savoy. Gregorio de’Monti and his actor-assistants had succeeded in breaking up Quevedo’s plot against Venice, and doing so with a minimum of bloodshed, and at a profit! They also broke a military-diplomatic log-jam; Spain had begun to give ground to France and Savoy south of the Alps and (briefly) to the protestant German states {CSP Venice, #480 vol xv, p 235}. The Spanish-Catholic response initiated the 30-year war in central Europe, a few years

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later, but that is another story. In mid-June there were still several men from England staying at the English Embassy house. They had participated in the great charade and it was time to celebrate the survival of Venice as an independent republic. Harry Wotton wanted a play-party. Nathaniel Fletcher (former chaplain) and his brother John, the playwright, were staying there. John Fletcher and Kit Marlowe made a Marx Brothers-like farce, The Two Noble Kinsmen. Micaela played the Jailer’s Daughter, Kit was the Jailer, while Hen Wriothesley and young Henry Vere played the Noble Kinsmen. They were actually secret half-brothers, which was part of the joke. By the end of July almost all the English had gone home. Kit, who had had the best time of his life, was sad to think he would likely never see those friends again. His best friend, Hen, was leaving. One evening, just before Hen’s departure, they sat out on the Lido beach and talked about Francis Bacon. Could his sinister proclivities be curbed? Having been promoted to Lord Chamberlain, he would be sitting in the House of Lords if there was ever another Parliament. As a lord he could no longer be tried for his crimes by a jury of commoners. He was practically immune! Then Kit remembered a rare manuscript held in the library of his college, Corpus Christi at Cambridge. Indictments were the exclusive province of the courts, and judges were reluctant to indict themselves. But the manuscript showed a precedent: the House of Lords had once, back in 1450, impeached one of its own members.

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Could Bacon be restrained, forced to give up his powers and perquisites, kept away from the King and prevented from harming others? It was something to think about. Hen thought about it and, in all likelihood, took legal advice from Sir Edward Coke, who was subsequently elected as the leader of the House of Commons when it met again in 1621.

Chapter 30: Bacon’s fall and Bacon’s revenge 1518-21

On August 9, 1618 (Ven.) Harry’s steward Will Leete wrote a letter from the Embassy in Venice to a Mr. Bargrave. He was probably Captain John Bargrave, brother of Isaac Bargrave who had been a chaplain at the embassy {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380}p.47. The letter said: "Gregorio is very thankfull to you for your good newes, hee hath delivered his pattent vnto my Lo: to send, hee is ready to serve you in all occasions, or else hee dissembles." Kit was working for John Bargrave to write a "Polisie", namely a draft written constitution for a colony Captain John Bargrave wanted to start in Virginia. The "pattent" may have been a Virginia colony patent. All such patents were to be sent for review before the end of the year 1618. *** In July 1618 the rumors of missing silver from the mint finally resulted in a formal inquiry of the performance of Tom Howard (Suffolk) as Lord Treasurer. The door to the “Trophonean Den” was broken open by the failure of the

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treasury to find money to pay for the King’s costly expedition to Scotland, back in 1617, accompanied by 1000 retainers, which resulted in a deficit for the year of £135,000. A scapegoat was needed. Tom Howard was already damaged in public opinion as the father of Countess Somerset and her disgraced husband, Robert Carr. It was well known that to get a bill paid or to draw expense money, it was necessary to bribe the sub-treasurer Bingley or Lady Suffolk. But Tom’s wife caused trouble by slandering Lady Exeter, and Buckingham turned against him. When the King heard about Lady Suffolk’s activities, in June 1618), he ordered her out of London and, when she came back, he threatened to have her whipped out again behind a cart “like a common whore”{McElwee, 1958 #501} p.241. A month later, prompted by Bacon, he asked Tom Howard to resign. The matter was referred to the Star Chamber. *** In October 1618 (Eng.), Kit’s daughter Isabel-Eliza remarried. This time it was to handsome, wealthy aristocratic young horseman named William Cavendish. He was a grandson of the Countess of Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick. William Cavendish was one of the youths Harry Wotton had accompanied to deliver gift horses to Savoy in 1612.) During the same month, back in Venice, Micaela gave birth to a new baby boy with a club foot. It was the third surviving child born since Micaela had returned from Madrid. They now had two boys and a girl, barely a year apart in ages.

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*** On January 12, 1619 (Eng.) at 11 AM the mysterious London arsonist struck again. John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton: "Fire at White-hall, which beginning in the banketting house hath quite consumed yt…One of the greatest losses spoken of is the burning of all or most of the writings and papers belonging to the offices of the signet, privy seal and council chamber, which were under yt." {McClure, 1939/1979 #352}vol 2, pp 201-202. Letter 313. This letter was written four days after the fire—on January 16, 1619. It seems that Bacon had found out that someone—Queen Anne?— saved the papers that (he thought) should have been burned in the Globe Theater fire five and a half years earlier! Privy council records burned on this day included all records of the years 1608 to 1613 {Proper, #356}p 515. On March 2, 1619 (Eng.) Queen Anne died “of dropsy” at Hampton Court. She thought she was recovering from gout and suddenly got very sick. Was it her punishment for rescuing the records Bacon wanted destroyed? For ten weeks from the day of her death, Queen Anne’s body lay unburied at Denmark House. One historian of the theater called this period "one of the more bizarre interludes in the history of English royalty…Day succeeded day, week succeeded week, and finally month succeeded month" {Akrigg, 1962/1974 #360} p. 268. She was eviscerated, except for her heart, to slow decomposition; the rest of her was embalmed but left unburied in her private chambers in Denmark House (now Somerset House).

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The delay may have been caused by lack of money to pay for a state funeral {McElwee, 1958 #501} p. 253. But there may have been another cause. During the weeks Queen Anne lay unburied, the theaters had to be closed, and the players, of course suffered increasing hardship. Why? The delay was Bacon’s way of punishing the theater people for what they had done in Venice to ruin the Quevedo plot, which he had hoped might make him the Viceroy in a Spanish England. Only after the anniversary of the exposure of the Spanish conspiracy in Venice passed did Queen Anne’s funeral preparations begin. She was laid to rest on May 13/23, 1619. Meanwhile, on April 19 ( Eng.) Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton was sworn in as a Privy Councillor {Stopes, 1922 #260}. At the same time King James granted Chancellor Bacon a pension of £1200 per annum. Amusing sidelight: During April or May 1619 Tobie Matthew wrote an undated letter to Bacon from Louvain s including the words “The most prodigious witt that ever I know of my nation and of this side of the sea, is of your lordship’s name, though he be known by another...”. Some historians dated this letter several years later, and Baconians have taken it is evidence that Francis Bacon, undoubtedly a prodigious wit, wrote the works of Shakespeare. However, it now looks like Tobie Matthew was referring to a fellow expatriate at Louvain known as “Southwell”, whose real name was Thomas Bacon. “Southwell” was also known for his wit. ***

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On March 7, 1619 (Eng.) Sir Harry Wotton was officially recalled, probably at Bacon’s instance {Brown, 1864 #485}. For the rest of April he began to prepare for his departure {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}volume 1. On May 5 (Ven.) Harry made his formal farewell at the Collegio. He presented Gregorio de’Monti to Doge Priuli as chargé d’affaires. Witnesses thought he was weeping. Eleven days later Harry departed the city for what he thought was the last time, traveling with Queen Anne’s cousin Duke Joachim Ernest of Holstein. They went first to Padua, then on to and Augsburg {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}. Gregorio remained in charge of the embassy as acting Ambassador for the next 13 months and as chargé d’affaires for nine months after that until Wotton’s third return as Ambassador in March 1621 (Brown op cit). Kit (Gregorio), in charge of the embassy for the second time, started a series of 60-odd letters, written in Italian and addressed to Secretary of State Robert Naunton.45 Kit was emotionally and physically exhausted by the previous year’s effort to defeat the Spanish Conspiracy, as it came to be known. He suffered unrelenting pain in his bad leg, and worsening memory problems. Unfortunately he was kept busy by ripples and aftershocks. For instance, on June 7 (Ven.) Gregorio wrote to Naunton that Osuna had

45.These letters are preserved at Eton College, where Henry Wotton spent his last years. They are available on microfilm and in a book:{Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380}. The micro-film and book include Gregorio’s letters and those of several other people.

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captured three Venetian galleys {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380} p 131-132. During June and July Gregorio shuttled back and forth to the Collegio. He was also writing newsy letters to Marcantonio di Dominis, ex-archbishop of Spoleto, who had left the Catholic Church and was living in England. But on August 26 (Eng.) George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, told the Venetian Ambassador that the anonymous writer of news to di Dominis knew "all secrets" in Venice. This information got back to the Council of Ten via a letter from the Venetian Secretary in England, Pier Antonio Maroni (Hinds, vol xv, p 594. Soon afterwards Gregorio learned what Archbishop Abbot had told the Ambassador. Gregorio was shocked and apprehensive. Those letters to di Dominis were supposed to have been private and off the record. In September 1619 Gregorio wrote to Naunton, thanking him for his humane letter of August 26, comforting to his family. (Did Kit and Micaela lose another baby at birth?) Gregorio continued to write dispatches {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380}p 139. After August no mail arrived in Venice; the diplomatic courier was in quarantine for some health-related reason. On December 11 (Ven.) Gregorio finally got the courier out of quarantine with a little gratuity for the officer of the Dept. of Health {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380}p. 154. It was a quiet, gloomy winter in Venice. No pay came from England for many months, possibly due to lack of money to pay bills, not to mention confusion and chaos in the exchequer resulting from the Star Chamber investigation of affairs at the Treasury.

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During October and November Kit’s friend “Good Tom” Howard, the first Earl of Suffolk, and his wife Catherine Knyvett, were separately arrested and imprisoned in the Tower for 11 days. Tom and his wife were accused of embezzlement, defrauding the King and extorting money from persons with business at the Treasury, through an intermediary, Sir John Bingley, Remembrancer of the Exchequer. Tom Howard was examined in the Star Chamber. He was not guilty of anything, but he kept quiet to save the “king’s honor”. Bacon said a lot of derogatory things about him. In Tom’s case it was a frame-up, although it seems that his wife Catherine was separately enriching herself. She had been receiving a pension of £1000 per year to act as an agent for Philip III, King of Spain. Tom Howard was ordered to repay all the money (£40,000) that he and his wife supposedly embezzled {DNB, 2004 #334 “Thomas Howard”} {Montagu, 1834 #382 pp 226-230}. Their two sons also lost their court appointments and their son-in-law, Lord Knollys, lost his lucrative position as Master of Wards. This was the final end of the Howard family’s influence at Court. Buckingham had no more competition for influence except Francis Bacon. *** During January 1620 (Ven.) still no money came for the Venice Embassy. Food was getting low. Naunton sent 200 lire sterling of his own money to help out. Gregorio’s bad leg was getting worse. Gregorio had to walk with a crutch. He spent a lot of time watching the babies grow and teaching the 3 and 4 year-olds alphabet and arithmetic.

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Micaela was pregnant again (anagrams, Bargrave’s Polisie.) On February 7 (Ven.) the new Venetian Ambassador in London, Girolamo Lando, mentioned (in a dispatch) the well-written newsletters that were coming to di Dominis from Venice (Hinds, xvi). On March 13 and again on March 20 Gregorio wrote to Secretary of State Naunton that the dragoman of the Venetian Embassy in Istanbul had been beheaded there by the chief Wazir. This death was an affront to the Venetian Republic {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380}pp 168-169. Between April 24 and 28 Viceroy Osuna sent troops toward Trieste in a large galleon, with two Tartanes. But the galleys of Venice chased Osuna’s ships into Manfredonia Harbor, where they hid (ibid. pp 173-4). On July 15-17 (Ven.) Paul Pindar returned from nine years service as English Ambassador in Istanbul. He was lodging in Canareggio, and Gregorio went to see him there (ibid. p.188). On August 13 (Ven.) Gregorio presented Paul Pindar with papers from King James, knighting him. Henry Peyton, Captain of the ship that was to carry Pindar back to England, was supposed to do it, but he did not come ashore (ibid. pp 206-7). Next day, August 14, Pindar departed. Paul Pindar’s biographers still wonder how and when he was knighted. On August 21 (Ven.) Gregorio wrote to Naunton that the Turkish navy had entered the gulf on the way to Valona and had used generous terms of friendship, exchanging slaves and other courteous gifts (ibid. pp 208-209). On September 4 (Ven.) the Turks attacked and destroyed

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Manfredonia harbor where Osuna’s ships were hiding! Was there an implicit deal with Venice? We’ll forget the beheading of the dragoman of the embassy if you’ll get rid of Osuna’s ships for us? (ibid. p 212). The Spanish still had not given up on getting control of Val Tellina (Brenner Pass) in order to move soldiers into Hapsburg territory to defeat King James’ son-in-law, the Elector Frederick. Gregorio wrote about this in several dispatches (ibid passim). On September 10 (Ven.) Prospero Colombo, an old friend of Gregorio’s who had played a part necessitating frequent visits to the Spanish embassy in Venice during the height of the Spanish conspiracy was shot-at in Canareggio by three young men from that embassy. They must have recognized him. Fortunately Prospero was not hurt (Hinds, vol xvi pp 397 &404). Next day Gregorio wrote about the episode. Neighbors had attacked the fleeing Spaniards; they killed one and badly treated the others {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380} p.226. Gregorio was disappointed; he had hoped no innocent fatality would result from his theatrical counter-stroke. The idea that he had engineered a major military victory against the Spanish with no loss of innocent life, and at Spanish expense, was important to him. *** On September 17 (Eng.) the Venetian ambassador to England, Girolamo Lando, wrote that a person named Don Celso Galato, a former secretary of di Dominici in London, who was leaving his service “May soon reveal the identity of the author of the private news that came from Venice”

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(Hinds, vol xvi, p 405). Gregorio realized that he could be in serious trouble with the local authorities in Venice for spying. In a dispatch dated September 21 (Ven.) Gregorio wrote again about troubles concerning the pass of the Val Tellina (Brenner). His dispatch – in Italian – ended with the words "… supplicandola ad haver memoria de mi …" He was out of money {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380}pp 231-232. In another dispatch dated October 16 (Ven.) Gregorio wrote that Catholic Leaguers wanted Venice to act with them against King James’ son-in-law, the Elector Frederick (ibid. pp 238-239). A few days later on October 29, 1620, the mercenary army of King James’ son-in-law the Elector Frederick was defeated at Prague. The city was taken back by the Catholic Bavarians under Tilly. The Catholic world celebrated. Pope Paul V died three months later while celebrating the “Victory of the White Mountain”, which was Frederick’s defeat and the beginning of the devastating thirty years war. *** Meanwhile, during the fall of 1620 Tobie Mathew – again back in Louvain – was visiting the painter Peter-Paul Rubens’ place in Antwerp, negotiating for a picture Dudley Carleton wanted to buy, the "Caccia" {Matthew, 1907 #346}. Tobie repeatedly visited Rubens, on other business; the painter was also an intermediary (spy?) for the Infanta

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Isabella.46 King James, encouraged by Bacon, was hoping the Infanta would wed Prince Charles, now the Prince of Wales, to secure the alliance with Spain. The news of Elector Frederick’s defeat at Prague finally reached England on November 14 (Eng.). The Spanish ambassador (Bacon’s friend) Gondomar had become so hated in London that he applied for protection. A book called Vox Populi or News from Spain warned England and the Netherlands against Spanish deceptions {Spedding, #312} p 153. But Lord Chancellor Bacon argued that “lavish discourse and bold censure” should be suppressed (ibid. pp 154-57). *** On November 3 (Eng.) Isabel-Eliza’s new husband William Cavendish was elevated to the rank of viscount before the opening of Parliament {Spedding, #312}vol xiv, p. 158. *** On December 28, 1620 (Ven.) Secretary of State Robert Naunton sent a letter to Gregorio: he was finally to be made a knight of the realm. The letter arrived in Venice in late January 1621. Gregorio’s answer (in Italian), dated January 29, 1621 survives {Roxburgh Club, 1855 #380} pp. 257-258. A Charles Ré translation is offered here. "Illustrious Lord, my most Reverend Lord. “With the mail of this week I have received a letter from your Most Illustrious Lordship of the 28th

46.The source for this is a statement by Rory Howard, curator of a Rubens exhibit in NYC, April 1995, quoted by Lillian Ross in The New Yorker, 17 April, 1995)

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of last month [December 1620] which has given me the greatest contentment, for it testifies that my humble services are viewed with favor by His Majesty. For this I render thanks first to God, then to His Majesty who has deigned to bestow on me such great honor; and I shall remain eternally obliged to Your Illustrious Lordship for what you have done on my behalf in securing the great favor of which I am the recipient. Thus, I pray God that I may be allowed to come and attend in person this ceremony, and humbly kiss His Majesty’s feet. [italics added]. Meanwhile, I beg to remain in your good graces and to commend now my humble family to the benevolence of our Gracious Patron. “The two Gentlemen whom your Most Illustrious Lordship has commended to me are today in Padua, where they wait. I shall serve them well and do everything in my power to implement their orders in all circumstances; the results you will see will be evidence of my zeal. “Otherwise, there is nothing to report but that the projects of those gentlemen seem to advance rather slowly: they are waiting (as everyone seems to think) to see what the Most Christian King [the King of France] will do with regard to the answer that the Catholic King [the King of Spain] will give him. On the morning of the 20th of this month the Pope was victim of a most serious accident, so that now he is with fever; and according to the observations of the

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physicians, in general, in men of that advanced age, such accidents are messengers of death. I end here in kissing with reverence the hands of your Most Illustrious Lordship, praying God to grant you a long and happy life. “Of your Most Illustrious lordship “I am your most humble and obedient Gregorio de’Monti" The italicized sentence is fairly strong evidence that Gregorio was to be knighted; nothing lesser would have justified his request to come in person to receive the honor. (His request was not honored.) There is no independent evidence of this knighthood, or even that it truly was a knight-hood, except in Gregorio’s anagrams. For instance, in his last ciphers for Bargrave’s Polisie, ll. 465, 466, Kit wryly mentions “Ye late Sir Kit de’Monti, mean and shameless ...”. But it seems that registration of knighthoods in England only began after this time. Lord Chancellor Bacon was angry with Secretary of State Robert Naunton for some reason; Naunton was shelved and angrily threatened with dismissal. His wife was shocked at this treatment and suffered a miscarriage {DNB, 2004 #334 “Robert Naunton”}. Some historians surmise that Naunton was punished because he favored Prince Charles’ courtship of French Henrietta Maria, thus angering Spanish ambassador Gondomar, though by this time Gondomar must have known perfectly well that the Infanta was betrothed to a Hapsburg—the Emperor Ferdinand’s son. Gregorio had sent word of this development {Pearsall

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Smith, 1907 #287} vol 2, p 226, but King James was extremely reluctant to believe the bad news. Bacon was also undoubtedly about the knighthood given to Gregorio, who had been chiefly responsible for the failure of the Quevedo plot to capture Venice. *** On Tuesday, January 30, 1621 (Eng.), after a 7 year recess, Parliament reopened. The financial problems of the King were worse than ever. Nobody would lend him any more money. The Lords were to sit as a court of law, based on two old precedents contained in MSS given to Kit’s college (Corpus Christi) by Archbishop Mathew Parker. (Kit had been the beneficiary of a Parker scholarship.) One is included as part of the St. Alban Chronicles, later edited and published as Chronicon Angliae; the other is the Anonimalle Chronicle, also important. They both show that the House of Lords can impeach one of its own members {Tite, 1974 #383}. The hidden hand of deposed Chief Judge of the King’s Bench, Sir Edward Coke, who hated Bacon, was almost certainly at work behind the scenes. Coke had received a “blacklist” of discontented suitors in the Chancery Court from a dismissed clerk, John Churchil. Sir Edward Coke was elected as leader of the Commons. A month later, February 28 (Eng.) the House of Commons sent a message to the House of Lords, asking for conference about “a man of quality who’d have wronged his Majesty, disinherited his subjects, and corrupted the Commonwealth.” Lord Chancellor Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans was the man they were talking about.

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On March 1(Eng.) King James wrote a letter to Bacon warning him of the coming prosecution in the House of Lords. On March 15 (Eng.) there was a conference of both Houses of Parliament. The Lord Chancellor’s behavior was to be investigated {Spedding, #312}vol 14 p. 204. On February 12 a Commission was formed, led by the Third Earl of Southampton. Another member was Mary Herbert’s son William Herbert, the Third Earl of Pembroke; a third member was Tom Howard’s nephew, Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel. The actual charges were very serious, amounting to gross abuse of power, but they were kept secret so as not to undermine public confidence in the integrity of the courts and government, not to mention the “honor of the king”.47 On March 14 Sir Lionel Cranfield denounced “abuses” in the Chancery Court and attacked Francis Bacon, saying he had two witnesses ready to testify as well as the list prepared by John Churchil. Bacon wrote to the House of Lords denying the charges and asking for the right to defend himself in a High Court action. This request was refused. March 17 (Eng.) Bacon went to bed, claiming illness; everything after that had to be done by letters and messengers. On this day Sir George Hastings visited Bacon in his sick-bed. Bacon spoke: "Sir George, I am sure that you love me…. I hear that one Aubrey intends to petition against me; he is a man that you have some interest in, you

47.Some sources for Bacon’s trial: {Gardiner, 1870 #384} {Montagu, 1834 #382}pp. 699-742; On p.353, in a verbose speech, Bacon inserted a story of a king who killed his son (hoping the words would scare King James). It probably did.

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may take him off if you please..." {Montagu, 1834 #382}. What could he possibly have meant by that? Bacon fought the charges for weeks. He sent a confession that was not a confession, with his usual arrogance. On April 16 the King sent for Bacon (probably at Buckingham’s suggestion) and commanded him to desert his defense. On April 21 he offered to give up the Great Seal, but again requested the right to defend himself in court. Again, this request was refused. On April 24 Prince Charles appeared before the Lords, announcing that he bore a “submission” from the Lord Chancellor (Bacon) agreeing to desert his defense. The Lords demanded that he plead guilty to each of the 23 charges. On April 30 Bacon returned the list of charges to Sir Edward Coke with the single word “guilty” to each charge. On May 1 Bacon was visited by a committee of four peers to receive the Great Seal, he being “too ill” to deliver it himself. Bacon hoping that it would be the extent of his punishment. But the parliamentary commission pressed ahead {Spedding, #312} vol xiv, pp.196-201. On May 3 he was formally sentenced by the House of Lords, fined forty thousand pounds (never paid), imprisoned in the Tower “at the King’s pleasure” and much more important, to be deprived of all his public offices, including the Chancellorship, Keeper of the Great Seal and head of the state secret service. He was henceforth forbidden to have any office, place or employment in State or Commonwealth, forbidden to have a seat in Parliament and forbidden to come within twelve miles of the Court. He was

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allowed, however, to keep his other titles and his estates. I can’t resist a small editorial comment here. Most historians, and all of the Baconians, seem to think that Bacon was really innocent of any serious wrongdoing but that he gallantly took the blame for some peccadillo to protect the King’s “good name”. A much more plausible explanation is that his fall was engineered by Buckingham with Coke’s assistance. After all, Francis Bacon was a great man, was he not? My answer is that he was indeed a great scholar, writer (of essays) and philosopher of science, as well as a world class villain. The “public” case against him in the House of Lords was a joke, in the sense that bribe- taking was normal – literally everybody was doing it. Yet nobody stood up for him. I think it had to be the tip of an enormous iceberg, which almost certainly included far more serious accusations such as abuse of power, treason, a number of murders (ordered by him but carried out by others), arson, destruction of archives and theft of silver from the Mint. Not included because still in the future, was a deliberate attempt to take credit for the poems and plays of Kit Marlowe a.k.a William Shakespeare. Bacon’s imprisonment in the Tower was absurdly brief, just 4 days. He went to the Tower on Monday May 28. Furious, he sent the King a peremptory order “Procure a warrant for my discharge this day!” and the King abjectly complied. By Saturday June 2 he was out {Spedding, #312}vol xiv, p 280; {Montagu, 1834 #382}vol xvi part 1.p 382) . He then demanded that the Earl of Southampton (who had led the anti-Bacon forces in the House of Lords)

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be incarcerated, in turn. Amazingly, the King complied with that order as well. On June 15 King James wrote to the Privy Council from Greenwich: Henry Wriothesley was to be committed to the Tower in charge of the Dean of Westminster. Sir Richard Weston was to take him there; Hen was not to see or speak to anyone but Weston and the Dean until further notice {Stopes, 1922 #260} p 406. Bacon was behind several other June commitments to the Tower (ibid. p 406), including that of Henry Vere. Next day (June 16 -Eng.) Weston bowed out as Hen’s jailer and Sir William Parkhurst got the job. He had once been Harry Wotton’s secretary at the embassy in Venice (1604-1610) and would have known Kit (Gregorio). So he and Hen had plenty to talk about. Hen was allowed house- arrest in town and at Titchfield, and full liberty by August 30 (ibid. p 413). But Wriothesley spent six weeks in the Tower, compared to Bacon’s four days. Moreover, Bacon had other scores to settle. Thanks to an interception, deciphered by Thomas Phelippes, he got wind of the likelihood that the source of insider information in Venice, the author of the newsletters to di Dominis, was about to be named by former Secretary Lando. While Bacon would be happy to see Harry and Gregorio dead, it was intolerable that either of them should be interrogated by a foreign government. The secret service takes care of its own. Even though he was no longer in charge, he still had influence and agents loyal to him, notably Tobie Mathew. Here I need to say a few words about Bacon’s friend and admirer, Sir Tobie Mathew. He was the son of the

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Anglican Bishop of Durham who later became Archbishop of York. Tobie became a Catholic sometime in 1607. He was immediately imprisoned for refusing to swear the new – post Gunpowder plot – oath of allegiance and a worse fate might have been in store. In early February 1608 Francis Bacon wrote to him in the Fleet Prison “Do not think me forgetful or altered towards you ..." He was exiled to Louvain, where he remained for the next nine years until 1617. On November 14, 1609 Tobie Matthew left Milan, where he had been stationed, despite being supposedly at Louvain, to go to Spain {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}pp 476-7. In 1610, Tobie Matthew, living again in Louvain, undertook to obtain copies of all of Galileo’s papers, published and unpublished, for Francis Bacon. In May,1614, Tobie Mathew and George Gage were ordained priests in Rome, by Belarmine {Matthew, 1907 #346}, p 125. Bacon had written to his acolyte, the newly frocked Tobie Mathew, about the possibility of returning to England. Mathew replied: "that if his Majesty should make any difficulty, some such reply as is wont to come from you in such cases may have the power to discharge it” {Spedding, 1890 #269}xiii p.215. Tobie Matthew had confidence that Bacon could arrange anything. He was very nearly right. July 8/18 1517 Dudley Carleton at the Hague wrote to John Chamberlain that Tobie Mathew, who had been "crazy at Louvain" back in June, was on his way back to England {Matthew, 1907 #346 p.144}. Bacon was letting him back in while King James was still away in Scotland. Tobie Mathew moved into Bacon’s house, where he stayed as "a

