Samuel A. Tannenbaum

“ Bullets have been known to enter the brain through one temple and to come out through the other without causing death. The Coroner's "grim tale" of Marlowe's violent and untimely end is, therefore, not a true account of what happened.
Taking all the known facts into consideration, we must, it seems to me, conclude (1) that Marlowe was assassinated while he was asleep, probably in a drunken stupor; (2) that while he was in this condition, Ingram Frizer thrust his twelve-penny dagger, which he had [Pg 43] brought with him for the purpose, deeply into Marlowe's brain ”

“ Kyd probably meant no more than that Marlowe's atheism made him a social outcast, but it is not at all impossible that he had something more specific in mind. In his letter to Puckering he says that the patron whom he and Marlowe served could not endure Kit's name "when he heard of his conditions." In the one-page memorandum or affidavit which Mr. Brown discovered, Kyd calls God to witness that this pious patron had commanded him, "as in hatred of his [Marlowe's] life and thoughts," to break off associations with one who entertained such "monstruous opinions." ”

“ In this connection we must not overlook the significance of the fact that no physician seems to have been called in to dress Frizer's wounds, which were probably too slight to require medical attention. That each of the two wounds on Frizer's head was two inches long and a quarter of an inch deep is so curious a phenomenon as to warrant the assumption that they were self-inflicted. A dagger thrust from above downward or from below upward [Pg 38] is much more likely to make a punctured wound of variable depth than an incised wound two inches long and only a quarter of an inch deep. ”

“ That Marlowe's situation was desperate is certain. The only ones who could have saved him—by the use of their political influence—were the men who were most in danger from him. From Kyd's reticence—a politic reticence, no doubt—the "men of quallitie" knew that they were safe if he was. Marlowe was the only one they had cause to fear. Marlowe, therefore, had to be silenced. [34] Ingram Frizer, a [Pg 48] servant of Mr. Thomas Walsingham, and therefore an associate of Marlowe (and not likely to be distrusted) , was assigned the task of stopping the poet-spy's career. ”

“ Otto H. Schultze, professor of pathology and medical jurisprudence, Coroner's physician in New York from 1896 to 1914, medical assistant District Attorney of New York County from 1914 to date, and the author of several works on the medico-legal aspects of homicide, wrote as follows in reply to my inquiry:
A stab wound of the skin or even puncturing the orbit could not cause instant death, nor would be likely to cause a fatal hemorrhage. A stab wound above the eye, penetrating the orbital plate and frontal lobe of brain, may cause death, but hardly would account for "instant" death. ”

“ Mr. Ingram, following Dyce, says (Christopher Marlowe and his Associates, 1904, p. 184) : "The earliest references to the poet not only allude to his friendship with Raleigh but even assert that he read a paper on the Trinity before Sir Walter Raleigh and his brother Carew and others at the Knight's house." [35] The alleged [Pg 50] friendship is in all probability a myth, though Ralegh must have been fascinated by the creator of Tamburlaine and Faust, two portraits in which that bold and aspiring spirit may very well have seen himself. ”

“ The only witnesses to the homicide were one Nicholas Skeres and one Robert Poley, the former a cheat and jailbird who had been associated with Frizer in some of his nefarious schemes, and the latter a spy. [29] Here, it will be acknowledged, was an excellent trio for a contrived murder. I say "contrived murder" because, from Mr. Hotson's account of the matter, it is clearly apparent that the story told at the Coroner's inquest by Skeres and Poley (the only witnesses to the assassination) is incredible. ”

“ Kyd was by no means the only one to accuse Marlowe. On Whitsun Eve, May 29, 1593, the Privy Council received a "Note" [27] from one Richard Baines [27] (not "Bames") , charging Marlowe, the associate of cutpurses and masterless men, with the foulest blasphemies. In this document, in the informer's own hand, Baines [Pg 35] accuses Marlowe of maintaining that Harriott, the brilliant scientist and inventor, whom the fool multitude regarded as a magician, and whom he describes as "Sir W. Raleighs man," could "do more" than Moses who "was but a Jugler." ”

“ It must always remain a matter for great regret that the minutes of the Council, as well as the warrant for Marlowe's apprehension, are silent about the nature of the charges against the younger poet and the identity of his accuser. But, considering the close similarity between the accusations brought against him in the other documents in the case and the offences enumerated in the Kyd memorandum, there can be but little doubt that Marlowe's arrest was due solely to Kyd's charges against him. ”

“ As matters stand, we do not even know for certain whether the dead Marlowe was discovered in bed or on the floor, whether there were bloodstains in the bed, whether the Coroner found the dagger in the wound and in the clutch of the deceased—surely very material facts in an inquiry regarding a possible murder. ”

“ To understand what Ralegh's state of mind was at this time it is necessary to recount the occurrences of the preceding year. After having for several years played the rôle of devoted and impas [Pg 53] sioned lover to the Virgin Queen—"love's queen and the goddess of his life"—he had permitted himself to fall a victim to the charms of one of the Queen's maids of honor, the witty, beautiful (tall, slender, blue-eyed, golden-haired) and altogether lovely Elizabeth Throgmorton, some thirty-five years younger than her royal rival. ”

