Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Christopher Marlowe

1564–1593

Introduction

The only known example of Marlowe's hand is his signature as witness to the will of Katherine Benchkin in November 1585 (*MrC 24). Despite the claims made in Wraight & Stern, a comparison between this signature and the much-discussed manuscript fragment of A Massacre at Paris (MrC 23) renders untenable the view that the latter could be autograph. On the contrary, the fragment is the work of an unskilled scribe. Neither is there a convincing argument to suppose that it is a forgery, even though once owned by John Payne Collier. Some discernible unevenness in the pen strokes and flow of ink can be attributed to the scribe's lack of skill.

No other early manuscripts of the plays are known apart from one or two quotations, including interesting early quotations from Doctor Faustus in the hand of Thomas Nashe (MrC 20) and two manuscript leaves making up an imperfect printed exemplum of Edward II (MrC 21). There are early manuscript copies of just a few of the poems, notably of Marlowe's most famous lyric Come live with mee, which exists in several early versions (MrC 10-19.8), one text (MrC 18) apparently assigned by its scribe to Thomas Blundeville's Exercises (first published in 1594).

Miscellaneous

A few later manuscript copies, not given entries in CELM, may be mentioned. An eighteenth-century manuscript copy of Dido Queen of Carthage, transcribed for George Steevens (1736-1800) by the actor John Henderson (1747-85) from what was then thought to be a unique exemplum of the 1594 edition, is in the British Library (Add. MS 5142). A transcript made from Henderson's transcript by Brownlow Waight in 1832 is in the Folger, MS D. a. 10. A late-eighteenth-century transcript of an early edition of The Massacre at Paris, with the title-page and ff. 3r-8v perhaps in the hand of the actor John Philip Kemble (1757-1823), is in the British Library (King's MS 443). Charles Lamb's manuscript copy of Come live with mee is at Harvard (MS Eng 959).

Numerous documents in public records relating to Marlowe's life are reproduced in Wraight & Stern. They include various academic records, the warrant for his arrest in 1593, the testimonies of Richard Baines and others concerning his alleged atheism, and the coroner's inquest on his death. Facsimiles of some of these documents are also in Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (Chicago, 1992), after pp. 190 and 254. Transcripts of one or two of these documents are among the collections of Thomas Baker (1656-1740), Cambridge antiquary, in the British Library (Harley MS 7042, f. 206r-v). Other records concerning Marlowe and his family are cited in William Urry, Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury, ed. Andrew Butcher (London, 1988); in Constance Brown Kuriyama, Christopher Marlowe: A Renaissance Life (Ithaca & London, 2002); and in Park Honan, Christopher Marlowe Poet and Spy (Oxford, 2005), including some facsimiles.

Abbreviations

  • Bakeless — John Bakeless, The Tragicall History of Christopher Marlowe, 2 vols (Cambridge, Mass., 1942).
  • Bowers — The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe, ed. Fredson Bowers, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1973).
  • Tucker Brooke — The Works of Christopher Marlowe, ed. C.F. Tucker Brooke (Oxford, 1910).
  • Roma et al. — The Complete Works of Christopher Marlowe, 5 vols (Oxford, 1987-98), vols I, II, IV, ed. Roma Gill; vol. III, ed. Richard Rowland; vol. V, ed. David Fuller and Edward J. Esche.
  • Wraight & Stern — A. D. Wraight and Virginia F. Stern, In Search of Christopher Marlowe (London, 1965).

Verse

Hero and Leander ('On Hellespont guiltie of True-loves blood')

First published in London, 1598. Bowers, II, 423-515 (p. 448). Tucker Brooke, pp. 485-548 (p. 507). Gill et al., I, 175-209. For George Chapman's continuation of the poem, see ChG 3-4.

MrC 1

Copy of four lines of the Second Sestyad (lines 131-4, here beginning Oh none have power but Gods their love to hide), in a draft letter by Henry Oxinden (1609-70), to his cousin Elizabeth Dallison. December 1641.

Edited from this MS in The Oxinden Letters 1607-1642, ed. Dorothy Gardiner (London, 1933), pp. 252-3.

In: A large folio composite volume of miscellaneous letters and papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 411 leaves, in half red morocco.

Volume II of the correspondence of the Oxinden family, Baronets, of Deane and Barham, Kent, from 1589 to 1710.

MrC 2

Copy of eight lines in the Second Sestyad (lines 131-4, 287-90).