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kind of prisoner" until the King’s return from Scotland {Spedding, #312} vol xiii, p 216. In October, 1617 John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton about Bacon’s acolyte Tobie Matthew’s "nightly visits to the Spanish Ambassador Gondomar" {Matthew, 1907 #346} p. 152. In brief, Tobie Matthew was Bacon’s man. *** Meanwhile, on March 8 (Ven.) Sir Harry Wotton finally returned to Venice, after a rough winter trip over the Brenner Pass, 4 days detention at Rovere and 12 days quarantine at Verona. On March 29 (Ven.) he made his formal visit to the Senat at San Giorgio, but only 19 senators showed up to greet Harry Wotton. England’s diplomatic stock was down, due to King James’ son-in-law Frederick’s failed attempt to defend his Crown of Bohemia. On April 15 (Ven.) Harry got word of Viceroy Osuna’s disgrace and downfall (he was in jail). He reported this good news in a private audience with the Doge, expecting praise and thanks. The Doge already knew about it and didn’t give the English much credit. Harry Wotton did not visit the Doge’s palace again till the following January (1622) to praise Gregorio after his death. On July 8 (Ven.) Harry Wotton sent a dispatch to the effect that he had received evidence that King Philip III of Spain, on his death-bed, had determined to marry the Infanta not to Prince Charles of England, but to the Emperor’s son {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} vol 2p.226, footnote. This report would have been very unwelcome to King James, and for that reason may not have been

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delivered promptly. Harry must have got the news from Gregorio. Gregorio had his own private troubles which news of his knighthood did little to abate. Money was very short. Pope Paul V (who had died on January 28, 1621) was succeeded by Pope Gregory XV. The new pope happened to be a kinsman of Marcantonio di Dominis (the lapsed Catholic who had showed Kit’s private newsletters to Archbishop Abbott and possibly others). Suddenly and unaccountably, di Dominis changed his mind. He returned to Rome, rejoined the Church and did penance for his heresies. His former secretary Lando was another loose cannon. Gregorio feared that any moment he might be arrested, interrogated harshly, and even tortured to death by the Inquisitors of State, the Venetian counter-intelligence office. His worst nightmare was that Micaela and their young children could be left to starve. Here are some anagrams found by Ballantine from Bargrave’s Polisie , starting at line 395. The first paragraph explains his collaboration with John Fletcher on the play Two Noble Kinsman. Then he was railing against the Catholic church and its priests, and their attitude to marriage, possibly because after their children were born, Micaela had not been satisfied with their informal common-law relationship. After her almost-return to Lope de Vega, one of her conditions for returning to Gregorio was a formal marriage by a priest in a church. Kit must have found the prospect very difficult (due to his life-long anti-Catholicism) but he went through with it for her sake. The rest of this

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fragment, evidently written during the last few months of his life, when he knew he was dying, is self-explanatory, as well as heart-breaking. The line-by-line correspondence from lines 395 through 546 is given in Appendix A-35. –so he’d entertain wi’ a play! Too tired t’ do it alone – G-r-r-r– I ask John Fletcher, “C’d U aide ‘n’ do it al R gran’ scenes? Shepherd me, C?” He said yea, ‘n’ uue pen a farce! tuuo hi,hi nobles love the same lite shee, fite o’er her into th’ afternoon. At the end a horse defeats the winner: he dies, ‘n’ ye loser gets ye madam. No, no! Tut, tut! Crackt moral! Mamma opposes th’ tale o’ chance, but finally takes th’ role of mi daughter (nimble feet). I’M her clown-wit father. When th’ lass lets a noble nut l- leaue a prison, ‘n’ ye friends, bedect wi’ mail, fite to win th’ beautie, I get coopt i’ th’ iail, see? More action: the Nan in love ebbs near insanitie before a doc restores her t’ a better state. He gets U-U-U-U t’ be hi-hi-hip, ‘n’ freelee embrace thy husband- to-be before the uuedding! E-e-e! Horror! See another love-fest! Tut! Honour’s lost! Let the Roman priests rant! Love ‘n’ ioy are the greatest aid to health, ‘n’ priests R not perfect angels! We dread an aged creed, tied t’ dark, unreal fear o’ sin, when true freedom, half-hidden, awaits U here. Their

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crvell, horrid added writs that concern new inocent babes that die ere they’re christened repeat th’ dum error of a fool prelate, C, C? We dodge love more. I owe my life t’ lovers: C, dear people louin’ly sau’d me from death—no ordinary cut!

UUe English start t’ rally after chalenge—‘n’ what loue cd remain after hidden, banished, nonney idiot Kit higgled ‘n’ tore at a front given him in good faith to allow al of his plays t’ be enioyed there in England? No pretence, then! The teeth U showed yn selfish f-fury! Ae, ae! All ye edgey melodramatic letters! H-ha! Can an able hy law renew a penitant’s ryte to return to Kent ‘n’ liue or die? Cd loue defend Kyt? Shall he reach home, or shall a last slo, slo crawl unseam that man left here on trial t’ be freed by dreaded death? Adio! Can ye weep no tear? Drop the h- hope U’l t-t-taste good English ale again! ‘N’ th’ brite, neet, lovin actors sail auuai on R wind ‘n tide. There! It’s finisht! Rest, ninni! He, he, he! Chee!

Here at home with mi ladie I need t’ send al those hasht letters to Naunton: He ho- holds al th’-th’ a-ansuuer to R n-need for

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food ‘n’ uuinter clothing. Can I give mi babe Cleo a n-nonny DCL-guinea lace? N- no! I love mi children more than aniething. I don’t want to see them get spoilt! U appear to fear t’ protest a tort after the he- heavy sorro of tots h-h-hi falling—EE-E-E-E- E-E-E-E-E-E-E—‘n’ lost t’ death. I’M here in h-hell again! In mad demonic replai a’ that terrible scene! Shh! B still! All their suffering’s o’er, man, ‘n’ all that that ye had had—Gad!—deleted!

Heed, h-heed, the neew family needz. Offer aid—insist on their learnin’ t’ read—teach, tell, haue h-hope! They’re iust shsh-shy. What litany brings is retention. Offer repetition to the defeated, ‘n’ take exam! H-he, h-he! Seek th’- th’- th’- th’- th’ detention o’ rowdy swingin’ scholars—ae, ae, ae—‘til they all know the deep wide ABC’s ‘n’ dead numbers! E-e-e-e-e! I haue to teach serious math so n-no hunger bites y-years ahead, an so I can see each one of ‘em liuin’ better before tainted rott’n Greg dies at last—maybe a tin trade, a steward iob—O, no sly SS! Eeeeee! Hy modern news—writing here at home—a home free of outright poverty: where hope can gro, gainin’ profit with sensible use.

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Ai! Not tendin’ a nonni heebe SS trace-iob for ye gaine o’ some edgey criminal r-rat (RAT!) who’d ask U t’ chase all ye nonny crowds of enemies t’ far-away cities ‘n’-‘n’- afta great effort, shoot every nonny-non one of ‘em. Hee, hee! Mi hi-vp occvpation! Vnpublishable idiotic adventvres—fag hosts—no, I can’t defend mi nonnie story. Gee, he’l get gone—poof! Afore de nonnie fryghtenin’ rot shud gro ‘n’ uuear ar free youth down uui’ debt here at home. Ae, heedl’ss a’ cost—i-in arrear t’ try t’ help their bleari father, far lost in a memorie disease. Ha, ha! hopeless fool, he’ll wait in error t’ see his MT existence change for better. Phi! Phi! He’d resist yr prayers. O, hug me! Prepare for life without this worthless man. Don’t eep—piss! R h-hi-lo years have al been good. A-ah, a-ah. R.I.P. ye late Sir Kit de’Monti, mean ‘n shameless, left U. Hys ace wife, ‘n’ R babes alone. He has faith she may understand he left not t’ harm her or the babes.

There’s no phixin’ ye rot area. Oi! I let it go. Ei, ei! When I return’d from sea it began, ‘n’ I thot, o, chap! ‘N’ it’d heal—bind, at least. No—I pick ‘n’ clip—find where amphicoelous nasal cysts grow,

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‘n’ I, beery ‘n’ euer inable t’ stop the habit a’ hurtin’ ‘em—e-e-e! The hand e’er at the sore, ye mind bereft of thot, he, the uacant boorish slob, briefly greets the nonny day, then, spent, subsides yn a tattered gloomy death-rot heap. Grr! E-e! Man, heave me! Entreat fate t’ release me from years o’ this h-hard-pressed writin’. Then when u’d let me see how R poor strife turns t’ ashen death without redress, o, I’d serve U farther—go the rest o’ d’ way—go to hel, whetha win or lose, hon femme: euer thy writer of greased dispatches ‘n’ horrific mangey book reports—hehee greased dispatches. unctuous notes to the sec’y of state. a dutee to write song ‘s no vvorse then tu B a fat man. U’ve more o’ me each day, Ma’M! Eros’s ode left V holy babees yn bed and then the iob ta rear ‘em al on the edge o’ rotten naught.

Celeb voce, U’l need to marry again—no other shot—tots need U.Bless U! You! Wh-what do hard times mean when the tots liue ‘n’ R learnin’? My dear, U’d best watch o’er ‘em, so we’l B—O! II-I! I C I’M putting h-horny Gregorio into th’ future! No! At rest, I’d not s-see, touch or feel thee, which is the sad part o’ dieing, for euen tho’ I, Sir Greg M., ‘d be liein’ here t’ spend eternitie, we’d be sharin’ nothin’. Go t’ Guarina; there’s home there for U ‘n’ th’ tots. Don’t trie t’

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relive the ol’ t-time here—we tend to B ch-chided by tha past. See ahead: R tads can possibly be three lean men ‘n’ a dear woman fleein’ terror at th’ mercy a’ tuf venal ouerlords. Oh, can’t we giue th’ babetots strength to stay independent al life long? Ahh, thus t’ keep U ‘n’ R babes free o’ d’ hel-woe fear that liued w-wi’ Greg at Naples ‘n’ Venice. O, th’ children—e-e-e-e! Pace …E-e-e- e-e-e! Hope al U tots fynd place as loyal servants to friends around here. O, Hon, can’t we weather th’ gale? Set a yat husband o’erboard ta enter th’ deep here. Rvn, C: chart thy course, love, ‘n’ sail t’ Ferrara! Soe ta, ta. Sir Henry’s here. So ta, ta t’ U to!

Nu Sir Christopher’l want tv bid thee al adiev. Psst! U’l resent open vanes, even mi love ‘n’ patient ladee ‘n’ dear wife Micaela. I’M sorree."N’ so, ‘n’ O, th’ th’ th’ th’ th’ last we-we: s-sir-r, best we be ready. No brash lul, C? Sell th’ boat here, ‘n’ find more ways t’ leaue R home.Sh-h! If e’er Hen has aided vs, ‘e’d do it now. Wait for Greg ta die, then, ai! Try ‘n’ heal th’ breech, ere a-a-al manner o’ hesitation waste thee, ‘n’ U’l need t’ decide what’s proper, mi l- love ‘n’ U’l need R Hen. Grr Grrr! ‘N’ shh! A funded existence is mi wish for thee. A great friend,he’d manage to prorate it—thy futvre here—to th’total. Now he’s freein’ us of a huge

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traitor, but ere fal he’d aid U love. Let it B for th’ babes, C?

One printed letter’l gayn ten avid readers, ‘n’ U’l soon B the able author o’ the best neuus sheet for all o’ England, C? ‘N’ h-here I rest, see? Ho, ho! Shh! Requite us! U can sho we were not a useless team! Believe:’orlorn, brash old Greg needed thee as th’ helper,C? ‘N’ gliomatovs, he’l slip to near coma ‘n’ v, dear, ‘l finish all the notes for him so he’l be clean, clear ‘n’ free before r deadline. Ace, I no U hate ye fringe nevves dispatches bvt do ‘em wel, PDQ, as I-I’M nappin’.

Grr! Tuf if it irritate Frances. R notes don’t concern him. O, more ‘n’ more I resent that he— he, he, he, HE—hid mi Chr. Mar. I D:’e woue a huge, clever web to cheat me, saying he authored mi Sh plays. O, hovv to retort t’ the feo egregiovs hit? ‘N’‘n’-‘n’ I ce Hen has been arrested for prosecuting Francis in Lords: O! Some mad Bacon-anger stirred, which e’en f- forced an extreme royal order t’-t’ hold Hen tight at home. O, he’s been released unharmed, t’ get awai at the end of a month with d’ friendly iailer. So wd he sail here for R late farewel chats? He, he!(titt’r.)

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July’s c-cold this yeere; he’ll probably ne’er hear th’ Yat’st-tteeth chatter i’ the rain. O, uuil he t-t- t-touch ‘n’ feel ol’ Kit? Beery breath fades as h- he’d read a once-winnin’ remnant. E-e! No! Go home now—retreet o’er a snoee alp, e’en to d’ b- bbeautiful Eden foreuer lost t’ rotten expended me. Ahhhhh! Kyt. No, Doctor Daniel, nothing here now—just a crude uglie l-larded old corpse. Let sea waves cover it! I, I, I … The Bargrave document was completed and turned over to Captain Bargrave by Sir Henry Wotton’s steward, probably after Gregorio de’Monti’s death. N.B. The first two paragraphs speak of the creation of Two Noble Kinsman and its joint authorship with John Fletcher. Micaela (mamma) didn’t approve of the moral of the story. The front he speaks of was Shakespeare, of course. Cleo was one of the babies he would have liked to buy a piece of lace for. The Roman numerals DCL mean 650, probably in guineas, the currency unit used in giving prices of luxury goods. Naunton was the English Secretary of State c. 1621, to whom Greg de’Monti was sending regular reports. (See below) I’M here in h-hell again! In mad demonic replai a’ that terrible scene here he is recalling an episode some years earlier when he was lecturing at the university of Padua, and he and Micaela were living on a boat anchored on a river. Somehow their two small children were lost overboard and drowned. r-rat (RAT!) who’d ask U t’ chase all ye nonny crowds of enemies t’ far-away cities ‘n’-‘n’- afta great effort, shoot every nonny-non

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one of ‘em. Probably a reference to the former head of the secret service, Sir Robert Cecil, who Kit hated almost as much as he hated Bacon (see ciphers, The Tragedie of Richard the Third, Appendix A-24 where he refers to Robert Cecil as “crude, grim rat”). Sir Kit de’Monti , Nu Sir Christopher Marlowe (as de’Monti) was apparently knighted – or thought he was – in early 1621, in absentia, probably thanks to Naunton’s recommendation. But Kit was unable to get permission (and funds) to return home to England. Reference to Micaela as his Ladee is another indication that he had been knighted. Tainted rott’n Greg. After his return from Bermuda (1616 or so) Greg de’Monti was already sick, probably of some form of slow-growing cancer of the nose amphicoelous nasal cysts; also gliomatous (with a glioma, a tumor, usually of the brain or spinal cord, composed of tissue that forms the supporting structure of nerves); tu B a fat man. In later years he also gained weight. The "Venice Portrait" circa1621?) shows Marlowe a plump man. Celeb voce his wife Micaela (formerly Lujan) had once been a celebrated singer on the Spanish stage, as well as the mistress of the famous Spanish poet, Lope de Vega; patient ladee ‘n’ dear wife Micaela; when he was knighted she became a Lady; Ace, was one of his nicknames for her. Guarina The Guarini family country place outside San Bellino, southwest of Venice. Kit (Greg) had worked closely with Guarini for some years (since 1597) on spy business. There are indications that Micaela may have gone there with their 3 or 4 young children after Kit’s

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death (which occurred in November 1621) and it is said that there are still some Monti’s in that region of Italy. Grr! Tuf if it irritate Frances. R notes don’t concern him. O, more ‘n’ more I resent that he—he, he, he, HE—hid mi Chr. Mar. I D:’e woue a huge, clever web to cheat me, saying he authored mi Sh plays. O, hovv to retort t’ the feo egregiovs hit? ‘N’‘n’-‘n’ I ce Hen has been arrested for prosecuting Francis in Lords: O! Some mad Bacon-anger stirred, which e’en f-forced an extreme royal order t’-t’ hold Hen tight at home. Francis was Bacon. Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton was the principal prosecutor in Francis Bacon’s trial in the House of Lords. Bacon persuaded (or forced) the king to have him arrested (house arrest). The friendly iailer was Sir William Parkhurst, who’d worked at the embassy in Venice with Harry Wotton and Kit. Hen’s imprisonment ended August 30, 1621. We do not know if he managed to travel to Venice before Kit’s death. (He might not have known of the urgency.) But there is a hint of some breech between them. It might have been a touch of jealousy on Hen’s part, as Kit still thought of Hen as a good friend but (since Rita and Micaela) not as a lover. That might explain Hen’s (possible) reluctance to take care of Micaela and the children after Kit’s death. Sometime in August 1621 Bacon, on behalf of the King, sent secret word to Tobie Mathew who was probably still staying at Peter-Paul Rubens’ house in Antwerp. Rubens

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had private contacts with the household of the Infanta, and King James was still hoping against hope for a possible Spanish match for Prince Charles. The King wanted news. Is it possible that Bacon added a private message to Tobie, about an extra job? Stop over in Venice and get rid of those troublesome men at the embassy there before you come home. I’ll pay well. There’ll be no trouble about your entering England: James wants your news of the Infanta. We’ll never know for sure, but I think he did give Tobie Mathew some such instruction – ostensibly based on the secret services need to prevent any interrogation of Gregorio by the Venetians. But Bacon had other grudges against Gregorio, including his constant obstruction of Bacon’s pro-Spanish initiatives and, most of all, his behind the scenes advice and assistance to the Earl of Southampton, his chief prosecutor. Tobie Matthew had visited the embassy a few years earlier, and he knew how things worked. In the aftermath of the Spanish conspiracy he could have walked in and nobody would even notice. *** On September 25, 1621 (Eng.) Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, and one of Kit Marlowe’s oldest friends and former lovers, died of the smallpox. Gregorio was bone-tired and in poor health. The past two years had been especially difficult, and extreme lack of money compounded the problems. He had a cancerous tumor on the nose, his bad leg made walking almost impossible, he was getting fat, his memory was failing. Micaela had to finish some of his dispatches.

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In mid October (the 14th?) Harry Wotton declared a holiday (Octoberfest). A barrel of wine was decanted and split between the two groups. Harry took his “Embassy family” with some of the wine to his country house in Noventa, leaving Gregorio and Micaela to hold the fort in town. The wine had been poisoned, most likely by an agent of the secret service, or Bacon’s personal friend and acolyte Tobie Matthew, under orders from Bacon. Harry Wotton survived the poison, but he was weak for many days. Several others in the Noventa party got sick but recovered. However Will Leete, a former embassy steward living in Padua, who had joined the party, died of it {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}. Gregorio must have received the news of Mary Sidney Herbert’s death only a few days after drinking the poisoned wine. It was another devastating blow, especially in his weakened physical condition. In the following weeks Micaela, who probably drank less, recovered but Gregorio got worse. Harry and the other survivors got back from Noventa, November 21, still very weak, Harry’s cousin, Edward Deering was unable to walk. He had to be carried upstairs. Early AM November 22, 1621, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Gregorio de’Monti, Moncassin, Colerdin, Kit, the Yat, the Moth, Merlin, the Hebe – and Will Shakespeare – died in his apartment of the English embassy, aged 57 years, 9 and1/2 months.48 (The last victim of the poisoned wine was Edward Deering, who died in the embassy at the

48.British History online states that he died in February 1622 [http://www.british history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=94083] Footnote 2.

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end of January.) On November 22, the day after Gregorio’s death Harry asked the Council of Ten to allow art collector Andrea Vendramin to send a sculptor to make a death mask. Despite any doubts they might have entertained about the authorship of private letters containing “all secrets” to di Dominis, the Council agreed. The death mask, or one that matches the picture of Marlowe at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, still exists. It is now in a museum in Germany. On November 28 a letter from an unknown writer was received by a Venetian spy named Gerolamo Vano. Vano was a freelance intelligencer (spy) working for the Inquisitors of State. He was employed mainly to spy on the Spanish embassy during the period 1617-1622. In the summer of 1622 Vano was arrested by his employers and hanged for unspecified crimes. His reports to the Inquisitors are currently held in file 636 of the archive of the Inquisitors of State. The unsigned letter he received reads as follows: “Your Lordship is the most worthy general of spies for the lords Inquisitors of State, known as such not only in this city but throughout the state. The company of spies begs Your Lordship to provide a replacement for Gregorio de Monti, a recently deceased brother of our company, so that the service does not suffer. Your honor as general of spies demands it” {Walker, 2002 #385}. Vano had no known connection, and probably no connection at all, with Gregorio. This letter seems to have been a sinister joke at Vano’s expense, satirizing his pretensions.

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For our purposes it merely confirms that Gregorio was – apart from other roles – well-known to the brethren of intelligencers in Venice, as one of them and a rather important one, at that. Micaela paid for a requiem mass. Then she took the three living children and their personal possessions, probably south to San Bellino, near Padua, where I think – there is no proof – she probably took a job as housekeeper for the family of Gianbattista Guarini’s son. Later generations of de’Monti’s served as stewards for the Calcagnini family in Ferrara. A Calcagnini had been a professor of Belles Lettres at Ferrarra University, where Guarini had also taught. Two hundred years later, during Napoleonic times, Vicenzo Monti (1754-1828), a graduate of Ferrara University, was the “poet laureate” of Italy. *** On December 28 (Eng.) Tobie Mathew arrived at Dover. The Commissioner of the Passage at Dover (Zouch) seems to have expected his arrival. There was a letter from the Palace “Let Tobie Mathew come to attend his Majesty." The king seems to have been pleased by his report {Matthew, 1907 #346} p. 194. Did Tobie bring false news to the king re Spanish marriage? And news to Bacon re the Venice wine job? Apparently he was lavishly rewarded for something. In January 1622 (Eng.) John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton about Tobie: "At his last being here yt is saide (how truly I know not) that he got a great deale of monie by the Lord Chauncellor’s favor…" {Lee, 1972 #365}

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vol 2 p 419. Bacon was still “Lord Chancellor”, despite his impeachment. *** On February 22, 1622 Harry Wotton delivered an eulogy for Gregorio at the Collegio. His speech is preserved in Venice Archives, Esp. Prin. Filza 29 Registro 32 . Would he have done that for a clerk or a spy? John Taylor the Water Poet (he operated a water coach on the Thames) wrote a 17-page sardonic encomium for Kit, published soon after Gregorio’s death. It began: SIR Gregory Nonsence His Newes from no place On the title page is a false date: "Printed in London, and are to bee sold between Charing-Crosse, and Algate. 1700." (Maybe a cipher, surely a joke:—Charing Cross was W. of London, Aldgate, E.) The real date of publication is printed on the back page: FINIS. Printed at London by N.O. 1622. (a copy from Charles Hindley’s Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana, at the Folger Library.) In the center of the title page are 5 weird names which together make this anagram:

QUEER KIT M; HE HAS GONE UP TO SPY ON PLUTO— COACHMAN.

Gregorio (Kit M.) must have been a legend among the brotherhood of English spies and intelligencers.

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Epilog

In January 1622 immediately after Marlowe’s death in venice, plans for the Shakespeare monument in Stratford- on-Avon were started (probably by Bacon). The Folio project was already well under way. The secret society of Freemasons may have been involved. I think Francis Bacon, who considered himself to be a concealed prince, and was probably a Freemason as well as founder of the Society of Rosicrucians, wanted to publicize Kit’s works under Shakespeare’s name, thinking that nobody would take mediocre actor Will Shakespeare seriously as the real author. He wanted people “in the know” to suspect that he, Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, was the real author, and that Shakespeare was merely his front man. To achieve this he intended to control the printing of the folio in order to make the printed plays a nest for his own ciphers, intimating that he (Bacon) had created the plays anonymously (see anagrams for Kit’s Sonnet 135: “... Then I C Sh., fair ‘n’ crass, giue all R neat writin’ t’ the actors’ theater as his ouun—n’ BACON’s—a lie—a dead lie!”) When Kit’s friends learned of a proposed monument in Stratford they may have offered to help, or then again, they may have been bribed or coerced. Mary Herbert’s sons were probably helpful if not out front; Edward Blount, Kit’s publisher, was also out front; Peter Manwood, Kit’s half- brother, Harry Wotton, Henry Wriothesley and others remained invisible, but contributed in various ways. Bacon

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was confident that his scheme would be undetected. He could not believe that anybody could outsmart him. But secretly, contrary to Bacon’s intention, the Shakespeare monument at Stratford became a secret monument for Kit Marlowe (See Appendix C). William Shaksper(e) of Stratford, who died in 1616, had nothing to do with the project. The collection was dedicated to William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (who became Lord Chancellor of England, succeeding Francis Bacon, in the same year) and his younger brother Philip, Earl of Montgomery. The project was supposedly supervised by two of Shaksper(e)’s former colleagues at the Globe Theater, John Hemmings and Henry Condell. It was carried out by a consortium of four publishers, Edward Blount, William Jaggard, John Smethwick and William Aspley, and printed by the press of Isaac Jaggard (William Jaggard’s son). Ed Blount is usually thought to have been the active editor. The role of Edward Blount deserves amplification. According to the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) his name was Blunt, and the full story of Blount’s long relationship with Marlowe deserves telling, if it can ever be pieced together. What we know is mostly indirect. Blount was the publisher of Hero and Leander in 1598, and The Phoenix and the Turtle in 1601, both under Marlowe’s name. In 1607 he published his own translation into English of The Courtiers Art (from Italian Ars Auliea by Lorenzo Ducci), dedicated to the same two brothers, William, Earl of Pembroke and Philip, Earl of Montgomery, to whom the First

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Folio was subsequently dedicated. It would seem that there was a connection. A key point is evidence that Edward Blount, was in frequent communication with the English embassy in Venice where Gregorio Monti worked. One source for this is The Letters of John Chamberlain (1554-1628){McClure, 1939/1979 #352}. Among the 479 letters included are numerous letters to Dudley Carleton, when he was Ambassador to Venice, and to Isaac Wake who was Secretary under Carleton and later became Ambassador himself. References to Ned Blount in the letters show a pattern of regular communication between Ned Blount and the embassy at Venice. Here are some brief quotes from Chamberlain’s letters: $ November 25, 1613 "To the right honorable Sir Dudley Carleton night Lord Ambassador for his Majestie at Venice," "Ned Blunt hath sent you divers bookes and almanachs by sea. In the meanetime here is one to serve till they come." $ October 12, 1614 to Isaac Wake,"I must likewise pray you to provide me two pounds of mithridat and two pounds of treacle, and let yt come when you have occasion to send to Master Blunt, or yf you send nothing to him, by some trustie shipmaster so soon as you can conveniently." $ August 24, 1615 "To the right honorable Sir Dudley Carleton knight Lord Ambassador for his Majestie at Venice",: "Ned Blount meanes to write a bill of exchaunge and monie he payed here, and desired me

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to recommend yt to your remembrance." $ October 26, 1616 to Sir Dudley Carleton,"Yf you can spare your Gazettes when you have don with them they shold be welcome for I am disapointed of those I was wont to have by the meanes of Ned Blunt...." $ October 14, 1618 to Sir Dudley Carleton,"Ned Blunt says that Master Wake is expected here shortly..." (The above reference indicates that Blount knew when Wake was due in London from Venice.) $ January 25, 1619 to Sir Dudley Carlton knight, Lord Ambassador for his Majestie with the States of the United Provinces at the Hagh,"Here is likewise the Kings book, (though I dout you have yet alredy), and a pamflet of the triumphs upon the top of Mount-Cenis which Ned Blunt delivered me from Sir Isaac Wake."(The above reference indicates that Ned Blount took deliveries from Isaac Wake, who worked at the embassy in Venice, and that Blount passed on materials he received from Venice.) These letters establish that Edward Blount was in regular communication with the Embassy in Venice, at least between 1613 and 1619. The fact that letters were not addressed directly to the supposed Italian-speaking Venetian Gregorio de’Monti probably reflects Monti’s nervousness about being seen to correspond with English- speaking private individuals in England. The existence of this channel of communications also explains how Edward Blount could have acquired the rights (and the manuscripts?) to so many of Marlowe-

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Shakespeare’s unpublished plays. There is also Blount’s dedication of Hero and Leander to Tom Walsingham, in which he (Blount) refers to himself as the friend, publisher, and intellectual heir of Marlowe, whose work, he implies, it is his responsibility to publish. Finally, it was Blount who registered the Thomas Shelton translation of Don Quixote, Part I in 1612 and published both Part I and Part II (in 1620). There is no way Hemmings and Condell, even with willing collaboration by Edward Blount, could have financed the First Folio project, acquired the manuscripts, secured the legal rights, and undertaken the editing, proof-reading and printing of such an enormous volume on their own. Apart from anything else, quite a lot of money would have had to be paid out before any sales of the completed folio. The named individuals were not nearly wealthy enough. There had to be a powerful financier and organizer in the shadows, behind the scenes. It had to have been either the Freemasons, the Herbert brothers as individuals, or Francis Bacon who did that. The secretive (but motivated) Bacon is by far the most likely organizer and financier. Bacon himself probably possessed several manuscripts, originally sent to his brother Anthony. Robert Cecil might have had a few, although presumably most of the ones he had received while heading the secret service were passed on to Shakespeare and ended up in the possession of the Kings Players (the company that owned the Globe Theater). But the Globe had burned down in 1613, with all its literary contents. It is not impossible that

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Ben Jonson and Mike Drayton were actually looking for manuscripts, on behalf of Francis Bacon, when they visited Will Shakespeare in Stratford in April 1616. However, it is unlikely that the plans for the Folio had yet been formulated at that time. In any case, Shakespeare had no manuscripts, as confirmed by his will, prepared just four weeks prior to that meeting. By the end of 1621, however, the folio plans were far advanced. When he heard from Tobie Mathew of Marlowe’s death from the poisoned wine in the embassy cellar, Bacon needed to recruit another agent quickly. On January 3, 1622 (Eng.), Bacon received a note: "About Saturday Mr. Burrows hopes to be at liberty to wait upon your Lordship" {Spedding, #312}vol xiv p. 324. Soon after that, John Borough49 (a.k.a. Burrows), one of Bacon’s secretaries, was on his way to Venice. His ostensible purpose was to bid on the Barocci Library as an agent for Bacon’s friend Robert Cotton. He was really there to find and remove Kit’s corrected manuscripts from the embassy house. He was lucky to arrive there when the staff was in disarray, on account of the poisoned wine. In fact, Borough did not buy the Barocci library but he was certainly commissioned by Cotton to buy manuscripts. He would have needed evidence

49.John Borough was a lawyer, educated at Gray’s Inn (where Francis Bacon probably recruited him). He had been keeper of the records of the Tower of London, secretary to the Earl Marshall and was co-author of a book (with Selden and Bacon) on the life of King Henry VII, published in 1621. Later he was knighted.