“ It is incredible that Marlowe should have been lying on a cot and that Frizer should have had his back toward [Pg 39] him while they were engaged in an acrimonious discussion.
5. The Coroner's statement that Frizer, while sitting in a chair and wrestling with a man in bed behind him, inflicted "a mortal wound over his [assailant's] right eye of the depth of two inches & of the width of one inch" is so improbable as to throw doubt on the whole of his account of the matter. ”

“ A man, constituted as he was, conscious of his powers, his talents, his unemployed energy, his versatility, his military ability and skill, his scientific attainments, his popularity with the crews of his ships, [38] his ambitions, [Pg 58] and smarting under the disabilities attendant on being in disgrace, would without a doubt be keenly on the alert for any opportunity that chance might offer to bring him back into a position of influence and power.
Sir Walter, like others of his distinguished contemporaries, was capable of treasonous intrigue against his Queen. ”

“ That such dastardly plotting was not beyond an Elizabethan nobleman is clearly shown by the statement in the Dictionary of National Biography that the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, "was said to have deliberately planned the murder of an antagonist, and he very reluctantly abandoned what he affected to regard as a safe scheme of assassination."
[35] In the spy's affidavit Cholmeley is reported as saying that Marlowe had told him that "he hath read the Atheist lecture to Sr Walter Raleigh & others." ”

“ Baines' report to the Council not only duplicated and confirmed Kyd's charges, but added the grave accusations that Marlowe openly advocated sexual perversions, claimed to have as good a right to coin as the Queen of England had, and had converted at least one other to atheism. In another spy's memorandum (MS. Harl. 6848, fo. 190) "Sr Walter Raliegh & others" are coupled with "one Marlowe [who] is able to shewe more sounde reasons for Atheisme then any devine in Englande is able to geue to prove devinitie." ”

“ The only other thing one could think of would be perhaps that with extreme violence some further injury might have been produced in a more vital part of the brain, but on the whole it seems to me questionable that instant death would follow such a blow. ”

“ This considered, it would not be at all surprising if we should some day discover that Lord Strange had ordered the troupe of players bearing his name to sever its relations with the atheist poet. That the designation of the informer as an "Ishmaelite" (a term which the Standard Dictionary defines as "a person whose [Pg 27] hand was against every man") refers to Marlowe's rashness in attempting "soden pryvie iniuries to men" [15] (Kyd's words) seems almost a certainty.
On May 18, 1593—six days after Kyd's incarceration—the Privy Council issued an order for Marlowe's arrest. ”

“ Neither Frizer, Skeres, nor Poley, be it remembered, gave the Coroner any explanation of how they happened to meet Marlowe that morning and why they did not leave him out of their sight all day.
[32] For expert medical opinions on this matter, see pp. 65-67.
[33] It is at least interesting to note that the day before Marlowe's cruel end Richard Baines had included in his report to the Privy Council these words: "I think all men in Cristianity ought to indevor that the mouth of so dangerous a member [as this Marlowe] may be stopped." ”

“ Harriott, and therefore Ralegh, was mentioned not only in every one of the documents we have referred to in connection with the charges of heresy and blasphemy but also in connection with plots against the Government.
[43] That Sir Thomas Moore was written for a political purpose was dearly felt by Professor Ashley H. Thorndike; in 1916 (Shakespeare's Theater, p. 213) , when we knew a great deal less about this play than we now know, he expressed surprise that Tyllney "should have permitted in any form a play intended to excite feeling against the foreigners dwelling in London." ”

“ He contented himself with vehemently reiterating his innocence and with alleging that Marlowe, who (he said) made no secret of his atheism, had shared his room with him and that in this way their papers might have got mixed. ”

“ And so the Jurors aforesaid say upon their oath that the said Ingram killed & slew Christopher Morley aforesaid on the thirtieth day of May in the thirty-fifth year named above at Detford Strand aforesaid within the verge in the room aforesaid within the verge in the manner and form aforesaid in the defence and saving of his own life, against the peace of our said lady the Queen, her now crown & dignity ”

“ The assumption that Marlowe's death, contrary to the Coroner's report (q.v.) , was premeditated assassination, not accidental homicide in self defence, is warranted by the following considerations.
1. The two wounds on Frizer's head were too slight to have been inflicted by a man in a rage wielding a sharp dagger. ”

“ This important document was discovered by Mr. F. K. Brown in 1921 and is described in The Times Literary Supplement (London) , June 2, 1921, p. 335. It is finely facsimiled and accurately transcribed in Dr. W.W. Greg's Literary Autographs from 1550-1650. See also my book, op. cit., pp. 38, 41-44, 52.
[15] This probably alludes to the felony with which Marlowe was charged in 1588. (See Professor Hotson's essay, "Marlowe among the Churchwardens," in the Atlantic Monthly, July, 1926, vol. 138, pp. 37-44.) ”