Bowers, II, 448, 452; Tucker Brooke, pp. 507, 511. This MS discussed in Mark Eccles, Marlowe in Kentish Tradition, N&Q, 169 (20 July 1935), 39-41.

In: A folio miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, largely in one hand, iv + 544 pages (including numerous blanks), in vellum boards.

Inscribed, and evidently compiled, by Sir Henry Oxinden (1609-70), of Barham, Kent.

c.1642-70

Inscribed Lee Warly. Canterbury. 1764. Booklabel of Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector.

MrC 2.5

Copy of First Sestiad, line 269 et seq., headed On a mayden-head and beginning Theif [sic] idoll which you terme virginity.

In: A folio verse miscellany, comprising 162 poems in English, in a single hand, 273 pages, in brown morocco gilt.
c.late 1640s

Formerly (before 1686) in the Palatine Library at Heidelberg. Possibly acquired by Charles Louis (1617-80), Elector Palatine, while at the English court of his uncle, Charles I, from 1635 to 1649.

This volume discovered, and announced in the TLS, 23 July 2010, pp. 14-15, by June Schlueter and Paul Schlueter.

MrC 2.8

Copy of lines 184 (beginning Love deeply grounded hardly is dissembled), 175-6, 199-208, 223-4, 513-16.

In: An octavo commonplace book of verse and prose, in two or more secretary hands, 41 leaves, in a recycled illuminated vellum music document.

Inscribed (ff. 1r, 2r) Samuell Watts.

Early 17th century

Among the papers of the Sanford family. Formerly DD/SF 3970.

Somerset Heritage Centre (DD/SF/10/5/1 ff. 25v, 35r, 38r) | Catalogue
In obitum honoratissimi viri Rogeri Manwood militis, quaestorii Reginalis Capitalis Baronis ('Noctivagi terror, ganeonis triste flagellum')

First published in The Works of William Shakespeare, ed. John Payne Collier (London, 1844), I, xliv. Bowers, II, 540. Gill et al., I, [220].

MrC 3
Copy, inscribed in a printed exemplum of Hero and Leander (London, 1629).
17th century

Sotheby's, 15 February 1917, lot 2521, to P.J. Dobell.

Edited from this MS in Collier. Discussed in Mark Eccles, Marlowe in Kentish Tradition, N&Q, 169 (13 July 1935), 20-3, and in Bakeless, I, 116-19.

Untraced Dobell MSS ([Hero and Leander])
MrC 4

Copy, subscribed C. Marlo. Auth: Hero & Lean.

Edited from this MS in Collier (1844) and in Bowers. Discussed in Mark Eccles, N&Q, 169 (20 July 1935), 39-41.

In: A folio miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, largely in one hand, iv + 544 pages (including numerous blanks), in vellum boards.

Inscribed, and evidently compiled, by Sir Henry Oxinden (1609-70), of Barham, Kent.

c.1642-70

Inscribed Lee Warly. Canterbury. 1764. Booklabel of Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector.

MrC 5

Copy, subscribed These verses aboue written were made by Christopher Marlo, who was a Shomakers son of Canterbury; it was this Marlo, who made the 2 first bookes of Hero & Leander, witnes Mr Alderich.

This MS collated in Bowers.

In: A folio miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, largely in one hand, iv + 544 pages (including numerous blanks), in vellum boards.

Inscribed, and evidently compiled, by Sir Henry Oxinden (1609-70), of Barham, Kent.

c.1642-70

Inscribed Lee Warly. Canterbury. 1764. Booklabel of Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector.

Ovid's Elegies. I, v ('In summers heate, and midtime of the day')

Ten of Marlowe's Elegies (including I, v and II, iv) first published Middleburg [i.e. London], [c.1595-6]. Bowers, II, 307-421 (p. 321). Tucker Brooke, pp. 553-627 (pp. 564-5). Gill et al., I, 13-83 (pp. 18-19).

MrC 6

Copy, headed Corinne concubitus Aeleg 5. Lib: Amorum.

In: A folio verse miscellany, ii + 65 leaves, in contemporary vellum.

Entitled Miscentur seria iocis. 1647. Elegies, Exequies, Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs Satires and other Poems, a formal compilation entirely in the hand of the Yorkshire antiquary John Hopkinson (1610-80).

1647

From the library of Cecil Brent, FSA. Sold by P.J. & A.E. Dobell, January 1938.

MrC 7

Copy, headed Corinnæ concubitus Ovid. lib. 1° Amorum Eleg. 5 Æstus erat &c..