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of such a commission in case there was any question to account for his possession of them, either on departure from Venice or arrival in England. Borough was a known agent of Bacon. He was mentioned as middleman in one of the bribes discussed during Bacon’s trial, where he was identified as "one near the Ld. Chancellor" {Montagu, 1834 #382}pp. 716-717. In March (Eng.) John Borough returned from Venice with a bundle of Kit Marlowe’s corrected manuscripts. Bacon at once went to George Buck, now Master of the Revels, and asked for more. Bacon instructed Buck to issue certificates and submit to the Stationers’ Register the titles and the name of the publisher Bacon selected. George Buck, who had once frustrated Archbishop Whitgift’s men when they were searching for Kit’s manuscripts back in 1591, knew that Edward Blount had been buying rights from the Players to publish many of the plays that Kit had been revising. Buck told Bacon that since he (Bacon) no longer had any authority over the Theater Wing he should go talk to Blount about acquiring titles for registry. Bacon was furious, as always whenever his orders were not instantly complied with. The arsonist struck again. The Revels office soon burned (Buck’s DNB). All Buck’s office books and his own unpublished works, as well as anything by Kit Marlowe were consumed by fire. Just a few days later, March 30 (Eng.) John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton: "Old Sir George Buck, master of the revels, has gone mad" {McClure, 1939/1979 #352}vol. 2 p.43. It seems he suffered an emotional breakdown on

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account of the fire, followed by a stroke. On April 12 (Eng.) the Guildhall jurors officially declared Buck insane {Eccles, 1933 #325}. George Buck died a few days later. It was murder by another name. Bacon then had to deal with Blount, who had legal titles to 15 never-published plays, and said he had access to three more. Blount agreed to include them in the Folio, probably in exchange for being in on the printing and editing jobs. The quarto of Troilus and Cressida, it seemed, belonged to a man named Henry Walley who apparently balked. Hinman writes: "whether an agreement was reached with Walley … or … the Folio publishers, having come into possession of a manuscript…felt safe to proceed…."{Hinman, #387} The publishers started legal proceedings to obtain the rights to 17 other plays. Who else had possession of original manuscripts, other than the ones in Venice? It is likely that manuscript copies of some of the plays had been held by Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. When she died (a few months before Marlowe in 1621) these manuscripts might have passed to her son, William Herbert, the third Earl. There is no actual evidence of this, however, and one supposes that there should be. Another possibility would be Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. After all, it was to him that most of Kit’s anagrams were addressed, even if most had never been read. If Hen had any manuscripts, we do not know what might have become of them. He was fighting in the Netherlands soon after Marlowe’s death, and both he and

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his son died there, of disease (typhus?) If he had any manuscripts they were probably kept somewhere in his household, but nobody knows. There is one other plausible source of manuscripts, namely Sir Thomas Walsingham (d.1630) and his wife, Audrey Shelton Walsingham (d.1631). They had been close friends of Christopher Marlowe prior to his “death” in 1593. He almost certainly visited them from time to time in later years, when he was traveling under other names. Both Walsinghams were still alive when the Folio project was in progress. It is possible that they were involved in the project, at least peripherally. Another man who was probably involved was the former scrivener for the Kings Players, Ralph Crane. During that period, Ralph Crane wrote a ciphered eulogy to Kit Marlowe inside a simple poem {Craven, 1912 #210} which I discussed in Chapter 1.Some time in 1622 Ralph Crane, the scribe who worked for the Globe Theater wrote a modest poem {Baldwin, 1927 (1954) #386}: "And some imployment hath my usefull Pen, "Had ‘Mongst these civill well-deserving Men, "That grace the Stage with honour and delight, "Of whose true Honesties I much could write "But will compris’t (as in a Caske of Gold) "Vnder the Kingly-service they do hold."

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Rafe Crane was part of the State secret service Theater Wing. This format (certain words being underlined) was often used for anagram-letters. Using the letters in the underlined parts of Rafe’s poem, Ballantine found a message. It reads:

KIT M. AGREED T’ GO L-LIVE IN VENICE ‘N’ PENN’D

GREAT SH SHOWES—HYS SONG’LL NEUER DIE. Nor will they. But when will he get due credit for them? Speaking of manuscripts, it seems appropriate to mention the so-called “Northumberland Manuscript” found in 1867 in Northumberland House – where the Dudley family once lived. The manuscript (so called) was a parchment folder. It had apparently contained a portfolio of manuscripts, including a number of Bacon’s, including his Essays, and a few others. The others included the imprisoned Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel’s letter to the Queen (asking for the right to see his children), an Oration at Gray’s Inn Revels, a play attributed to Tom Nashe (The Isle of Dogs), and a portion of Leicester’s Commonwealth . But the two “pièces de résistance”, were unattributed manuscript copies of Richard II and Richard III. These are all mentioned in the table of contents. The Baconians insist that the portfolio must have belonged to Francis Bacon, because the symbol of Pallas Athena, which Bacon used often, appears on it. They note with glee that the name “Shakespeare” is scribbled in several places on the parchment. In another place is written the line “Revealing day through every cranny peepes” which is from The Rape of Lucrece. In short, this document

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displays both names in juxtaposition, the only such document in existence that does so. Baconians regard this as strong evidence, if not incontrovertible proof, that Bacon was Shakespeare. All it actually proves, if indeed Bacon was the owner, was that he owned manuscript copies of the two plays in question. How he got them, and when, is a different and interesting but unanswerable question. Sadly, the contents of the folder have since disappeared. *** On April 5, 1621 (Eng.) Jane Davenant, mother of Kit’s son William Davenant, died in Oxford. A couple of weeks later her husband John followed her. John Davenant’s will provided college educations for his other male children, but William – not his own son –was to be apprenticed. But William Davenant got into Oxford, anyhow, though he dropped out after a year. He later became a successful playwright, and finally Poet Laureate of England, despite this early disadvantage {Patterson, 1872 #433}.) *** In May 1622 printing of the Folio started. I think William and Philip Herbert donated Mary’s presentation copies of several plays to the project. They got the usual fawning dedication as a reward. Troilus and Cressida was inserted in the Folio during printing. Did they get around Walley’s obstruction by using Henry Wriothesley’s presentation copy to Mary? Ben Jonson was the proof-editor. He wrote that six "mutes" were doing the work—with shades drawn—putting their eyes out "on an angle where the ants inhabit"{Jonson,

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1970 #388}. Who were the mutes? Bacon was the overall supervisor and watcher, Jaggard and Blount were there, probably proof-reading, along with Ben Jonson, George Carew (Baron Carew of Clopton), and others—Robert Cotton? or George Herbert? No workers outside the clique were allowed into the sanctum. Printing continued until December 31,1623. Hinman wrote, "the First Folio was ‘in press’ for almost two years"{Hinman, #387}. Ben Jonson also wrote the famous preface at the beginning of the Folio, that has been cited by most Shakespeare scholars as the greatest proof that Shakespeare was famous in his lifetime. Of course the name was famous enough after he started claiming authorship of plays in 1596 or so. But everybody important in the theater world knew perfectly well that he was a front for Kit Marlowe. Why would Jonson write such a thing if he did not mean it? The simplest answer is probably the right one: the man with the money (and power), his half-brother, Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, told him to do it and it was not safe to refuse Bacon’s assignments. But Jonson had another motivation, too, even if he would have denied it consciously. He was deeply jealous of Kit Marlowe’s stupendous talent. Though he was already well-known and moderately famous, Ben Jonson must have known that plays like Hamlet, MacBeth, Othello and King Lear were far beyond him. He would always be second best. How delicious, he must have thought, to let those great plays be ascribed publically to a non-entity like Will Shakespeare and secretly claimed by his patron, Francis

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Bacon, by means of some ciphers that could be added during the printing process! *** In early October 1623 (Ven.) Sir Harry Wotton left Venice for the third and last time. He crossed the Alps with all his possessions, then traveled down the Rhine from Basle to Cologne. By November 5 (Eng.) he was in Cologne. On November 7 (Eng.) Harry Wotton disembarked at the port of Sandwich, with baggage {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287}vol 1 p. 192. His baggage included paintings, books, papers, skull? ashes? death mask? Memories. But he had no manuscripts. They had all been removed. He must have guessed who took them, but there was no proof, and Bacon was still too powerful to challenge without solid evidence. *** November 8, 1623 (Eng.) The Stationers Register noted "8th November in 1623. Mr. Blount Isaac Jaggard Entred for their Copie…" It also noted that the Folio would include"16 Plays not before Printed."Two others never previously printed were not on the list but got into the Folio: King John and Taming of the Shrew. And Troilus and Cressida was also included at the last minute (though it had been printed in quarto). Sometime in December 1623 (Eng.) the Stratford Monument got its finishing touches. (Skull? Bones in the box?) See Appendix C. At the end of the month the Folio printing was finished and binding began. Early the following year (1624) January? February? March? the mystery arsonist struck yet again. This time,

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Ben Jonson’s personal library burned. As Ben Jonson had been charged with the proof reading, almost certainly the corrected scripts of the never-before-printed plays were piled on his desk. Francis Bacon didn’t want anyone else to see Kit- Gregorio’s well-known Italian handwriting. All Ben’s personal manuscripts and books were burned, too, of course. All the better for Bacon’s plan to claim secret authorship. It was Bacon’s way of saying “Thanks!” to one of his subordinates for a job well done. Ben Jonson was not in a position to make a public accusation, but he did rebuke Bacon for his deed and his habitual arson in double-talk in "Execration of Vulcan," published after his (Ben’s) death. On January 19, 1624 (Eng.) the first copy of the Folio was formally presented to Prince Charles, possibly by a parade of characters from the plays, in costume. Jonson’s anti-masque, also presented on that day, tells of the printing. It makes wicked fun of Bacon as Chronomastix, the Time-Waster {Jonson, 1970 #388}. On February 17 (Eng.) a bound copy of the Folio was placed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. *** In August 1624 (Eng.) Henry (Hen) Wriothesley, and his son James departed for Rotterdam. Hen was the leading colonel of English forces being sent to aid the Dutch against the Spanish, Henry Vere was the second of the four colonels {Stopes, 1922 #260} p457. But in November at winter quarters Rosendale, there was an outbreak of some disease (probably typhus) which killed many soldiers, including

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James Wriothesley.50 Hen took his son’s body to Bergen op Zoom, meaning to sail with it to Southampton, but at Bergen he himself suddenly died "of a Lethargy" (ibid.) Poison was suspected. One of the Poems of Sir John Beaumont was about Hen, with these lines {Stopes, 1922 #260}: "And thou, O Belgia, wert in hope to see The trophies of his conquests wrought in thee, But Death, who durst not meet him in the field, In private, by close treach’ry made him yield." In late March (25-27 Eng,) of the following spring King James died a painful lingering death {Akrigg, 1968 #259} p 392-3. Poison was again suspected. Immediately, Dr. George Eglisham, one of King James’ Scottish doctors, made sweeping accusations: that someone had poisoned both the Earl of Southampton and the King. Eglisham blamed the King’s favorite, the Duke of Buckingham. Eglisham’s Petitions – one was sent to the new King Charles, and one to Parliament – are preserved in Harleian Miscellany. ii. 69 - 80 {Stopes, 1922 #260} p 466. King Charles didn’t believe that the murderer was Buckingham. Who could it have been? He asked Sir Harry Wotton to use the State secret service to find out the truth. Harry undertook the job, very quietly. That winter, he revealed to King Charles some of

50.Typhus had arrived in the Netherlands at that time from southern Europe via Spanish soldiers, who were more immune to the disease (having been exposed for several generations previously). Amsterdam suffered 10,000 typhus deaths in the year 1624 {Zinsser, 1934 #389} p.276.

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Francis Bacon’s nefarious activities, possibly including the suspicious deaths of his brother, Prince Henry and his mother Queen Anne, not to mention Thomas Overbury and a number of others. On April 2, 1626 (Eng.)Francis Bacon was taken on a closed-carriage ride up through snowy Highgate with King Charles’ Doctor Witherborne {Montagu, 1834 #382}pp. 446,448. Dr. Witherborne gave some medication to Bacon, who promptly vomited. Whatever can be said of him, Francis Bacon was not stupid. He realized what was happening. He stopped the coach, got out, thought of running away. But where could he go? Finally he thought better of it. Probably he imagined himself as a modern , forced to drink hemlock as punishment for opposing the powers of the state, who were too stupid to appreciate his infinite value. But, to die this way his reputation as a scientist and philosopher would still be intact. Anyhow he had outlived all of his rivals and most of his enemies. He decided that he must preserve his dignity. Perhaps thinking of chickens coming home to roost, he bought a plucked chicken from a nearby farmer’s wife, and stuffed it with snow, while discoursing on refrigeration. Then he got back into the carriage. They drove to Arundel House where he was admitted to an unused wing. Bacon went to bed with more “medication”. He sent for Julius Caesar to stay with him and dictated a polite note of thanks to his absent host, the Earl of Arundel. Early in the morning, April 9 (Easter Sunday) 1626 (Eng.) Francis Bacon

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died {Spedding, #312}vol xiv, p 550. Few tears were shed. Bacon’s epitaph in St. Michaels Church, St. Albans is in Latin: QUI POST QUOM OMNIA NATURALIS SAPENTIAE ET CIVILIS ARCANA EVOLUI ET NATURAE DISCRETUM EPLEVIT: COMPOSITA SOLVANTUR which means, more or less “After he had unfolded all knowledge of nature and civil secrets, he fulfilled nature’s decree: compounds dissolve!” But the epitaph also contains an anagram that is worthy of Kit, though probably made by Harry Wotton after Kit’s death: Is our queen’s poor, queer, unvvanted son t’sit in mama’s lap at last? Accelerate time no more; it vvill slip past U, uui’ lactic A-a-a-I! *** Harry Wotton spent his later years as provost of Eton College with time-off reading, smoking, and fishing with Izaak Walton over the Black Pots at the bend of the Thames. He also did some recruiting and training for the Secret Service. Finally, he burned his papers (anything that could compromise the Secret Service), willed his old burglar tools to his lawyer, and died, at Eton, December 5,1639 (Eng.) {Pearsall Smith, 1907 #287} vol 1, p 223. *** Kit’s daughter, Isabel-Elizabeth Cavendish died on April 17,1543 during the civil war after she received a

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serious bullet-wound trying to protect Princess Henrietta- Maria from snipers at the time of the Queen’s landing at Bridlington, in February. Isabel thought she was getting better, but the wound proved fatal.

Afterword

Kit Marlowe was well known as a playwright in London before May 30, 1593, and his connection with the secret service is pretty well established in convention al history, though the details of his exploits are not public knowledge and his exploits were much more critical (and dramatic) than conventional history acknowledges. The existence of an English agent-spy in Venice by the name of Gregorio de’Monti is also well established for the first time in this book – though not (yet) well-known to standard history. Gregorio was known to the Catholic authorities as a “Venetian clerk” and possible double agent and to the English authorities as secretary and twice chargé d’affaires at the embassy. Gregorio wrote numerous letters (in Italian) to Ralph Naunton, Secretary of State, during one such episode as ambassador locum , and copies survive. Both ambassadors Henry Wotton and Dudley Carleton knew and admired him as a loyal servant and friend. King James sent him a letter of thanks and, on another occasion, a “patent” acknowledging his authority to act in his (the king’s) name), which the Venetian authorities accepted. There is a strong indication that he was knighted in early 1621 in absentia. The fact that he was English and not Venetian is beyond

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doubt. Were Gregorio de’Monti and Kit Marlowe the same man? The anagram ciphers say so, in many places, and the channel between Edward Blount the publisher and the embassy suggests a connection. Several travelers in Venice recognized Gregorio as Marlowe. Marlowe was also recognized at Valladolid by another agent, Vaughan, and he was arrested on re-entry into England under that name. But there is no absolute proof that the person arrested (and released) in England was Gregorio Monti. However, that is a side issue. What is still lacking is conclusive physical proof that Gregorio was Marlowe and that Marlowe ws Shakespeare. That Gregorio was Marlowe is very nearly incontrovertible. He was English, he was a spy. He was a writer and poet. The dates fit. Everything fits. The anagrams say so in dozens of places, but the anagrams aren’t necessary to make the case. The fact that Marlowe was Shakespeare is also clear from the anagrams, and literary evidence also supports that conclusion. The forensic evidence summarized in the Appendices to this book is very strong. The story of Marlowe’s life before and after May 1593 is convincing. But if nothing will serve except a manuscript of a “Shakespeare” play in Marlowe’s Italian handwriting, it is unlikely to be found today. Bacon was too thorough in his post-mortem cleanup. If there are any undiscovered copies of Kit’s works, or his letters, in English still in existence, they would most

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likely have been kept by his widow Micaela Lujan, in which case they could still waiting to be found somewhere in the neighborhood of San Bellino or Padua. The second possibility is that he passed on some papers or manuscripts to his son Will Davenant, before his death, but I have no idea what might have become of them. Davenant’s earlier career, especially during the Civil War was quite rough at times. Sir Henry Wotton might have kept something identifying Gregorio as Kit Marlowe, although it is unlikely to have escaped the attention of his biographers. If so it could still be in some dusty archive at Eton College, where Wotton became Head Master and finally retired. Then there is the death mask, which allegedly includes a few hairs, which (in principle) could be used to identify Gregorio by DNA test as the son of his mother Kate. There remains the high probability that Kit Marlowe wrote (under other names), both in Spanish and Italian. He wrote Noches de Invierno in Spanish, under the name of Antonio Eslava, and he wrote L’Ippolito in Italian, under the name Gregorio de’Monti. Neither has yet been translated (as of this writing). When good English translations are available, any remaining doubts should vanish. What do the anagrams prove, if anything? On the one hand, they are not unique, and so there is no absolute certainty that the stories in the anagrams were put there by the original author. On the other hand, there are so many clues in the anagrams to facts that were not previously known yet could be confirmed independently, that it is difficult to dismiss them.

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The stories told in the anagrams are entirely consistent with known facts regarding many episodes in standard history and, not least, regarding the circumstances in which he created many of his plays. But the anagrams also tell other stories that are quite new and surprising, such as his marrano connections, his parentage by Sir Roger Manwood, his early patronage by Gresham, his trip to Constantinople with Christopher Carleill (Walsingham’s brother-in law) which probably explains how Walsingham came to know of him. His links (via Manwood) to the Martin Marprelate controversy are new to history. Of course the most extraordinary event of his early secret service career was his impersonation of the turncoat would-be priest Gilbert Gifford in connection with Walsingham’s scheme to trap Mary Queen of Scots into acknowledging and approving of the plots on her behalf. Gregorio de’Monti ‘s role in the Spanish Conspiracy of 1617-18 is only slightly less extraordinary. The anagrams throw new light on various personal relationships with Edward de Vere (Oxford), Henry Wriothesley (Southampton), Mary Sidney Herbert (Countess Pembroke), Emilia Bassano Lanier (the “dark lady” of the sonnets), lady Audrey Shelton Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth, Admiral Tom Howard de Walden (Suffolk), Robert Devereux (Essex), Sir Francis Bacon, Dudley Carleton, Gianbattista Guarini, Henry Wotton, his first wife Marina Cicogna, his second wife Micaela Lujan, and others. The relationship that has the most resonance to many will be his long (nearly 30 years) friendship with Miguel de Cervantes,

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whose greatest work, “Don Quixote” Marlowe translated into English as “Thomas Shelton”. The name strongly suggests a combination of Thomas Walsingham and Audrey Shelton, a girl who was staying (like Marlowe) at Walsingham’s estate, Scadbury, to escape the plague that was raging in London during the spring of 1593. He fell for her, during those weeks, and they had a short and rather hot romance, which ended abruptly when Kit was called to account by the Star Chamber. Some years later (1598?) she and Tom Walsingham were married. Kit Marlowe may or may not have been an outright atheist, though it is possible. But he was surely opposed to the hierarchies of the established Anglican Church, and all their pretensions. Neither was he a Roman Catholic, though he probably sympathized with the gripes of Catholics who felt repressed, no less than he would have empathized with the experiences of Jews or Puritans. He was clearly heterosexual, notwithstanding some early experiences with male lovers, starting with Carleill and Ned de Vere. His experiences commanding ships at sea and pirate-hunting, culminating in the his voyage to Bermuda, are surprising. His relationships with Roger Manwood, Mary Sidney Herbert, Emilia Bassano and his two wives and possibly as many as nine children, at least six of which were “legitimate”, and of whom four probably survived, are new. Apart from the two doubtfuls, one of his children, his oldest son Will Davenant, left an independent literary mark on the world. (He also wrote plays and finally became Poet Laureate of England during the Restoration). That has confused some

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biographers, due to his having remarked that his father was “The Bard”. I don’t think he meant W.S. There are plenty of clues for historians to follow up.

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Appendices Appendix A: Anagram ciphers (examples)

Note that in Elizabethan English i and j are the same and v and u are the same. The letter w is often written either as uu or vv. The symbols YE and YT mean “the” and “that” respectively.

Marlowe was very free with his language. (But that is what you would expect from”Shakespeare”, surely.) He used slang expressions (Oye!, no shit!, little yid ), phonetic spelling to make a point (Phhhhhreeee!), French words, Latin words, Italian words, abbreviations reminiscent of contemporary text messages (U for “you”, C for “see”, R for “our”, ‘n’ for “and”, d’ or th’ for “the”). He even introduces non-verbal sounds (E-e-e- e-e, Phhss, G-gr), stutters (I-I-lie, we w-w-won), he occasionally refers to various people by private nicknames (Hen, Ned, M’Am, Hoo- hoo), metaphors, and so on. But those deviations from normal written English are essentially symbolic alphabetical representations of spoken English. They amount to a significant expansion of the lexicon. But does this expanded lexicon make it easy to create long anagrammatic interior messages, telling relevant stories about his life, using the same letters as the exterior message in blank verse? On reflection, (and I started as a skeptic) I think the answer is perfectly clear. The interior anagrammatic messages in the plays really do exist. Roberta Ballantine discovered most of them, though she may have made some mistakes. She has published the ones she had found up to the months prior to her death {Ballantine, 2007 #364}. Some are also available on the internet. They are no longer being suppressed by the religious authorities, today. But they are still effectively suppressed by the academic traditionalists, and their publishers, who have been – to use a

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rude word – “brainwashed”. The question that should be asked is simple: who created these extended anagrams, which tell stories about Christopher Marlowe’s life? Was it Marlowe himself? Or was it Roberta Ballantine? If it was Ballantine, she must be a literary genius of the caliber of Marlowe (“Shakespeare”) himself. Perhaps she was. But I think the interior evidence points to Marlowe as the creator. And if he was the creator, then he has also given us a window into Elizabethan history, not as we get it from the books that were licensed by the stationers under the gimlet eyes of the inquisitors of the Star Chamber, but – if not as it really occurred – at least from a very different and much more modern perspective. None of the anagrammatic messages, that I know of, contradict other definitely known facts, and some of the inferences I have made in the main text (based, as always, on Ballantine’s work) are supported. But a few loose ends do remain, especially as regards his early life and what he was doing during the years 1590-92 and during the years 1599-1604, where I cannot decide between two (or more) possibilities, even with the anagrams for help. I cannot be absolutely sure that none of Marlowe’s anagrams were unintentionally misinterpreted by Ballantine, and – given that she spend twenty-seven years on the project – I am very reluctant to second guess. But Marlowe’s steganographic messages were somewhat telegraphic in style and imprecise as to such details as dates. This is an academic difficulty that will inevitably occur to all skeptics. The problem, distilled to its essence, is that the whole meaning of a (short) message can sometimes be changed by a single punctuation or a few letters. The most famous example is the single Greek letter iota that marked the difference between Eastern Orthodox and Western Christian doctrine. We still speak of “an iota of difference”. The best example is probably apocryphal: Consider the mythic telegraphic message determining the fate of a prisoner. The message reads: RELEASE IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SENT TO SIBERIA. The sender omitted a punctuation.

