Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)

Verse

Hero and Leander (‘On Hellespont guiltie of True-loves blood’)

First published in London, 1598. Bowers, II, 423-515 (p. 448). Tucker Brooke, pp. 485-548 (p. 507). Gill et al., I, 175-209. For George Chapman's continuation of the poem, see ChG 3-4.

MrC 1

Copy of four lines of the Second Sestyad (lines 131-4, here beginning ‘Oh none have power but Gods their love to hide’), in a draft letter by Henry Oxinden (1609-70), to his cousin Elizabeth Dallison. December 1641.

In: A large folio composite volume of miscellaneous letters and papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 411 leaves, in half red morocco. Volume II of the correspondence of the Oxinden family, Baronets, of Deane and Barham, Kent, from 1589 to 1710.

Edited from this MS in The Oxinden Letters 1607-1642, ed. Dorothy Gardiner (London, 1933), pp. 252-3.

British Library, Add. MS 28000, f. 369r.

MrC 2

Copy of eight lines in the Second Sestyad (lines 131-4, 287-90).

In: A folio miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, largely in one hand, iv + 544 pages (including numerous blanks), in vellum boards. Inscribed, and evidently compiled, by Sir Henry Oxinden (1609-70), of Barham, Kent. c.1642-70.

Inscribed ‘Lee Warly. Canterbury. 1764’. Booklabel of Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector.

Bowers, II, 448, 452; Tucker Brooke, pp. 507, 511. This MS discussed in Mark Eccles, ‘Marlowe in Kentish Tradition’, N&Q, 169 (20 July 1935), 39-41.

Folger, MS V.b.110, pp. 48, 58.

MrC 2.5

Copy of First Sestiad, line 269 et seq., headed ‘On a mayden-head’ and beginning ‘Theif [sic] idoll which you terme virginity’.

In: A folio verse miscellany, comprising 162 poems in English, in a single hand, 273 pages, in brown morocco gilt. c.late 1640s.

Formerly (before 1686) in the Palatine Library at Heidelberg. Possibly acquired by Charles Louis (1617-80), Elector Palatine, while at the English court of his uncle, Charles I, from 1635 to 1649.

This volume discovered, and announced in the TLS, 23 July 2010, pp. 14-15, by June Schleuter and Paul Schleuter.

Landesbibliothek Kassel, 2o Ms. poet. et roman. 4, p. 79.

MrC 2.8

Copy of lines 184 (beginning ‘Love deeply grounded hardly is dissembled’), 175-6, 199-208, 223-4, 513-16.

In: An octavo commonplace book of verse and prose, in two or more secretary hands, 41 leaves, in a recycled illuminated vellum music document. Inscribed (ff. 1r, 2r) ‘Samuell Watts’. Early 17th century.

Among the papers of the Sanford family. Formerly DD/SF 3970.

Somerset Heritage Centre, DD/SF/10/5/1, ff. 25v, 35r, 38r.

In obitum honoratissimi viri Rogeri Manwood militis, quaestorii Reginalis Capitalis Baronis (‘Noctivagi terror, ganeonis triste flagellum’)

First published in The Works of William Shakespeare, ed. John Payne Collier (London, 1844), I, xliv. Bowers, II, 540. Gill et al., I, [220].

MrC 3

Copy, inscribed in a printed exemplum of Hero and Leander (London, 1629). 17th century.

Sotheby's, 15 February 1917, lot 2521, to P. J. Dobell.

Edited from this MS in Collier. Discussed in Mark Eccles, ‘Marlowe in Kentish Tradition’, N&Q, 169 (13 July 1935), 20-3, and in Bakeless, I, 116-19.

Untraced Dobell MSS, [Hero and Leander].

MrC 4

Copy, subscribed ‘C. Marlo. Auth: Hero & Lean.’

In: the MS described under MrC 2. c.1642-70.

Edited from this MS in Collier (1844) and in Bowers. Discussed in Mark Eccles, N&Q, 169 (20 July 1935), 39-41.

Folger, MS V.b.110, p. [ii].

MrC 5

Copy, subscribed ‘These verses aboue written were made by Christopher Marlo, who was a Shomakers son of Canterbury; it was this Marlo, who made the 2 first bookes of Hero & Leander, witnes Mr Alderich’.

