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THE ASSASSINATION
OF
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
MURDER, THOUGH IT HAVE NO TONGUE, WILL SPEAK WITH MOST MIRACULOUSORGAN.—Shakspere.
THE ASSASSINATION
OF
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
(A New View)
BY
SAMUEL A. TANNENBAUM
The Shoe String Press, Inc.
Hamden, Connecticut
Samuel A. Tannenbaum
All Rights Reserved
Offset 1962
from the 1928 edition
Printed in the United States of America
TO
ERNEST H.C. OLIPHANT
A GOOD FRIEND
AND
A FINE SCHOLAR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Among the many friends who have patiently or enthusiastically, asthe case might be, read my essay on Marlowe's assassination, andwho have freely expressed their views on my theory and ungrudginglyargued the subject with me, raising and meeting difficulties, Iam especially obliged to Professor Joseph Quincy Adams,Mr. Max I. Baym, Professor Joseph Vincent Crowne,Mr. Alexander Green, Professor E. H.C. Oliphant,and Professor Ashley H. Thorndike. Others to whom I am indebtedare the distinguished physicians whose opinions I quote in AppendixA. In common with the rest of the literary world, I am gratefulto Professor James Leslie Hotson, whose inspiration,intelligence and perseverance brought to light the new documents in thecase—the Coroner's report and the Queen's pardon.
S.A.T.
April 1928.
THE ASSASSINATION OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
I
The arrest, on May 12, 1593, of Thomas Kyd, the first of the greatElizabethan dramatic poets, on the grave charges of atheism, ofmeddling in dangerous matters of state, and of publishing seditiouslibels tending to incite insurrection and rebellion in the Englishcapital, had far more important causes and much more far-reachingconsequences than have hitherto been suspected.
Among the causes which led to the inhuman torture on the rack and theuntimely death of the popular dramatist, we must reckon—if my readingof the history of the period be right—the idyllic love of one of themost remarkable couples of whom we have any record, the fierce andvindictive resentment of England's greate