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The position of that punctuation mark (period), before or after the word IMPOSSIBLE, changes the meaning totally. But the interior messages in Marlowe’s writings are not susceptible to misinterpretation in quite the way illustrated above. The likelihood of misinterpretation on any major question fades into the background when one actually reads the messages. As in normal language, there is plenty of redundancy. The important messages are repeated many times in different ways. Misinterpretation of the important stuff is not really likely. The main problems are imprecision and ambiguity. This, of course, is where supporting evidence from other sources is vital.

*** (#1) This selection comes from the first 8 opening lines of “The Famous Victories of Henry V” date uncertain, early in Marlowe’s career. Probably written in the early 1580s, several years after Queen Elizabeth’s “long progress’ from June to November 1578.

Come away, Ned and Tom. Here, my lord. Come away, my lads. Tell me sirs, how much gold have you got. Chr.M. made ye show – Gad’s Hyl to Agyncourt –w–wi’ my amee Hal (moue-over ‘omme!), `n’y’ Old Lad o’d’Castle.

Faith, my lord, I have got five hundred pound. But tell me, Tom, how much hast thou got? We had grog to beat th’ cold. Hot, I’d vvrite my lood stuff tha whole nite `n’ h-hump U, m-m!

Faithe, my lord, some foure hundred pounde. Foure hundred poundes! Bravely spoken, lads! But So U’d prefer me. No uuorry: al seem’d fine. But U broke Nan’s heart! She’ll d-d-d-d-d-dy of no love – P-U! Phu!

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tell me, sirs, think(e) you not that it was a villainous part of me to rob(be) my father’s receivers? We’re all for hire to make nationalist plays t’B shouun before her Majesty’s covrt. It’s time tv

Why no, my lord, it was but a trick of youth. Faith(e), Ned, thou sayest true. But tell me, sirs, finish yt at last – rehearse yt with Buck. Oy! A new thril for me! Bur uue’l study to do the most… .”

(#2) From Henry V plaintext lines 25 through 40

But that his wildnesse, mortify’d in him, Seemed to dye too: yea, at that very ... bits the due history’s made total. Now, tho,’ I’M meetin’ ye heat of Ned’s very mad, witty

Consideration like an Angell came, And whipt th’ offending Adam out of him; identification with cold Hal ‘n’ the long-ago drama, speakin’enuf o’ "damn fem—

Leauing his body as a Paradise, T’inuelop and containe Celestiall Spirits. s"— Nan’s pitiable special predilection, "A sin leadin’ ta gross loue." Ai! Duty ha—

Never was such a sodaine Scholler made: Never came Reformation in a Flood, s made R Ned (who??) a Nemesis to save R Nan

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from a frolic in hel, Eve-clad, C? O-o! Are U

With such a heady currance scowring faults: Nor never Hidra-headed Wilfulnesse sure frustrate Nan’s headin’ for hel, ‘n’ he’s so wel? Dig hi Ned: he crav’d wa-wa, U C? U C? I’l cry

So soone did loose his Seat; and all at once: As in this King. / We are blessed in the Change. Ai! ! Can ‘e think she’s bad? She’s lost, alone, long-wedded to an ingrate ass! Cee? Oi! In his sole

Heare him but reason in Divinitie; And all-admiring(e), with an inward(e) wish view, Nan’s girl-behauior ended ani wish t’ win her. Ai! railin’, he’d admit mi tan—

You would desire the King were made a Prelate: Heare him debate of Common-wealth Affaires; ‘s better than her fair self. We weaue on home. O, O— felt like aready-made pig. Dad, haue merci! Wom—

(#3) This selection consists of twelve lines (lines 121-132) from Henry IV Part 1 The correspondence between plaintext and anagrams (bold) is shown here:

... that wand’ring Knight so faire. And I prythee sweet Wagge, when thou art King, as God save thy Grace. . . fore U’d even think t’ grasp thy crown. Didn’t wee wink – ha ha — at the shaggie, raw, stagey aggregations

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Maiesty I should say, for Grace thou wilte haue none. What, none? No, not so much as will serue to be Prologue to an Egge and Butter. ‘o tales U showed your mother, who saw ye goin’ on ‘n’ on alone, pitiable, laughable, ‘n’suggested a concert of ten authors t’ write’em?

Well, how then? Come, roundly, roundly. Marry then, sweet(e) Wagge, when thou art King, let not vs that are Squires of the Nights bodie, We tvtors tought our leader t’ shine for th’ queen ‘n’ while traces of my long-gone style adhered t’ his MT work, he began on (hum ... ) n-

bee call’d Theeves of the Dayes beautie. Let vs be Dianaes Forresters, Gentlemen of the Shade, Minions of the Moone: ot-honest liftin’ of some o’ my best dialogue. E-e-e! VVe all resented that breech, see, ‘n’ feared h-he’d been one fat-ass mis-

and let men say, we be men of good being gouerned as the, Sea is, by our noble and chast mistris erable sad waste of time, but SSS hired us, and euen tho’ Ned left, good nabob Regina’s money came in, ‘n’ ye grog, ‘n’ m-

the Moone, vnder whose countenance we steale. Thou say’st well, and it holds well too: eals ‘n’ candy too. We ten vote to write some howls on Ned ‘n’ that love-mess he cal’d Hell. U

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(#4) This selection is Sonnet 126: The last two lines are missing from the quarto. The parentheses are printed in the quarto:

Oh thou my lovely Boy who in thy power Doest hould times fickle glasse, his fickle howers Chr. M. writ, hopein’ t’ see U, Sly, I’l hyde til they go. I’l lose ‘em – walk off de bvsy show. So, ho! U cook,

Who hast by wayning growne, and therein shou’st Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet selfe grow’st ‘n’ after eatin’ wee’l do a story-show, Stay ‘n’ rest, ‘n’ begin t’– shhh – whist! G-gr! Why? Why not? I guess wee R lov

If Nature (soveraine misteres) over wrack’[e] As thou goest onwards still will plucke thee backe ers! Svre U know it – sailin’ so far t’t’Greece ‘n’ back, time was we saved each other. Look, uue slept till R

She keepes thee to this purpose, that her skill May time disgrace, and wretched mynuit kill. ship sailed! Capt. Kester ‘n’ Kit ye kid were (shh still loue-dreamin’ at port. See me get h-h-y! Much t’

Yet fear her O thou minnion of her pleasure, she may detaine, but not still keepe her tre[a]sure! reliue: R Irish days – Perrot ‘n’sorlee Boy. E-e-e-e-e! Al I kno U taut me then. One mustn’t f-fear the h-hap

Her Audite (though delayd) answer’d must be,

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and her Quietus is to render thee. that brot R queer loue: It was a deer, needed deed. A iust rhythm shunn’d giues h/ ...

(..)

(#5) Plaintext and ciphers from the first ten lines of Love’s Labour’s Lost:

Let fame, that all hunt after in their liues, Liue registred vpon our brazen Tombes, Marlouue made this iesting plaie anent Hen’s revel for Eliza, but th’ tr-tr-trouble (f

And then grace vs in the disgrace of death: When spight of cormorant deuouring Time, its ‘n’ fits o’ ire) gave Hen sudden courage to forgo th’ marriage match; ‘n’chid, he went ‘n’ p’d.

Th’ endeuour of this present breath may buy: That honour which shall bate his sythes keene edge, Kit alter’d bans ‘n’ bed t’ hints o’ future MT years. So how’s th’ change? Ye be Phhhhhreeee! Stay!! I loue U.

And make vs heyres of all eternitie, Therefore braue Conquerours, for so you are, A fool t’ require you t’ marry a Vere sister! Fah! No cruder fool has eueer been seen! K-

That warre against your owne affections And the huge Armie of the worlds desires.” nowledge o’ wrong arriued iust in time for Hen

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t’wrest free o’ th’ shaft day! Cessa!. Aaah!

(#6) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 33-36 in Love’s Labour’s Lost,

I can but say their protestations ouer, so much, dear Liege, I have already sworne. ..[it] was Roger: Oye! Euer an artist uuith dice, at Emilia’s he opened lo on Barcabudee. She, uery

That is, to liue and study heere for three yeares. but there are other strict observances: hot, casts hi t’win, reset t’cast another try, but he sees her error: a die-tylter! E-e!

(#7) Plaintext and ciphers from Henry V, Act 1 lines 213-222

The Blood(e) and Courage that renowned them runs in your Veines: and my thrice Puissant(e) Liege [I]’d a hit, ‘n’ was bein’ such a greedy egotist only Hen rever’d

Is in the very May-Morne of his Youth, Ripe for Exploits and mightie Enterprises. me: I dreamt o’ nonni uuealth, C? Neuer stop ‘n’ see ye extent of my vtter foolishness!

Your Brother kings and Monarchs of the Earth(e) Doe all expect, that you should rowse your selfe, Riding’ mi hi horse, I-I hope to marry a p-pri ncess: th’ louely dark-eyed poetess at th’ gamin’ house

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As did the former Lyons of your Blood(e) They know(e) your Grace hath cause, and means, and might; oy! ‘N’ oh! U offer her all th’ extra U cd borrow or earn. Many nyghts she ‘n’ I

So hath your Highnesse: neuer King of England Had Nobles richer, and more loyall subject(e)s made l’Amour tyl d’ break o’ day, C, when oh so sore, I’d haue t’ go off o’er t’ d’ Cu [t]

(#8) Plaintext and ciphers in Taming of a Shrew, lines 11-18.

Brach Merriman, the poore Curre is imbost And couple Clowder with the deepe-mouth’d brach ..[c]urch destruction, archbishop murder ‘n’ more! I-I’d tel the world what became o’ Pop – he became

Saw’st thou not boy how Siluer made it good at the hedge corner, in the couldest fault, a hidden martyr caught in the net fools woue – lost, bled to his death-rest. We go to couu-

I would not loose the dogge for twenty pounde Why Belman is as good as he my Lord, ard’s graue if we do not spell out his ghastly doom below: Oye! One good M.D. went in h-

He cried vpon it at the meerest losse, And twice today pick’d out the dullest sent. ate to Dad’s house to ope a vein, etc. ‘n’ emit red shyt. C, Peter told! ‘E witness’d th’ kill, C.

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Trust me I take him for the better dogge. Thou are a Foole, if Eccho were as fleete, th’ corse reekt o’ filth. Mi mother Cate, euer braue, washt it al off to de feet. Gee, O, G ---

(#9) Plaintext and ciphers from Roger Manwood’s epitaph

In obitum honoratissimi viri Rogeri Manwood militis quaestorii Reginalis Capitalis Baronis. I lost mi pa, slain in bravo horror. O, wail! I, I, I! Mi aim is to assist ruenge. I can’t quit,

Noctiuagi terror, ganeonis triste flagellum Et lovis Alceides, rigido vulturque Latroni so I’d bring mi Roi Anger against ‘im for our satiric vvritings led to a cruel end. O, I loue ‘is grit!

Vrna subtegitur, Scelerum gaudete Nepotes Insons luctifica sparsis cervice capillis I’l quote – tell U o’ success o’ fierce prelates against Pa – ruinin ‘im vvi crude l-lies, C, as ‘e turns i’clip-gut beating,

Plange, fori lumen venerandae gloria legis Occidit, heu secum effoetas Acherontis ad oras done i’ secret, causin’ death. O, mae mi curses fal on al cruel aged hie prelates! O, fa! No forgiv ...

(#10) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 1-10 of 3Henry VI

I wonder how the King escap’d our hands?

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While we pursu’d the horsmen of ye North, Defiant onstage, I spelt my doom –huh huh! Whips ‘n’ horrors were decreed, u know, ‘n’ h–

He slyly stole away, and left his men; Whereat the great Lord of Northumberland. hellish flame was threatened. before long U warn they’ll destroy my art and oth–

Whose Warlike cares could neuer brook retreat, Chear’d vp the drouping Army, and himselfe er things: drama, verse. O, U! Help! O, Help! We wait a month for deadly raid, ere Buck re-reckons Reue --

Lord Clifford and Lord Stafford all abrest Charged our maine Battailes Front: and breaking in, ls records, leauing Dido ‘n’ other drama in a far corner for filing-stab – all to B blank’d – dratted. Aff –

Were by the Swords of common Souldiers slaine, Lord Staffords father, Duke of Buckingham, ected y mi fear, Buck hid the MSS. Fool raiders look’d, grew sour and soon left us safe from Wh. N –

(#11) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 1-4 of 1Henry VI

Hvng be y heauens with black, yield day to night: Comets importing change of Times and States, Kit M. penn’d this trilogy because of his dad’s symbolic chain. Then, to avenge y game that went g-

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Brandish your crystall Tresses in the Skie And with them scourge the bad reuolting Stars, oring his dad’s name, Kit bitterly teased th’ Church t’ show yts error in all ages. But SSS uener- ...

(#12) Plaintext and ciphers from As You like It, Act III scene 3, lines 1-6

Come apace good Audrey, I will fetch up your Goates Audrey And how Audrey am I the man yet? C,C, a pretty maid uuho hugged a Y-Yat saved Marlowe from a lone R.I.P. death in ye wood! Aye, U C? E Doth my simple feature content you? Your features, Lord warrant vs: what features?/I am heere with thee, E-E! As I t-try for a wu-wu- fatal end, she hurries to enfold me, prevents my reach to ye router: at tha time U wh-

And thhy Goats, as the most capricious Poet honest Ovid was among the Gothes, O knowledge, ill inhabited. irl’d me in a kiss—Oo-oo-oo—‘n’ sent th’ blade away into th’ wild! I stoppt, gagg’d, so th’ change saves me! C, th’ heet o’ U —

It continues. N. B. Yat is a nickname of Marlowe’s and also means a Turkish knife. Kit did own a yat —a yataghan – probably a souvenir of his trip to Turkey on the Tyger with Captain Kester Carleill back in 1577-78. An even more explicit reference to Audrey (spelled Awdrie) in the plaintext occurs in Act V lines 1-6 which follow: “We shall finde a time, Awdrie, patience gentle Awdrie, faith the Priest was good enough, for all the olde gentlemans saying/ A most wicked Sir oliuer, Awdrie, a most vile Mar-text.

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But Awdrie, there is a youth heere in the Forrest layes claim to you./ I, I know who ‘tis: he hath no interest in mee in the world: here comes the man you meane. It is meat and drink to me to see a Clowne.” Mar-text is a pointer to the existence of anagrams. Kit often refers to himself as a clown. The anagrams, found by Ballantine, follow: Tom’s lady lifted the moth’s flagging spirit in that s-spring ferneewood where we ate a lunch, ‘n’ a iollee leading Ae-ae-ae-wed/ us ta May-ioy-time, C, tho’ Kit saw his exit to a horrid test. Were R beautiful days all such error (E-e-e-e!) or d’renewal- time ov mie/ t-too nonnie heart, which thy louin’ aid restores? Then when I see thee I’M weak ‘n’ lost; I neede some m-m-more aid now! Ace-man Kitt. Tom was Thomas Walsingham, at whose Scadbury estate Kit was staying at the time of his summons to be examined by the star chamber. Audrey later married Tom, who was later knighted, so she became Tom’s lady. He often referred to himself as a moth. His little romance with Audrey lifted his flagging spirit. He knew what was coming. Kit saw his exit to a horrid test.

(#13) Plaintext and ciphers of The Passionate Shepherd {Bowers, 1973 #126}p. 535.

Come live with mee and be my loue And we will all the pleasures proue We met, ‘n’ Marlove made U this, leauin’ R woo place. Ye bell peel’d while su

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That Vallies, groves, hills and fieldes, Woods, or steepie mountaine yeeldes. nset flooded ye woodes. VVe ran along the hill trail—U passed me I, I! Let’s see, is

And wee will sit upon the Rocks, Seeing the Sheepheards feede the(i)r flocks, it a race for kisses? D-do U flee? Heedless. Shit!! we keel o’er, ‘n’ git the p-p, ‘n’ when ch

By(e) shallow(e) Riuers, to whose falls, Melodious Byrd(e)s sing Madrigalls ase’s o’er, more hugs! L-L-L-L-Libby, I won’t go away from U ere I d-d-die! All’s S-s-s-sh

And I will make you beds of Roses, and a thousand fragrant posies, rouded in a fog as U kiss me ‘n’ we part. I’l B lost—no, dead as far’s any ho

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, Imbroydred all with leaues of Mirtle. ly mad prelate knows. But after I sail, wd mi ladie feel a horror of cl-

A belte of Strawe, and Yvie buds, With Corall claspes and amber studs, ub poet-lads that send bad dactil verse far across ye sea, ‘n’ will bum w-

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And if these things thy minde may moue, Then live with mee, and bee my loue. hat gov’Ment funds they need? O, m-m-mi lady, I’ue been thine: Smile! Ha’e with ye!

The poem appears at first sight to have been intended for Queen Elizabeth, thanking her for her intervention that saved him from the “holy mad prelate”, Archbishop Whitgift. “Libby” was Queen Elizabeth’s private nickname (among several). But the first part of the text suggest that it might have also been intended for another woman –possibly Audrey (Udrey) Shelton,– whom Marlowe met and wooed in the woods at Scadbury. The anagram “as U kiss me ‘n’ we part” could be rewritten as “US kiss me an’ we part”. (US are the initials of Udrey Shelton). The meaning is ambiguous, probably intentionally so. The phrase “club poet lads” refers to club-footed poets. Kit was a club-footed poet—and to Queen Elizabeth, he was a “lad”— and he’s making a half-joke about his broken-footed dactyl verse.

(#14) Plaintext and ciphers in lines 123 to 136 from Love’s Labour’s Lost

Sweete Lord, and why? To fright them hence with that dread penalty, A dangerous law against gentilitie. Awful man! He’d decree that all who pen worthily against his ranting sh’d get a degree o’ tit-tat, ‘n’ die wet! Ei

If any man be seene to talke with a woman within the tearme of three yeares, hee shall indure ther death or banishment is my true lot, Hen – e’en within a week! The fee for my sin! Waaaaaeeell!

... such publique shame as the rest of the court shall possibly

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feuise. This article my Liedge yourselfe must breake, UUill U see life gush from me, or cd a royal edict saue me? By th’ Bible, as he supports th’ kill, SSS stays it. Reech th’ quee-

For well you know, here comes in Embassie the French King’s daughter, with yourselfe to speake n’ – let her know my reuerse, n’ besearch her t’Aid th’ escape from English soil o’ a suk-fuk Gew toy wi’

A maid of grace and compleate maiestie, about surrender vp of Aquitaine: to her decrepit, sicke and bed-rid Father, one part poet. UUi’out a qveen’s aid, fear I’M a dead man. If Gabriel come, “rescat To her decrepit, sicke, and bed-rid father Therefore this Article is made in vaine ti” I crie. Please ask for aid! I’M destined for death, Hen! I’d trie t’breech her cvnt. Rea

Or vainly comes th’ admired Princesse hither. What say you, Lords. Why this was quite forgot d her my secret fly-away poem now: show her all that I hid i’ th’ SSS codes! So U qvit, ‘Arry, I go to ruin!

(#15) Plaintext and ciphers in lines 137-152 from Love’s Labours Lost.

So studie euermore is ouershot, While it doth study to haue what it would, Wow! See how th’ uuite-liuer idiot’s arested – hauled to th’ dusty room o’iust-

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It doth forget to doe the thing it should: and when it hath the thing it hunteth most, ified lies t’ hear th’ ten aged men shouting. Hot, hot Hot God! Thud! Hint, hint t-to th’ wh

Tis won as townes with fire, so won, so lost We must of force dispence with this Decree ite idiot. See them scoulin’. “This case referred off to SSS. Stop!” ‘N’ I shout, “C, we w-w-won! WON!”

She must lye here on meere necessitie Necessity will make vs all foresworne Know: in ease-recess th’ sinful wretch – me – tries leavin’ ye smelly room. See, see? L

Three thousand times within this three yeeres space: For every man with his affects is borne, est I run off, th’ watch stays me, ‘n’ from need, see, I try to piss in a shrub, ere wet, I scare the Hi Hi Hee.

Not by night mast(e)reed, but by speciall grace If I breake faith, this word shall break for me, Tho back fast, I’M embarasse’d by mi reekee flood which grieues th’ fragile plant bitterly. Ba

I am foresworne on meere necessitie So to the Lawes at large I write my name, rely time ta register mi name when I was sweatin’ — Oee Oee! Across from ten ol

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and he that breakes them in the least degree, stands in attainder of eternal shame. ‘fakers that e’en restate ‘n’ sort all mi bad deeds in the greatest detail. Ahh, men, Hen – an’

Suggestions are to others as to me: But I beleeue although I seem so loth, th’ hot uote’s to banich me! So I loose a gush, beg Iesus, tell o’ mute regret. Aee!

I am the last that will last keepe his oth But is there no quicker recreation granted? But no escape, I’M t-to sail in th’ week – th’ Queen’s orders – all at her charge. I like that. It t-

I that there is, our Court you know is hanted With a refined trauailer of Spaine, It turn’d out she’s a friend to Kit in his trauail. I o-owe her! How tu pay ‘er a fee?…

(#16) Plaintext and ciphers in the first 18 lines of Venus and Adonis.

Even as the sunne with purple-colourd face, Had tane his last leaue of the weeping morne, Christopher Marlowe penned U this tale. We can’t save the devil. He’s e’en gone off up a luna--

Rose-cheek’d Adonis hied him to the chase Hunting he loued, but loue he laught to scorne; tic road to liue out there, shunn’d. Hee Hee! C th’ ghost! His good name has been killed, U C: hou--

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Sick-thoughted Venus makes amaine vnto him, And like a bold-fac’d suter ginnes to woo him . rlie sound a knel. But soft! Kit can gain this good name, even tho’ U mask’d him wi’ mvch ado! See:

Thrise fairer then my selfe, (thus she began) The fields chiefe flower, sweet aboue compare, wheneuer better plays R best, each will hide his name for some of us t’ see, if th’ cheef agree. F–

Staine to all Nimphs, more louely then a m a n , More white, and red, then doues, or roses are: ollo, m-men, to see three words that haue stayed all unseen, imprisoned on a mirror: A Hen–

Nature that made thee with her selfe at strife, Saith that the world hath ending with thy life. ry, a friend, with this his theme gift: that neat wet laddah that will set the author free. The hen–

Vouchsafe thou wonder to alight thy steed, And raine his proud head to the saddle bow, chman goes away tu be alone. Adio, friends! Oh, this deep huddled sorro—that thov, the dut–

If thou wilt daine this favor, for thy meed A thousand honie secrets shalt thou know. iful sweet thin hickory rod, hath no wai to saue th’ author ‘n’ end shame! So set off, dilut–

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Here come and sit, where never serpent hisses, And being set, Ile smother thee with kisses. ing beer with mother’s tears (Drinks in dispute). See, see, s-e-e-e where the Channel tosses him!

(#17) Plaintext and ciphers from Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true mindes Admit impediments, loue is not loue Sea-demon Marlouue penn’d this. I got it al t’ fit rite, see, ‘n’ rime, too! U led m-me to m-

Which alters when it alteration findes, Or bends with the remouer to remoue. end mie ruf measure—now it reads clearlie. Brother Wotton, e’en with his thot, h-

O no, it is an euer fixed marke That lookes on tempests and is neuer e aided this sonnet’s form on R uuai to make an exit ‘n’ skee o’er th’ Alps. Knees

shaken; it is the sta(rre) to euery wandring bar(que) Whose worths vnknowne, although a(ll) his highth be taken. bent, we SSS go o’er h-h-h-h-highsnow t’ Italian border, where we quit at night ‘n’ hvrry t’ take a skouue, ‘n’

Lou(e)’s not Time’s foole, though rosie lips and cheeks. Within his bending sickles compasse come, go slo to Milon ‘n’ on t’ pledge SSS help to Mantua’s checkk’d forces. We see him—his uoice is shie, ‘n’ I, I, b

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Loue alters not with his br(i)efe houres and weekes, But bears it out euen to the edge of doome. eing a fool, said, "Not t’ be worried—bet U feel better nouu we SSS’ue made it here!" U thot hee shook

If this be error and vpon mee proued, I neuer writ, nor no man euer loued. wi’ horror. ‘E bouued deep, man, ‘n’ referr’d us to a privee nonni reuel! Monti

(#18) Plaintext and ciphers from 3Henry VI, lines 58-76:

If I be not, Heauens be reueng’d on me, The hope thereof makes Clifford mourne in steele. UUe meet cheefe Guarini ‘n’ soon he hires me t’ do one f–bolde prison breake. Th’ f–element f-

What, shall we suffer this? lets pluck him down , My heart for anger burnes, I cannot brooke it or th’ mission? Folly! A barber enters t’ attend all Gew prisoners who – when – Fuk! Fuk! Catch him!

Be patient, gentle Earl of Westmerland, patience is for poltroones, such as he. I cut th’ floor. As th’ ensign sleeps, we leap free out a window to a sere brent place. En-

He durst not sit there, had your father liu’d My gracious lord, here in the Parliament trapped here in a yard? UUe’re not lost:

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through a hi hole I thrust my fine secrit ladder, m-

Let vs assayle the Family of Yorke. Well hast thous spoken, Cousin be it so. akin a way. UUe easily climb t’ th’ top ‘n’ look over t’ see – s s s see – oh, th’ folly! F-

Ah, know you not the Citie favors them, And they have troupes of Souldiers at their beck? ar, far downe is the uu-uuater ‘n’ the tiny sloop I hired to take us to safety. Oh-h chuck me! Obe-

But when the Duke is slaine, they’le quickly flye Farre be the thought of this from Henries heart, ying necessity I hook th’ silk ladder t’ one queer rib. We truly feel uue R t’ be mash’t. The fhh-fhh-fathe-

To make a Shambles of the Parliament House Cousin of Exeter, frowneds, words and threats, r o’ fools starts off – then as prime beau silk extends, other men come down. Ah-ah – water saue-

Shall be the warre that Henry means to vse. Thou factius Duke of Yorke – descend my throne s us, ‘n’ the honest monkey-foote lader destroyed, uue swim to reach the —uhh, leaky – craft nearb-

And kneele for grace and mercie at my feete I am thy soveraigne, I am thine. y ‘n’ to hide there under a saile. Fifteen men! May we not grace a racke! Ei! Magi----

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(#19) Plaintext and ciphers from 3Henry VI, lines 135-140

Tell me, may not a king adopt an heire? What then? And if he may, then I am (a) lawfull king: That day a man found me awake, penning, let me go free, “with Allah,” I think – ‘n’ all ‘A my thi

For Richard, in the view of many Lords, Resign’d the Crowne to Henry the Fourth ngs, too. A sly note: “Tin hidd’n I’ dri-vat. Hurry! Fence where worth more, for Chef R” H

Whose heire my father was, and I am his. He rose against him, being his Soveraigne e writes o’ far-away Trebisond, near mines. As I’M an ass – “he-hi, he-hi, he-hi, he-“ I mus’ g-g-go!