In: the MS described under MrC 2. c.1642-70.

This MS collated in Bowers.

Folger, MS V.b.110, p. 42.

Ovid's Elegies. I, v (‘In summers heate, and midtime of the day’)

Ten of Marlowe's Elegies (including I, v and II, iv) first published ‘Middleburg’ [i.e. London], [c.1595-6]. Bowers, II, 307-421 (p. 321). Tucker Brooke, pp. 553-627 (pp. 564-5). Gill et al., I, 13-83 (pp. 18-19).

MrC 6

Copy, headed ‘Corinne concubitus Aeleg 5. Lib: Amorum’.

In: A folio verse miscellany, ii + 65 leaves, in contemporary vellum. Entitled Miscentur seria iocis. 1647. Elegies, Exequies, Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs Satires and other Poems, a formal compilation entirely in the hand of the Yorkshire antiquary John Hopkinson (1610-80). 1647.

From the library of Cecil Brent, FSA. Sold by P.J. & A.E. Dobell, January 1938.

Bodleian, MS Don. d. 58, f. 46br-v.

MrC 7

Copy, headed ‘Corinnæ concubitus Ovid. lib. 1° Amorum Eleg. 5 Æstus erat &c.’.

In: An octavo verse miscellany, predominantly in two very small hands (A: ff. 1r-44v; B: ff. 44v-87v), with further verse and prose pieces in other hands on ff. 88r-121r, written from both ends, associated with Oxford, possibly New College, and probably afterwards with the Inns of Court, 155 leaves (including 33 blanks), in modern black morocco elaborately gilt. Including 23 poems by Strode (and second copies of two poems) and one poem of doubtful authorship. c.1630s.

Including (ff. 98r-100r) a letter by one ‘Pet[er] Wood’. Inscribed (ff. 90r-1r), ‘Thease verses I borroed to write out of John Sherly [d. 1666] a booke seller in litle Brittaine, 28th of March 1633’. Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 9235. Sotheby's, 21 February 1938, lot 243.

Cited in IELM II.ii (1993), as the ‘Wood MS’: StW Δ 21. Discussed in C.F. Main, ‘New Texts of John Donne’, SB, 9 (1957), 225-33.

Harvard, MS Eng 686, f. 32r.

MrC 8

Copy, untitled and here beginning ‘In somers heat at midtyme of the day’.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, 180 pages, in three secretary hands, in contemporary limp vellum. Probably compiled by a member of an Inn of Court. c.1630.

Bookplate of William Horatio Crawford, of Lakelands, Cork, book collector. Formerly Rosenbach 186.

Rosenbach Museum & Library, MS 1083/15, p. 43.

—— II, iv (‘I meane not to defend the scapes of any’)

Bowers, II, 345-6. Tucker Brooke, pp. 585-6. Gill et al., I, 39-41.

MrC 9

Copy, in a secretary hand, headed ‘Amoru lib: 2. Elegia 4’, on both sides of a quarto leaf, the verso in double columns. c.1600.

Once owned by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger, and with (13b) his transcript of the poem. Formerly bound in Collier's extra-illustrated printed exemplum of his The History of English Dramatic Poetry (London, 1879), II, 487.

Folger, MS X.d.459 (13a).

MrC 9.4

Copy, headed ‘Ouid Amor: Lib: 2 Eleg. 4’ and here beginning ‘I will not seek to excuse the faults of any’.

In: the MS described under MrC 6. 1647.

Bodleian, MS Don. d. 58, ff. 45v-46ar.

—— III, xiii (‘Seeing thou art faire, I barre not thy false playing’)

Bowers, II, 390-2. Tucker Brooke, pp. 625-6. Gill et al., I, 82-3.

MrC 9.6

Copy, headed ‘Ouid Amor: Lib: 3. Eleg: 13’.

In: the MS described under MrC 6. 1647.

Bodleian, MS Don. d. 58, f. 46a r-v.

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love (‘Come live with mee, and be my love’)

First published in a four-stanza version in The Passionate Pilgrime (London, 1599). Printed in a six-stanza version in Englands Helicon (London, 1600). Bowers, II, 536-7. Tucker Brooke, pp. 550-1. Gill et al., I, 215. For Ralegh's ‘Answer’ see RaW 189-99.

