DOCSLIB.ORG

74;Iff"TN':T Death"

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
74;Iff 74;Iff"TN':T Death" ommenting on J. Leslie Hotson's 1925 discovery of the coroner's inquest into Marlowe's deathl, Professor G. \-,L. Kittredge wrote: "The mystery of Marlowe's death, heretofore involved in a cloud of contradictory gossip and irres_ponsible guess-work, is now cleared up for good and all on the authority of public records of complete authenticity and gratifying fullness." But Hotson's discovery has served only to increase the number of explanations for Marlowe's demise, and even gave rise to claims that Marlowe was not killed at all. As noted in the previous chapter Christopher Marlowe, in answe_r to the May 18 summons by the Queen's Privy Councif made his appearance at the Star Chamber in Westminster two days later, Marlowe's name then disappears from the records until Wednesday, May 30 wher; according to a coroner's re- port, he was killed by one Ingram Ffizei at Deptford, near - Londorg in the home of Eleanor Bull, a widow. One would think that the Reverend Richard Harvey, the rector at Chislehurst, Ken! knew of Marlowe's arrest at the 226 Christopher Marlowe (156+-'1 607 ) 3 227 home of Thomas Walsingham in Scadbury, within his parish, and passed this juiry bit of gossip to his brother Gabriel, but neither Doctor Gabriel Harvey, nor any other of Marlowe's friends or enemies, discovered this fact. And as to Marlowe's manner of death, though the coroner's report lays it to a dag- ger wound, Gabriel Harvey had no doubt that Marlowe died of the plague. In 1597 Thomas Beard reported that ...in London streett as he [Marlowe] purposed to stab one whom he owed 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 own head in such sort, that notwithstanding all the means of surgery that could be wrought, he shortly after died thereof. The manner of his death being so terrible (for he even cursed and blas- phemed to 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 judgmenq but also a horrible and fearful terror to all that beheld him. In 1.598 Francis Meres in his one and only publicatiory Paladis Tamia, reported that ...Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death by a bawdy serv- ingman" a rival of his in his lewd love. In 1600 the play As You Like lt was listed as "a book to be stayed" in the Stationers'Register, that is, its publication was withheld and it first appeared in the 1.623 First Folio. In this play we leam a further detail about Marlowe's murder, namely, the size of the room in which Marlowe was mur- dered. The clown Touchstone, whom Calvin Hoffman identi- fies with Christopher Marlowe, unable to impress the simple shepherdess, Audrey, with his wit exclaims: When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. Truly, I would the Gods had made thee poetical. The official version of Marlowe's death in Leslie Hotson's translation of the coroner's report is as follows: 228 t Louis Ule Kent. An inquisition taken at Deptford Strand in the afore- said County of Kent within the verge [i.e., within a twelve mile radius of the Queen and hence under jurisdictionl, on June 1, (1593)...in the presence of William Danby, Gentleman, Coroner of the household of her Majesty, the Queen, upon view of the body of Christopher Morley [Marlowe] there lying dead and slain, upon the oath of [sixteen named jurors] who say upon their oath that when a certain Ingram Frizer,late of LondorL Gentlemarl and the aforesaid Christopher Morley and one Nicholas Skeres, late of London, Gentleman, and Rob- ert Poley of Londorg aforesaid, Gentleman, on the thirtieth of May (1593) at Deptford Strand aforesaid in the said County of Kent within the verge, about the tenth hour before noon of the same day, met together in a room in the house of a certain Eleanor Bull, widow, and there passed the time together and dine4 and after dinner were in quiet sort together there, and walked in the garden belonging to the said house until the sixth hour after noon of the same day and then returned from the said garden to the room aforesaid and there together and in company supped; and after supper the said Ingram and Christopher Morley were in speech and uttered one to the other divers malicious words for the reason that they could not be at one nor agree about the payment of the sum of pence, that is "le reckoning," and the said Christopher Morley, then lying upon a bed in the room where they supped, and moved with anger against the said Ingram Ffizer upon the words as aforesaid spoken between them, and the said Ingram then and there sitting in the room aforesaid with his back towards the bed where the said Christopher Morley was then lying, sitting near the bed, ... with the front part of his body towards the table and the aforesaid Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley sit- ting on either side of the said Ingram in such a manner that the same Ingram Frizer in no wise could take flight: it so befell that the said Christopher Morley on a sudden and his malice towards the said Ingram aforethought, then and there mali- ciously drew the dagger of the said Ingram which was at his back and with the same dagger the said Christopher Morley then and there maliciously gave the aforesaid Ingram two wounds on his head of the length of two inches and of the depth of a quarter of an inch; whereupon the said Ingram, in fear of being slairu and sitting in the manner aforesaid between the said Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley so that he could Christopher Marlowe (1 564=L607 ) g 229 not in any wise get awayt in his own defense and for the saving of his life, then and there struggled with the said Christopher Morley to get back from him his dagger aforesaid; in which affuay the same Ingram could not get away from the said Christopher Marlowe; and so it befell in that afhay that the said Ingram, in defense of his life, with the dagger aforesaid of the value of 12 pence gave the said Christopher then and there a mortal wound over his right eye of the depth of two inches and of the width of one inch; of which mortal wound the aforesaid Christopher Marlowe then and there instantly died; and so the jurors aforesaid say upon their oath that the said Ingram killed and slew Christopher Morley aforesaid on the thirtieth day of May in the ... year named above at Deptford Strand aforesaid within the verge in the room aforesaid within the verge in the manner and form aforesaid in the defense and saving of his own life, against the peace of her Majesty the Queen ... and further, the said jurors say upon their oath that he said Ingram, after the slaying aforesaid perpetrated and done by him in the manner and form aforesaid, neither fled nor withdrew himself. The coroner's report had been requested by the Queen in a writ which she witnessed in person on ]une 15th, a request al_sing_from the fact that Ingram Fizer, arrested for the kiiling of Marlowe, had petitioned the Queen for a pardon. The tenor of Danby's report is directed to meeting the legal require- ments for a pardon for killing in self defense. The petitioner for the pardon must be able to demonstrate that to save his own life he had no alternative but to kill his assailant and that he could not escape. Further, the petitioner must show his innocence by not leaving the scene bf the killing. Ingram Frizer received the expected pardon rather promptly on June 28. With regard to the_ three men present at Marlowe's killing and who testified at the coroner's inquest held two days later, two of them, Ingram Fizer and Niiholas Skeres, have been identified as relatively affluent gentlemen in the service of Thomas Walsingham, Marlowe's recent host. The third gen- tleman, even more affluent and influential, is Robert Poley of Shoreditctr, formerly agent provocateur in the service of Sir Francis Walsinghanu the beirayer of Anthony Babington in the Babington plot against the Queen and currently employed 230 g Louis Ule by the Vice-Chamberlairu Sir Thomas Heneage, as a court messenger. As late as L59L Poley was taking directions from Lord Burghley in his correspondence with the English spy, Michael Moody, in Antwerp, an operation that did not come under Robert Cecil's purview, but was continued under the Vice-Chamberlain. Robert Poley created a considerable num- ber of ciphers for correspondence between spies and the gov- ernment. English intelligence operations were not centralized, and Cecil, the Earl of Essex, and the Vice-Chamberlairy and perhaps others, each maintained separate organizations of varying size for this purpose. Robert Poley had elected not to seek employment under Sir Robert Cecil when the latter took over Wilsingham's'spy network, preferring rather to work for his father, Lord Burghley, for the reason that Poley's rival (in terms of achievements in secret operations) Mr.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Teacher Resources for Teachers Working with Students in Key Stage 3 & Above Hannah Resource Pack
    8 FEB - 9 MAR 2014 WRITTEN BY CHRIS THORPE HANNAH DIRECTED BY SIMON EVANS MARLOWE’S DR FAUSTUS RE-IMAGINED FOR A MODERN WORLD TEACHER RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH STUDENTS IN KEY STAGE 3 & ABOVE HANNAH RESOURCE PACK CONTENTS 2 Introduction SECTION ONE – CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND 3-4 A brief summary of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Chris Thorpe’s Hannah 5 The life of Christopher Marlowe 6-7 Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in context 8 Doctor Faustus - a timeline 9 Hannah - a timeline 10-12 Interview with writer Chris Thorpe 13 Images of the set from the designer Ben Stones 14-16 Interview with director Simon Evans SECTION TWO – PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES: A SCHEME OF WORK 17 Introduction to practical Drama sequences 18-22 Sequence A: Power and Powerlessness 23-26 Sequence B: Exploring Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus 27-36 Resources for Drama sequences PAGE 1 HANNAH RESOURCE PACK INTRODUCTION Welcome to the resources for the Unicorn Theatre’s production of Hannah by Chris Thorpe. Based on the play Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Hannah asks what happens when a young girl is offered unlimited power and what guides the decisions she makes when once she understands the implications of the power she holds. Marlowe’s classic story of a man who sells his soul to the devil for supernatural powers translates into a play for a contemporary audience that examines the choices and dilemmas facing us in the 21st Century; What are the things that tempt us, What are the things that hold us back? How could extraordinary power transform us? Writer Chris Thorpe talks about the questions at the heart of his play: What makes us good? Why don’t we go out and just do whatever we want? Because we don’t do that a lot of the time, the vast majority of us don’t do that.
