Despise drunkennes, which wasteth the wit, and maketh* men all equall vnto beasts. Flie lust, as the deathsman of the soule, and defile not the temple of the Holy Ghost. Abhorre those epicures whose loose life hath made religion loathsome to your eares; and when they sooth you with tearms of mastership, remember Robert Greene, whome they haue often so flattered, perishes now for want of comfort. Remember, gentlemen, your liues are like so many light + tapers that are with care deliuered to all of you to maintaine: these with wind-puft wrath may be extinguished, with drunkennesse put § out, with || negligence let fall; for mans time of itselfe is not so short but it is more shortened by sinne. The fire of my life ¶ is now at the last snuffe, and the want of wherewith to sustaine it, there is no substance for life to feed on. Trust not, then, I beseech yee, left to such weake stayes; for they are as changeable in minde as in many attires. Well, my hand is tyred, and I am forst to leaue where I would beginne; for a whole booke cannot contain their wrongs, which I am forst to knit vp in some few lines of words.” ** Both Marlowe and Shakespeare having taken offence at the above "Address," their complaints were noticed by Chettle, the editor of the tract, in a public statement which he prefixed to his Kind-Harts Dreame, &c, and which, if satisfactory to Shakespeare, was little calculated to soothe the displeasure of Marlowe. "About three moneths since," says Chettle, "died M. Robert Greene, leauing many papers in sundry booke-sellers hands; among other, his Groatsworth of Wit, in which a letter written to diuers play-makers is offensiuely by one or two of them taken; and because on the dead they cannot be auenged, they wilfully forge in their conceites a liuing author; and after tossing it two [to] and fro, no remedy, but it must light on me. How I haue all the time of my conuersing in printing ++ hindred the bitter inueying against schollers, it hath been very well knowne, and how in that I dealt I can sufficiently prooue. With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them [i. e. Marlowe] I care not if I neuer be: the other [i. e. Shakespeare], whome at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had, for that as I haue moderated the heate of liuing writers, and might haue vsde my owne discretion (especially in such a case) the author beeing dead, that I did not, I am as sory as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because myselfe haue seene his demeanor no lesse ciuill than he exclent in the qualitie he professes; besides, diuers of worship haue reported his vprightnes of dealing which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting that aprooues his art. For the first, whose learning I reuerence, and, at the perusing of Greenes booke, stroke out what then in conscience I thought he in some displeasure writ, or, had it beene true, yet to publish it was intollerable, him I would wish to vse * maketh] Old ed. "making." $ put] Old ed. "puts." light] i.e. lit-lighted. with] Old ed. "which." with] Old ed. "which." life] Old ed. "light." Something seems to have dropt out from this sentence. ** I quote from ed. 1617. Chettle was originally a printer. me no worse than I deserue. I had onely in the copy this share; it was il written, as sometime Greenes hand was none of the best; licensd it must be, ere it could bee printed, which could neuer be if it might not be read: to be breife, I writ it ouer, and, as neare as I could, followed the copy, onely in that letter I put something out, but in the whole booke not a worde in; for I protest it was all Greenes, not mine, nor Maister Nashes, as some vniustly haue affirmed.”* That it should have been attributed to Nash seems strange enough: but we have his own testimony, in addition to Chettle's, that such was the case. "Other newes," he says, "I am aduertised of, that a scald triuiall lying pamphlet, cald Greens Groats-worth of Wit, is giuen out to be of my doing. God neuer haue care of my soule, but vtterly renounce me, if the least word or sillible in it proceeded from my pen, or if I were any way priuie to the writing or printing of it."+" Possibly," observes Mr. Collier, one of the 'lying' portions of it, in the opinion of Nash, was that in which an attack was made upon Shakespeare,"‡-a remark which somewhat surprises me. Nothing can be plainer than that Greene wrote the passage in question with a perfect knowledge that those whom he addressed, viz. Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele, were no less jealous of the "Shake-scene" than himself, and that they would relish the sneering allusion to one who had given evidence of possessing a dramatic power which in its full development might reduce the whole band of earlier play-wrights to comparative insignificance. There is, therefore, no likelihood that Nash, the companion of Greene, Marlowe, Lodge, and Peele, and he too a writer for the stage,would have beheld the bright dawn of Shakespeare's genius with feelings more liberal than theirs. But, however he may have felt towards Shakespeare, I cannot doubt that when he mentioned the Groatsworth of Wit in the terms above cited, he was thinking only of the probable consequences of such a publication to himself: he was vexed and irritated because its disclosures concerning men with whom he was well known to have associated, -the dead Greene,§ and the still-living Marlowe,-had a strong tendency to injure his own character; and he boldly pronounced it to be a "lying pamphlet," in the hope of shaking its credit with the world. That Greene's exhortation, "to be warned by his harms," had no effect on "To the Gentlemen Readers," before Kind-Harts Dreame, &c. n. d.-Mr. Collier remarks, "We have some doubts of the authenticity of the 'Groatsworth of Wit' as a work by Greene." Life of Shakespeare, p. cxxxi. I cannot think these doubts well founded. The only important part of the tract, the Address to the play-wrights, has an earnestness which is scarcely consistent with forgery; and Chettle, though an indigent, appears to have been a respectable man. Besides, the Groatsworth of Wit, from beginning to end, closely resembles in style the other prose-works of Greene. + "A priuate Epistle to the Printer," prefixed to the sec. ed. of Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Diuell, 1592 (I quote from ed. 1595). Introd. to Nash's Pierce Penniless's Supp. &c. p. xvii, ed. Shake. Soc. § After Greene's death, Nash was anxious to persuade the public that no great intimacy had subsisted between them; but he was obliged to allow that he had been Greene's companion "at that fatall banquet of Rhenish wine and pickled hearing," of which Greene surfeited and died: see Nash's Strange Newes, &c., 1592, Sigs. E 4, H, L 4. Marlowe, is but too certain. Greene had not been a year in the grave, when Marlowe perished by a violent death in the very prime of manhood. This catastrophe occurred at Deptford; where, in the burial-register of the parish-church of St. Nicholas, may still be read the entry, "Christopher Marlow, slaine by ffrancis Archer, the 1 of June, 1593."