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fact that no vacancy had occurred sooner, whilst his stay in the school was undoubtedly curtailed by his advanced age.

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Nicholas Goldsborough, then the head-master, received a stipend of forty pounds per annum, whilst ten pounds were paid to his assistant, Robert Rose,1 probably a relative of John Rose, who was mayor of Canterbury in 1574, and again in 1583. The accounts of the King's School for that period, although still perfect, are very meagre, and do not afford much information beyond dates and names, although they, indeed, are by no means uninteresting nor unimportant. From other records, however, useful items about the school are obtainable. It is pleasant to learn and to see the result in Marlowe's person, that the King's School was not entirely restricted to the education of sons of what Hasted terms the 'best families.' In 1541 Cranmer, as archbishop, became first 'visitor' to the King's School. He took a great interest in the scheme prepared by King Henry for its re-establishment, and told the Commissioners who, when electing the first scholars, sought to restrict the scholarships to the sons of high-born wealthy parents, 'If the gentleman's son be apt to learning let him be admitted; if not, let the poor man's apt child enter his room.'33 Happily Cranmer succeeded in carrying his

point.

Archbishop Parker, who did so much for learning, was also of his predecessor's opinion: he deemed that the institution should be open to the sons of the

poor man; and it is probable that, whilst several of Kit's fellow-pupils were the children of high-born parents, others were of the same rank of life as was Marlowe. Doubtless, indeed, the lad acquired there that indefinable air of education and courtesy seldom possessed by those not born in, or accustomed in early life to mixing with, the educated classes.

The curriculum of the school at this period would comprise a certain quantum of Latin grammar, the rules of which had to be learned by heart; any amount of Latin verse; probably a little Greek for the higher forms; and the study of certain prescribed classical authors. Marlowe doubtless entered on the school foundation with some knowledge of the Latin accidence, and had therefore been sufficiently grounded to begin the study of Lily's famous grammar and the Sententia Pueriles. He would have had to study and construe passages from Virgil, Terence, Cicero, and other Latin authors, and write themes both in prose and verse. Latin was the chief study, living languages being then much neglected amid the usual subjects of an Englishman's education. Although the curriculum thus provided may not be considered a very liberal one, it afforded a good, sound classical foundation for a lad preparing to enter one of the learned professions, and by this time it is certain that Kit was destined for the Church.

How proud Catherine Marlowe must have been when her son returned home daily from his studies, clad in his scholar's black gown, foreshadowing the

apparel of the priest! She must have had maternal visions of the lad following her father's example, and filling a place in the pulpit as he had done; perhaps becoming-who knows how far a mother's proud affection may aspire?-even an archbishop, as had the sons of fathers in as lowly a position as John Marlowe-as, for instance, Archbishops Parker and Peckham-or, at any rate, rivalling the dignity of his supposed kinsman, John Marlowe, the Canon of Westminster, whose reputation was doubtless a household word in the Canterbury home. Perhaps at times the lad's quaint hauteur, or his studious eccentricities of temper, may have caused her misgivings, but, if so, like Mary of yore, she would doubtless have 'kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.'

In his daily journeys to and from school young Kit must have beheld and treasured in his memory many visible prototypes of the fiends introduced in later days into his Faustus. There they still are, projecting from under the eaves of the city's ancient dwellings, beside the quaint water-ways, along the dusky streets, and under the niches of the public buildings. There would he behold those fiendish faces and distorted figures, whose semblance would be stamped for ever upon his 'mind's-eye' : those complex shapes, half human and half demon; some as pompous prelates, or portly priests; some as misshapen sinners, or as martyred saints, with ghastly grins or sinister smiles; some glancing

benignantly, but more frequently sneering scornfully, or sarcastically, on the stripling as he hurried along.

The King's School appears in those days to have already acquired a not undeserved reputation for the good scholarship of both its tutors and its pupils. Dr. John Ludd, appointed headmaster just as Kit was leaving the school, was referred to by White Kenneth, Bishop of Peterborough, as having 'had at one time no less than thirty-seven Masters of Arts of his own bringing up,' doubtless a rare feat at that time; and it is recorded of Richard Boyle, who became the famous Earl of Cork, one of Kit's fellow-students, that he 'must have been well grounded, for he was exceptionally accurate in his syntax and orthography, and, when mindful, wrote a fair hand'; all very unusual things for a nobleman of Elizabeth's days.

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In scrutinising the records of the King's School during the period that Kit was scholar there, it is noteworthy to find amongst the naturally limited number of his fellow-students the names of many either connected with eminent men, or who became eminent themselves. Some few of the lads signed personally for their quarterly stipends—would that Kit had done so !-and their calligraphy was worthy of the school's reputation. Amongst the names enshrined in these precious rolls are several belonging to the best Kentish families. The list included two Mundeys, doubtless relatives of that Anthony

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