    [Show full text]
  • Scadbury Occasion of O" Writinge in One Chamber Twoe Years Synce', As He Claimed to Sir John Puckering Later in a Letter
    SEADBURY copied it out himselt he claimed that it belonged to Marlowe. It had been 'shufled with sorne of myne (unknown to me) by some L6. Scadbury occasion of o" writinge in one chamber twoe years synce', as he claimed to Sir john Puckering later in a letter. Kyd was arrested, sent to Bridewell prison under the authority of the Star Chamber and probably tortured; heresy and atheism were serious charges. The papers found in Kyd's room were labelled: 'vile hereticall Conceipts Denyinge the Deity of Christ our Saviour On 5 May 1593, between rr pm and rz midnight, rude verses Jhesus fownd emongst the papers were pinned on the wall of the Dutch churchyard in London. of Thos kydd prisoner'. In difierent writing was added: During the plague, when hardship was almost impossible to 'which he affirmeth that he had firom Marlowe'. bear, discontent flared against foreign merchants like the Dutch, To do Kyd justice, he may who were earning English 'money. The authorities, anxious to have copied out the treatise for Marlowe; though had been unnoticed keep the peace, visited people who might be responsible for the if it in Kyd's papers for two years then Marlowe could not have valued verses. One of these was Thomas Kyd the playwright, who once it enough to try to find it, or Kyd had hidden shared a room with Kit Marlowe; Kyd had recendy been involved it for some reason. Kyd blamed Marlowe when with writers who were working on a play (about Thomas More) the document was found, but had not previously highlighting Londoners' discontent against foreigners.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence That Marlowe Was Gregorio Research Journal - Volume 07 - 2010 Professor Robert U
    The Marlowe Society Evidence that Marlowe was Gregorio Research Journal - Volume 07 - 2010 Professor Robert U. Ayres Online Research Journal Article Evidence that Marlowe was Gregorio Summary of the Historical Evidence that Marlowe Lived After 1593, and Wrote the Plays Wrongly Attributed to William Shakespeare Introduction The evidence that William Shakespeare could not have been the real author of the plays and poems is circumstantial, but cumulatively enormous. His limited - if not lack of - education, the fact that he owned no books when he died and had no access to books when he was supposedly writing, his lack of travel experience in Italy or anywhere else outside of England, and his lack of acquaintance with the aristocracy is enough for me. The evidence in favour of other candidates, notably the 17 th Earl of Oxford, is based on almost nothing except wishful thinking by anti-Stratfordians and some distant ancestors of the earl. In any case it is virtually precluded by the fact that he died long before several of the plays, or even their sources, were written and ignores the fact that many of the plays in the Folio had been extensively revised long after Oxford’s death. The evidence for Bacon is equally based on wishful thinking, uncritical admiration of the man, and on ciphers supposedly to be found in the Folio. Stylistic and forensic evidence excludes Bacon from serious consideration. The evidence for other candidates is also based on imaginary ciphers and supposed life and/or literary parallels. The evidence for Marlowe is scattered, and some is admittedly plausible conjecture, but it adds up.