(#20) Plaintext and ciphers from I Henry IV , lines 1-6

So shaken as we are, so wan with care, finde we a time for frighted Peace to pant, Kit M. penn’d this show of war, peace, fat Ned ‘n’ Roger to ease a ceasefire wait-awh-

And breath shortwinded accents of new broils To be commene’d in Stronds a-farre remote ile before an order came t’ shoot once more ‘n’ win-n-n-n th’ fort. SSS’d made a start, C: we’d cribb’d

No more the thirsty entrance of this Soile,

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Shall daube her lippes with her owne childrens blood: uniforms, entered ‘n’ piled all th’ worst balls beside the hi stations here, C? Ho ho ho, he! Clown rey, R.I.P.

(#21) Plaintext and ciphers from I Henry IV , lines 175-186

,,,where a commodity of good names were to be bought: An olde Lord of the councell rated me the other day We won, ‘n’ fled for ye road to get my girl home. Both sad to leaue our dear Manco to bleed. He’d come to the ch-

in the street about you, sir: but I mark’d him not and yethee talk’d very wisely, but I regarded him not ild’s house – I think ouertly –t’try t’ see her, ‘n’ had been wounded by my guard. E-e! I’M Kit, but I am a traitor t-

..and yet he talkt wisely, and in the street, too/ Thou didst well; for no man regards it. o no honest man. th’ wet hurt dress’d, I said farewel, led girly ‘n’ took ye t-t-t-tide at lan- O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeede able to corrupt a Saint. Thou hast done d-pan. Aboard, I thot t’ uuas a treat t’ see Isabel toddlin’ around ‘n’ hear th’ men cooin’ to the a-

much harm unto me Hall, God forgiue thee for it. Before I knew thee Hal greeable cute girl, who, free o’ fear, talkt to ‘em

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of home ‘n’ me. Uh hvh! I hid ‘n’ ...

I knew nothing: and now I am (if a man should speake truly) little better than one of the wicked. she told th’ men how Pa waked her t’ get ready t’ clime in-into a skiff alone, unknown, Ei ‘n’ let it B

(#22) Plaintext and ciphers from Merry Wives of Windsor, lines 23-30:

for yourselfe in my simple conjectures but that is all one: if Sir John Falstffe tasteless iest! Mi play’s ful of rich effrontery – I’M an infantile boor! Helo, U suffic-

have committed disparagements vnto you, I am of the Church and will be glad ient fool! U damn’ angel! What cd U do t’ me Cobham, V cad? I sail my ship t’ greet her; U

to do my beneuolence, to make attonements and compromises betweene you. The councell shall heare it, haue spoilt the innocent melody between us, you nastee Brooke! So, come t’ me, tell me, teach me – can U read I-

it is a Riot! It is not meet the councell hear a Riot: there is no fear of Got in a Riot; the Councell oue’s lorn frolic, or the last touching erotic chat, tete a tete? O hear its final minor note – Ie-ie-ie! - (#23) Plaintext and ciphers from Henry IV, lines 47-64

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It seemes then, that the tidings of this broile, Brake off our business for the Holy Land If this is soon ouer, I’l bring Isabel t-to some safe Hebe nest ‘n’ hurtle off t’ the dark they’d h–

This matcht with other like, my gracious Lord Farre more uneuen and unwelcome Newes ave me haunt. Let me know your thots—wd I come t’ England in error, which false Vere’s crim— came from the North, and thus did report: On Holy-roode day, the gallant Hot spurre there, inal mind cd use t’ damage R plans? Th’ fool, the rotter --hated horror! Don’t hope to hurry ye The— young harry Percy, and braue Archibald, that euer-valiant and approoued Scot ater construction; dry Bear Garden property available! Ah, houu can U pay? Had d’—

At Holmedon met, where they did spend a sad and bloody houre: Uere held on, al wd B done. He’s odd- odd, ‘n’ may yet promise that ha-

As by discharge of their artillerie And shape of likely-hood the newes was told lf he said he’d bring i’ loan. O, it wd cost less t’ redo ye shell—keep it for a year. Ha, Ha! W—

For he that brought them, in the very heate

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And pride of their contention, did take horse, e cd get dead drop on them: H-h-o! h-h-h-o! Ferry it o’er the river at nite ‘n’ situate it on the bank f—

Vncertaine of the issue any way. Heere is a deere and true industrious friend ar awaie ‘n’ rent-free. They cdn’t do us any hurt, see? Our deed’s enuf, sans Vere! I, I! I, I! I—

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his Horse, strain’d with the variation of each soyle, f we go on from there, dry, renovate ‘n’ do business— what a theatrical thrill! I, I— whilst his ...

(#24) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 1-44 of The Tragedie of Richard the Third

Now is the Winter of our Discontent, Made glorious Summer by this Son of Yorke: In this thing Kit Marlowe wrote of Robert C.’s demon rise, ‘n’ some fouy-douys on us:

And all the clouds that lowr’d vpon our house In the deepe bosome of the Ocean buried. How, on false claim ‘n’ deuious plot, no doubt he’l euer be protected ‘n’heard as he doth vo

Now are our browes bound with Victorious Wreathes, Our bruised armes hung vp for Monuments; mit forth his envious words to undermine our progress. S.O.B.! Au unaware, we borrow much but nev

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Our sterne Alarums chang’d to merry Meetings; Our dreadfull Marches, to delightfull Measures. er get money that’s due us, C. Marlo’s messages R all left undeliuer’d. Crude, grim rat, huh! Normal for

Grim visag’d Warre, hath smooth’d his wrinkled Front: And now, in stead of mounting Barbed Steeds, a bitter man who grew to feel his mother wrong’d, abandon’d him as Tudor kin. Saddest findings svr

To fright the Soules of fearfull Aduersaries, He capers nimbly in a Ladies Chamber, round him before birth: her illness clearly damages his fetus. Result: a cape of a fai to the lasciuious pleasing of a Lute. But I, that am not shap’d for sportiue trickes, ntlie odorous cartilaginous mass ouer his back."Please tu put that off i’ the pitt."

Nor made to court an amorous Lookingglasse: I, that am Rudely stampt, and want loues Maiesty, No way to remoue it! O, it sticks there and growes most naturally — a mound past all a gaon M.D.’s au

To strut before a wonton ambling Nymph: I, that am curtail’d of this faire Proportion, thority of Phs. Stil, it cannot preuent growth of a brain able to doom an imprimatur. F

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Cheated of Feature by dissembling Nature, deform’d, vn-finish’d, sent before my time ie! He did free me (cut off, dry), but gives my drama, stolen, to his friend, ‘n’ banns me!! Feet, B

Into this breathing World, scarse halfe made vp, And that so lamely and vnfashionable, fast ‘n’ send me far; this brooding devil has a privy leman ‘n’ wants a battle! Hold hoe! A chal

That dogges barke at me, as I halt by them. Why I (in this weake piping time of Peace) lenge: Shakespeare, he against me, to act it i’ th’ gym: we both wyki-pap him i’ bed. A fit

Haue no delight to passe away the time, Vnlesse to see my Shadow in the Sunne, ing way to settle that madman’s insane dispute. Ho ho, Hee hee! U see vs so newly

And descant on mine owne Deformity and therefore, since I cannot proue a fed or striuen -- ‘n’ I a winner! Cecil not to deede any drama to fops or con-men. Heauen

Louer, To entertaine these faire well spoken dayes, I am determined to proue a Villaine, relent! Witnes I’M alive! Please, defend me ere I die: Kit, an author o’ plays! To rate one

And hate the idle pleasures of these dayes.

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Plots haue I laide, Inductions dangerous, unuuorthy of authorship deed? That’s an asinine idea. All plaies seceded to "less dege

By drunken Prophesies, libels, and Dreames, To set my Brother Clarence and the King nerate brother," like coddl’d ninny Shakes- peare? Yes, men, hatred stings me: b-blur! Cop

In deadly hate, the one against the other: And if King Edward be as true and iust, drunke Ned’s ioint, and rot, banished! He held fate. Haue wit, get set, try again! A da

As I am Subtle, False, and Treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be y of retribution’s ahead, so these dull dumps can be cleared away, chvms, else call s

mew’d vp: About a Prophesie, which sayes that G, Of Edwards heyres the murtherer shall ome chef brothers to write it all: say, sad he pray’d as he grew up, but here, hah, he’s s

be. Diue thoughts downe to my soule, here Clarence comes. Brother good day: What meanes this armed guard? et to wrong mee, destroy author identity, all because o’ a damned dog-whore’s greed. He’s rham’s chum. Chou!

(#25) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 199-206 of 1 Henry IV

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This is the most omnipotent villaine that euer cryed, Stand, to a true man./ Good morrow, Ned. In England I hid out at her home til’ SS sent me to roamVenice to try to draw ten maps o’ d’ rout-

Good morrow sweet Hal. What saies Monsieur Remorse? What sayes Sir Iohn Sacke and Sugar: Iacke? es o’ th’ city, ‘n’ to work SSS wi’ Guarini. I swear he looks much ashamed, more aged. A war erases reason. A

How agrees the Diuell and thee about thy Soule, that thou soldest him on Good Friday last, battle o’ deals at Rome had left only a shred o’ the o-old wit. Yet O he shouus U that he’s guiding

for a cup of Madera, and a cold capon’s legge? /Sir John stands to his word. The diuil shall have his bargaine, policie wi’ all care – unpaid as added burden – ‘n’ th’ last seal’d affair going to ash so soon. Rush! Reach home!. Gh [osts harrow him in bed ... ]

(#26) Plaintext for three versions of the first 10 (12) lines of Much Ado about Nothing

I learne in this Letter, that Don Peter of Arragon, comes this night to Messina (A) He is very neere by this: (B,C) he was not three leagues off when I left him. (A) How many Gentlemen have you lost in this action? (B, C) But few of any sort, and none of name.(A) A victorie is twice it selfe , when the atchieuer (B,C)

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brings home full numbers: I find heere,(A) that Don Peter hath bestowed much hono(u)r (B,C) on a young Florentine, called Claudio (A) much deserved on his part, and equally remembred (B,C) by Don Pedro, he hath borne himselfe beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure of a Lambe (C)

(#27) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 1-12 of Troilus and Cressida

In Troy lyes the scene: from Iles of Greece The Princes Orgillious, their high blood chaf’d -rob a fello fall’n warrior-man, C? ‘N’ a wretched Essex euer waitin’ t’ try ye grea t h-h-hit, ‘n’ not

Have, to the Port of Athens sent their shippes fraught with the ministers and instruments t th’ note o’ satire. Tush! These men that prepare n’ perish die not in th’ high war – in MT fvss-fuss t’

of cruel warre: Sixty and Nine that wore Their Crownets Regall, from th’Athenian baye rob a fello fall’n warrior-man, C? ‘N’ a wretched Essex euer waitin’ t’ try ye great h-h-hit, ‘n’ not

Put forth(e) towards Phrygia, and their vow is made To ransacke Troy, within whose strong emures findin’ any good reason to attack. So we rest up, worry, revue, miss what e’er h-horrid hap we might ‘t-‘t

The ravish’d Helen, Menelaus Queene, With wanton Paris sleepes, and that’s the Quarrell.

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quell these wild queer warriors that hem us in a head ‘n’ tease us, ‘n’ happen t’ shell an ente-

To Tenedos they come, And the deep- drawing barke do there disgorge r R night camp wi’ no thot o’ ar tents. E-e-e-e-e! Oh, d-do seek, beg ye d-degraded ...

(#28) Plaintext and ciphers in Sonnet 125 (1609 version)

Wer(e)’t (a)ught to me I bore the canopy, With my extern the outward honoring Greg wrote th’ rhyme. Note th’ thin texture o’ each word I may bow out – pen an I–

Or layd great bases for eternity, Which proves more short then wast(e) or ruining? diotic report for Robyn. He wants a heavy list o’ R men’s error in th’ huge egress t’wa–

Haue I not seene dwellers on forme and fauor Lose all, and more by paying too much rent rd defeat. No! Betray ‘n’ hang poor souldiers? No, no! Let ‘em live safe! We’l only hear U comman–

For compound sweet, Foregoing simple fauor Pittiful thriuors in their gazing spent. d whipping! Stop! Realize! If more lives R lost, uuinning’s farther off, C? G-go out on M.T. trip–

Noe, ket me be obsequious in thy heart

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And take thou my oblation, poor but free, s, let thy poor queen mom uuait for letters! O, think a–about ye end, Bobbie hon! Ea–

Which is not mixt with seconds, knows no art But mutuall render onley me for thee ch nonny error stokes th’ enmitie at home with extra fuel, ‘n’ wd U B lost in d’low scum?

Hence, thou subornd Informer; a trew soule When most impeacht, stands least in thy controule B lost in d’swan-‘n’-sparrouus, C? Try nouu, man, for when d’ clem hits, then it’s too late! Oe! Tee hee! Chr. M

(# 29) Plaintext and ciphers in the first 18 lines of The Tragedy of Richard the Second

Old Iohn of Gaunt, time-honoured -Lancaster, hast thou according to they oath and band Undaunted, Marlo authored this no action tale of good-bad Ryche, ‘n’ things that on a cho —

Brought hither Henry Herford thy bold son: Heere to make good ye boistrous, late — appeale, ral readin’ seem egregious to those prepar’d t’ hound Rob, ye boy rebel—oh,oh—they that flok h--

Which then our leysure would not let vs, heare, Against the Duke of Norfolke, Thomas Mowbray? urtfuly arovnd the earl. U see, they wait, asking for the worst. Oh, he’l be known a hoodlum! Cosme--

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I haue my Liege. Tell me moreover, hast thou sounded him, if he appeale the Duke on ancient malice, n’ U uuere n tised tale o’ ye walk t’ th’ palace is a lie. He held good chief men at home, ‘euer V.I.P., ‘n’ he immo—

Or worthily as a good subiect should On some knowne ground of treacherie in bilis’d ‘em there, in fear o’ death, while U cross’t, cryin’ " Go! Good work!" Oh, moans! Nouu no U cross’t. him. As neere as I could sift him on that argu- ment, on some apparant danger seene in him, one appears ignorant of Hen’s eager inuolue- ment in this damned matter. His masca--

Aym’d at your Highnesse, no inueterate malice. Then call them to our presence face to face, rade of chaste, fragile innocence may conuince a mother t’ shelue U, yet she’l operate t’ tam—

And frowning brow to brow, our selues will heare Th’ accuser, and the accused, freely speake; e, check ‘n’ peer far into U sly rebels who’d sugar -coat ‘n’ defend coarse behauiors. U R all w-w-wet!

High stomack’ d are they both, and full of ire, In rage, deaf as the sea; hastie as fire. U see Rob has failed ‘n’ he’s going t’ die for his rash act—yet—Faa! He had me, after al. Kit

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(# 30) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 61-68 of As You Like It

you haue train’d me like a pezant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities ‘l let Queen Eliza condemn their imprison’d boy t’ death. I’l fail again. Glug. U saue ‘im, ‘n’ make R nak–

the spirit of my father growes strong in mee, and I will no longer endure it: therefore allow me ed effort to win, ‘n’ she’l let ‘im go free, tho’ I’M reeling ‘n’ wrestling wi’ death o’er our payment o’ ars-rol

such exercises as may become a gentleman, or giue mee the poore allottery my father left me ling o’er Hebe Molly Ma’Am, C, ta try ta free Southampton from Essex’s guilty march, C? Eeeeeeeee!

by testament, with that I will goe buy my fortunes./ And what wilt thou do? W-w-w-win! Mutter out: “It’s best not to behead al th’ goy-lad youth in th’ family.”

beg when that is spent? Well sir, get you in. I will not long be troubled with you. you shall haue Angel Bess ‘n’ I hide in th’ lair wi’ th’ pillows, n’ we woo. U’ll say “Loue? No – th’ better glug”, But th’ – oy uey!

some part of your will, I will pray you leaue me. I will no further offend you, then becomes me for my good I pled, ‘n’ our fool Hen remains full o’ life i’ th’ Tower.

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By tomorrow U may escape – moue y’ grey mud off o’ ye.

(#31) Plaintext and ciphers from lines 1-16 of The Tempest

Bote-swaine. / Here Master: What cheere? / Good: Speake to th’ fal too’t, yarely, Mariners: E-e-e-e. Here’s Marlowe’s patch’d tale for Isabel ‘n’ Henry’s marriage that took ye two to

. .or we run our selues a ground, bestirre, bestirre. Heigh my hearts, cheerely, cheerely heights ‘ere SSS brot trouble. Henry, I regret my Rey’s cruel lie – he’s euer shamed. O Rey U R an arch w-

yare, yare: Take in the toppe-sale: Tend to the Masters whistle: Blow till thou burst thy winde, if roome enough illful murderer hopen to wrest money out o’ thy pet son’s death! What gain is that ye low beast? Here, like bette-

Good Boteswaine haue care: Where’s the Master? Play the men. I pray now keepe below. r men, ye need help to keep the secret; U R a mess! Ai! Go weep. Betray al who bow in awe. Oh,

Where is the Master, Boson? / Do you not heare him? You marre our labour, Keepe your Cabines: a crime o’ yours has robb’d ‘n’ hurt us. It’s our hope to make o’ ye a more honorable Rey– Ai! We euen

you do asist the storme. / Nay, good be patient. / When the Sea is: hence, what cares these roarers for the name of King?

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efface thy arrant shame, cook’d by hot persuasion he-he-he. Now, tho, we’re in a sore distressed state o’ engagement. I

to Cabine; silence: trouble vs not Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboord ‘M in hel. Bacon ouer us. He told me not to save Goy-Bob’s record. I row the MT boat, e

None that I more loue then my selfe.You are a Counsellor, if you can command these Elements to silence, ,nslaued. Ye chef means to fire the theater ‘n’ not let us , lo,lo men come in close to reclaim ‘n’save. [O you men o-]

(# 32) From The Tempest, lines 17-26

[O you men, o] and worke the peace of the present, wee will not hand a rope more, vse your authoritie;

pe the deep vault! Take ye records awaie, free! No! We won’t let him trash our honor. Ei open

If you cannot, giue thankes you haue liu’d so long, and make your selfe readie in your Cabine Fini! -- on ye flood, uuhen he’s gone auuaie! Kit’l rouu ye records back again on ye flood ‘n’ saue ‘em. Ay I’d not lie!

for the mischance of the houre, if it so hap. Cheerely good hearts: out of our way I say. I fear our chef’s a traitor to ye state! I hope he’l

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soon rue his mad chef-chug. Oy,Oy who fo

I haue great comfort from this fellow: methinks he hath no drowning marke vpon him, r th’ fee of a lo king w’d wreck ‘n’ rvin the pattern of English historie? Mom, O mom. Ha Ha. (#33) Plaintext and ciphers found by Ballantine in the title and in lines 1- 16 of Bargrave’s Polisie. The full title is as follows:

A Forme of Polisie to Plante and Governe Many Families in Virginea Soe as it Shall Naturally Depend One the Soveraignetye of England. Monti penned this l-legal effort, again (paid-aid), in response to the need for a nevv government. Yes, ye goal is e’en for all, all o’ us, man! Ai, yai!

The main text begins as follows (lines 1-16), with anagrams shown immediately below:

Wheras we aswell by our Letters Patentes beareing date at Westminster the tenth daye of April Marloe writ this re: planting the yslandes so utterlee far away. Bad, wette weather ‘n’ pestes t’ bee

in the fourth [(4th] yeare of our reigne, as by diverse other Letters Patentes since that time graunted, o’ercome—hunger, e’en thirst. Profitable trading starts after harvest, Yu see? Ie, ie! Not e’en the duty

have given licence vnto diverse of our loveing subiectes named in those severall Patentes, to conduce and conduct[e]

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-bound servants can produce vvealth out o’ nothing for U. Cease, vain gentlemen! Desist—solve! Ecce! I tel evidence in code!

severell coloneys of our loveing subiectes to abide in America, within thirty-four and forty-five degrees Al who R bound strive fiercely to B free, endure hard times tu gain love ‘n’ egality in society. Soo—vice offers i

of the equinoctiall, with diverse preheminences, liberties, and aucthorities as by the sayde Patentes appeareth, nstant aid. Apparent iustice quels the evil wretch, sends him far o’er sea t’ start the happy colony. Bie, bie! I-e-e-e!! He die

And whereas wee knoweing this derived aucthoritie from vs, to bee the efficient cause and the speciall meanes, s o’ starvation. "Ungrateful stiff! Send a new man—wee deem each plai o’ his dice worthie t’ checke R hie debt. I’ve seen e

wheareaby wee shall attayne the endes proposed to ourselfe for the vndertakeing of the sayde plantaciouns, verything now! Keepe that Naples — dead-head off R turf— he’ll see present ad hoc, blow a year’s note into ye sea to s

did give likewise togeather with our first Patent certayne Articles and Instructions, theareby settleing … ave idiots by sending out—in error—a fleet they can’t sail! Whate’er we spend is critical. Tut! I regret t’ meet t’ vet U al – t’ indite

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God

(#34) Plaintext and ciphers found by ballantine in lines 1-14 of Tymon of Athens. Note his double signature, first as de’Monti , finally as Marlowe (Chr. M.)

Good day Sir. I am glad y’Are well I haua not seene you long, how goes the World? Laugh! Howl! Oldy Gregorio de’Monti has loosely ,wouen ,dyed water ,again. See, ,,

It weares sir, as it growes, I that’s well knowne: But what particular Rarity? What strange, his witts rust away--loss irreparable. ‘E waits to walk, run, charge in the water! Grant witt

Which manifold record not matches: see Magicke of Bounty, all these spirits thy power to set surch t’ shadow, catch ‘n’ kill his married wife before he goes to play Tymon! Men, pic-

Hath conjur’d to attend, I know the Merchant I know them both; th’other’s a Ieweller. ture ‘im, check’d, alone, then bemoan that horrid state! Now think he’l write th’ hoot? W-

O ‘tis a worthy Lord, Nay that’s most fixt. A most incomparable man, breath’d as it were hat pla-man in extremis writes o’ holiday? M-Manco! Brother’s sad t-t-t-t-to B so far away!

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To an vntyreable and continuate goodnesse: He passes. I haue a Iewel heere O pray let’s see’t Euen as hope was stale, as ye resolve to die alone in Spain, Sancho’l be there yet t’ greet ‘n’ ade U.

For the Lord Timon, sir? If he will touch the estimate, But for that- Wait for me t’- test! I’l arriue. U’l B seein’ th-th-th-th’ ol’ Fido-foot.– Chr. M. (#35) Plaintext and ciphers from Bargrave’s Polisie, lines 395-546 (the end).

[–so he’d] (the last two words from the anagram of the previous couplet

and tearmed lord patriotes, their wifes and other children takeing their honoures and places accordingeingly entertain wi’ a play! Too tired t’ do it alone – G-r-r-r– I ask John Fletcher, “Cd U aide ‘n’ do it al R gran’ scenes? Shepherd me, C?” H-

In time of peace they shall bee and have the authoritie of our leiuetenauntes of shieires e said yea, ‘n’ uue pen a farce! tuuo hi,hi nobles love the same lite shee, fite o’er her into th’ aft-

in England, to appoynte the commaunders of our men at armes, see them trayned, to look to their armes and watches ernoon. At the end a horse defeats the winner: he dies, ‘n’ ye loser gets ye madam. No, no! Tut, tut! Crackt moral! Mamma oppo-

In time of warre they shall bee charged with what number of men the councell of state shall thinke

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ses th’ tale o’ chance, but finally takes th’ role of mi daughter (nimble feet). I’M her clown-wit father. When th’

fitte. The patriot must bee allowed his leiuetenaunt as well in cases of disabillitie, by nonage or impotencie, lass lets a noble nut l-leaue a prison, ‘n’ ye friends, bedect wi’ mail, fite to win th’ beautie, I get coopt i’ th’ iail, see? Mo-

or in their abscence either about the busienes of the state theare, or about their private busienes in England, re action: the Nan in love ebbs near insanitie before a doc restores her t’ a better state. He gets U-U-U-U t’ be hi-hi-hip,

but these lieutenants shall bee chosen by the order of aldermen out of the order of governors the better re action: the Nan in love ebbs near insanitie before a doc restores her t’ a better state. He gets U-U-U-U t’ be hi-hi-hip,

to give the sayde order of aldermen content. And whereas the patriots are the principalis ringleaders and greatest he Roman priests rant! Love ‘n’ ioy are the greatest aid to health, ‘n’ priests R not perfect angels! We dread an aged creed, tied

adventurers, which Carrie and drawe with them their friends, kindred, followers and adherence out of their naturall t’ dark, unreal fear o’ sin, when true freedom, half-hidden, awaits U here. Their crvell, horrid added writs that concern new i-

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countrie to a place soe Farr remote, to be protected governed and cherished by them, Wee doe therefore will nocent babes that die ere they’re christened repeat th’ dum error of a fool prelate, C, C? We dodge love more. I owe

and commaund all our sayde patriots, loveingly carefully and cheerefully to performe this their trust. my life t’ lovers: C, dear people louin’ly sau’d me from death —no ordinary cut! UUe English start t’ rally after ch-

And we doe ortayne that after admonition for being churlelish and negligent in that kinde, alenge—‘n’ what loue cd remain after hidden, banished, nonney idiot Kit higgled ‘n’ tore at a front

they shall bee noted with a note of ignominie, if they shall not endeavor the helping and protecteing given him in good faith to allow al of his plays t’ be enioyed there in England? No pretence, then! The teeth U

any of their forsayde adherence, by all lawfull meanes they may and this wee charge as well showed yn selfish f-fury! Ae, ae! All ye edgey melodramatic letters! H-ha! Can an able hy law renew

all our presidentes, councells and marshalls to look care- fully unto, the reather to drawe the Indyans to the like a penitant’s ryte to return to Kent ‘n’ liue or die? Cd loue defend Kyt? Shall he reach home, or shall a last slo, slo crawl u-

Ayres Death and Posthumous Life of Christopher Marlowe 4 August 2012Page 619

dependencye. And wee doe further ordayne that from the time that the patriot shall bee planted abroade, nseam that man left here on trial t’ be freed by dreaded death? Adio! Can ye weep no tear? Drop the h-hope U’l t-t-t

his estate of inheritance in England, togeather with his hon- oures, titles and inheritance in Virginea, shall be soe united aste good English ale again! ‘N’ th’ brite, neet, lovin actors sail auuai on R wind ‘n tide. There! It’s finisht! Rest, ninni! He, he, he! Chee!

and made one to him and his heires that he shall not sell the one without the other, and that sale Here at home with mi ladie I need t’ send al those hasht letters to Naunton: He ho-holds al th’-th’ a-an

to bee made by the consent of our councell of union in Virginea and our Virginea councell in England, suuer to R n-need for food ‘n’ uuinter clothing. Can I give mi babe Cleo a n-nonny DCL-guinea lace? N-no! I love

or the most parte of them, meeteing at their generall courtes and not otherwise. And if it happen that the patriot mi children more than aniething. I don’t want to see them get spoilt! U appear to fear t’ protest a tort after the he-he

doe dye leaveing noe heire male of his name then

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shall it goe to the female and their heires. avy sorro of tots h-h-hi falling—EE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E- ‘n’ lost t’ death. I’M here in h-hell again! In mad

