gaining fortunes, reputation, and even titles. In the second half of the sixteenth century, it is true, the pillage of its treasures and decanonisation of St. Thomas A'Becket undoubtedly deterred many pilgrims from visiting his shrine, and facilitated the decadence of Canterbury, but, as yet, the city held its head high among the cities of the land; its archbishop kept sway over all the prelates of England, and its corporation continued to receive and entertain in lordly style not only foreign potentates but the rulers of our own country. All these things-memories of a high, mighty, and marvel-haunted past—a recent martyrmaking era of persecution, and an independent but pastime-loving present-combined to form and influence the minds of such of the upgrowing generation as were suitably formed for impression. For several generations a family of the name of Marlowe or Marley had dwelt in this city. Out of Canterbury and its vicinity the name has never been common. Here and there about England the cognomen of Marlowe occasionally crops up, but outside the county of Kent it has never been of frequent occurrence. Early in the fifteenth century there are traces at Wisbech, it is true, of a certain Marlowe family, but it soon terminated in one of them known in local records as a 'musicianer';' in 1409 a Richard Marlow was Lord Mayor of London, and according to Weever, in his 'maioraltie there was a play at Skinner's Hall, which lasted eight dayes, to heare which most of the greatest Estates of England were present. The subject of the play was the sacred Scriptures, from the creation of the world.' Such plays, the reader may be reminded, were performed in various parts of the kingdom under the title of Corpus Christi plays. Early in Queen Elizabeth's reign there was an Edward Marlowe of some local importance residing at Clifton, Bristol, who got into trouble for taking unlawful possession of a salt-laden vessel belonging to Denmark, a country with which England was at peace." John Marlowe, of Merton College, Oxford, who died in 1543, was thought to have been a scion of the Kentish Marlowes. He became treasurer of Wells Cathedral and canon of the King's Chapel of St. Stephen within the palace of Westminster, and was evidently a person of some importance in his days.10 Anthony Marlowe, of whom more hereafter, was a wealthy and influential Deptford merchant, and probably a connection of the Canterbury Marlowes.11 Captain Edmund Marlowe, who lived till 1615, is mentioned in Purchas's Pilgrims as 'an excellent man, and well skilled in the mathematics and the art of navigation,' and may have belonged to Kent. In 1571 a Richard Marlow was master of the Grammar School of St. Olave's Parish, Southwark, London, and about twenty years later a Thomas Marlow was living in the neighbouring parish of St. George in the same borough, and was assessed on property of some considerable value.1 With these few examples may end the tale of the non 12 Kentish Marlowes; some, if not all of them, were probably of the Kentish stock. In the records of Canterbury the Marlowes can be traced back to the early part of the fifteenth century. They all belonged to the trading community, and occasionally gave evidence of being not only wealthy but regardful of the public weal. The earliest trace of a public bequest by any of the family is contained in the will of one Richard Marley. This Richard Marley, who, in 1514, is described in the accounts of the chamberlain of the city as a son of John Marley, tanner, and as a freeman and tanner of Westgate Street,13 was apparently the great grandfather of the future poet. In his will, dated 1521, after giving directions for his own burial in the churchyard of Holy Cross Church, 'before the Crucifix of our Lord, as nigh the coming in of the North door there as conveniently can be,' he directs his executors to see gilt well and workmanly the Crucifix of our Lord, with Mary and John standing upon the Porch of the said North door.' This crucifix, which Richard Marley wished 'gilt well and workmanly,' as it stood in the porch of the church by Westgate, to arouse the devotion of communicants, did not stand long in that position, for even in the next century Somner had to record that it had gone, and the King's Arms was set up in place of it.'14 Others of the family founded hospitals and in various ways provided for the benefit of their fellow-beings. A certain Christopher Marlowe belonging to the |