*-In Beard's Theatre of God's Judgements, 1597, we have the following account. "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 it 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 vaine 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 cursed 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."+-Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, &c., 1598, after referring to the passage of Beard just quoted, goes on to say, "As the poet Lycophron was shot to death by a certain riual of his, so Christopher Marlow was stabd to death by a bawdy seruingman, a riuall of his in his lewde loue."-The story is told somewhat differently by Vaughan in The Golden This entry (which, not without much trouble, I found in the tattered register) was first given to the public by a writer in a periodical work called The British Stage (No. for January 1821). P. 149, ed. 1631. Fol. 286.-This account of Meres is wrought up by poor Dermody as follows: "Who, led by sweet Simplicity aside From pageants that we gaze at to deride, Has not, while wilder'd in the bow'ry grove, Oft sigh'd, Come, live with me and be my love'? As freezes memory at Marlow's fate: Groue, &c., 1600: "Not inferiour to these was one Christopher Marlow, by profession a play-maker, who, as it is reported, about 14 yeres agoe wrote a booke against the Trinitie. But see the effects of Gods justice! It so hapned that at Detford, a litle village about three miles distant from London, as he meant to stab with his ponyard one named Ingram [Archer?], that had inuited him thither to a feast and was then playing at tables, hee [Archer?] quickly perceyuing it, so auoyded 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 ende of impious atheists."* The author of The Returne from Pernassus, an academic drama which, though acted before the death of Queen Elizabeth, was not printed till 1606, has these striking lines concerning our poet; "Marlowe was happy in his buskin['d] Muse, Alas, vnhappy in his life and end! Pitty it is, that wit so ill should dwell, Wit lent from heauen, but vices sent from hell. Our theater hath lost, Pluto hath got, A tragick penman for a driery plot." +— In The Thunderbolt of God's wrath against hard-hearted and stiffe-necked sinners, &c., 1618, Rudierde closely adheres to the narrative of Beard, mixing up with it, however, the erroneous statement that Marlowe was killed "in a streete in London."-Wood, it is evident, derived his information wholly from Beard and Disastrous bard! by too much passion warm'd, His fervid breast a menial beauty charm'd; He sinks beneath a vassal murd'rer's blow. O'er his dread fate my kindred spirit stands Smit with commutual wound, and Pity wrings her hands. On talents that but lack'd its aid alone, Had deck'd thy works, the marvel of mankind; Snatch'd from low-thoughted Care thy stooping soul, And plac'd thee radiant on Fame's deathless roll; Shall crown'd by sensibility remain !" Meres, when, not without a touch of his own quaintness, he related the circumstances of our author's death.*-To the above authorities, I subjoin the MS. Notes of an unknown writer in a copy of Marlowe's Hero and Leander, ed. 1629.+ "Feb. 10, 1640. Mr. [here two words in cipher], that Marloe was an atheist, and wrot a booke against [here two words in cipher], how that it was all one mans making, and would haue printed it, but it would not be suffred to be printed. Hee was a rare scholar, and made excellent verses in Latine. Hee died aged about 30." "Marloe was an acquaintance of Mr. [here a name in cipher] of Douer, whom hee made become an atheist; so that he was faine to make a recantation vppon this text, 'The foole hath said in his heart there is no God."""This [here the name, as before, in cipher] learned all Marloe by heart."- "Marloe was stabd with a dagger, and dyed swearing." In addition to the various charges of impiety brought against Marlowe in the preceding passages, the reader will find in Appendix ii. to the present volume that "Note" of his "damnable opinions" which, just before the poet's death, was given in, as grounds for a judicial process, by a person named Bame, and which Ritson exultingly drew forth from the Harleian MSS. in answer to Warton's assertion that Marlowe had no systematic disbelief of religion, and that the Puritans had construed his slight scepticism into absolute atheism.§ How far the poet's freethinking was really carried, I do not pretend to determine. I certainly feel that probability is outraged in several of the statements of Bame, who appears to have had a quarrel with Marlowe, and who, it must not be forgotten, was afterwards hanged at Tyburn; and I can readily believe that the Puritans would not stick at misrepresentation in speaking of a man whose writings had so greatly contributed to exalt the stage but when I see that the author of The Returne from Pernassus, whom no one will suspect of fanaticism, has painted the * See Ath. Oxon, ii. 7, ed. Bliss.-Compare too the ballad called The Atheist's Tragedie, Appendix I. to this volume.-A couplet in Marston's Satires, 1598, has been supposed, without much reason, to point at Marlowe's death; "'Tis loose-leg'd Lais, that same common drab, Mr. Collier thinks that in the Epistle to the Reader, prefixed to the Second Part of T. B.'s translation of The French Academie, there is an allusion to Marlowe vide Poet. Decam. ii. 271, sqq. I do not think so. In the possession of Mr. Collier. It is among the papers of Lord Keeper Puckering.-The writer of a critique on my first edition of Marlowe's Works, 1850, most strangely supposes that this "Note" was not given in as grounds for a judicial process, but "was only required by the master of the Revels to enable him to determine whether Marlowe should be allowed, either as author or actor, to form part of any company performing under the Queen's sanction." Fraser's Magazine for February, 1853, p. 233. § Vide Warton's Hist. of Engl. Poet. iii. 437, ed. 4to., and Ritson's Observations on that work, P. 40. C |