And the eldest daughter of the patrition, and the heires thay shall challenge by the female side and their children shall beare demonic replai a’ that terrible scene! Shh! B still! All their suffering’s o’er, man, ‘n’ all that that ye had had—Gad!—deleted! Heed, h- heed, the ne-

the patriotes sirname, if they will inherite the sayde honoures and landes, which if they shall refuze that ew family needz. Offer aid—insist on their learnin’ t’ read —teach, tell, haue h-hope! They’re iust shsh-shy. What lit-

then the next of the kinde either by the father and then of the mothers side, takeing the patriotes any brings is retention. Offer repetition to the defeated, ‘n’ take exam! H-he, h-he! Seek th’- th’- th’- th’- th’ det-

adopted sirname shall enioye the sayde inheritance. And because wee knowe howe dangerous it will bee ention o’ rowdy swingin’ scholars—ae, ae, ae—‘til they all know the deep wide ABC’s ‘n’ dead numbers! E-e-e-e-e! I haue

to the state to suffer thease greate honoures and inheritances, to bee conioyned either by combinations, leagues, and marriages, to teach serious math so n-no hunger bites y-years ahead, an so I

Ayres Death and Posthumous Life of Christopher Marlowe 4 August 2012Page 621

can see each one of ‘em liuin’ better before tainted rott’n Greg dies at

wheareby some one familie may growe monsterous in the state, thearefore wee doe establish and ordayne last—maybe a tin trade, a steward iob—O, no sly SS! Eeeeee! Hy modern news—writing here at home—a home free of ou-

that noe person planteing or inhabiteing within any of our provinces within the degrees tright poverty: where hope can gro, gainin’ profit with sensible use. Ai! Not tendin’ a nonni he-

aforesayde shall make any leagues, combynacions or contractes either by worde or writeing, ebe SS trace-iob for ye gaine o’ some edgey criminal r-rat (RAT!) who’d ask U t’ chase all ye nonny crow-

or confirmeing them by oaths, offensive or defensive, to the mainetenaunce of any faction whatsoever, vppon payne ds of enemies t’ far-away cities ‘n’-‘n’- afta great effort, shoot every nonny-non one of ‘em. Hee, hee! Mi hi-vp occvpation! Vnpub-

of forfeiteing their goodes and lives as fellons. And to prevente the combindeing and conioyneing of thease lishable idiotic adventvres—fag hosts—no, I can’t defend mi nonnie story. Gee, he’l get gone—poof! Afore de nonnie f-

honoures in one house by marriage wee doe

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furthur ordayne that such eldest daughter ryghtenin’ rot shud gro ‘n’ uuear ar free youth down uui’ debt here at home. Ae, heedl’ss a’ cos-

or heire female as shall marrie with any patriott, or the heire of a patriott, shall disinable herselfe t—i-in arrear t’ try t’ help their bleari father, far lost in a memorie disease. Ha, ha! hopeless fool, he’ll wait

from inherriteing her fathers or predecessours patriotshippe thereby, except shee marryeing in error t’ see his MT existence change for better. Phi! Phi! He’d resist yr prayers. O, hug me! Prepare for

of a husband soe inamored with her that he shall sell or give away his owne patriotshippe life without this worthless man. Don’t weep—piss! R h-hi-lo years have al been good. A-ah, a-ah. R.I.P.

and soe shall take the sirname of his wife’s auncester. He may by that meanes inable himselfe ye late Sir Kit de’Monti, mean ‘n shameless, left U. Hys ace wife, ‘n’ R babes alone. He has faith she ma-

to inherite her honoures and estate and soe by marryeing the inheritrix of the patriot, hee will bee y understand he left not t’ harm her or the babes. There’s no phixin’ ye rot area. Oi! I let it go. Ei, ei! When I re-

accompted a kinde husband, and that will be his

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portion. The principal intent of frameing turn’d from sea it began, ‘n’ I thot, o, chap! ‘N’ it’d heal —bind, at least. No—I pick ‘n’ clip—find where amp- this lawe being that noe one subiect shall, either by purchase or any other meanes unite hicoelous nasal cysts grow, ‘n’ I, beery ‘n’ euer inable t’ stop the habit a’ hurtin’ ‘em—e-e-e! The han- the forces, thearby to inable himselfe to bee stronger then any of his order. But to the end d e’er at the sore, ye mind bereft of thot, he, the uacant boorish slob, briefly greets the nonn- that love may bee mayntayned, and that theise degrees may not estrange the upper orders y day, then, spent, subsides yn a tattered gloomy death-rot heap. Grr! E-e! Man, heave me! Entreat from the lower, wee wish that the heires and eldest sonnes of the upper orders may marrie fate t’ release me from years o’ this h-hard-pressed writin’. Then when U’d let me see how R poor with the daughters of the lower orders soe to rayse their wives fortunes. And that the daughters strife turns t’ ashen death without redress, o, I’d serve U farther—go the rest o’ d’ way—go to hel, whetha of the upper orders being heires may marrye with

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the sonnes of the lower orders, makeing choice win or lose, hon femme: euer thy writer of greased dispatches ‘n’ horrific mangey book reports—he-hee! of the most vertuous, soe as vertue may advance both men and woemen to marriages A dutee to write song ‘s no vvorse then tu B a fat man. U’ve more o’ me each day, Ma’M! Eros’s and that all degrees may bee thereby bound together in the bonde of love that none ode left V holy babees yn bed and then the iob ta rear ‘em al on the edge o’ rotten naught. may be scorned but the scorner. To this end alsoe, although wee would not haue you Celeb voce, U’l need to marry again—no other shot—tots need U.Bless U! You! Wh-what do h- imitate the Irish in their wilde and barbarous maners, yet wee will commend one custome ard times mean when the tots liue ‘n’ R learnin’? My dear, U’d best watch o’er ‘em, so we’l B—O! I-I-I! I C I’M of theires unto you, which is that the poorer sorte sueing to gett the nursing of the children putting h-horny Gregorio into th’ future! No! At rest, I’d not s-see, touch or feel thee, which is the s- of the lordes and gentrie, and breedeing upp in their minoritie as their owne, this breedeing,

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ad part o’ dieing, for euen tho’ I, Sir Greg M., ‘d be liein’ here t’ spend eternitie, we’d be sharin’ nothin’.

together with their custome, doth begett another nature in them to love their foster children Go t’ Guarina; there’s home there for U ‘n’ th’ tots. Don’t trie t’ relive the ol’ t-time here—we tend to B ch-ch-

and brethren, as if they were naturally bread of the same parentes, and they are accompted most vile and base ided by tha past. See ahead: R tads can possibly be three lean men ‘n’ a dear woman fleein’ terror at th’ mercy a’ tuf ve-

that shall neglect any good opportunitie to shew thankfullenesse thus begotten and bread nal ouerlords. Oh, can’t we giue th’ babetots strength to stay independent al life long? Ahh, thus t’ keep

betweene the riche and poore. And because wee will give all furtherance of the spreadeing U ‘n’ R babes free o’ d’ hel-woe fear that liued w-wi’ Greg at Naples ‘n’ Venice. O, th’ children—e-e-e-e! Pace …

of thease newe collonies wee doe thearefore ordayne and appoynte that all such servauntes E-e-e-e-e-e! Hope al U tots fynd place as loyal servants to friends around here.O, Hon, can’t we weathe-

that shall be carried at the carge of any adventurer or planter, both those servauntes that are soe carryed

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r th’ gale? Set a yat husband o’erboard ta enter th’ deep here. Rvn, C: chart thy course, love, ‘n’ sail t’ Ferrara! Soe ta, ta.

over and their servauntes, with their servauntes servauntes shall be tyed to plante in consortshippe Sir Henry’s here. So ta, ta t’ U to! Nu Sir Christopher’l want tv bid thee al adiev. Psst! U’l resent open vanes, even

with their first masters and shall(e) rise and remove with them to plante a newe colonie mi love ‘n’ patient ladee ‘n’ dear wife Micaela. I’M sorree. "N’ so, ‘n’ O, th’ th’ th’ th’ th’ last we-we: s-sir-r,

when their foresayde masters shall bee enabled by our forme thereunto, which shall bee best we be ready. No brash lul, C? Sell th’ boat here, ‘n’ find more ways t’ leaue R home. Sh-h! If e’er He-

after hee hath gayned and estate in England and is able to drawe over or Carrie with him n has aided vs, ‘e’d do it now. Wait for Greg ta die, then, ai! try ‘n’ heal th’ breech, ere a-a-al manner

three hundred men, leaveing the collonie hee was first planted in three hundred strong or upwardes. o’ hesitation waste thee, ‘n’ U’l need t’ decide what’s proper, mi l-love ‘n’ U’l need R Hen. Grr—Grrr! ‘N’ shh! A funded e-

The next magistracie is the governour, him wee ordayne after the death of the first patriott

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xistence is mi wish for thee. A great friend, he’d manage to prorate it—thy futvre here—to th’tota-

to bee annuall by election, but dureing the life of the first patriott hee shall bee governour and afterwardes his heires l. Now he’s freein’ us of a huge traitor, but ere fal he’d aid U love. Let it B for th’ babes, C? One printed letter’l gayn ten a-

shall be honoured as head of that order but shall not govern unlesse he bee thereunto chosen. vid readers, ‘n’ U’l soon B the able author o’ the best neuus sheet for all o’ England, C? ‘N’ h-here I rest, see? Ho, ho! Shh!

The governours charge shall bee to see the lawes, decrees and orders as well in the publique governement Requite us! U can sho we were not a useless team! Believe: ‘orlorn, brash old Greg needed thee as th’ helper,C? ‘N’ gl-

of the colonie as in the private families observed. Hee shall controlle all men for breach of manners iomatovs, he’l slip to near coma ‘n’ v, dear, ‘l finish all the notes for him so he’l be clean, clear ‘n’ free before

and discipline first giveing them private admonition and afterwards publique if they perscever r deadline. Ace, I no U hate ye fringe nevves dispatches bvt do ‘em wel, PDQ, as I-I’M nappin’. Grr! Tuf if it irrit

in their misdemeanour. Hee togeather the maior,

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the shreife, the churchwarden, and one commoner chosen ate Frances. R notes don’t concern him. O, more ‘n’ more I resent that he—he, he, he, HE—hid mi Chr. Mar. I D:’e woue a huge,

by the rest of the commoners, the governour haveing the casteing voice, they shall have power to indite clever web to cheat me, saying he authored mi Sh plays. O, hovv to retort t’ the feo egregiovs hit? ‘N’‘n’-‘n’ I ce Hen

for breach of lawes, and to suspend from degrees for breach manners accordeing as in their discretion has been arrested for prosecuting Francis in Lords: O! Some mad Bacon-anger stirred, which e’en f-forced a-

shall be thought meete. The next order that wee ordayne is the maior and aldermen, together n extreme royal order t’-t’ hold Hen tight at home. O, he’s been released unharmed, t’ get awai at the

with the shreif, all which 3 (three) orders in matters of triall of life and death, we ordane end of a month with d’ friendly iailer. So wd he sail here for R late farewel chats? He, he! (titt’r.)

that they shall bee tryed either by the counsell of state or the provinciall councell, the jurie that tryeth July’s c-cold this yeere; he’ll probably ne’er hear th’ Yat’s t-tteeth chatter i’ the rain. O, uuil he t-t-t-touch ‘n’ feel ol’

them beeing to bee of their own ranke and order,

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and in case where there are not soe many Kit? Beery breath fades as h-he’d read a once-winnin’ remnant. E-e! No! Go home now—retreet o’er to bee founde, they shall bee supplied out of the order and ranke next beneath them. a snoee alp, e’en to d’ b-bbeautiful Eden foreuer lost t’ rotten expended me. Ahhhhh! Kyt.

And wee doe give as well to our provinciall councell as to this degree and order the jurisdiction No, Doctor Daniel, nothing here now—just a crude uglie l-larded old corpse. Let sea waves cover it! I, I, I …

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Appendix B: “Shall I die? Shall I fly?”

“Shall I Die? Shall I Fly?” is a love-poem for the queen. It was rediscovered by Gary Taylor and widely publicized in 1985. A fair copy of this poem – made years after it was written – but with near-enough original spelling – still exists at the Bodleian Library (MSS. Rawlinson Poetry 160.fols.108,109). A corrupt copy has been found in the Yale library. Taylor changed the text printed in the NY Times, but the following was based on the copy from the Bodleian Library. Despite its stilted form, no one (until Roberta Ballantine) seems to have thought that the work might contain a cipher. In fact, it contains three acrostic ciphers. Here’s the outside poem—the plaintext, spelling reconstructed as near the original as possible:

Shall I die? Shall I flye? Lovers’ baits and deceits, Sorrow breedinge? Shall I fend? Shall I send? Shall I sue, and not rue My proceeding? In all duty Her beauty Binds me her servant forever. If she scorn, I mourn, I retire to despair, joying never.

—2— Yet I must vent my lust And explain inward pain By my love breedinge. If she smiles, she exiles

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All my moan; if she frowne, All my hopes deceiving—— Suspicious doubt, O keep oute For thou art my Tormentor. Fly away, pack away; I will love, for hope bids me venture.

—3— ‘twere abuse to accuse My fair love, Ere I prove Her affectione. Therefore try! Her reply Giues thee joy—or annoy, Or afflictione. Yet howe’er, I will bear Her pleasure with patience, for beautie Sure will not seem to blot Her deserts, wronging him to do her dutie.

—4— In a dream it did seem— But alas, dreams do passe As do Shadowes— I did walk, I did talk With my love, with my dove, Through fair meadows. Still we passed till at last We sate to repose us for our pleasure. Being sette, lips mette; Arms twin’d, and did bind my heart’s treasure.

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—5— Gentle wind sport did find Wantonly to make flye Her gold tresses. As they shooke I did looke But her fair did impair All my senses, As amazed, I gazed On more than a mortal complexion. [They] that love can prove Such force in beauty’s inflection.

—6— Next her hair, forehead fair, Smooth and high, next dothe lie, Without wrinkle, Her fair brows; under thoz Star-like eyes win love’s priZe When they twinkle. In her cheeks who seekes Shall find there displayed beauty’s banner; O admiringe desiringe Breeds, as I look still upon her.

—7— Thinn lips red; fancie’s fedde With all sweets when he meets And Is granted There to trade, and is made Happy, sure, to endure Stille undaunted.

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Prettye chin doth winne Of alle [the world] commendations. Fairest necke—no specke; All her parts merit high admiraciones. —8— A pretty bare, past compare, Parts those plots which besots Stille asunder. It is meet naught but sweet Should come near that so rare— ‘tis a wondere. No mishap, no scape Inferior to nature’s perfection; No blot, no spot: She’s beautie’s queen in e-Lection.

—9— Whilest I dreamt, I, Exempt From all care, seemed to share Pleasures in plenty; But awake, care take— For I find to my mind Pleasures scanty. Therefore I will trye To compass my heart’s chief contenting. To delay, some say, In such a cause causeth repenting.

The simplest cipher is acrostic: An anagram for Elizabeth’s name, picked out in bold letters starting in stanza 9 and ending in stanza one. The Z in stanza 6 is a clue.

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The second cipher is Marlowe’s plea for exile. Encased in the first three stanzas there’s a secret poem, consisting of three seven-line stanzas.

Line of the secret poem created from these lines in the front poem Stanza One 1. 1. Shall I die? Shall I flie… 2. 4. Shall I fend? Shall I send? 3. 5. Shall I sue, and not rue 4. 6. my proceeding? 5. 7., 8. Duty…binds me her servant forever. 6. 9. If she scorn, I mourn, 7. 10. I retire to despair, joying never. Stanza Two 1. 11., 12. I must…explain inward pain… 2. 14. If she smiles, she exiles… 3. 15. If she frowne… 4. 17. Suspicious doubt, O keep oute, 5. 18. thou art my tormentor. 6. 19. Fly away, pack away, 7. 20. I will…for hope bids me venture. Stanza Three

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1. 21. ‘twere abuse to accuse 2. 24. Therefore try! Her reply 3. 25., 26. Gives thee joy…Or afflictione. 4. 27. Yet howe’er, I will bear 5. 28. Her pleasure with patience, for beautie 6. 29. (Sure…not…to blot 7. 30. Deserts by wronging) doth her dutie.

The scheme for the first three stanzas is as follows:

Plaintext line Stanza Stanza Stanza s One Two Three 1. aa aa aa ../../ ../../ ../../ 2. bb bb bb ../../ ../../ ../../ 3. c c c ../. ..//. .. /. 4. dd dd dd ../../ ../../ ../../ 5. ee ee ee ../../ ../../ ../../ 6. c c c ../. ../ ./. ../. 7. ff ff ff ../../. …/../ ../../

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8. g g g /../../. ./././. ./../../. 9. hh hh hh ../ ./ ../../ ../../ 10 g g g ../../../. .././../. ../../../. Inside: lines Stanza OneStanza TwoStanza Three 1. aa aa aa ../../ …/../ ../../ 2. bb ../../ bb ../../ bb../../ 3. cc c Ä cÄ ../../ ../ .. /../. 4. dÄ dd dd .. /. .../../ ../../ 5. e e e ../../../. /././. ./../../. 6. ff ff ff ../ ./ .. /../ ./ ./ 7. e e e ../../../. ./ ./../. ././.../. The third cipher “for the record” is a set of 18 small anagrams. Using the first letter in each line of Stanza One, the second letter in each line of Stanza Two, the third letter in each line of Stanza Three, and so forth to the end, generates nine (9) little ten letter anagrams. Then, going back to the beginning, take the last letter on the right side of each line in Stanza One, second letter in from the right in Stanza Two, third letter in from the right in Stanza Three, etc., to generate 9 more sets. These can be unscrambled into 9 more ten-letter phrases. Having decided the ten-line stanza form was correct, it was necessary to recover the original spelling, since both available texts were copies made many years after the poem was composed, and by copyists who had no idea a cipher was there. It turned out that Rawlinson was correctly spelled except in a few cases, such as the last line of stanza four. In Rawlinson it is “armes,” and apparently the original spelling (necessary to form the anagram) was “arms.” These 18 phrases can be rearranged to yield an intelligible message. To illustrate, the fourth letters in from the left, in every one of the ten lines of Stanza Four yield: D A O D H O L A N S. An anagram for this is A N O L D S H A D O. Proceeding in this way it was possible to arrive not only at the fatalistic interior message offered in the text of this chapter but at

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something probably close to the original spelling of the work. (Worksheets are on file). The anagrams are as follows: 1. Left Bi mi sli SSS 3. Right plot one out: 7. Left polut curit 4. Right steals odds 8. Right to bar peace 5. Right p.decem lege! 7. Right Doth God ade 8. Left th’ proud S.O.B.? 1. Right Ys red, green? 9. Left So Dad’s case: 2. Right no great sin— 4. Left an old Shado 3. Left after errur; 6. Right beware’s pit! 9. Right Dream is o’er–– 2. Left full ill enow! 5. Left Aye, troolee, 6. Left Chrish i’ feu! Or Bi mi sli SSS— plot one out: – polut curit – steals odds – to bar peace – p.decem lege! —Doth God ade th’ proud S.O.B? – Ysred, green? – So Dad’s case: – an old shado – after errur; – beware’s pit! – Dream is o’er – full ill enow! – Aye, troolee, – Chrish i’ feu!

The “mi sli SSS” refers to Marlowe’s connection with the state secret service. The dog Latin “polut curit” probably refers to the corrupt (polluted) church hierarchy, which ; “ p. decem lege!” might mean polluting (or pissing on) the ten commandments. The “proud S.O.B.” was Archbishop Whitgift. “Dad’s case” refers to his father, Sir Roger Manwood, who was wrote several of the “Martin Marprelate” pamphlets that infuriated Whitgift, with Kit Marlowe’s help and who was secretly executed by Whitgift’s agent, the Portugese doctor Ruy Lopes. “Dream is o’er, full ill enow” needs no translation. The last line seems to mean that Marlowe fears that Whitgift wants him to be burned at the stake and that he intends to be drunk on the day of the fire. Much of this is admittedly difficult to interpret standing alone, but makes more sense in connection with other anagrammatic evidence. Marlowe’s fear of being burnt was justified. Christopher Marlowe’s first tutor at Corpus Christi was Francis Kett, a Fellow and a free-thinker who left the University in April 1581. Kett was later burnt at the stake in Norwich for heretical views (1589). Marlowe also knew John Greenwood at Corpus Christi, John Ap- henry (Penry) at Peterhouse, John Udall of Trinity. The first two were later tried, convicted and hanged by order of Archbishop Whitgift. Udall died in

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prison. Finally, he knew of the secret execution of Sir Francis Walsingham, his father, Sir Roger Manwood and two other marranos.

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Appendix C: Technical evidence

Forensic and stylometric evidence

A person with scientific training (like me) will wonder what computerized stylometric analysis has to contribute. The pioneer of this approach, long before computers were available, was Thomas Mendenhall {Mendenhall, 1901 #95}. He was a distinguished physicist who later became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The technique he pioneered was to plot curves of average word length frequency vs the length of a piece of writing. He regarded these curves as characteristic “fingerprints”of an author. He (rather his team) counted over two million words, out of the works of six Elizabethan writers, including Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, , John Fletcher, Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe. Comparing authors, he found that the curves for the first five differed significantly from each other. However, in Mendenhall’s own words: “In the characteristic curve of his plays, Marlowe agrees with Shakespeare about as well as Shakespeare agrees with himself” (ibid). What this work showed was that Shakespeare and Marlowe cannot be distinguished on the basis of average word length or word length vs the length of a piece. This does not prove that Shakespeare and Marlowe were the same. But it does prove the negative. It proves that this possibility – that Shakespeare and Marlowe are the same – cannot be ruled out a priori. On the other hand, one can essentially rule out any possibility that “Shakespeare” was Bacon, Beaumont, Fletcher, or Jonson. More recent work by John Baker and Louis Ule {Ule, 1975 #93; Ule, 1979 #91; Ule, 1980 #82; Ule, 1988 #10} and M. W. A. Smith {Smith, 1986 #86} have confirmed Mendenhall’s original result. For instance, Ule also found that Shakespeare and Marlowe both averaged 4.1. letter per word. Nevertheless, as noted above, this is really negative evidence; it would be a problem for Marlovians if the two had been significantly different.) Other tests with a long history are the average number of syllables per word and the average number of words per sentence. Again, Marlowe and Shakespeare prove to be indistinguishable by these tests, but the tests cannot necessarily distinguish between other pairs of authors {Mendenhall, 1887 #83; Yule, 1938 #87; Kjetsaa, 1979 #88}. However, Holmes is more optimistic that the number of syllables per word is a potentially useful forensic test, in combination with others {Holmes, 1994 #85}. The most useful tests so far identified, over a wide range of authorship attribution studies seem to be: (a) letter frequency (b) the frequency of paired words and the frequency of common (high frequency) words such as articles, and prepositions e.g.(Burrows 1989). On the other hand, still more recent work suggests that subjective – and consciously manipulable – elements of style, such as the use of synonyms, or rare words, cannot be regarded as a reliable test of authorship {Baker, 2005 #2}.

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An interesting example of a newer scheme is the Pace algorithm, developed by Baker and Ule {Ule, 1988 #10}. The underlying mathematics was based originally on work by Muller {Muller, 1964 #207}; also {Ule, 1990 #201}. The algorithm yields a specific measure of the rate at which more different words are added to a corpus as a function of increased length. The simplest measure is the ratio of the number of different words to the total number. If a long work is broken up into parts, and this ratio is calculated for subsets of increasing size, one has a new and unique measure, or signature. This can be calculated for every work – taken as a whole – and for every author, based on the sum of all his works. John Baker has conducted a stylometric analysis using the algorithm on the long three part poem Hero and Leander which was published (by Blount) in 1598 {Ule, 1988 #10}{Baker, 2004 #6}. Since Marlowe had only completed the first part at the time of his supposed death, many experts thought that it must have been completed by someone else. The most plausible candidate was George Chapman, a friend of Marlowe’s and (like Marlowe) one of Thomas Walsingham’s protégés. Baker’s study revealed, that the second and third parts of the poem had almost exactly the same number of words, and that the number of different words (core vocabulary) used in the three parts differed only slightly. But the most interesting result of Bakers’s work was that, when 80 Elizabethan texts were ranked in terms of this measure, Hero and Leander – taken as a whole – appeared in the middle of a cluster of three other works known to be Marlowe’s (Dido, Faustus, and Ovid’s Elegies). Baker regards this coincidence as very strong evidence that Marlowe was the author of the whole poem, not just the first part. (Anagrammatic evidence confirms this.) A different application of statistical techniques is to use the frequency of so-called “function words” as another sort of fingerprint, For example, this method has been used to assess the likelihood that various works belong to the Shakespeare “canon” or not {Taylor, 1987 #171}. Taylor used the ten words: but, by, for, no, not, so, that. the, to and with. Taylor did not apply his method to dating, however. Others who have used common words as a basis for comparison include D. W. Foster, who used five high frequency words (and, but, not, so and that), but omitted eight of the ten highest frequency words in Shakespeare, including the most common word of all, the. Foster used this method to test the authorship of “Elegy”{Foster, 1989 #202}. Of course, there is considerable scatter in the use of any single word, from one play to the next. But Peter Farey has shown that for each function word (from a list of 38 that includes Taylor’s 10) there is a clear trend, either increasing or decreasing over time, as a fraction of the whole list. This assumes the accuracy of Taylor’s estimated dates of authorship based on other evidence {Farey, 1998 #170}. Farey then calculated the statistical “best fit” for the fractional use of each word within the group, as a function of time, together with a measure of the goodness of fit (to a statistician this measure is known as R2). The R2 values for the different words ranged from

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0.0 (for the word “now”) to a maximum of 0.5329 for the word “then”. To magnify the effect, Farey created a subset of all those function words whose “best fits” had R2 values greater than 0.05, leaving 9 words with decreasing frequency and 13 words with increasing frequency. He then calculated a ratio of the number of increasing words to decreasing words for each of Shakespeare’s works and plotted that number against Taylor’s estimated date of authorship. This method yielded a single chart with much less scatter and a much better fit, viz. R2 = 0.8176. In brief, Peter Farey has demonstrated a neat test of when something of “Shakespeare’s” might have been written, always assuming that Taylor’s dating for the plays is correct. He has now applied this test, based on decreasing and increasing words, to sequencing the individual sonnets, by natural groups, based on subject matter. The groups he chose (his characterizations) are as follows: Group 1 (1-17) recommending marriage to a young man (Wriothesley?) Group 2 (18-24 young love. Group 3 (25-52) travel, absence and disgrace. Group 5 (53-75) relationship problems. Group 6 (76-103) and jealousy. Group 7 (104-126) reconciliation. Group 8 (127-154) “the dark lady”. Farey then calculated a “score” for each group, based on the ratio of decreasing words (total) to increasing words (total). If the sequence in Thomas Thorpe’s printing accurately reflects the time of writing, one would expect these scores to increase. Actually, they do increase in general, but the score for the first group is a little too high – suggesting that it was actually written after the next three groups – while group 7 seems to have been written last. Based on the “score” sequence, it would seem that the “young love” group (sonnets 18-24) was probably written first and the “reconciliation” group (sonnets 104-126) was written last, considerably later than the others. If the first group (sonnets 1-17) was in fact written for Henry Wriothesley’s 17th birthday (October 6, 1590) then it follows that group 2 (“young love”) was probably written long before “Shakespeare” had been heard of. Farey proceeded to compare Thorpe’s original sequencing with the stylometrically determined sequence (SDS) and with some 19 proposed alternative sequences by other authors, from 1841 to 1995. Although the Thorpe sequence differs from the SDS (as indicated above) it turns out that all but one of the other 19 differ even more from the SDS and from Thorpe. The exception is a sequence by Arthur Acheson (1922) that barely beats Thorpe in terms of correlation with the SDS (R2 = 0.35) to Thorpe’s R2 = 0.34 and only one of the others – Brents Stirling, 1968 – comes reasonably close (R2 = 0.32). The differences between these three could well be accounted for by slight differences in the groupings of verses that Farey chose to construct the SDS vis à vis theirs. The other 17 revisionist Sonnet sequencers can probably be dismissed as mere meddlers. I think that Farey’s

