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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.
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