In: An octavo verse miscellany, predominantly in two very small hands (A: ff. 1r-44v; B: ff. 44v-87v), with further verse and prose pieces in other hands on ff. 88r-121r, written from both ends, associated with Oxford, possibly New College, and probably afterwards with the Inns of Court, 155 leaves (including 33 blanks), in modern black morocco elaborately gilt.

Including 23 poems by Strode (and second copies of two poems) and one poem of doubtful authorship.

c.1630s

Including (ff. 98r-100r) a letter by one Pet[er] Wood. Inscribed (ff. 90r-1r), Thease verses I borroed to write out of John Sherly [d. 1666] a booke seller in litle Brittaine, 28th of March 1633. Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 9235. Sotheby's, 21 February 1938, lot 243.

Cited in IELM II.ii (1993), as the Wood MS: StW Δ 21. Discussed in C.F. Main, New Texts of John Donne, SB, 9 (1957), 225-33.

Harvard, other MSS (MS Eng 686 f. 32r) | Catalogue
MrC 8

Copy, untitled and here beginning In somers heat at midtyme of the day.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, 180 pages, in three secretary hands, in contemporary limp vellum.

Probably compiled by a member of an Inn of Court.

c.1630

Bookplate of William Horatio Crawford, of Lakelands, Cork, book collector. Formerly Rosenbach 186.

Ovid's Elegies. II, iv ('I meane not to defend the scapes of any')

Bowers, II, 345-6. Tucker Brooke, pp. 585-6. Gill et al., I, 39-41.

MrC 9
Copy, in a secretary hand, headed Amoru lib: 2. Elegia 4, on both sides of a quarto leaf, the verso in double columns.
c.1600

Once owned by John Payne Collier (1789-1883), literary scholar, editor and forger, and with (13b) his transcript of the poem. Formerly bound in Collier's extra-illustrated printed exemplum of his The History of English Dramatic Poetry (London, 1879), II, 487.

MrC 9.4

Copy, headed Ouid Amor: Lib: 2 Eleg. 4 and here beginning I will not seek to excuse the faults of any.

In: A folio verse miscellany, ii + 65 leaves, in contemporary vellum.

Entitled Miscentur seria iocis. 1647. Elegies, Exequies, Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs Satires and other Poems, a formal compilation entirely in the hand of the Yorkshire antiquary John Hopkinson (1610-80).

1647

From the library of Cecil Brent, FSA. Sold by P.J. & A.E. Dobell, January 1938.

Ovid's Elegies. III, xiii ('Seeing thou art faire, I barre not thy false playing')

Bowers, II, 390-2. Tucker Brooke, pp. 625-6. Gill et al., I, 82-3.

MrC 9.6

Copy, headed Ouid Amor: Lib: 3. Eleg: 13.

In: A folio verse miscellany, ii + 65 leaves, in contemporary vellum.

Entitled Miscentur seria iocis. 1647. Elegies, Exequies, Epitaphs, Epigrams, Songs Satires and other Poems, a formal compilation entirely in the hand of the Yorkshire antiquary John Hopkinson (1610-80).

1647

From the library of Cecil Brent, FSA. Sold by P.J. & A.E. Dobell, January 1938.

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love ('Come live with mee, and be my love')

First published in a four-stanza version in The Passionate Pilgrime (London, 1599). Printed in a six-stanza version in Englands Helicon (London, 1600). Bowers, II, 536-7. Tucker Brooke, pp. 550-1. Gill et al., I, 215. For Ralegh's Answer see RaW 189-99.

MrC 10

Copy of a four-stanza version, in an unidentified secretary hand, untitled.

This MS collated in Bowers; facsimile in Bakeless, II, facing p. 184.

In: Copy of an alchemical tract by Simon Forman, predominantly in a single hand, 20 folio leaves, dated (f. 20v) 10 November 1598, bound with five other alchemical tracts, in contemporary calf.
November 1598

The MSS collected, and partly written, by Dr Simon Forman (1552-1611), astrologer and medical practitioner.

Bodleian Library, Ashmole Collection (MS Ashmole 1486 (II) f. 6v) | Catalogue
MrC 10.5

Copy, in a musical setting, headed The words by Kit: Marlow.

In: A quarto songbook, 138 leaves.
Mid-18th-century

Once owned by John Henry Mee.

Oxford Music Faculty (MS Mee e.1 f. 122r)
MrC 11

Copy of a four-stanza version, untitled.

