On the morning of May 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe met with three associates in the English intelligence network. Later that evening the Queen's coroner was summoned to their meeting place. A body lay on the floor. After an inquest, the dead man was taken to a nearby churchyard busy at the time receiving victims of the plague. According to the official report, England's foremost playwright was interred without fanfare or marker. Soon, plays attributed to William Shakespeare began to appear on the London stage, plays so undeniably similar to Marlowe's that noted scholars have since declared that Shakespeare wrote as if he had been Marlowe's apprentice. Marlowe's Ghost: The Blacklisting of the Man Who Was Shakespeare explores the possibility that persecution of a writer who dared to question authority may have led to the greatest literary cover-up of all time.

The Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe provides a full introduction to one of the great pioneers of both the Elizabethan stage and modern English poetry. It recalls that Marlowe was an inventor of the English history play (Edward II) and of Ovidian narrative verse (Hero and Leander), as well as being author of such masterpieces of tragedy and lyric as Doctor Faustus and 'The Passionate Shepherd to His Love'. Sixteen leading scholars provide accessible and authoritative chapters on Marlowe's life, texts, style, politics, religion, and classicism. The volume also considers his literary and patronage relationships and his representations of sexuality and gender and of geography and identity; his presence in modern film and theatre; and finally his influence on subsequent writers. The Companion includes a chronology of Marlowe's life, a note on reference works, and a reading list for each chapter.

A a woman in search of sensation, you should not have come to me. I can tell you tales, but they are not exactly sensational — hardly a detective in them.” “The detective is a slur on any story. He is merely the author’s fool.” “But they are not even love stories of the kind you’re accustomed to.” “Of course not. Here in an Inn of Court you have no opportunities — no conservatory, no ballroom, no garden parties. Gerald proposed to me on the Underground Railway — and deserved to be refused. But he had the grace to apologize.” “Well, I’ll tell you all I know — or nearly. Some very droll things that I could tell would not interest you.” “I don’t mind being startled. You promised not to irritate me by being chivalrous. Chivalry! That subtle grip of the Middle Ages on my sex.” “But a woman — don’t interrupt; I use the word in a superior sense — can never appreciate the fine humor of a tipsy man. She expects him to be obvious: to fall in the gutter, to be towed home by the policeman, or fined for being disorderly. Tales of buoyancy, funny from the man’s point of view, would bore you.” “Humph!” “There are other tales — quite of the feudal period — which Gerald would rather I did not tell. Merry tales, with an undercurrent of sadness: the most perfect form of humor.” “I hope you don’t tax me with immodest prudery.” “I tax your husband. Some of the tales may be rather mad.” “Lunatics are the salt of the earth. Come and dine with us once a week. Tell me a story after dinner — Gerald goes to sleep.” “I must tell them in the Inn or they’d lose their flavor.” “Here! Once a week — that is settled. I’ll come. Marlowe’s Inn is charming. These quiet squares, just off Holborn; these sedate houses, with their old staircases and sets of chambers, each with its stout black door, appeal to me. I like the archway, the porter at the gate. I never saw such a green garden. I love rooks. Everything is gay, cool, monastic; a most fascinating place. And such queer people! I met a man with the face of a mystic — — ” “Probably Guy Blockley, the comedian.” “There was another man with a striped waistcoat, closely cropped hair, and a bulldog jaw. He looked like a prizefighter.” “That’s Paradale, the poet.” “Good Heavens! Then I met a woman, very fat. She carried a pail of dirty water. No doubt she was a political hostess, famous for her parties, or a popular lady novelist.” “She was only a charwoman — laundresses we call them in the Inn. She has probably ‘seen better days.’” “Well — about the tales?” “Sad tales, remember — partly sad. But you’ll get a laugh out of them.” “I prefer sad tales; there is more strength in a sob than in a giggle. Anything, so long as they are not commonplace. So long as the people don’t marry in the last chapter. I’m so sick of sane, respectable people who do exactly what they ought to do. Gerald has a regular income — that blight on originality. I was doomed to middle-class ease from my very cradle.” “I wonder if you really are broad-minded. I wonder! You are not very young — — ” “Nowadays a woman only comes of age at thirty.” “After thirty she is often a prude.” “But I am not so very much after. Why waste time in parrying? Tell me a story at once. Let this be the first sitting.” ***** “It was very stupid of me to clutch your arm like that — to scream. A scream is the admission of small intellect, of nerves, of everything that went out with smelling-bottles. But that noise startled me — it was the prologue to your tale — too realistic. What was it? I think it came from that house across the way, from that open window on the third floor, with the blue window box.” “From No. 7. Yes; of course.” “How somber you look!” “I must go and see what is up. Promise me to keep quite still. Don’t even look out of the window.” “I promise. I’ll look at the album instead. That is a most harmless, a most creditable thing to do. My heart thumps still. Do you think it’s a suicide? I’d like a smelling-bottle, if you had one. But a drop of whisky is the modern substitute. Thank you. And in this little cup. How pretty!” “It belonged to Kinsman. You will hear about him later. Here is the album. There are portraits of Adeline Pray and Minnie Chaytor — women whose acquaintance you’ll make. I won’t be long.” ***** “What was it? Here, take the rest of the whisky; you look as if you wanted it.” “It was Dick Simpson. He’s shot himself. Let me take you out and put you in a hansom. This is our first installment; a melodramatic one.” “Why did he shoot himself? How shocking! Love? There’s a girl going in at the door now.” “Why? You will understand when I tell you about that set of chambers in which he lived. Poor Dick! He’s left a note, just saying that all his accounts are in order. He was in the City; some of the men of Marlowe’s are. The odd thing is — there is always a quip in our tragedies — that he had dressed for the occasion. Frock coat, flower in his buttonhole, new tie — he only bought it last night; showed it to me; asked if I admired the pattern. They’ll never let that set again; it is the most extraordinary thing — that’s the fifth man that I know of, counting Drummond and Jimmy. “He was such a thrifty, cautious little chap, too! No debts, no difficult position. He wasn’t hard up — as most of us are. He lived within his income.” “He seems to have been a commonplace person.” “Poor Dick! Here you are. Where shall I tell the man to drive to?” “To the Circus. Good-by. I’ll come again, about this time this day week. Poor man! How shocking!” FROM THE BOOK