MrC 10

Copy of a four-stanza version, in an unidentified secretary hand, untitled.

In: Copy of an alchemical tract by Simon Forman, predominantly in a single hand, 20 folio leaves, dated (f. 20v) 10 November 1598, bound with five other alchemical tracts, in contemporary calf. November 1598.

The MSS collected, and partly written, by Dr Simon Forman (1552-1611), astrologer and medical practitioner.

This MS collated in Bowers; facsimile in Bakeless, II, facing p. 184.

Bodleian, MS Ashmole 1486 (II), f. 6v.

MrC 10.5

Copy, in a musical setting, headed ‘The words by Kit: Marlow’.

In: A quarto songbook, 138 leaves. Mid-18th-century.

Once owned by John Henry Mee.

Oxford Music Faculty, MS Mee e.1, f. 122r.

MrC 11

Copy of a four-stanza version, untitled.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, in a single hand, 114 leaves, bound with a printed exemplum of Thomas Watson's <GREEK> or Passionate Centurie of Love (London, [1581?]). Compiled by John Lilliat (c.1550-c.1599). c.1590s.

This MS volume printed in full, with facsimile examples, in Liber Lilliati: Elizabethan Verse and Song (Bodleian MS Rawlinson Poetry 148), ed. Edward Doughtie (Newark, DE, 1985).

Edited from this MS in The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh, ed. Michael Rudick (Tempe, Arizona, 1999), No. 45A, p. 116. Collated in Bowers.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. poet. 148, f. 96v.

MrC 12

Copy of a six-stanza version, headed ‘The milkemaids song’, apparently transcribed from Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler (London, 1653).

In: A sextodecimo miscellany of verse and topographical prose, probably in a single small cursive hand, 78 leaves, written from both ends, Part I foliated 1r-33r, Part II foliated 1r-45r, in old calf. c.1650s-60s.

Inscribed (Part I, f. 1r) ‘Mr John Oldhams Booke’ [i.e. the poet John Oldham (1653-83)]. Inscribed (Part II, f. 1r) ‘James Bateman’ [(b.1633/4) of Christ's College, Cambridge], and ‘Robert Pierrepont’ [either the son of Col. Francis Pierrepont, M.P. (d.1659), or the third Earl of Kingston (1650/1-82), of Holme-Pierrepoint, Nottinghamshire, Oldham's patron]. Formerly Folger MS 621.1.

Described in F.P. Hammond, ‘A Commonplace Book owned by John Oldham’, N&Q, 224 (December 1979), 515-18.

This MS collated in Bowers.

Folger, MS V.a.169, Part II, f. 2r-v.

MrC 13

Copy of a seven-stanza version, in an italic hand, untitled, unascribed.

In: A folio miscellany of state papers, religious verse and prose, and legal material, in several secretary hands, written over a period from both ends, 143 leaves (including a number of blanks), in a vellum wrapper (a recycled rubricated Latin text) within a contemporary leather wallet binding (rebacked), with straps. c.1572-1608.

Inscribed variously ‘James Ware his Book’: i.e. Sir James Ware (1594-1666), antiquary and historian; (‘henry Streite’, ‘william rise’, ‘Bartholomew Roche’, and ‘John Anderson’. Including copies of indentures relating to John Glascock of London, John Ellis of Gray's Inn, and Edward Johnson, goldsmith, of London. Inscribed (f. [2r], ? by Ware) ‘Qre whether this booke did belong to John Thornburgh [1551-1641] sometime Bp of Limrick & deane of York. vid fol: 13.’ Later among the manuscripts of the Carew family at Crowcombe Court, Somerset. Formerly Folger MS 297.3 and MS V.b.75.

Recorded in HMC, 4th Report (1874), Appendix, p. 372. Briefly discussed by Fr Herbert Thurston in The Month, vol. 86, No. 379 (1896), pp. 33-4.

This MS collated in Bowers and in Tucker Brooke. Facsimile in A.D. Wraight and V.F. Stern, In Search of Christopher Marlowe (London, 1965), p. 130.

Folger, MS Z.e.28, Part II, f. 100v.

MrC 14

Copy of a four-stanza version, headed ‘A Pastoral made by Sr Walter Raleigh’, apparently transcribed from an early MS source, written on the recto of the leaf before the title-page.

