Marlowe's boyhood days were neither unhappy nor unprofitable. Sometimes death broke in upon the family circle, and from time to time bore away first a sister and then his little brothers; but these things often happen, and rarely cause more than a passing cloud in the morning of life. The child saddens for a time over the loss of a playfellow, but others gradually take its place, and the wound closes, scarcely leaving a scar.

If Kit lived in the two-story timbered building, still standing in the parish of St. George, which has been suggested as his birthplace, 28 and which even in his days must have been very ancient, one can easily conjure up a picture of him as the leader of a troop of children pattering up and down the dimly lighted stairs and running in and out of the many tiny rooms of their quaint old home; sometimes mixing in the sports and gambols of the four sisters left to him, or of other relatives and companions, helping with his childish treble to make music in the darksome corridors. Or, as he grew in years, he may be fancied gazing out dreamily at the antique church opposite, where the only recorded incidents of his early life happened; where his parents were wedded, he and his brothers and sisters were christened, and some of them buried. Or, as he grew older and pondered more earnestly over the causes and consequences of things, he would have gazed from the rear of the old dwelling far away into the fairyland of Fancy, catching perchance

THE FRONT HAS BEEN MODERNISED RECENTLY

From an original photograph.

PLATE VI.

glimpses of the distant meadows and cloud-capped hills, or, without having to lose himself in such childish speculations, his boyish bewilderment, and even awe, must have been aroused by the weird carved figures, half-humanised fiends in appearance, which then projected, as even now they project, from the back of the quaint parental abode.

In these early years from whom was the little lad obtaining the rudiments of his education? Was his mother directing his childish aspirations, or was his father, who must have had a little more scholarship than his neighbours, as he ultimately became parish clerk of St. Mary's Bredman, or was the teacher one who more from kinship of spirit than of race, lured him through the early stages of his studies in quest of 'learning's golden gifts'? In wealthy families private tutors could be found to remove the stumblingblocks on the road to learning and to stimulate every spark of talent discernible, but the case must have been different for one of the shoemaker's many children. Yet the fathers of the city had been mindful in various ways of their children's educational needs, and all classes were provided for. In 1544 they had decreed that the corporation's common clerk should have the shop adjoining the Court-hall, called the 'Fyle,' upon the understanding that there he should, 'or one for him, do the duty of his office and instruct children.' 29

The duties of this office would have still been enforced in Marlowe's days, and it is very probable

that the common clerk, 'or one for him,' gave the boy his earliest lessons in the 'shop adjoining the Court-hall,' in the High Street, not many minutes' walk from his home in the parish of St. George the Martyr. The lad would have learned to read and write and to gain an elementary knowledge of the 'parts of speech'; but he must have displayed greater aptitude for study than the generality of his comrades, for by the end of 1578 he had obtained a scholarship in the King's School, the chief educational institution of Canterbury.

Traditionally founded by Archbishop Theodore in the year 600, this ancient and famous grammarschool, after passing through many vicissitudes of fortune, had been restored and re-established by King Henry the Eighth, who bestowed upon it its present royal title. A limited number of lads, upon giving proof that they already possessed a certain quantum of learning, were admitted on the foundation, and each such scholar after admission received a quarterly stipend of one pound.30 As scholars were only admitted between the ages of nine and fifteen, they must have given proof of age before admission. They were only admitted to the foundation at the November chapter, to fill such vacancies as might take place in the ensuing year, and as Kit was not admitted until January 14, 1579, that is to say, in the quarter terminating at Lady Day, he obtained his admission only just in time. His late entrance into the King's School may have been due to the