Edited from this MS in The Poems of Sir Walter Ralegh, ed. Michael Rudick (Tempe, Arizona, 1999), No. 45A, p. 116. Collated in Bowers.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, in a single hand, 114 leaves, bound with a printed exemplum of Thomas Watson's <GREEK> or Passionate Centurie of Love (London, [1581?]).

Compiled by John Lilliat (c.1550-c.1599).

c.1590s

This MS volume printed in full, with facsimile examples, in Liber Lilliati: Elizabethan Verse and Song (Bodleian MS Rawlinson Poetry 148), ed. Edward Doughtie (Newark, DE, 1985).

MrC 12

Copy of a six-stanza version, headed The milkemaids song, apparently transcribed from Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler (London, 1653).

This MS collated in Bowers.

In: A sextodecimo miscellany of verse and topographical prose, probably in a single small cursive hand, 78 leaves, written from both ends, Part I foliated 1r-33r, Part II foliated 1r-45r, in old calf.
c.1650s-60s

Inscribed (Part I, f. 1r) Mr John Oldhams Booke [i.e. the poet John Oldham (1653-83)]. Inscribed (Part II, f. 1r) James Bateman [(b.1633/4) of Christ's College, Cambridge], and Robert Pierrepont [either the son of Col. Francis Pierrepont, M.P. (d.1659), or the third Earl of Kingston (1650/1-82), of Holme-Pierrepoint, Nottinghamshire, Oldham's patron]. Formerly Folger MS 621.1.

Described in F.P. Hammond, A Commonplace Book owned by John Oldham, N&Q, 224 (December 1979), 515-18.

MrC 13

Copy of a seven-stanza version, in an italic hand, untitled, unascribed.

This MS collated in Bowers and in Tucker Brooke. Facsimile in A.D. Wraight and V.F. Stern, In Search of Christopher Marlowe (London, 1965), p. 130.

In: A folio miscellany of state papers, religious verse and prose, and legal material, in several secretary hands, written over a period from both ends, 143 leaves (including a number of blanks), in a vellum wrapper (a recycled rubricated Latin text) within a contemporary leather wallet binding (rebacked), with straps.
c.1572-1608

Inscribed variously James Ware his Book: i.e. Sir James Ware (1594-1666), antiquary and historian; (henry Streite, william rise, Bartholomew Roche, and John Anderson. Including copies of indentures relating to John Glascock of London, John Ellis of Gray's Inn, and Edward Johnson, goldsmith, of London. Inscribed (f. [2r], ? by Ware) Qre whether this booke did belong to John Thornburgh [1551-1641] sometime Bp of Limrick & deane of York. vid fol: 13. Later among the manuscripts of the Carew family at Crowcombe Court, Somerset. Formerly Folger MS 297.3 and MS V.b.75.

Recorded in HMC, 4th Report (1874), Appendix, p. 372. Briefly discussed by Fr Herbert Thurston in The Month, vol. 86, No. 379 (1896), pp. 33-4.

MrC 14

Copy of a four-stanza version, headed A Pastoral made by Sr Walter Raleigh, apparently transcribed from an early MS source, written on the recto of the leaf before the title-page.

Sold by Charles Sessler, bookseller, Philadelphia.

Edited from this MS in Susanne Woods, The Passionate Sheepheard and The Nimphs Reply: A Study of Transmission, Huntington Library Quarterly, 34 (1970), 25-33 (pp. 25-6).

In: Printed exemplum of the first edition, first issue, of Ralegh's The History of the World (London, 1614).
Late 18th-early 19th century
The Huntington Library, shelfmarks N through Z (RB 69107 [preliminary blank page])
MrC 15

Copy of a four-stanza version, in a secretary hand, untitled, subscribed finis the pastoral.

In: A quarto composite memorandum book of English, Welsh and latin verse and prose, in several hands, 100 leaves, in a contemporary limp vellum wrapper within modern half red morocco.

Compiled over a period, at least in part, by various members of the Lloyd family of Llwydiarth.

Early 17th century-1672

Inscriptions including (f. 3r) Mounta: Lloyd 1671 and (f. 49r) David Wms. his Book beeing Mrs Anne Lloyds Guift, and with other references to David Lloyd, Elizabeth Lluyd, Robert Lluyd, Jane Lloyd, and Hugh Lloyd. Probably Quaritch's sale Catalogue of English Literature (August-November 1884), item 22351. Formerly Sotheby MS B. 2.