    [Show full text]
  • Prominent Elizabethans. P.1: Church; P.2: Law Officers
    Prominent Elizabethans. p.1: Church; p.2: Law Officers. p.3: Miscellaneous Officers of State. p.5: Royal Household Officers. p.7: Privy Councillors. p.9: Peerages. p.11: Knights of the Garter and Garter ceremonies. p.18: Knights: chronological list; p.22: alphabetical list. p.26: Knights: miscellaneous references; Knights of St Michael. p.27-162: Prominent Elizabethans. Church: Archbishops, two Bishops, four Deans. Dates of confirmation/consecration. Archbishop of Canterbury. 1556: Reginald Pole, Archbishop and Cardinal; died 1558 Nov 17. Vacant 1558-1559 December. 1559 Dec 17: Matthew Parker; died 1575 May 17. 1576 Feb 15: Edmund Grindal; died 1583 July 6. 1583 Sept 23: John Whitgift; died 1604. Archbishop of York. 1555: Nicholas Heath; deprived 1559 July 5. 1560 Aug 8: William May elected; died the same day. 1561 Feb 25: Thomas Young; died 1568 June 26. 1570 May 22: Edmund Grindal; became Archbishop of Canterbury 1576. 1577 March 8: Edwin Sandys; died 1588 July 10. 1589 Feb 19: John Piers; died 1594 Sept 28. 1595 March 24: Matthew Hutton; died 1606. Bishop of London. 1553: Edmund Bonner; deprived 1559 May 29; died in prison 1569. 1559 Dec 21: Edmund Grindal; became Archbishop of York 1570. 1570 July 13: Edwin Sandys; became Archbishop of York 1577. 1577 March 24: John Aylmer; died 1594 June 5. 1595 Jan 10: Richard Fletcher; died 1596 June 15. 1597 May 8: Richard Bancroft; became Archbishop of Canterbury 1604. Bishop of Durham. 1530: Cuthbert Tunstall; resigned 1559 Sept 28; died Nov 18. 1561 March 2: James Pilkington; died 1576 Jan 23. 1577 May 9: Richard Barnes; died 1587 Aug 24.
    [Show full text]
  • Shakespeare's Perfect Crime
    Vol.26 DIO 30th Anniversary 2021/1/14 DIO A Playful DIO Play: Shakespeare's Perfect Crime From Topless Queen To Feckless Armada To Godless Resurrection Dramatist­Poet­Atheist­Spy Christopher Marlowe Scripts Own Ingenious Escape from Fatal StarChamber Torture And Then: Transforms Into ShakespeareTwoWeeksLater 2 2021/1/14 DIO 26 2021/1/14 DIO 26 3 Download DIO 26, www.dioi.org/jq00.pdf, to click on links. Preface Shakespeare's Perfect Crime The play you are about to read grew out of DIO's investigation of long­simmering doubts regarding Shakespeare's authorship of the works published nearly 4 centuries ago Getting Away With Non­Murder under his name. That analysis, BardBeard, can be found at www.dioi.org/ji00.pdf, DIO Volume 18. (Delineation of this effort's approaches: at p.26 below.) One need not read past the raw, uninterpreted facts compiled at BardBeard's p.3 to Page: Programme: realize that Christopher Marlowe probably wrote the works of “Shakespeare” — but the rest of the investigation provides enlightening details regarding the history of the works xA 1586: Spymaster Walsingham & Ultraspy Robert Poley as well as that of the passionate, often ridiculous warfare over the true author's identity, xA1 Fotheringhay Castle: Would­Be­Regicidal Mary Queen of Scots Doomed 4 a confusion originally and deliberately triggered (as you will see within) by the besieged xA2 Rose Theatre Premiere of Marlowe's Tamburlaine 5 Marlowe himself, ironically enough. xA3 Spies Extraordinaire: Robert Poley, Nicholas Skeres, Christopher Marlowe 6 DR's mother, Barbara Brooke Dennis Rawlins Avirett (1910/11/10­1990/1/24), was a gifted novelist (Hear the Cock Crow Dodd, Mead & Co, New York 1949) and a prominent Maryland poet, admired by no less than H.L.Mencken.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright and Use of This Thesis This Thesis Must Be Used in Accordance with the Provisions of the Copyright Act 1968
    COPYRIGHT AND USE OF THIS THESIS This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author - subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Director of Copyright Services sydney.edu.au/copyright Spying and Surveillance in Shakespeare’s Dramatic Courts Richard Angus Smith A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Department of English The University of Sydney Contents Declaration of originality ii Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Note on editions used v 1. Introduction: Elizabethan espionage and the behavioural equivocation of Elizabethan spies 1-62 2. Much Ado About Nothing: surveillance and self-deception 63-96 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Creed-Of-Spies-Programme-1.Pdf
    CELEBRATING HERITAGE CELEBRATING HERITAGE Andrew Dawson, The Marlowe’s Head Of Artistic Production, talks about the importance of bringing the voice of the past into our own age. “The dead are not absent, they are just invisible”. These were the deliciously haunting words of St Augustine that Hillary Mantel invoked to begin her recent Reith lectures, indicating how the voices of the past continue to whisper invitingly to artists of our own age. Or so it would seem. Perhaps to be more exact, we should note that, while their writings and great works may have come down to us, preserved by careful custodians, most conversations and interactions with the everyday are inevitably absent. It is this absence, therefore, that gives space to the imagination. As Mantel goes on to point out, in her stirring defence of historical fiction, “history is not the past but the method we have devised in organising our own ignorance about the past”. Creed Of Spies started with the listed facts drawn from the tireless work of heroic historians like William Urry and then imagination was used to fill in the gaps, this was not to claim verisimilitude or historical accuracy, but to bask and revel in the wonders of exploring history’s unknowns. History’s inevitable gaps and its partial nature - invite our imagination into these breeches. History and creativity are complementary disciplines and it is this driving conviction that lies behind The Marlowe’s work to champion the celebration of heritage, ensuring that the voices of tomorrow are fired by the muses of yesteryear.
