Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1 Portable Library of Liberty

Green's Groats-worth of Wit, is given out to be of my doing. God never have care of
my soule, but utterly renounce me, if the least word or sitlible in it proceeded from my
pen, or if I were any way privie to the writing or printing of it” At this time Nashe was
a friend of Marlowe's. In Pierces Supererogation (which is dated 2yth April, 1593),
Gabriel Harvey accuses Nashe of disloyalty to his friends, among whom he
particularly mentions Marlowe. Doubtless there was not a word of truth in the charge
that Nashe “shamefully and odiously misuseth every friend or acquaintance (as he
hath served some of his favorablest Patrons, whom, for certain respects, I am not to
name), M. Apis Lapis, Greene, Marlow, Chettle, and whom not?” In Have with you to
Saffron Walden, Nashe exclaims indignantly, “I never abusd Marloe, Greene, Chettle,
in my life, or anie of my friends that usde me like a friend; which both Marloe and
Greene (if they were alive) under their hands would testifie, even as Harry Chettle
hath in a short note here;” and then follows a note in which Chettle declares that he
never suffered any injury at Nashe's hands. “Poore deceased Kit Marlowe!” are
Nashe's words in the Epistle to the Reader prefixed to the second edition (1594) of
Chrisfs Tears over Jerusalem.
The burial-register of the Parish Church of St Nicholas, Deptford, contains the
following entry
1
:—” Christopher Marlow, slain by firancis Archer, the i of June
1593.' Thomas Beard the Puritan, Oliver Cromwell's tutor, relates the manner of the
poet's death as follows:—
“Not inferior to any of the former in atheisme and impietie, and equal to al in maner
of punishment, was one of our own nation, of fresh and late memorie, called Marlin
[in the margin Marlow], by profession a scholler, brought vp from his youth in the
Vniuersitie of Cambridge, but by practise a playmaker and a poet of scurrilitie, who
by giuing too large a swing to his owne wit, and suffering his lust to haue the full
reines, fell (not without just desert) to that outrage and extremitie, that hee denied God
and his sonne Christ, and not onely in word blasphemed the Trinitie, but also (as u is
credibly reported) wrote bookes against it, affirming our Sauiour to be but a deceiuer,
and Moses to be but a coniurer and seducer of the people, and the holy Bible to bee
but vame and idle stories, and all religion but a deuice of policie. But see what a
hooke the Lord put in the nostrils of this barking dogge! So it fell out, that as he
purposed to stab one, whom he ought a grudge vnto, with his dagger, the other party
perceiuing so auoyded the stroke, that, withall catching hold of his wrest, hee stabbed
his owne dagger into his owne head, in such sort that, notwithstanding all the meanes
of surgerie that could bee wrought, hee shortly after died thereof; the manner of his
death being so terrible (for hee euen cursèd and blasphemed to his last gaspe, and
together with his breath an oath flew out of his mouth), that it was not only a manifest
signe of Gods judgement, but also an horrible and fearefull terror to all that beheld
him. But herein did the justice of God most notably appeare, in that hee compelled his
owne hand, which had written those blasphemies, to bee the instrument to punish him,
and that in his braine which had deuised the same.” So the passage stands in the later
editions. It is not unimportant to notice that in the first edition, 1597, for “So it fell
out,” &c. we find, “It so fell out that in London Streets as he purposed to stab,” &c.
The vague mention of “London Streets” shows that Beard had no exact information
when he put together his highly-coloured description of the poet's last moments.
Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1
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Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia, 1598, writes:—” As the poet Lycophron was shot to
death by a certain rival of his, so Christopher Marlowe was stabd to death by a bawdy
serving-man, a riual of his in his lewde love “(fol. 286). From Vaughan's Golden
Grove, 1600, Dyce quotes a somewhat different account:—” Not inferiour to these
was one Christopher Marlow, by profession a play-maker, who, as it is reported,
about 14 yeres agoe wrote abooke against the Trinitie. But see the effects of God's
justice! It so happened that at Detford, a little village about three miles distant from
London, as he meant to stab with his ponyard one named Ingram that had inuited him
thither to a feast and was then playing at tables, hee quickly perceyving it, so avoyded
the thrust, that withall drawing out his dagger for his defence, hee stabd this Marlow
into the eye, in such sort that, his braynes comming out at the daggers point, hee
shortly after dyed. Thus did God, the true executioner of diuine iustice, worke the end
of impious atheists” (sig. c. 4, ed. 1608). I must now direct the reader's attention to a
strange “Sonet” and stranger “Postcript” and “Glosse,” printed at the end of Gabriel
Harvey's Newe Letter of Notable Contents, 1593. Dyce (following Collier) quoted the
last line of the “Sonet,” but none of Marlowe's editors has referred to the “Postcript”
and “Glosse;” so I make no apology for giving the pieces in full
”SONET.
GORGON OR THE WONDERFULL YEARE.
St. Fame dispos'd to cunnycatch the -world