A novel set in 'Marlowe's Inn', a supposed Inn of court.

It is October 1592. Christopher Marlowe, the most accomplished playwright in London, has written The Massacre at Paris for his company, the Lord Admiral's Men. Bubonic plague has hit outlying parishes, forcing theaters to close and postponing the season. Ordinarily, the Rose Theatre would debut Marlowe's work, but its subject—the St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre—is unpleasant and might inflame hostilities against Catholics and their sympathizers, such as merchants on whom trade depends. A new company, the Lord Strange's Men, boasts a young writer, William Shakespeare, who is said to have several barnburners in the queue. A competition is called to decide which company will reopen the theaters. Who will most effectively represent the nation's ideals and energies, its humor and grandeur? One troupe will gain supremacy, primarily for literary but also for cultural, religious, and political reasons. Free supplementary materials for this textbook are available at the Reacting to the Past website. Visit https://reacting.barnard.edu/instructor-resources, click on the RTTP Game Library link, and create a free account to download what is available.

When Catland Security shows up on suspicion of Mrs. Marlowe being a mouse sympathizer, she must use style and wit to save her mice from certain doom. Full color.

London, 1819. Wherever Cassandra Darkin goes, fire is sure to follow. It's not until she's swept into the arms of a handsome, infuriating stranger that she learns she's responsible for the fires. As it turns out, Cassandra is a fire mage...and with her gift comes a blazing desire for sins of the flesh. With his pretenatural ability to influence the thoughts of others, Garrett Sterling is sent to gather Cassandra for the Order of the M.U.SE. He's entirely unprepared for his immediate attraction to the comely little firestarter. But it's an attraction that he must quell, even as his body craves her touch and her fiery, sensual hunger. For Garrett's gift has a dark side...and the moment he begins to care too much for Cassandra, he knows he will doom her to an inescapable fate. The Order of the M.U.S.E. series is best enjoyed in order. Reading Order: Book #1 The Curse of Lord Stanstead Book #2 The Madness of Lord Westfall Book #3 The Lost Soul of Lord Badewyn

Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy is the most thorough and detailed life of Marlowe since John Bakeless's in 1942. It has new material on Marlowe in relation to Canterbury, also on his home life, schooling, and six and a half years at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and includes fresh data on his reading, teachers, and early achievements, including a new letter with a new date for the famous 'putative portrait' of Marlowe at Cambridge. The biography uses for the first time the Latin writings of his friend Thomas Watson to illuminate Marlowe's life in London and his career as a spy (that is, as a courier and agent for the Elizabethan Privy Council). There are new accounts of him on the continent, particularly at Flushing or Vlissingen, where he was arrested. The book also more fully explains Marlowe's relations with his chief patron, Thomas Walsingham, than ever before. This is also the first biography to explore in detail Marlowe's relations with fellow playwrights such as Kyd and Shakespeare, and to show how Marlowe's relations with Shakespeare evolved from 1590 to 1593. With closer views of him in relation to the Elizabethan stage than have appeared in any biography, the book examines in detail his aims, mind, and techniques as exhibited in all of his plays, from Dido, the Tamburlaine dramas, and Doctor Faustus through to The Jew of Malta and Edward II. It offers new treatments of his evolving versions of 'The Passionate Shepherd', and displays circumstances, influences, and the bearings of Shakespeare's 'Venus and Adonis' in relation to Marlowe's 'Hero and Leander'. Throughout, there is a strong emphasis on Marlowe's friendships and so-called 'homosexuality'. Fresh information is brought to bear on his seductive use of blasphemy, his street fights, his methods of preparing himself for writing, and his atheism and religious interests. The book also explores his attraction to scientists and mathematicians such as Thomas Harriot and others in the Ralegh-Northumberland set of thinkers and experimenters. Finally, there is new data on spies and business agents such as Robert Poley, Nicholas Skeres, and Ingram Frizer, and a more exact account of the circumstances that led up to Marlowe's murder.