    [Show full text]
  • Who's Who in the Marlowe Chronology
    Who’s Who in the Marlowe Chronology Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. Supposed magician and author of several books; a possible influence on Doctor Faustus. Aldrich, Simon. Canterbury and Cambridge man who tells an anecdote about Marlowe and ‘Mr Fineux’ (see under 1641). Allen, William, Cardinal. Responsible for the imprisonment of Richard Baines at Douai (see under 1582). Alleyn, Edward. Actor. Took the leading rôle in Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus. Alleyn, John. Brother of Edward. Arthur, Dorothy. Marlowe’s cousin, who came to live with his family after she was orphaned. Arthur, Thomas. Marlowe’s maternal uncle. Babington, Anthony. Catholic conspirator entrapped by Robert Poley (see under 1586). Baines, Richard. Studied at Douai; detained with Marlowe in Flushing for coining (see under 26 January 1592); author of the ‘Note’ alleging that Marlowe held heretical opinions (see under 26 May 1593). Ballard, John. One of the Babington conspirators (see under 1586). Benchkin, John. Canterbury and Cambridge man who may have been a friend of Marlowe’s. Blount, Christopher. Catholic and eventual stepfather of the Earl of Essex; on the fringes of a number of big political events. His mother was a Poley so he may have been connected with Robert Poley. Bridgeman, Jacob. Marlowe’s successor as Parker Scholar. Bruno, Giordano. Author; eventually burned for heresy; probably the source of the name ‘Bruno’ in Doctor Faustus. Bull, Eleanor. Owner of the house in which Marlowe died. Catlin, Maliverny. Walsingham agent provocateur. Cecil, John. Catholic priest and possible double agent (see under 1590). Chapman, George. Playwright and apparent friend of Marlowe; completed Hero and Leander.
    [Show full text]
  • The Elizabethan Court Day by Day--1593
    1593 1593 At HAMPTON COURT, Middlesex. Jan 1,Mon New Year gifts. New Year Gift roll is not extant, but William Dethick, Garter King of Arms, gave the Queen a book of: ‘Arms of the Knights of the Garter in the time of Henry VII’. T Also Jan 1: play, by Lord Strange’s Men. Jan 1: ‘A Pleasant Conceit plainly set out, and plainly presented as a New Year’s Gift to the Queen’s Majesty at Hampton Court Anno Domini 1592’. Entered by the Stationers, 17 Jan [1593]. Not extant, but Thomas Churchyard lists this in Churchyard’s Challenge as among his works. (See end 1593). Jan 1: Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) wrote a Dedicatory Epistle to the Queen, intended to preface an account of his services against Spain: ‘To the Queen’s most excellent Majesty, my most dread Sovereign’: ‘Madam, seeing divers hath diversely reported, and written, of these voyages and actions which I have attempted and made...whereby many untruths have been published...I have accounted it my duty to present this Discourse to your Majesty...either for itself, being the first fruits of your servant’s pen, or for the matter, being service done to your Majesty by your poor vassal against your great enemy...that...our present age...may be satisfied in the rightful- ness of these actions...and your servant’s labour not seem altogether lost, not only in travail by Sea and Land, but also in writing the Report thereof, a work to him no less troublesome, yet made pleasant and sweet, in that it hath been, is, and shall be, for your Majesty’s content; to whom I have devoted myself, live or die’.
