from the adjoining church of St. Benedict, although one of the most ancient was not one of the largest colleges of the University. The number of persons who were to be admitted was not fixed, but was regulated according to its revenue. Archbishop Parker, in remembrance of his own education there, added largely to the number of its scholars, to the revenue of the college, and to its wellbeing in general; the other students there were maintained by income partly derived from the original foundation and partly acquired through the generosity of various benefactors.

Marlowe, as has been seen, was not yet seventeen when he arrived at Cambridge, and must have found the new life into which he had entered wonderfully strange. It was probably the first time the lad had ever been any distance from home, and almost certainly the first time he had to take up his residence in a strange abode. The same feeling of strangeness and isolation, despite the hundreds of similarly circumstanced lads about him, which thousands of youths must have felt would have affected young Marlowe, despite his ambition and proud anticipations, and for the time must have chilled his aspirations.

On the 17th March 1581 Marlowe's name was inscribed in the Matriculation Book of the University as Chrōf. Marlen, Pensioner.' 50 The choice of chambers at college is necessarily of importance to a freshman, but in Kit's case there would be no choice.

Three lower chambers on the north side of the quadrangle had been assigned to the five former Canterbury' scholars, but if Marlowe kept on the ground floor, says the Rev. Dr. Stokes, as he would have to do, his chamber would be 'on the right-hand side of the old court staircase, now lettered R. This room had long been used as the store-house, but it had been lately fitted up as a chamber, where three of the Parker scholars might live'; and it is almost in the same condition as it must have been in when Marlowe occupied it.

51

The following extract from Archbishop Parker's will renders the identification of the chamber clear: 'Item. Volo quod Executores mei paratum reddant cubiculum in eo Collegis jam vocat "a Storehouse" pro tribus aliis meis scholasticis inhabitandis pro quibus singulis volo tres libras sex solidos et octo denarios per annum dari juxta formam quam Executores meos in scholia Cantuariensi, et in ea Urbe oriundum; secundum electum volo e schola de Aylsham ; et tertium e schola de Wymondam in his duabus villis oriundos.' 52

In connection with the above occupation of rooms, it should be understood that at that period, although separate beds were allowed for all scholars above the age of fourteen, separate rooms, even for Fellows, were rarely allowed. Two or three scholars occupied the same chamber, and in the full colleges, all kinds of devices, such as 'truckle beds' and the like, were used to supply extra accommodation. The original

statutes of Christ's College, and they may be regarded as representative of the other colleges in this respect, show how the chambers were allocated: 'Our wish is,' says the founder, 'that the Fellows sleep two and two, but the scholars four and four, and that no one have alone a single chamber for his proper use, unless perchance it be some Doctor, to whom, on account of the dignity of his degree, we grant the possession of a separate chamber.' 58 Although all the colleges, as was the case at Corpus Christi, were not so crowded, it is stated that both in Trinity and St. John's Colleges, four students, or one Fellow and two or three students, used originally to have one chamber in common. In none of the colleges was it the practice for less than two students to occupy one room, and it is possible, from Marlowe's reference to a 'sweet chamber-fellow,' that he was not obliged to share his small bedroom with more than one, and that one not uncongenial. This chamber-fellow's name, if never known with certainty, may still be conjectured. The room is very small, and does not appear fitted to hold more than two small bedsteads.

The first of the three new 'Canterbury' scholars was to be chosen within three months after a vacancy at the college from such lads at the King's School 'as should be competently learned in grammar, born of honest parents, and be of such qualities as should be thought meet, and of such as were thought likely to proceed in Arts, and afterwards to make Divinity their study. Upon which conditions he was entitled