In: Printed exemplum of the first edition, first issue, of Ralegh's The History of the World (London, 1614). Late 18th-early 19th century.

Sold by Charles Sessler, bookseller, Philadelphia.

Edited from this MS in Susanne Woods, ‘“The Passionate Sheepheard” and “The Nimphs Reply”: A Study of Transmission’, HLQ, 34 (1970), 25-33 (pp. 25-6).

Huntington, RB 69107, [preliminary blank page].

MrC 15

Copy of a four-stanza version, in a secretary hand, untitled, subscribed ‘finis the pastoral’.

In: A quarto composite memorandum book of English, Welsh and latin verse and prose, in several hands, 100 leaves, in a contemporary limp vellum wrapper within modern half red morocco. Compiled over a period, at least in part, by various members of the Lloyd family of Llwydiarth. Early 17th century-1672.

Inscriptions including (f. 3r) ‘Mounta: Lloyd 1671’ and (f. 49r) ‘David Wms. his Book beeing Mrs Anne Lloyds Guift’, and with other references to David Lloyd, Elizabeth Lluyd, Robert Lluyd, Jane Lloyd, and Hugh Lloyd. Probably Quaritch's sale ‘Catalogue of English Literature’ (August-November 1884), item 22351. Formerly Sotheby MS B. 2.

National Library of Wales, Wynne (Bodewryd) MS 6, f. 76r.

MrC 16

Copy of a four-stanza version, untitled, headed in a later hand in red ink ‘Poemes written in the Reigne of Queen Elizabeth’, the fourth stanza written sideways and headed in red ink ‘A sonnet Madrigal by Sr. Philipp Sydney’, among other verse in one secretary hand on a single folio leaf. c.1600-10.

In: A collection of separate state papers and poems, in folders.

Edited from this MS in Curt F. Bühler, ‘Four Elizabethan Poems’, Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. James G. McManaway, Giles E. Dawson, and Edwin E. Willoughby (Washington, DC, 1948), 695-706 (p. 696). Facsimile in British Literary Manuscripts, Series I, ed. Verlyn Klinkenborg et al. (New York, 1981), No. 18.

Pierpont Morgan Library, Rulers of England (Eliz. I), No. 48[a].

MrC 17

Copy of a four-stanza version, untitled and here beginning ‘If thou wilt liue and by my loue’.

In: the MS described under MrC 8. c.1630.

Printed from this MS in Samuel A. Tannenbaum, ‘Unfamiliar Versions of Some Elizabethan Poems’, PMLA, 45 (1930), 809-21 (pp. 815-16); collated in Bowers.

Rosenbach Museum & Library, MS 1083/15, p. 57.

MrC 18

Copy of an eight-stanza version (plus two lines), in a left-hand column, headed ‘Blundwells exercise’.

In: A folio miscellany of poems and state papers, in secretary hands, written from both ends, 50 leaves, in contemporary vellum. c.1620s.

Among papers of the Troyte-Bullock family, formerly of Zeals House, Mere, and probably deriving from the papers of the Chafyn family of Bulford and Chisenbury or the Reymes family of Waddon, near Dorchester.

Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, 865/500, f. [11v].

MrC 19

Copy in a musical setting, endorsed ‘NB. This Tune was found in an old MS. as old as Shakespears Time by Sr J. Hawkins’. 18th century.

Yale, Osb MSS File 9940.

MrC 19.5

Copy, headed ‘Sr Walter Rawleigh to Q. Elisabeth’.

In: A small quarto verse miscellany, predominantly in one secretary hand, erratically paginated up to 333, 250 leaves, in 18th-century boards. c.late 1630s.

Inscribed (on p. [330]) ‘Robert Lord his book Anno Domini’; (on [p. 335]) ‘william Jacob his booke Amen’; and, among scribbling on the last leaf, ‘Hugh Gibgans of the same’ and ‘John Winter of Buckland Dursbane [or husbande?]’. Owned in 1788 by Alexander R. Popham. Bloomsbury Book Auction, 23 November 2000, lot 8.

A microfilm is in the British Library, RP 7698.

Yale, Osborn MS b 356, pp. 329-30.

