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RECOGNIZANCE, 31 ELIZABETH,' AT MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, OCTOBER 1589

PLATE XIX.

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to all that is alleged against him on the part of our sovereign Lady, the Queen, and not to depart without the license of the Court.

'G. D. ROLL.-3rd October, 31st Elizabeth.' 98

It is very tantalising that the Roll contains nothing further, and that nothing more respecting the case can be discovered. The record neither furnishes Marlowe's address, which might have thrown some light upon his position and style of living, nor, what is still more vexatious, does it specify the offence with which he was charged. That he was allowed out on bail shows that he was not charged with anything very heinous, although, as the amount of his bail was not inconsiderable, it is clear that the offence was not a petty one, such as common assault, riotous behaviour, or the like. The fact that the case was to be tried at Newgate Sessions proves that the alleged offence had been committed in the city of London, and there is, therefore, every reason to believe that it arose out of dramatic affairs.

As the indictment was endorsed G. D. (Gaol Delivery), it is considered that the charge was one of a felonious nature, such as would be deemed any infringement of the Queen's proclamation of 1559, in which 'the Queen's Majesty doth straightly forbid all maner Interludes to be playde eyther openly or privateley, except the same be notified before hande and licensed within any citie or towne corporate by the Maior or other chiefe officers of the same..

and if anye shal attempt to the contrary: her majestie giveth all maner of officers that have authoritie to see common peace kept in commaundment to arrest and enprison the parties so offendinge, for the space of fourtene dayes or more, as cause shal be nede. And furder also untill good assurance may be founde and gyven, that they shalbe of good behaviour and no more to offende in the likes.' 99

This proclamation does not appear to have been repealed or modified during Elizabeth's reign, and would fully account for Marlowe's appearance at Clerkenwell and remand to Newgate, the records of which place are supposed to have been destroyed during the Gordon Riots.100

It is self-evident that if there had been any reasonable prospect of Marlowe being proved guilty of seditious utterances, atheistic doctrines, or any other equally serious criminal charge, such as specified by the Recorder, Sergeant Fleetwood, in his work on The Office of a Justice of Peace, the poet would not have been let off on bail, as they would have been Star Chamber matters, and further inquiry into his conduct would have been recorded. That the accused was considered good for forty pounds seems to imply that Christopher Marlowe, gentleman, was thought to be a person of substance at that time.

Some further information about the two persons whose recognisances were taken jointly with Marlowe's would be interesting; who they were and what were their connections with the poet. Richard

Kytchin, whose name was not a common one, doubtless belonged to a family which at that period furnished several members to the legal profession. There was a Richard Kytchin, or Kitchin, M.A., who was Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1548, and it might have been he who came to the rescue, in 1583, of the brilliant young Arts Master of his college, or, what is still more probable, it was a son of this veteran Cantab. There was, also, a John Kytchin, author of a work on Jurisdictions, which was highly popular and frequently reprinted in the sixteenth century, and he, doubtless, was a kinsman of the Kytchin in question.

Humphrey Rowlands, or Rowland, although apparently a trader, may have had some connection with literature, and it is not improbable was a relative of Samuel Rowlands, the well-known dramatic writer. This author was a contemporary of Marlowe, and in his popular play of The Knave of Cards thus alludes to one of his works:

'The gull gets on a surplice,

With a cross upon his breast;
Like Alleyn playing Faustus,

In that manner was he dressed.'

In the history of the Horner's Company it is stated that the trade of this company declined when the use of horn for lanterns-such lanterns as are reminiscent of Dogberry and Verges-was abandoned. The Horner Company appears to be a thing of the past, although in Queen Elizabeth's time a wealthy

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