    [Show full text]
  • Marlowe, May 1593, and the 'Must-Have' Theory Of
    MARLOWE, MAY 1593, AND THE ‘MUST-HAVE’ THEORY OF BIOGRAPHY It is the nature of an hypothesis, when once a man has conceived it, that it assimilates every thing to itself as proper nourishment; and, from the first moment of your begetting it, it generally grows the stronger by every thing you see, hear, read, or understand. This is of great use. Tristram Shandy The enduring ability of the name of Christopher Marlowe to generate speculation and controversy regardless of the exiguity of the materials at our disposal never ceases to astonish. The temptation to try to extrapolate Marlowe’s artistic intentions not only from his playtexts and poems, but from the little that is known about his dramatic career, continues to lead those who write about his life down blind alleys. This tendency to make use of what I like to describe as the ‘must-have’ theory of biography, according to which Marlowe must have thought this or must have known that, is widespread.1 A few years ago, I attempted to demonstrate how little we know for certain about Marlowe’s life.2 Since the publication of Constructing Christopher Marlowe in 2000, however, several further attempts to explain what happened in the weeks leading up to Marlowe’s death in Deptford on 30 May 1593 have been published. While M.J. Trow and Taliesin Trow suggest that he was simply the victim of an Elizabethan contract killing,3 David Riggs insists that Elizabeth I personally gave the order for Marlowe to be murdered.4 In the ‘Revised Edition’ of his conspiracy thesis, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe, Charles Nicholl follows Professor Riggs in suspecting government complicity 1 in Marlowe’s death.
    [Show full text]
  • Christopher Marlowe: Identities, Traditions, Afterlives
    Christopher Marlowe: Identities, Traditions, Afterlives Introduction Daniel Cadman Andrew Duxfield Sheffield Hallam University Coventry University [email protected] [email protected] A Marlovian Anniversary 2014 has been a year of note for those with an interest in early modern literature. The 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth has prompted an intensifying of media interest in the work of the period’s most famous author, culminating — coincidentally — with the discovery in Saint-Omer of a hitherto unknown copy of the first folio, complete with performance notes on Henry IV. In addition to the usual abundance of scholarly publications, the year has been marked by major events hosted by The Globe, The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, all widely reported in the UK national press.1 On the periphery of this public glare, rather fittingly, a number of less prominent but nonetheless significant publications and events have marked the same anniversary of Shakespeare’s altogether more shadowy contemporary, Christopher Marlowe. Throughout the year, venues associated with the playwright’s life have seen a variety of revivals from the dramatic corpus. The Marlowe Society of Cambridge University 1 See, for example, Jonathan Bate, ‘Shakespeare’s 450th Birthday: Now All the World Is His Stage’, The Telegraph, 20 April 2014 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william- shakespeare/10777409/Shakespeares-450th-birthday-Now-all-the-world-is-his-stage.html> [accessed 10 December 2014]; Will Coldwell, ‘The
    [Show full text]
  • Who Killed Christopher Marlowe?
    Who Killed Christopher Marlowe? Year 10 Free Learning Day March 2017 Introduction Christopher Marlowe is one of the literary and cultural heroes in whose honour Dulwich College Day Houses are named. He met an untimely death, at just 29 years of age, whilst in a modest and respectable dining-house in Deptford. There are many conspiracy theories surrounding his death including those founded on his apparent associations with atheism, homosexuality and, most excitingly, the possibility that he was a spy working for Queen Elizabeth I. Today you will explore many of these aspects through a variety of talks and workshops, designed to embrace the spirit of independent cross-curricular enquiry. By the end of the day, we hope you will have a greater appreciation of who Marlowe was and what became of him. Mrs J. Stanley Guest Speakers Nick Inges Nick is a Partner at Tuckers Solicitors and he heads their Crown Court team in Camberwell, South London. Nick has worked as a solicitor defending the full array of criminal cases in the Magistrates’ Court and Crown Court for more than 30 years. His breadth of cases includes terrorism, organised crime, corruption, health and safety, football hooliganism, class A-C [drugs] (importation, distribution and supply), serious sexual offences, confiscation and murder. When Nick’s father-in-law, Professor Park Honan, was writing the renowned biography Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy he quizzed Nick about ‘the murder in the tavern’ and the various criminal defences that could have been used by the person or persons who stabbed him. In this talk, Nick will describe the right of self-defence as it currently operates and then consider whether self defence was a credible defence for Marlowe’s murderer.
    [Show full text]