Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

recently published. This original draft has been known and commented upon by numerous writers since it was first unearthed by Ritson. 164 It is styled 'A NOTE,' and is headed as 'Contayninge the opinion of one Christofer Marly, concernynge his damnable opinions and judgment of relygion and scorne of Gods worde.'

This Note has been referred to by some authors as being the production of an enemy of the poet, and its charges against him as being unworthy of credit, seeing that whilst some are ludicrously improbable, others are in direct conflict with his known words and opinions; but no one apparently has regarded the Note as a forgery and of a much more recent date than the Elizabethan epoch. The authenticity of the document is made suspectable by many circumstances. Many noteworthy alterations and cancellations have been made in the wording of this draft, and especially in the heading; the original heading has been struck through, and the following words substituted for it : 'A Note delivered on Whitsun eve last of the most horreble blasphemes uttereyd by Christofer Marly who within III dayes after came to a soden and fearfull end of his life.'

A very remarkable item to be regarded in this Note is that as a matter of fact Marlowe was dead and buried before Whitsun eve! Whitsun eve, 1593, occurred on the second of June, and the poet was buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford, on the first of that month! On the face of it it would appear as if the forger had forgotten the leap-years, even as he who forged the letter from Peele to Marlowe, in the Lansdowne Collection, misdated it two years after the poet's death!

The body of this first draft of the Note imports that it is an affidavit by 'Richard Bome,' but the signature is 'Rychard Baine.' The diversity of spelling at that period was phenomenal, but the orthography of this Note is as suspiciously pseudo-antique as is that of many of the ballads in Percy's Reliques. Professor F. S. Boas has brought to light amongst the Harleian MSS., 'bought from Mr. Baker,' another and apparently an amended copy of

the Note, although he regards it as the original of the Baines Libel. It is a little better devised, as if written more leisurely than the other; it introduces the name of Sir Walter Raleigh as the patron of Harriott, and gives the name in the body of the Note, as well as for the signature, most distinctly as 'Richard Baines.'

This so-called Note ascribes all kinds of criminal offences, both civil and theological, to Marlowe; and that it may be seen of what nature its contents are, it is now reprinted, as far as is legally permissible:

'That the Indians and many Authors of Antiquitei have assuredly written of above 16 thowsande yeers agone, wher Adam is proved to have leyved within 6 thowsande yeers.

'He affirmeth That Moyses was but a Juggler, and that one Heriots can do more then hee.

'That Moyses made the Jewes to travell fortie yeers in the wildernes (which jorny might have ben don in lesse then one yeer) er they came to the promised lande, to the intente that those who were privei to most of his subtileteis might perish and so an everlastinge supersticion remayne in the hartes of the people.

'That the firste beginnynge of Religion was only to keep men in awe.

'That it was an easye matter for Moyses, beinge brought up in all the artes of the Egiptians, to abuse the Jewes, being a rude and grosse people.

[blocks in formation]

'That he was the sonne of a carpenter, and that, yf the Jewes amonge whome he was borne did crucifye him, thei best knew him and whence he came.

'That Christ deserved better to dye than Barrabas, and that the Jewes made a good choyce, though Barrabas were both a theife and a murtherer.

'That yf ther be any God or good Religion, then it is in the Papistes, because the service of God is performed with more ceremonyes, as elevacion of the masse, organs, singinge, men, shaven crownes, etc. That all protestantes ar hipocriticall Asses.

'That, yf he wer put to write a new religion, he wolde undertake both a more excellent and more admirable methode, and that all the new testament is filthely written.

'That the Women of Samaria wer . . .

'That St. John the Evangelist was

'That all thei that love not tobacco and . . . are fooles.

'That all the Appostells wer fishermen and base fellowes, neither of witt nor worth, that Pawle only had witt, that he was a timerous fellow in biddinge men to be subject to magistrates against his conscience.

'That he had as good right to coyne as the Queen of Englande, and that he was acquainted with one Poole, a prisoner in newgate, whoe hath great skill in mixture of metalls, and havinge learned such thinges of him, he ment, through help of a cunnynge stamp-maker, to coyne french crownes, pistolettes, and englishe shillinges.

'That, yf Christ had instituted the Sacramentes with more cerymonyall reverence, it would have ben had in more admiracion, that it wolde have ben much better beinge administered . . .

'That one Richard Cholmelei hath confessed that he was perswaded by Marloes reason to become an Athieste.

'Theis thinges, with many other, shall by good and honest men be proved to be his opinions and common speeches, and that this Marloe doth not only holde them himself, but almost in every company he commeth, perswadeth men to Athiesme willinge them not to be afrayed of bugbeares and hobgoblins and utterly scornynge both God and his ministers, as I Richard Bome will justify bothe by my othe and the testimony of many honest men, and almost all men with whome he hath conversed any tyme will testefy the same, and, as I thincke, all men in christianitei ought to endevor that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped.

'He sayeth moreover that he hath coated a number of contrarieties out of the scriptures, which he hath geeven to some great men, who in convenient tyme shalbe named. When

theis thinges shalbe called in question, the witnesses shalbe 'RYCHARD BAINE.'

produced.

(Endorsed.)

'Copye of Marloes blasphemyes

as sent to her Highness?).'

The words printed in italics have been scored through in this manuscript.

As nothing in connection with this Note happened it was necessary, if any use were made of it, by sale or gift, to explain the reason, and therefore the 'soden and fearfull end of his life' was endorsed on the draft.164a

The two other remarkable documents bearing upon the subject of Marlowe's life and opinions are among the manuscripts in the Harleian Collection 'purchased from Mr. Baker.' Both the letter purporting to have been written to Sir John Puckering by Thomas Kyd (although the signature to it is unlike the authentic signature by him in Lambeth Palace Library) and the theological treatise have already been commented upon, and the reader who is unable to compare these manuscripts with one another, or with genuine documents of the period, must judge by these comments. It may be stated that the watermarks in the paper of all four of these documents bear a suspicious family resemblance to each other, a fact which corroborates Baker's declaration that they are all in his own handwriting, and indicates they are all on paper belonging to one individual.

It may be justly asked, If these are copies, what has become of the originals from which they were copied; and what caused the discrepancies between the two copies of the Note? If the Note be really a genuine state document, why was a variant of it made, and why is neither copy dated, nor attested, nor witnessed, nor addressed to any one, nor has, apparently, been executed in the presence of any experienced legal functionary; nor furnishes the year of the queen's reign, as all official documents would do; nor why 'her H' (if Highness be intended) is used for the sovereign, seeing that since Henry VIII. had replaced the

former title by 'Majesty' the latter had been always u at least officially; nor why a contemporary did not kn when Whitsun took place; nor why the spelling is occasionally modern; nor how many other suspicious particulars can be explained? It is singular that Kyd should be so careful to relate all the various circumstances of his own case in writing to the Lord Keeper, who must have been fully conversant with them already; but it is a pity, if the letter be genuine, that he so carefully avoided naming the nobleman for whom he and Marlowe had worked and whose sympathy on his behalf he now wished Puckering to arouse. The most extraordinary thing of all this is that none of the persons referred to by Kyd's letter appears to have been punished or even tried for these allegations.

The more the matter is investigated, the more improbable does the indictment appear: with all the facts, as now set forth before us, can any credence be given (not to the statements of the Baines Libel, for they have all along been regarded as palpably false and absurd) to the belief that these documents were written by the persons alleged and at the period stated?

« PředchozíPokračovat »