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results tend to confirm that Thorpe’s sequence is not a random collection of verses, as some Stratfordians seem to suggest. Other evidence of his scrupulous care as a printer – and the fact that he was chosen for the task by Edward Blount – implies that the order of the sonnets as published was indeed the order desired by the author. Another test that needs to be considered is the “rare word” test, invented by Gregor Sarrazin, who was the editor of the Third Edition of Schmidt’s Shakespeare-Lexicon. Using the Lexicon he identified words used in only one or two of his works. Using these links, he was able to find a good correlation with the conventional chronology {Hieatt, 1987 #203}. Elliott Slater modified the Sarrazin method by identifying link words that occurred in at least three but not more than five of Shakespeare’s works {Slater, 1975 #204}. Presumably he confirmed Sarrazin’s results. Thisted and Efron, used the method to try to determine the authorship of the (then) newly discovered 423 word poem “Shall I die” (see Appendix B) . They found 9 words in the poem that Shakespeare never used anywhere else, which came close to a predicted value of 6.93 new words, based on their statistical model {Thisted, 1987 #205}. Having more computer power at their disposal, they also identified words appearing less than 100 times in Shakespeare and repeated the experiment, with a similar result. On this basis they attributed “Shall I Die?” to Shakespeare. However Louis Ule pointed out that the word “the” does not appear at all in the 423 word poem. But this is the most common word in Shakespeare (and doubtless for all English authors). According to the Thisted-Efron model, it should have occurred between 13 and 14 times. The statistical probability that Shakespeare wrote the poem, on this basis, becomes one in a million! The problem, of course, it that writers do not take words at random from a Poisson distribution. Ule goes on to provide a comprehensive argument against the use of rare words to test authorship. He says: “Implicit in all tests based on vocabulary is the assumption that every author has a unique vocabulary by which he may be identified. At best only a few authors may be identified in this way. Another questionable assumption or claim is that authors may be more readily identified by words they rarely use, than by words they use frequently. Then there are claims that statistics based on random or selected samples of an author’s work are more reliable than statistics drawn from an author’s full text or all of his extant works, ... As to the assumption that an author’s vocabulary or habits in the choice of words is stable, most workers come to accept that the opposite is true. (Italics added by R. U. A). In my own experience over twenty years only texts written about the same time by the same author show any marked similarity in vocabulary, a characteristic that Sarrazin exploited to confirm the accepted chronology of Shakespeare’s works.” {Ule, 1990 #201} p.3. I should comment on one more computer-based study, by the “Shakespeare Clinic” at Claremont McKenna College, California {Elliott, 1996 #196}. The study assumed a “core corpus” of 32 Shakespeare plays, and tested them by

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no less than 51 tests against 12 doubtful plays (“Dubitanda”), 27 others occasionally or formerly attributed to Shakespeare (“Apocrypha”) and 17 plays by “claimants” (including Marlowe ). The computerized tests are not explained in detail in the summary paper. The tests include counts of “badges” (words favored by the author) and “flukes”(words used too infrequently). This is the method I described at some length above in connection with Peter Farey’s study of the sonnet sequence. Another group is called “semantic bucketing” (using clusters of badges and flukes). A third involves elaborations of the Thisted-Efron rare-word methodology. The other tests are said to be based on counting contractions and metric fillers, prefixes, suffixes, intensifiers and adversions. All of the tests are comparisons against an average profile, obtained from the 32 play “core corpus”. The essence of each test is to measure departures from the average. Not surprisingly, the plays in the 32 play core corpus differ much less from the average than do the others. Why? Because that’s how the average profile was determined in the first place, and because Marlowe did extensive revision and editing during his last years in Venice.) Elliott and Valenza then define an “acceptable deviation”, based on random selection from a normal distribution. Virtually all of the core corpus sits within the defined range, which was defined by averaging over that group. All of the other plays deviate by more than the allowed limit, for a number of the 51 statistical tests. This is the basis for the phrase in the title of their paper “And then there were none”. Does this Shakespeare Clinic study really settle the matter? Not in the least. The authors, a political science professor and a computer science professor – neither was a trained statistician – failed in the first place to design an experiment that could yield a meaningful result. There are at least three reasons. In the first place, it assumes the answer, i.e. it specifies a priori which plays are “Shakespeare’s” and which ones are, by assumption, not. If all the works of Marlowe, including those attributed to him by Ballantine, were included in the corpus, the averages and the “profiles” would be significantly different. In the second place, Elliott and Valenza assume that the averages would be time-independent, i.e. that an author does not change his use of language over time. But, as Ule noted in the quotation above, and as Farey has demonstrated statistically, the opposite is true. Styles and indicators of style, do change over time. Playwrights speak the language and cadences of their times and audiences, and both times and audiences change. Moreover, authors grow and mature. In Marlowe’s case, consider the changes of his circumstances, from his early association with Lord Oxford, the Kings School, through Cambridge, his secret service activities, his time in a French prison, his breach with his father (over the gambling loss of the gold chain) and his father’s death, his traumatic time as special target of Archbishop Whitgift, and his exile. Those changes were more than enough to account for changes in his writing style and depth of perception. Not only that, we have every

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reason to believe that he did a great deal of revision of the early plays in his later years in Venice, when he no longer had an outlet to the London theater. It would be extraordinarily surprising if his linguistic habits remained unchanged all that time. To avoid this problem Elliot and Valenza should have compared works written at the same time, at least no more than three or four years apart. Third, and finally, Elliott and Valenza neglect the possibility that printers, publishers and editors over the past four hundred years may have deleted, changed or introduced words and punctuation for purposes of “clarification”and that this winnowing process has, more or less unconsciously, reduced the variability in the “core corpus” as compared to other works that have had much less editorial attention. This possibility cannot be dismissed out of hand, as the John Payne Collier episode should make clear {Baker, 2006 #164}. For the record, John Payne Collier was accused (and convicted, at least in the judgment of his peers) of introducing no less than 20,000 emendations in the so-called “Perkins Folio”. Even if he was guilty as charged, one still wonders how many other emendations have been made by other well-meaning editors? Isn’t that what editors do? But if Collier was innocent, as some now believe {Ganzel, 1982 #163}, then the emendations were not his but those of an earlier editor. In that case the academic scholars may have been using badly copied, badly type-set or otherwise unreliable “original” texts. The problems of copying errors and typesetting errors cannot be dismissed lightly, especially if the author (e.g. Marlowe) was not living nearby and readily available for purposes of error checking and proof-reading. The Stratfordians simply assume that Shakespeare himself, being on hand, would have reviewed all copies before they went to the printer. But Shakespeare was not much around the Globe after 1613, and he was dead after 1616. Yet the Folio project had not even begun by then. If Marlowe was the author, as I believe, he would have needed a local copyist in Venice (where he was living) or one sent from London for the purpose. If the copying was done in London without his oversight, many errors might easily have crept into the printed Folios. Editors over the centuries have contributed to the confusion. To take just one example, noted by Elliott and Valenza themselves: the Sonnets have been published in machine readable form at least six times, no two versions being alike. The original Thorpe edition of 1609 had only six exclamation points, but other editions included anywhere from 23 to 59 exclamation points! Similarly the original Thorpe version had very few “open” lines (9 %) but modern emendations have between 16 % and 24 % open lines {Elliott, 1996 #196}note 23, p.244. Given so much variability among modern versions, the notion that there exists a trustworthy Shakespearean “profile” with respect to punctuation, contractions, and the like, is impossible to sustain. In summary, the Claremont group labored mightily, and out came a mouse. (Or was it a case of Much Ado About Nothing?) The academic literature on author attribution and dating is extremely large. The Shakespeare problem is only one of many that have attracted

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attention, and there are important practical forensic uses as well. However, when all is said and done, it is generally accepted that stylometric evidence based on existing techniques cannot conclusively establish any author’s claim – or date – with absolute certainty. This applies to Marlowe’s authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as the sequencing of the plays and sonnets. On the other hand, stylometric analysis, using computers, has fairly conclusively ruled out Bacon, Oxford and most of the other candidates (except Shakespeare) for the role as Marlowe’s nom de plume. The evidence, as it applies specifically to Marlowe v. Shakespeare, has been summarized quite well by Peter Farey {Farey, 1998 #170} section 8. One professional statistician who disagrees with the accepted view on stylometric evidence is Mikhail Malioutov of Northeastern University, who believes that his newly developed Conditional Complexity of Compression (CCC) approach would be capable of settling the question once for all. He comments “Whereas other stylometry tools can occasionally almost coincide for different authors, our CCC-attributor introduced in Malioutov (2004) is asymptotically strictly minimal for the true author, if the query and training texts are sufficiently large, compressor (sic) is good and sampling loss is avoided. ..” {Malioutov, 2007 #395}. The approach itself is described in {Malioutov, 2007 #392}. Potential application to the Shakespeare controversy is discussed in {Malioutov, 2004 #393}. Unfortunately the actual application of the method would be very costly and has not, as yet, been undertaken for lack of funds. To be fair, forensic evidence cannot rule out all possible challengers, such as the most recent example, the diplomat Henry Neville {James, 2008 #418} where there are no writings, independently known to be theirs, to test. However, the case for Neville – such as it is – depends entirely on James’ cryptological analysis of the title page of Thorpe’s printing of the Sonnets. I discuss that in the next section.

Crypt-acrostic evidence: The signatures in the sonnets and elsewhere

After Roberta Ballantine’s publication of the anagrams she found in the carved inscriptions on the walls of the Trinity Church in Stratford, (1996) I discovered that Peter Farey has also “solved” the riddle of the inscription, by a completely different method {Farey, 1999 #193}. (He seems to have been unaware of Ballantine’s work; at least he did not acknowledge it.) He has treated the inscription as a puzzle, not as an anagram. He found that the key to solving it lay in the use or non-use of larger capital letters. (While all letters in the inscription are capitals, some are larger than others.) There are three words without capitals, READ, WITH and QVICK while three with unexpected initial capitals are TOMBE, SIEH and HE. These six words constitute the clues. He then recapitulates the subsequent steps in the logic. READ if thou

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canst, can be interpreted as “solve if you can”. Next, WITH, in this monument cannot be interpreted (as most scholars do) as “within this monument”, because the WITH is emphasized. So the sentence now reads with, in this monument, Shakespeare. It would be clearer to most of us if the phrase “in this monument” were placed at the end of the sentence, so it becomes with Shakespeare in this monument. Who or what lies with Shakespeare in this monument? The prior words seem to explain it “Whom envious death hath placed with ... ”. How do we know the “whom” reference refers to Marlowe. That depends on the TOMBE clue, which does not refer to the monument on the wall, but to the one on the floor, which is the tomb. The only name there is JESUS. But “Jesus” also means “Christ”, which happens to be the first half of Marlowe’s first name. So we now have CHRIST, WHOSE NAME DOTH DECK YS TOMBE, FAR MORE, THEN COST. Or possibly CHRIST FAR MORE THEN COST, WHOSE NAME ..etc. Now, leaving the order of the consonents in FAR MORE fixed and moving the vowels to the right (counter-clockwise) yields OFER MAR. That leaves THEN COST. In the spirit of English crossword puzzles, this can be interpreted as “now that you have got this far, you will find the last clue in the word “cost”. The obvious thing to do is to search for a synonym for “cost” that can be equated with one of the six different endings for Marlowe’s name, e.g. “lowe, low, lo, lin, len, ley”. The answer comes from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED): “ley” is an alternative spelling of “lay” which means “bill, score, reckoning, tax or impost”{Farey, 1999 #193}. The rest is straightforward. QVICK can be interpreted as “alive”, or “living” (as in the “quick” and the dead). In other words, the message is that without Shakespeare as his living face, Marlowe (the dead partner) could no longer be heard. Farey points out that SIEH is a rebus for HE IS, and that the combination SIEH ALL can be read as “He is, withal” or “He is, nevertheless”. His overall translation follows: Stay traveler, why go by so fast? Work out, if you can, whom envious Death hath placed with, in this monument, Shakespeare - with whom living capacity died. “Christofer Marley” He is returned, nevertheless. That he did the writing leaves Art alive, without a “page” to dish up his wit. Farey notes that the probability of any given six words (the six “clue” words) coming up by accident in a 52 word verse are 20 million to 1. I don’t know how he calculates this. But it is all the more convincing that Farey’s solution essentially agrees with Ballantine’s, i.e. that Marlowe was the writer. What is even more remarkable is the fact that the same short poem hides (at least) two different messages, consistent with each other in meaning, but encrypted in different ways. To be sure, there is room in Farey’s version for interpreting it as a cooperative partnership between a public figure and a hidden one. The cooperation seems to have deteriorated after Shakespeare starting putting his name on plays – probably those that were performed by

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the Globe Theater – in 1598 and after. But of course, Shakespeare’s retirement and death also silenced Marlowe’s public voice. Roberta Ballantine has found anagrammatic signatures in virtually every play and poem attributed to him. Most critics dismiss this kind of evidence, based on the Friedman’s critique {Friedman, 1957 #73}. I think this dismissal is too easy, although I also realize perfectly well that anagrams are not unique. The question arises: Is there an encrypted signature somewhere in the works that does not depend on any anagrams or acrostics? The most likely place to search would be in the sonnets, since they were printed only once, towards the end of his (“Shakespeare’s”) career, in a complete form. The printer-publisher, Thomas Thorpe, who received them from Marlowe’s friend, Edward Blount was notoriously meticulous and careful. (Stratfordians have invested a great deal of effort in debating whether the Thorpe edition was authorized and supervised by Shakespeare, or not, comparing the 13 existing copies of the sonnets, seeking variations in spelling and punctuation.) Obviously any such signature would have to be extremely difficult to find, because Marlowe could not risk inadvertent exposure, even during the reign of King James. To “come out of the closet” (so to speak) might have seriously endangered Henry Wriothesley (Southampton), Thomas Walsingham, Harry Wotton – not to mention other secret service colleagues like Robert Poley, some or all of whom had helped him in his hours of need. Better let sleeping dogs lie, for a while longer at least. Yet Marlowe would have wanted his “signature” to be absolutely unmistakable, once found. His signature has finally been found (by Peter Bull), and it seems unmistakable, to me at least {Bull, 2005 #51}. It must be acknowledged right at the outset that some people have claimed to have discovered coded messages in the sonnets and other Shakespearean works, since at least the nineteenth century, and that most of these claims have been easily debunked. The most famous example was the two volume work by Ignatius Donnelly The Great Cryptogram which claimed to have found messages in Shakespeare’s plays, demonstrating that Francis Bacon had written them {Donnelly, 1888 #104}. The search for substitution ciphers quickly became a fad, and a number of others followed, mostly focused (at first) on Francis Bacon. However the methodology of Donnelly and his successors has been comprehensively debunked by cryptographic experts, William and Elizabeth Friedman {Friedman, 1957 #73}. The Friedmans proved that, using the same rules, one could prove a variety of silly propositions, including that Shakespeare wrote the King James Bible (or part of it). So, understandably, claims to have found encrypted messages are treated nowadays with a great deal of well deserved skepticism e.g.{Dutch, 1998 #105}. However, as the Friedmans (and others) have acknowledged, an acrostic is not a code, and the appearance of an acrostic, especially if it is clearly relevant to the sense of the text, would be another matter entirely: “...in the case of acrostics, any message found must have been inserted

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by the man who wrote the open text. If, therefore, any genuine messages of this kind exist, they must be taken as conclusive.” Unfortunately, some Baconians, notably Thomas Penn Leary and Mather Walker, have continued to seek ciphers despite the Friedman’s warnings {Leary, 1987 #102; Leary, 1990 #421; Walker, 2006 #182} followed by a series of articles in internet sites. (Major sites include the Penn Leary site http://shakespeareauthorship.com/bacpenl.html and http://sirbacon.org/mmarley.htm). They have invested huge amounts of time and brainpower to discover ciphers which, they have convinced themselves, are somehow not subject to the Friedman’s criticisms. Both of them claim to have proved that the odds against their “discoveries” being un-intentional are billions or trillions to one. In both cases these probabilistic calculations are erroneous. However, to complicate matters, there is a non- zero probability that Francis Bacon did deliberately introduce some “clues” into the First Folio (for which he, together with his hired “pen”, Ben Jonson, controlled the production process.) The most likely example is a convoluted semi-acrostic: SIT THE DIAL AT NBW, F. BACON, TOBEY to be found at the beginning of The Tempest, which is the first play in the First Folio {Walker, 2006 #182}. Bacon might easily have modified these lines during the production process, especially since nobody can be quite sure of the exact wording and spelling of the lines in the original stage version. Walker says that the abbreviation NBW stands for the 32nd point of the compass, starting clockwise from North. The AT points to the 32nd speech in The Tempest . Then, he writes “As the evidence develops this is part of a pattern of four sets of 32 speeches that correspond to Bacon’s four logic tables in his Novum Organum, making a total of 128, and speech 129 has the message “it begins again”. This indicates that Bacon incorporated his logic device in the plays, along with the design of an Intellectual Compass to be used in association with the logic device. I have also demonstrated that “The Tempest” allegorizes in detail the divisions of learning in Bacon’s Advancement of Learning. Taken together, these facts prove that Bacon wrote The Tempest. The Tempest was (according to standard chronology) Shakespeare’s last play, except for Two Noble Kinsmen, which was a collaboration with Fletcher. That is all of Walker’s “proof”. I need hardly say that the “facts” cited by Walker, both in the above quotation and elsewhere, do not constitute proof of Bacon’s authorship of the plays. He provides no explanation of how he discovered the message quoted – it is far from obvious — nor any reference to another source. He claims that he has mathematically proven that the message cannot be accidental, but his calculation is faulty. Can he prove that Bacon – a man of enormous ego – did not insert this acrostic simply to hint at his own authorship, and to muddy the waters, during the two year Folio editing process (which he supervised and controlled)? That is what I think happened. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that these omissions from Walker’s argument are a mere

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oversight, he provides no convincing interpretation of the message itself, especially the meaning of TOBEY? (Admittedly Tobie, or Tobey Matthew was Bacon’s protegé and arguably his best friend, but ...?)Yet, taking the proposed links and pattern seriously (as many critics would not) what Mather Walker may have uncovered is an indication that the controlling editor of the First Folio intentionally inserted some misleading clues. All things considered, I am now willing to argue (along with A. D. Wraight {Wraight, unpublished #390} that Kit Marlowe was a Freemason, in common with several other members of the “School of Night”), probably including Raleigh himself, Hariot, Percy (Northumberland), and Nashe, at least. It is well-known that Francis Bacon was extremely active in reorganizing and modernizing the brotherhood, following in the footsteps and expanding on the efforts of William Schaw in Scotland (where Freemasonry was officially acknowledged and King James himself joined the order in 1601). It seems that the original two degrees (apprentice and master) were expanded around that time to include a third level (between the other two) known as “Fellowcraft” (or Fellow Craft) and intended to distinguish the “speculative masons” from those who actually practiced the craft of masonry (building with stone). Knight and Lomas have this to say: “The second, or ‘Fellowcraft’ degree of Freemasonry gives very little extra knowledge to the candidate but it does introduce the idea of ‘hidden mysteries of nature and science’ and makes a clear reference to what is called the ‘Galilean Heresy’. Whilst we are certain that the central subject of this degree is as ancient as any in Freemasonry, it nonetheless is evidently of much more recent construction, due largely to Francis Bacon. The parts that were taken for this new ceremony were concerned with nature and man’s right to investigate and understand it.”{Knight, 1996 #111} p.433. As pointed out earlier Bacon was a Rosicrucian and possible the original creator of that secret society, which was a more esoteric, speculative and selective than the Freemasons {Hall, 2008 #502}. But most important, the Freemasons – strongly influenced by Francis Bacon – were key (but very secretive) supporters of proto-science at a time, and in a world, where open approval of the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo could be a ticket to the pyre (as was the actual fate of Giordano Bruno in 1600). So Bacon’s penchant for secrecy is understandable, but somewhat irrelevant. Indeed, some other interesting acrostics have been uncovered in recent years. John Baker has found TWATSON in Sonnet 76, attributing his inspiration to Thomas Watson. Watson was Marlowe’s close friend, and he had saved Marlowe’s life in the famous sword fight with Bradley, in 1989, which ended with Bradley’s death. There is no evidence that the actor Shakespeare knew Watson, or was inspired by him. The unsigned poem discovered in 1985, “Shall I die? Shall I fly?” which Ballantine (and I) think was written by Marlowe as a last minute plea to save him from Whitgift’s clutches, contained a double acrostic signed “Chrish” (Appendix B). John Baker has also remarked that sonnet 77, in the exact center of the

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sonnet sequence, seems to be a tribute to the printer, Thomas Thorpe (TT). In this sonnet the words and phrases “imprint” “waste blacks” (cancelled pages), “vacant leaves”, and “much enrich thy book” are to be found, and of the 14 lines, no less than 9 begin with the letter T, yielding no less than 5 TT combinations. The words “alien pen” appear in sonnet 78, possibly referring to the author’s unwillingness to use his own name. Finally, Baker notes the acrostic WIT in the first three lines of sonnet 17 and again in the first three lines of sonnet 138 (17 from the end, counting backwards). He interprets this as an order check, i.e. confirmation that the ordering of the sonnets is accurate. It is certainly unlikely that these items are pure coincidence, although they do not specifically point to Marlowe as the author. The most fascinating acrostic (in my opinion) was discovered recently by a physicist, John Rollett {Rollett, 1997 #56}. It is to be found in the title page of the Sonnets, as printed by Thorpe (T. T.) and dedicated to “Mr. W. H.” TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF THESE.INSVING.SONNETS Mr.W.H. ALL.HAPPINESSE AND.THAT.ETERNITIE PROMISED. BY. OVR.EVER-LIVING.POET. WISHETH. THE.WELL-WISHING. ADVENTURER.IN. SETTING. FORTH. T.T. The initials T. T. (Thomas Thorpe) appear below and slightly to the right of the dedication proper. Note that V and U were printed the same in Elizabethan times, so the two Vs can be interpreted as Us. The dedication, shown above, contains exactly 144 characters, which can be arranged into rows and columns in several ways, e.g. 18x8,16x9, 12x12, 9x16, 8x18 . It turns out the when the 9x16 grid is used, the name HENRY appears along one diagonal and when the 8x18 grid is used, the three combinations WR, IOTH and ESLEY appear on verticals. Rollett calculated that the odds against this set of combinations occurring by accident among the 144 characters is 32 billion to 1. (And there is nothing wrong with his calculation method, except as noted below.) Rollett’s calculation has been checked by statistician John Shahan, who arrived at a slightly different estimate (because Rollett seem to have under- counted the number of t’s in the array). Shahan re-calculated the odds at 29.8 billion to 1{Shahan, 1999 #57}. This does not take into account the further unlikelihood that the letter combinations actually suggest a plausible candidate for W. H. (Or H. W.) Rollett assumed those odds to be 100 to 1, which is probably conservative. The point is that the HENRY WR-IOTH-ESLEY

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in the dedication cannot be regarded as either accidental or unintentional, especially inasmuch as Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece were both explicitly dedicated to him. Whether the designer of the dedication really intended for Henry Wriothesley to be credited as the “only begetter” is another question entirely. (As a matter of fact, both Rollett and Shahan were partisans of the 17th Earl of Oxford, as author, not Kit Marlowe.) In view of what follows, however, it seems far more plausible that this acrostic was intended as a red herring, i.e. a distraction to satisfy those who would be easily satisfied. Who might not be so easily satisfied? Peter Bull’s answer to that is: Freemasons of high degree who were familiar with the Qabbala. Incidentally, MAR-LO can also be found – albeit in two disconnected segments – in the same 9x16 grid where HENRY appears. This could be accidental, but considering that there are only two Ms among the 144 letters of the dedication, it does also hint at intention. Brenda James, author of “Henry Neville and the Shakespeare Code” has provided an interesting interpretation of the same dedication, also based on the use of arrays of the 144 letters, based on the facsimile copy in Leslie Hotson’s book {Hotson, 1925 #19} cited in {James, 2008 #418} pp 14-36. She notes that the r, in Mr, is the only lower case letter in the dedication, which suggests (to her) that it was not intended to be treated as a separate letter. Combining the two letters of Mr into a single one leaves an extra blank space, which she treats as a letter immediately following the W. H. in the dedication – and in the corresponding spot in the array. She then looks for intelligible letter sequences, allowing horizontal, vertical or diagonal pairwise links. Each of the 100 central letters in the array links to 8 others; each of the 40 letters on the edge of the array (excluding corners) has links to 5 others and each corner letter still has links to three others. Since each pair-wise link is counted twice, the 12 x 12 array contains 1012/2 or 506 different pair combinations. Of course, all pairs involving either “Mr” or the blank letter can be excluded, which eliminates 16/2 or 8 combinations. Many of the others are duplications, since only 7 letters E, H, N, O, R, S and T account for 91 of the 142 letters in the dedication (excluding “Mr” and the blank), while the letters C, K, Q and Z do not appear at all. The letter E appears 23 times while T appears 19 times. Even so, it is interesting that very few meaningful words occur in the first 12 x 12 array. James then assumes that the bottom line (row # 12) of the 12 x 12 array, consisting of the letters SETTINGFORTH, constitutes the “keyword” for the cipher. The TT lies just below a two horizontal by three vertical letter grouping that contains the letters in “twelve” which convinces her that she is on the right track. But otherwise there is no intelligible grouping of letters. She interprets the word “forth” in setting forth as also meaning “fourth”, a clue that she is looking for the fourth re-ordering of the columns. She numbers the letters in the keyword according to position in the alphabet, yielding the sequence 9,1,10,11,5,6,3,2,7,8,12,4. (The three Ts in

