London streets as he [i.e. Marlowe] purposed to stab one, whom he ought a grudge unto, with his dagger—the other party, perceiving so, avoyded the stroke, that withal catching hold of his [i.e. Marlowe's] wrest, he stabbed his [i.e. Marlowe's] owne dagger into his head, in such sort that, notwithstanding all the meanes of surgerie that could bee wrought, he shortly after died thereof.' In the second edition of his book (1631) Beard omits the reference to 'London streets,' which is an obvious error (cf. Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. x. 301).
Both Vaughan and Beard describe Marlowe as a blatant atheist, who had written a book against the Trinity, and defamed the character of Jesus Christ. Beard insists that he died with an oath on his lips. The council's proceedings against him and his friends were not interrupted by his death. Thomas Baker [q. v.] the antiquary found several papers on the subject among Lord-keeper Puckering's manuscripts, but these are not known to be extant, and their contents can only be learnt from some abstracts made from them by Baker, and now preserved in Harl. MS. 7042. Baker found a document headed 'A note delivered on Whitsun eve last of the more horrible and damnable opinions uttered by Christopher Marly, who within three days after came to a sudden and fearful end of his life.' Baker states that the 'note' chiefly consisted of repulsive blasphemies ascribed to Marlowe by one Richard Bame or Baine, and that Bame offered to bring forward other witnesses to corroborate his testimony. Thomas Harriot [q. v.] the mathematician, Royden (perhaps Matthew Royden), and Warner were described as Marlowe's chief companions, and Richard Cholmley as their convert. Thomas Kyd [q. v.], according to Baker, at once wrote to Puckering admitting that he was an associate of Marlowe, but denying that he shared his religious views. On 29 June following Cholmley was arrested under the warrant issued two months earlier, and one of the witnesses against him asserted that Marlowe had read an atheistical lecture to Sir Walter Raleigh among others. On 31 March 1593–4 a special commission under Thomas Howard, third viscount Bindon, was ordered by the ecclesiastical com mission court to bold an inquiry at Cerne in Dorset into the charges as they affected Sir Walter Raleigh, his brother Carew Raleigh, 'Mr. Thinne of Wiltshire,' and one Poole. The result seems to have been to remove suspicion from Sir Walter Raleigh, who (it was suggested) was involved merely as the patron of Harriot. The 'note' among the Puckering mentioned by Baker is doubtless identical with that in Harl. MS. 6853, fol. 520, described as 'contayninge the opinion of one Christofer Marlye, concernynge his damnable opinions and judgment of Relygion and scorne of God's worde.' This document was first printed by Ritson in his 'Observations on Warton.' It is signed 'Rychard Barne,' and a man of that name was hanged at Tyburn soon afterwards (6 Dec. 1594). Marlowe is credited by his accuser, whose fate excites some suspicions of his credibility withholding extremely heterodox views on religion and morality, some of which are merely fantastic, while others are revolting.
There is no ground for accepting all Bame's charges quite literally. That Marlowe rebelled against the recognised beliefs may be admitted, and the manner of his death suggests that he was no strict liver. But the testimony of Edward Blount the bookseller, writing on behalf of himself and other of Marlowe's friends, sufficiently confutes Game's more serious reflections on his moral character. Blount in 1598, when dedicating Marlowe's 'Hero and Leander' to the poet's patron, Sir Thomas Walsingham, describes him as 'our friend,' and writes of 'the impression of the man that hath been dear unto us living an after-life in our memory.' A few lines later Blount calls to mind how Walsingham entertained 'the parts of reckoning and worth which he found in him with good countenance and liberal affection.' Again, Nashe, when charged by Harvey in 1593 with abusing Marlowe, indignantly denied the accusation, and showed his regard for Marlowe by completing his 'Tragedy of Dido.' 'Poore deceased Kit Marlowe' Nashe wrote in the epistle to the reader in his 'Christ's Tears over Jerusalem' (2nd edit. 1594), and 'Kynde Kit Marlowe' appears in verses by 'J.M.,' dated in 1600 (Halliwell-Phillipps), Life of Shakespeare). Chapman too, whose character was exceptionally high, makes affectionate reference to him in his continuation of 'Hero and Leander.'
Numerous testimonies to Marlowe's eminence as a poet and dramatist date from his own time. An elegy by Nashe, which, according to Bishop Tanner, was prefixed to the 1604 edition of the 'Tragedy of Dido,' is unfortunately absent from all extant copies. Henry Petowe was author of a very sympathetic eulogy in his 'Second Port of Hero and Leander.' Marlowe is described as a 'king of poets' and a 'prince of poetrie.' George Peele, in the prologue to his 'Honour of the Garter' (1593), wrote of
- Marley, the Muse's darling, for thy verse
- Fit to write passions for the souls below.