MrC 19.8

Copy in: A duodecimo commonplace book, compiled by Ralph Tinley (1739-89), 92 pages. Late 18th century.

Yale, Osborn MS c 362, p. 6.

Dramatic works

Doctor Faustus

First published [in London, 1601?] (earliest extant edition London, 1604). Bowers, II, 121-271 (pp. 163-4). Tucker Brooke, pp. 139-229 (pp. 148-9). Gill et al., vol. II.

MrC 20

Thomas Nashe's scribbled italic signature and annotations on both sides of the title-page and pp. 130, 132, in a printed exemplum of John Leland, Principum Ac illustrium aliquot & eruditorum in Anglia virorum Encomia (London, 1589). Including the quotations ‘Che sara sara deuinynitie adie’ (cp. Faustus, I, i, 74-5) and ‘studie in indian silke’ (cp. Faustus, I, i, 117-18). c.1589-1601.

Later in the library of Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth, first Baronet, MP (1870-1937).

These annotations printed, with facsimile examples, in Paul H. Kocher, ‘Some Nashe Marginalia concerning Marlowe’, MLN, 57 (1942), 45-9.

Folger, STC 15447.

Edward II.

First published in London, 1594. Bowers, II, 1-119. Tucker Brooke, pp. 307-85. Gill et al., vol. III.

MrC 21

An exemplum of the printed edition of 1598 with the text of the missing first two leaves (title-page and 70 lines of text) supplied in MS in an italic hand, probably transcribed from the edition of 1594. 1598-early 17th century.

This item has been thought to demonstrate the existence of a 1593 edition: see Bowers, II, 3 et seq. Facsimiles in W.W. Greg's edition, Malone Society (Oxford, 1925), and in Bakeless, II, facing p. 24.

Victoria and Albert Museum, Dyce 6209 (Pressmark Dyce 25.D.40).

MrC 22

Copy of Mortimer's lines beginning ‘Base fortune, now I see, that in thy wheele’ (V, vi, 59-61).

In: the MS described under MrC 2. c.1642-70.

Bowers, II, 95; Tucker Brooke, p. 384. This MS discussed in Mark Eccles, ‘Marlowe in Kentish Tradition’, N&Q, 169 (20 July 1935), 39-41.

Folger, MS V.b.110, p. 58.

The Massacre at Paris

First published in London, [1594?]. Bowers, I, 353-417. Tucker Brooke, pp. 440-84. Gill et al., V, 317-62.

MrC 23

A portion of a single folio leaf, both sides in a secretary hand, comprising probably a fragment of a fair copy of one scene, including entrances and exits, now in green morocco. c.1590s.

This fragment printed in Bowers, I, 390-1, as scene xvii, lines 806-20 (with a facsimile as frontispiece), and in Tucker Brooke as an Appendix, pp. 482-3; first published in J.P. Collier's introduction to The Jew of Malta in his edition of Dodsley's Old Plays (London, 1825), VIII, 244; also printed in The Massacre at Paris, ed. W.W. Greg, Malone Society (Oxford, 1928). For discussions of this MS, which has been mistakenly considered an autograph, see particularly J.Q. Adams, ‘The Massacre at Paris Leaf’, The Library, 4th Ser. 14 (1934), 447-69; J.M. Nosworthy, ‘The Marlowe Manuscript’, The Library, 4th Ser. 26 (1946), 158-71; Wraight & Stern, pp. 224-32 (with facsimiles); Croft, Autograph Poetry, I, xiv; R.E. Alton, ‘Marlowe Authenticated’, TLS (26 April 1974), pp. 446-7; Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 35 (with a facsimile); P.J. Croft, TLS (24 February 1978), p. 241.

Folger, MS J.b.8.

Documents

Document(s)

*MrC 24

Marlowe's signature (‘Christofer Marley’), as well as his father's (‘Jhan Marley’), as witnesses to the last will and testament of Katherine Benchkin, November 1585. 1585.

Facsimiles of the signature in Bakeless, I, facing p. 208; in Wraight & Stern, pp. 229-30; in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 34; in Gill et al., I, 11; and in Park Honan, Christopher Marlowe Poet and Spy (Oxford, 20050, p. 108. Full text of the document in William Urry, Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury, ed. Andrew Butcher (London, 1988), pp. 123-7.

Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, PRC 16/86.