father's life, or for the preservation of her native place, or when she bewails the miserable fate of Bajazeth and his consort. Some of the hero's references to her are full of pathos and beauty, and one is not only noteworthy as a foreshadowing of the ever-famed allusion to the Grecian Helen, but as one out of many proofs that Marlowe did repeat himself, all assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, an important fact when recalled to mind in connection with Shakespearian matters:

'Her sacred beauty hath enchanted Heaven;
And had she lived before the siege of Troy,
Helen (whose beauty summoned Greece to arms,
And drew a thousand ships to Tenedos)
Had not been named in Homer's Iliads.'

Tamburlaine's most touching and most human reference to his beloved is, when told of her death,

'Say no more!

Though she be dead, yet let me think she lives!'

Among the autobiographical allusions in this drama none is more noteworthy than the poet's continually acknowledged belief in one omnipotent deity, as if to prove that, wavering or distrustful as might be his opinions about many of the tenets of Christianity, on this point his mind and faith were firm.

The popularity of Tamburlaine as a play was largely due to the impersonation of the hero by the famous Edward Alleyn. This much admired actor,

the chief favourite of Elizabethan and Jacobean playgoers, had commenced his dramatic career when a boy, probably by impersonating female characters, but no records of this 'prentice period have been discovered. Having perfected his genius by experience he was ripe for a suitable part to play, and the presentation of Tamburlaine afforded him the requisite opportunity. His acting of the Scythian monarch captivated the London audiences and helped to enhance Marlowe's reputation as well as his own. The appearance of the rough posters of those days with the announcement of a play having the name of either Alleyn as the actor or Marlowe as the author, was sufficient to attract a large audience.88

When Alleyn first appeared in Marlowe's drama he could not have been more than about one-andtwenty, he having been born in 1566, and the young man's handsome presence greatly promoted his success. His elocutionary powers must have been unrivalled, for Thomas Heywood, in his Prologue to a later play by Marlowe, after referring to the author as 'the best of poets in that age,' states that Alleyn

'Wan

The attribute of peerless; being a man

Whom we may rank with (doing no one wrong)
Proteus for shape, and Roscius for a tongue,
So could he speak, so vary:'

and Ben Jonson, who would not flatter, and whose own elocutionary attainments were famed, after com

paring Alleyn, to his favour, with the great actors of Rome, exclaims:

'How can so great example dye in mee,

That, Allen, I should pause to publish thee?
Who both thy graces in thy selfe hast more
Outstript, than they did all that went before;
And present worth in all dost so contract,
As others speake, but onely thou dost act.
Weare this renowne; 'tis just, that who did give
So many Poets life, by one should live.' 89

Not only did Alleyn's personal appearance impress the spectators, but the costumes provided for him in Tamburlaine were by their gorgeous and costly character calculated to arouse admiration. In his Diary, Henslowe, the stage-manager and proprietor, records how much he paid for Alleyn's crimson velvet breeches, and how much his copper-laced coat cost, and what was paid for Tamburlaine's bridle, the bridle used for the harnessed kings. Other curious stage properties, of which the purchase is recorded, in connection with Marlowe's dramas, were a cage for Bajazeth, the 'cauldron' for the Jew of Malta, the dragon for Faustus, as, also, 'the city of Rome' and the Pope's mitre. Cupid's bow and arrows were doubtless for The Tragedy of Dido, but 'Eve's bodice,' 'Kent's wooden leg,' the 'tree of golden apples,' 'a rainbow,' and many other strange articles, were evidently required for the various works of other dramatists.00

The sums of money expended at that period for certain articles of attire for the actors seem exhor

bitant. Nineteen pounds was given for a cloak and seven pounds for a gown; as much money was given by the company for the gown of the heroine, in the Woman Killed by Kindness, as was paid to the author, Ben Jonson, for writing the play. Indeed, Drummond records that Ben Jonson informed him he had never gained two hundred pounds for all the plays he had ever produced! 91

It is seen from Henslowe's Diary that the highest price he ever gave an author for a play was the eleven pounds he paid Jonson and Dekker for Page of Plymouth, a murder-tragedy. It is not therefore surprising that whilst players and theatre proprietors amassed fortunes, the authors of the dramas they grew rich by lived and died in penury. When an author, flushed by the receipt of a few hardly won pounds, arrayed himself in new garments, or indulged. in a more expensive meal than usual, his improvidence or gluttony furnished an edifying text for a sermon, or subject for a reproachful pamphlet, whilst the well-clothed actor and well-fed stage-manager obtained unstinted meed of praise and respect for the genius of the one or the industry of the other.

When a play became unusually popular, Henslowe's heart was opened and, over and above what he had already paid the author, he would still further encourage him by a gift or royalty of ten shillings! This magnificent donation he was never known to exceed; but on rare occasions, and after a very successful performance, he spent a further 'small sum'

among the actors in 'good cheer.' Well might even so famous and popular an author as Marlowe lament that

'Learning...

And Poverty should always kiss;

And to this day is every scholar poor :

Gross gold from them runs headlong to the boor.

That Midas' brood shall sit in Honour's chair,
To which the Muses' sons are only heir;

And few great lords in virtuous deeds shall joy
But be surpris'd with every garish toy,

And still enrich the lofty servile clown,

Who with encroaching quite keeps learning down.'

Notwithstanding the immense popularity of his dramas, it is worthy of attention that the lofty spirit of Marlowe would not allow him to stoop, as many of his contemporaries did, to palter with obscene puns or pander to the public taste with double-edged words. The translations of his early life followed the thoughts of their originals, but there is not the slightest evidence that he ever intended them for publicity; whilst his dramatic works, which were expressly prepared for public representation, are free from every taint of vicious suggestion. The printer's address, in the 1592 edition of the Tragical Discourses, 'to the Gentlemen-Readers and Others that take pleasure in Reading Histories,' explaining the omission from the book of the clown's vulgar interpolations between the acts, doubtless expressed Marlowe's own views upon the subject. The printer's hope that the Dis