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SETTINGFORTH are numbered 10,11 and 12). What follows is a series of three more re-orderings of the columns in the 12 x 12 array. Each one generates an anagram of SETTINGFORTH in the 12th row. She then numbers the columns 1 through 12 and re-orders them again according to the sequence above ( 9,1,10 etc.) Each of the three re-ordering of the columns creates 370 new horizontal or diagonal letter combinations (not counting combinations involving Mr or the blank), so the 4 “settings” (her term) yield a total of 506 + 3(370) = 1616 two letter combinations. In any given 12 x 12 array each interior horizontal 2 letter combination has 10 neighboring 2- letter combinations, while each interior diagonal 2-letter combination has 12 near neighbors. Pairs on the boundary have fewer neighbors, of course, but the average for the whole array is around 10. Hence the number of possible combinations of 4 letters in a connected group is of the order of 10,000. Each connected group of 4 in the interior of the array has up to 45 connected 2-letter neighbors. Allowing for edges, the average is between 30 and 40 (I can’t be bothered to calculate the exact number), so there are at least 30 x 10,000 or 300,000 combinations of 6 connected letters. The fourth version of the array reveals a 3 by 2 cluster of letters ELL/VEN, which are an anagram for NEVELL, which (sort of) sounds like Neville! However given that there are 22 “E”s, 6"L”s and 5"V”s in the dedication, such a combination of 3 pairs out of 300,000 possibilities is not particularly unlikely. (Elsewhere in the same array she finds the letters AREE in a vertical with an H adjacent to the A, and in another place the letters W diagonally across from the R in a vertical group RIT and a three letter horizontal TER starting from the same T. Thus she has found HAREE NEVELL WRITER, by cherry-picking letter combinations. After that she plays with other arrays and obtains still other combinations that seem (to her) to confirm her “discovery”. For example, the combination POET appears in several places, but could apply to anybody. I might point out that, allowing diagonal connections, as she does, the connected 7-letter combination of letters in MARLOWE is also to be found in the original 12 x 12 array. Brenda James may have uncovered a cryptogram created by Henry Neville, but I seriously doubt it. NEVELL may sound a bit like Neville, but that is not a very convincing identification, at least to me. What she has demonstrated rather well (if unconsciously) is that even a large number of random combinations of pairs of common letters yield very few meaningful words of more than 4 or 5 letters and even fewer intelligible messages. I think this lesson is important as applied to Roberta Ballantine’s work. The question always arises as regards the probability of finding a long intelligible anagram in a set of (for instance) 144 letters. If one is found, is it accidental or intentional? Finding two intelligible messages using exactly the same set of letters is surprising. Finding a sequence of pairs lines of poetry yielding hidden anagram messages that are not only intelligible individually, but which also make sense in combination, is even more surprising. Returning to the dedication of the Sonnets, the acrostic signature that settles the issue (for me) beyond doubt has been uncovered by Peter Bull, in

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his new e-book “Shakespeare’s Sonnets written by Kit Marlowe” {Bull, 2005 #51}. Both the “signature” and the decryption made considerable use of cabalistic clues. It would be natural to assume that Kit Marlowe, a well educated free-thinker and possibly a Freemason himself, was familiar with Masonic lore, (or with people who were). FreeQabbalary, at that time, was heavily influenced by Hermeticism and the Cabala {Dodd, 1933 #275; Heisler, 1990 #11; Bull, 2006 #108; Murphy, 2006 #271} Indeed, a number of other members of the English state secret service from Francis Walsingham on, as well as other figures in the government (including Francis Bacon) were reputed to be members of the brotherhood. For instance, Charles Howard, the sponsor of The Admirals’s Men – the company that had performed two of Marlowe’s early plays was reputedly a Grand Master of the English Freemasons (before he resigned to fight the Spanish armada). More important, William Herbert, the third Earl of Pembroke (possibly W. H. in the sonnets, and thought by some to have been Marlowe’s illegitimate son by Mary Sidney Herbert) was the Grand Warden of English Freemasons from 1607 to 1618 and Grand Master from 1618 until his death in 1630. The fact that “Shakespeare” (Marlowe) was evidently very familiar with Masonic lore, strongly implies that his use of many Masonic devices in the Sonnets means he was intentionally addressing other Freemasons (possibly including his biological son, W. H.). Having said that, I return to Peter Bull’s analysis. To begin with, he notes: “There are actually three substantial levers for the code-breaker. The first is [a] mechanism whereby each letter of the alphabet has a fixed and invariable value, and numerical equivalence between verbal units is taken to imply equivalence of meaning. The second is the presence of clues to interpretation in the overt text: this may be in the form of obvious textual hints, non-standard orthography, acrostic patterns or strategic location. The third concerns the fact that cabalistic information is characteristically communicated by means of structured number patterns and not individual numbers emerging out of the blue. It is this patterning that was completely absent in the Baconian evidence and thus destroyed its credibility.” {Bull, 2005 #51}p126.

The first “lever” in this case was a code, well-known to Freemasons in the 16th century (and apparently still in use) that is applicable in all languages using Roman script, including Latin. The addition of 4 letters to the original 23 letter Latin alphabet was similar to adjustments to the Greek and Hebrew alphabets (where the code may have originated). The code was to be found in a book, known to many in Marlowe’s circle, by the Hermeticist Cornelius Agrippa (Agrippa 1530). This code (the long or L-code) is as follows {Bull, 2005 #51} p.98: A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4, E-5, F-6, G-7, H-8, I-9 K-10, L-20, —30, N–40, O-50, P-60, Q-70, R-80, S-90 T-100, U-200, X-300, Y-400, Z-500, J-600, V-700, Hi-800, Hu(W)-900

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The Masons also used a short (S) code (not actually defined in the current version of the book, but available on the internet {Bull, 2006 #108}. It attaches a number to each letter in the old English alphabet: A,a =1; B,b = 2; C,c =3; and so on up to 24. (The sum of the numerical values of the name “Bacon” add up to 33, which is also the number of degrees in the Masonic hierarchy created by Sir Francis Bacon). The modern 26 letter alphabet adds two more letters, j and v. Thus i,j and u,v are lumped together in the S-code and given the same code number, viz. 9 for I,i,J,j and 20 for U,u,V,v. Evidently the two codes are identical for the first ten letters of old English (A through K); they differ only for the letters later in the alphabet. (N.B. in Elizabethan times W as spelled VV). It should be noted that both the L-code and the S-code were well-known (to those steeped in esoterica) in Elizabethan times and even earlier. Having defined the two codes for letters, there are also two traditional Masonic (Qabbalistic) ways of attaching numbers to individual words. These are known as Gematria and Notarikon. Gematria counts every letter in a word, while Notarikon just counts the first letter in a word. (There was a third method, known as “plenitude” which is not applicable to English.) Evidently every line in a verse then has four numerical values, using the L- code or the S-code for the letters and the Gematria or Notarikon codes for the words. At first sight, this would seem to greatly increase the number of possible ways of encoding a message. And so it does. But, what if one finds the same message in a line of verse simultaneously by more than one code? And what if the words in the verse, however ambiguous, tend to confirm the secret message while still expressing the overt message of the poetry? If combinations of this sort are discovered, one can only admire the skill of the poet-cryptographer. Combinations of the above sort are exactly what Peter Bull has found, not once but in a number of places in the sonnets. To be sure, the majority of the messages are to be found using the L-code, together with Gematria and Notarikon – only two of the four possibilities. But the frequency of combinations is awesome. The starting point, naturally, is the dedication, shown above. The first coincidence is found by determining the L-code numbers for the first and last letters of each of the 12 lines. Adding them together, they yield sums of 1440 and 680, respectively, for a total of 2120. Now adding the Gematria numbers for the letters of the 7th line (OUR EVER- LIVING POET) one obtains exactly the same number, 2120. Could this be a coincidence? The odds are less than one chance in a thousand: extremely unlikely. Even more surprising, it seems that 2120 is the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle whose other sides are 1885 and 971, respectively. (The exact hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs of 971 and 885 is 2120.39.... However, it would be too much to expect it to be a whole number. An error of less than 0.02% is probably acceptable in this game). These numbers turn out to be exactly the Gematria values of Christopher (CHI rho iota , and Marlo ( MU , respectively, spelled in Greek. Another sigma tau alpha rho omicron phi lambda epsilon rho ) omicron ) Ayres Death and Posthumous Life of Christopher Marlowe 4 August 2012Page 655

coincidence? Very unlikely. But that is only the beginning. Peter Bull then follows the obvious pointer to verse 2120 (line 7 of Sonnet 152) of the Sonnets. The line reads “For all thy vowes are othes but to misuse thee”). He then displays some dazzling interconnections by calculating the Gematria and Notarikon values of the whole line, using both short (S) and long (L) codes. There are four numbers: 106 (S,N), 453 (S,G), 1020 (L,N) and 3685* (L,G). What meanings might be deduced? Take the 1020 first. It can be shown by application of Pythagoras’ theorem again that a right triangle with a vertical of 1020 has a horizontal leg of 1205 and an hypotenuse of 1579. The horizontal number (1205) happens to be the Gematria value of “Kit Marlowe” while the hypotenuse number (1579) has a geometrical significance to be noted later, as does the L,G value of verse 2120, namely (3685). But before discussing that, notice that 1579 (the hypotenuse) is also the sum of the other three numbers calculated from verse 2120, viz. 106 + 453 + 1020 = 1579. Could that be a coincidence? More Masonic geometry follows. It seems that 1579 is the length of a rectangle with a height of 263.5 and a circumference of exactly 3685. This rectangle would have been interpreted by Freemasons as an ark (like Noah’s Ark or the Jewish Ark of the Covenant), i.e. the “sacred container of archetypal man”, because the ratio of length to width is very close to 6:1, the Biblical ratio of length to width of Noah’s Ark (Agrippa 1530). Thus the number 1579 can also be regarded as a coded identification of Christopher Marlowe. Peter Bull goes on to show that the four numbers derived from verse 2120, added together (yielding a total of 5264), together with some geometric constructions and some Greek, can yield arks suitable for both “Christopher Marlowe the Master Builder” (in Greek) and “The Master Mason”, also in Greek. Note that “Master Mason” is actually the title of the third degree of Masonry {Knight, 1996 #111}. This looks like confirmation (if any was needed) that the author of the sonnets and the designer of this masterpiece of encryption was a Freemason. However it is really a digression from the main analysis. As a result of much more numerological-geometrical analysis along the above lines, Bull is able to identify five numbers that apparently signify Marlowe {Bull, 2005 #51} chapter IX. They are 119 (Kit), 493 (Christopher), 1086 (Marlowe), 1205 (Kit Marlowe) and 1579 (Christopher Marlowe). Note immediately that 119 (Kit) + 1086 (Marlowe) = 1205 (Kit Marlowe) and 493 (Christopher) + 1086 (Marlowe) = 1579 (Christopher Marlowe). Another coincidence? Now consider the first of the series — 119 (Kit) – and go to verse 119 (in Sonnet 9). It reads “When euery priuat widdow well may keepe” and the four codes are (in the same order as previously) 105, 395, 2805 and 6421, respectively. The first two numbers are Notarikon and the latter two are Gematria. The final number is the key. Subtracting 105 yields 6316, which is the perimeter of a square with sides of 1579, code for “Christopher Marlowe”. The square is a figure with fourfold symmetry. Next subtract the

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second number, 395 plus a colel (in Masonic numerology, a unit ,colel, can be added or subtracted from any number without changing its meaning) yielding 6025 which is a pentacle (not a pentagon) with a perimeter of 5x1205 (“Kit Marlowe”). Here we have 5-fold symmetry. Finally, subtracting 2805 plus a colel from 6421 yields 3616 or 3x1205, the perimeter if an equilateral triangle also with a side of 1205 (“Kit Marlowe”). Evidently the name Marlowe appears in three different ways, corresponding to three-fold, fourfold and fivefold symmetry, a point of huge Masonic significance. Of course, three, four and five represent the sides of a right triangle, with hypotenuse of 5. (For the arithmetically challenged note that 32 + 42 = 52 ). There is no need to reproduce the whole of Bull’s analysis. (Almost) needless to say he proceeds successively to lines 493, 1086, 1205 and 1579 (Blood 2006). He finds similarly evocative patterns in each of them (Bull 2005a) chapter X. Finally, it is time to look for the promised acrostic signature. Something similar to the letter grid method used by Rollett seems appropriate. There are several theoretical possibilities, but the obvious one is to take the first letter of each of the 2155 lines in the sonnet verses and to arrange them in an acrostic grid of 14 columns (the number of lines in each sonnet) and 154 rows, (representing the number of sonnets). 14 x154 = 2156. But one of the sonnets (#99) has 15 lines, while #126 has only 12 lines, so 2156 +1 - 2 = 2155. By a process not necessary to describe here, Bull found a sequence of disconnected letters, forming a zig-zag pattern spelling KIT MARLOWE WROTE THIS. I agree that finding such a pattern might possibly be accidental. But wait. Since each letter corresponds to a number (the grid points being numbered from 1 to 2155), there is a corresponding sequence of numbers, as follows: K (1835), I(1756), T (1675). M(1594), A(1493), R(1392), L(1290), O(1225), W(1160), E(976), W(792), R(615), O(541), T(467), E(442), T(417), H(402), I(387), S(373). There is a central letter (and number) in this sequence, namely E(976). A pentagon is the geometrical shape enclosing a pentacle, consisting of three symmetrically intersecting triangles. A pentagon with five sides of length 976, has a set of six long diagonals – the sides of the triangles – of length 1579 (“Christopher Marlowe”). The long diagonals intersect, yielding a smaller pentagon with a side of 373, which is the number of the final S in KIT MARLOWE WROTE THIS. Verse 976 (in Sonnet 70) can be analyzed in the same way previously demonstrated, by calculating the two Notarikon and two Gematria numbers. Here only the long code is needed. The Notarikon number is 801 and the Gematria number is 3346. The sum of the two is 801+2246 = 3047. But this is also the Gematria value of the massage KIT MARLOWE VVROTE THIS if one spells the W as a double V in “WROTE”. That spelling was common in Elizabethan times. What else? It turns out that verse 373 has a peculiarity: the two verses

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flanking it on either side have the same L-Notarikon value, which is unusual, to say the least, and if either of them is added to the L=Notarikon value of verse 373 itself (409), the total is 1579, i.e. (“Christopher Marlowe”). Not yet convinced? There is more. Consider the five numbers constituting the left side of the zig-zag patterns, K, L, W, T, I. The sum is 4771, which is also the perimeter of a square that can be drawn inside a larger square of side 1579. And the points where the inner square touch the outer square yield four triangles with vertical sides of 493 and horizontal sides of 1086. The numbers were previously identified as codes for “Christopher” and Marlowe” respectively. Coincidence? Consider the five numbers corresponding to the right side of the zig-zag, M, W, R, T, S including the final S. They add up to 4159, which yields his name three different ways, also geometrically. The letters on the left side of the zig-zag and the right side of the zig-zag have been considered. What about the in- between letters? The numbers for the letters IT (between K and M) and AR (between M and L) in the signature add up to 6316, or 4x1579. Every verse making up the signature message has its own internal coded message, generally based on Masonic geometry The details cannot (and need not) be reproduced here. There is much more in Bull’s book. Could similar results be obtained for the name of another poet? (Or any other name?) Remember that it all started with the dedication, and the three ways of arriving at the number 2120, followed by the clues found in that line, and so on from there. Try some other code on the first and last letters of the dedication and on the line OUR EVER-LIVING POET. You will not get the same number both ways. And even if you did it would send you to another verse, and you could spend the rest of your life looking for some significance in a jumble of numbers leading nowhere. By all means try it, if you still doubt that KIT MARLOWE WROTE THIS. I don’t doubt.

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Appendix D. Anagrammatic evidence

From a starting text, the number of possible anagrams can be calculated only by the “method of exhaustion”. Specifically this means (1) creating a list, or lexicon, consisting of all possible combinations and orderings of letters in the text that obey the rules of spelling and thus can be thought of as words; (2) creating all possible sequences of words that use up all the letters in the text by incorporating spaces and punctuation marks (periods, commas, semi-colons, colons) as needed, then (3) eliminating all those which break some rule of grammar or syntax. What remains can be thought of as possible sentences. The last step (4) is testing the remaining sentences (if any) for intelligibility, using a set of rules, derived empirically from normal usage patterns. In the case of long texts, a further constraint will be applicable, namely that the set of all sentences can be linked together to form a coherent pattern or message. It is important to realize that the number of words in the lexicon corresponding to a given text is much smaller than the total number of possible combinations of letters taken 1,2,3,..N at a time. For instance, if we take the alphabet as a set of letters, only two of the 26 letters (A and I) constitute words, as such. There are (26 2 = 676) possible two letter combinations (including doubles) but every allowable 2-letter word must include one of the vowels, but not two (unless ai is a word), so the real number of possibilities is 5 times 26-5 or only 105. But only 47 are actual words in my vocabulary (including slang terms like “ah”, “aw”, “pa” , “ma”, “ow” and “uh” and Latin terms like ad and al). No doubt the OED will include a few others, but I have a vocabulary large enough for ordinary purposes. . The number of possible three letter combinations (including triples) is already extremely large (263 = 17,576), although the vowel constraint reduces the maximum number to 26 times 105 or 2730, which is still too big because a lot of double consonants are also excluded. Anyhow, the number of actual three letter words is comparatively small. For instance, by my informal count, the number of 3-letter words beginning with the vowel A is 37, the number beginning with B is 27 and the number beginning with C is 32 (including 1 Latin, 1 French and 1 Spanish) . The letter S has 38 (including 1 Arab and 1 Latin) while T has 38 including foreign. However these 5 letters occur with relatively high frequency. I counted only 18 3- letter words starting with J, 8 starting with K and only 4 starting with Q (2 Latin and 2 French). There are none starting with X and only a handful starting with U, V, Y or Z. Overall I guess the average number of three letter words per starting letter does not exceed 20 (probably less), which suggests a total of less than 500. or about a quarter of the 2730 allowable 3-letter combinations are words in my dictionary - The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, unabridged edition. In the case of 4-letter, 5-letter and longer combinations of letters, I suspect the percentage of real words among possible letter combinations is lower still, but I will leave the proof to

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others. The next step is to select combinations of real words (from a prescribed lexicon) that use all the letters in the starting text. This procedure have been programmed for computers. Different programs use different lexicons, so they cannot be directly compared. However the first one in the list turned up by Google was called “Wordsmith” which is on-line (http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/advanced.html). From the letters in WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE specifying no limitations except that words should not be repeated, it generated list of allowable combinations, in strict alphabetical order, starting with A and followed by words beginning with A. (There are four A’s in WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.) The list was extremely long. To give you an idea, anagram number 50,000 on the list was A AMAH KEEP IRES SWILL I have no idea how many the computer found in toto, but the number was far too great to work with. To reduce the list I eliminated the single letter word A and restricted the anagram length to 6 words or less. The program then generated 55,556 combinations, arranged alphabetically, before it stopped (apparently due to time constraints.) I printed out every hundredth combination, yielding a reduced list of 555 combinations, just to get some feel for what the computer had found. At that point, I noticed that the first word of the alphabetical Wordsmith list had unaccountably skipped from ASHAME to KAMPALA, omitting all sequences starting with any word beginning with AW, E, H or I, all of them being letters in the text WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. These sequences must have been omitted, because if they were included, the alphabetical list would have incorporated sequences starting with those words, and it did not do so. (This seems to be a major flaw in the Wordsmith system, but that is not my problem here.) For instance, one of the missing start words was AWAKE, so I searched the list to see whether it was included as a later word in any sequence. It was not found in any of them. So I tried again, specifying all combinations subject to the previous constraints but including that single word. It gave me 50,594 more combinations. Then, to cross check, I tried subtracting the letters in AWAKE from the 18 letters in WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, leaving ILLIM SHASPERE. This also yielded 50594 combinations. So now we know there are at least 110,000 possibilities, but we don’t know what else is missing, or why, due to a mysterious flaw in the Wordsmith program. The total number could easily be several hundred thousand. Including the possible permutations of all these combinations means multiplying each N word combination by N factorial or N! = N(–1)(– 2)...1. If all the combinations had six words, the number of permutations would be six factorial or 6! =720. Evidently 5-word combinations involve 120 permutations, and 4 word combinations have only 24. A casual scan of the list of 555 combinations in the reduced list mentioned above, indicates that most of them involved only four words, with a much smaller number of 5 letter words and hardly any 3s or 6s. The average seems to be just a bit over 4 words, or about 40 permutations per combination. Obviously, the

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number of combinations and permutations is a very large: [40  (110,000 + ?)] or at least 4 million. Now comes the interesting question: how many of the possible combinations make sense in English? Apart from the a priori improbability of most word sequences, the rules of grammar and syntax cut the number of possibilities considerably further. However, Google turned up another program Anagram Genius (version 9) which can be downloaded from the Internet. It incorporates an “intelligibility” (my word) score ranging from 0 to 100 for each allowed combination (applying rules that are proprietary). Using this “model” the program found 14, 627 anagrams for WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE with a score of 40 or more. The top five (with scores of 100) are as follows:

I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER I’LL MAKE A WISE PHRASE WE ALL MAKE HIS PRAISE A WEE PHRASE? I AM SKILL I SLEEP-WALK A HAM, SIRE

The fourth and fifth are obviously less intelligible than the first three. The next group still has relatively high scores, but the sequences are increasingly unnatural. Some of the better ones were I AM A SPHERE-LIKE LAWS or I AM A WHALE-LIKE PRESS; or HI! I AM A SLEEPWALKERS or LIKEWISE PHASE ALARM or WEAK, IMPERIAL HASSLE, and so on. The obvious conclusion from the above is that there is an enormous number of possible anagrams for even a relatively short text like WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, but that most of them make no sense. The next question must be: how does the situation change as more letters are added to the text? I repeated the test with WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE GENT, leaving the rest of the conditions unchanged, including the lower limit of 40% in quality or intelligibility This time the Anagram Genius program found 277,535 anagrams, the best being I AM THE SLEEPER GAINS with a score of 86 out of a hundred. Note that adding four letters increased the number of anagrams 20-fold. The relationship appears to be exponential. On the other hand, the number of intelligible anagrams actually decreased. (I note, below, that when the score cutoff is raised from 40% to 60% the number of allowed possibilities drops from 277,535 to a mere 1947.) I decided to perform a more systematic test, using Anagram Genius. counting only anagrams scoring 60 or more, for a variety of combinations involving the word SHAKESPEARE. As the table shows, adding more letters increased the number of allowable words in the lexicon and the number of allowable combinations of the words (anagrams) but not the scores. The only good score (100) was an anagram for WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (18 letters), namely I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER. Adding the four letters in GENT increased the number of anagrams with scores above 60 from 258 to 1947, more than 7-fold, yet none of them approached that high score. Adding the five letters

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in ACTOR increased the number of anagrams 4-fold, but again the quality went down. Could it be a problem with the scoring model? I doubt it very much. The program displays all of the discovered anagrams, not just the best one, and I only found one example where I disagreed with the scoring model (the one in the table indicated by an asterisk). In general, the model agrees pretty well with intuition.

TEXT LET WORDS ANA BEST ANAGRAM SCORE TERS GRAMS

SHAKESPEARE 11 408 102 PEAK AS SHEER 79 SEEK A PHRASE* 75

WM SHAKESPEARE 13 828 189 HAMPER AS WEEKS 75

WILL SHAKESPEARE 15 1767 305 HI! AS SLEEPWALKER 83

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 18 2763 258 I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER 100

WM SHAKESPEARE GENT 17 2914 153 GRAPH MEET WEAKNESS 75

WM SHAKESPEARE GENTLEMAN 22 4692 1132 SLEEPWALKER AS TO CHAIR 84

WILL SHAKESPEARE ACTOR 20 7705 1132 A WHITE COLLAR SPEAKERS 84

WM SHAKESPEARE 24 7103 191 ENEMY AND SOMEWHERE 72 MONEYLENDER SPARKLE

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE GENT 22 10041 1947 I AM THE SLEEPWALKER 86 GAINS

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ACTOR 23 11239 1009 I AM A WHITE COLLAR 85 SPEAKERS

Just in case the results for SHAKESPEARE were an artifact of the particular combination of letters, I tried again with MARLOWE. The results were very similar. Again, the only 100% score occurred with a combination of 18 letters and adding more letters allowed many more anagrams, but the scores declined.

TEXT LET WORDS ANA BEST ANAGRAM SCORE TERS GRAMS

KIT MARLOWE 10 802 92 WORM-LIKE AT 82

CHRISTOPHER 11 860 35 CHIP SHORTER 83

KIT MARLOWE GENT 14 2861 246 TOWEL MARKETING 87

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE 18 6505 407 WHICH MORAL POETS ERR 100

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE GENT 22 15379 2203 CHARMING OR POTTERS WHEEL 86

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE 27 21438 2899 WELL! THEOMORPHIC 84 GENTLEMAN ARRANGEMENTS

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE 33 29062 15412 HEART-WARMING 82 GENTLEMAN SAILOR IMPERSONAL CHOLESTEROL

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Obviously these results prove nothing conclusively. But there does seem to be an emergent pattern. Unfortunately, longer texts become impractical from a computational point of view; the 33 letter example above took an hour to process on my desktop PC, which is pretty fast. Adding more letters to the text does enormously increase the number of anagrams that can be found in the letters of the text, probably exponentially {Tunstall-Pedoe, 2006 #226}. But, surprisingly, the intelligibility of the anagrams actually seems to decline (on average) as more letters are added beyond a fairly modest number. This interesting empirical behavior suggests that if an intelligible anagram (one that scores close to 100) emerges from a very long text, and if that anagram reads like natural language prose (or poetry), it was probably put there intentionally. Is there a straightforward explanation for this phenomenon? I think there is. Simply, a meaningful sentence cannot be constructed entirely from function words (articles, prepositions, connectives, etc.) There must be a subject, generally a noun with modifying adjectives, and a predicate, generally a verb with modifying adverbs. Many sentences also include an object which is also a noun with modifiers. It is easily demonstrable that most nouns can only be modified intelligibly by a small group of adjectives, most verbs can only be modified intelligibly by a small number of different adverbs and most subjects can only be linked to a small number of predicates. In short, compared to the millions of possible sequences, most words in English can be linked intelligibly with very few others. I think this is why most anagrams – in the sense of sequences of “allowed” words (words in the lexicon) – are not intelligible and make no sense. Take the first sentence in the above paragraph as an example. There is one subject noun (“explanation”) and one predicate verb ( “is”, a form of the infinitive “to be”) and an object noun (“phenomenon”). Apart from the adjective “straightforward”, there are very few adjectives that could be applied to the subject noun. Other possibilities might include simple, elaborate, reasonable, unreasonable, appropriate, inappropriate, and so on. But the vast majority of common adjectives (e.g. big, small, rough, smooth, red, green, fast, slow, pretty, ugly, tasty, smelly, salty, sweet, sour, etc) do not describe or modify the noun “explanation” and would never be attached to that noun. Similarly, “is” the verb form of “to be” refers to an object noun, i.e. “phenomenon”. Other verbs that might be applicable to that object noun are quite scarce (the only two I can think of offhand apart from explain, are exist, describe, and discover.) But most verbs in English (feel, smell, see, hear, listen, talk, think, touch, make, do, crawl, fall, run, walk, swim, float, fly, dig, have, build, destroy, buy, sell, borrow, save, lend, fight, hit, rip, cut, sew, stitch, kill, imply, infer, wash, dry, clean, etc.) apply to human actions but could never be applied to the object noun “phenomenon”. Although the example is modest, I think the implication is clear. Many sequences of words are intelligible, but as a fraction of all possible

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sequences, the intelligible fraction is infinitesimal. Unfortunately, I know of no way to calculate it numerically. Perhaps this would be a challenge for the guys from Google.

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References