National Library of Wales (Wynne (Bodewryd) MS 6 f. 76r)
MrC 16 c.1600-10

Copy of a four-stanza version, untitled, headed in a later hand in red ink Poemes written in the Reigne of Queen Elizabeth, the fourth stanza written sideways and headed in red ink A sonnet Madrigal by Sr. Philipp Sydney, among other verse in one secretary hand on a single folio leaf.

Edited from this MS in Curt F. Bühler, Four Elizabethan Poems, Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies, ed. James G. McManaway, Giles E. Dawson, and Edwin E. Willoughby (Washington, DC, 1948), 695-706 (p. 696). Facsimile in British Literary Manuscripts, Series I, ed. Verlyn Klinkenborg et al. (New York, 1981), No. 18.

In: A collection of separate state papers and poems, in folders.
The Pierpont Morgan Library (Rulers of England (Eliz. I) No. 48[a])
MrC 17

Copy of a four-stanza version, untitled and here beginning If thou wilt liue and by my loue.

Printed from this MS in Samuel A. Tannenbaum, Unfamiliar Versions of Some Elizabethan Poems, PMLA, 45 (1930), 809-21 (pp. 815-16); collated in Bowers.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, 180 pages, in three secretary hands, in contemporary limp vellum.

Probably compiled by a member of an Inn of Court.

c.1630

Bookplate of William Horatio Crawford, of Lakelands, Cork, book collector. Formerly Rosenbach 186.

MrC 18

Copy of an eight-stanza version (plus two lines), in a left-hand column, headed Blundwells exercise.

In: A folio miscellany of poems and state papers, in secretary hands, written from both ends, 50 leaves, in contemporary vellum.
c.1620s

Among papers of the Troyte-Bullock family, formerly of Zeals House, Mere, and probably deriving from the papers of the Chafyn family of Bulford and Chisenbury or the Reymes family of Waddon, near Dorchester.

MrC 19
Copy in a musical setting, endorsed NB. This Tune was found in an old MS. as old as Shakespears Time by Sr J. Hawkins.
18th century
Yale, Osborn, others (Osb MSS File 9940)
MrC 19.5

Copy, headed Sr Walter Rawleigh to Q. Elisabeth.

In: A small quarto verse miscellany, predominantly in one secretary hand, erratically paginated up to 333, 250 leaves, in 18th-century boards.
c.late 1630s

Inscribed (on p. [330]) Robert Lord his book Anno Domini; (on [p. 335]) william Jacob his booke Amen; and, among scribbling on the last leaf, Hugh Gibgans of the same and John Winter of Buckland Dursbane [or husbande?]. Owned in 1788 by Alexander R. Popham. Bloomsbury Book Auction, 23 November 2000, lot 8.

A microfilm is in the British Library, RP 7698.

Dramatic works

Doctor Faustus

First published [in London, 1601?] (earliest extant edition London, 1604). Bowers, II, 121-271 (pp. 163-4). Tucker Brooke, pp. 139-229 (pp. 148-9). Gill et al., vol. II.

MrC 20
Thomas Nashe's scribbled italic signature and annotations on both sides of the title-page and pp. 130, 132, in a printed exemplum of John Leland, Principum Ac illustrium aliquot & eruditorum in Anglia virorum Encomia (London, 1589).

Including the quotations Che sara sara deuinynitie adieu (cp. Faustus, I, i, 74-5) and studie in indian silke (cp. Faustus, I, i, 117-18).

c.1589-1601

Later in the library of Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth, first Baronet, MP (1870-1937).

These annotations printed, with facsimile examples, in Paul H. Kocher, Some Nashe Marginalia concerning Marlowe, MLN, 57 (1942), 45-9.

Edward II

First published in London, 1594. Bowers, II, 1-119. Tucker Brooke, pp. 307-85. Gill et al., vol. III.

MrC 21
An exemplum of the printed edition of 1598 with the text of the missing first two leaves (title-page and 70 lines of text) supplied in MS in an italic hand, probably transcribed from the edition of 1594.
1598-early 17th century

This item has been thought to demonstrate the existence of a 1593 edition: see Bowers, II, 3 et seq. Facsimiles in W.W. Greg's edition, Malone Society (Oxford, 1925), and in Bakeless, II, facing p. 24.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce 6209 (Pressmark Dyce 25.D.40)) | Catalogue
MrC 22

Copy of Mortimer's lines beginning Base fortune, now I see, that in thy wheele (V, vi, 59-61).

Bowers, II, 95; Tucker Brooke, p. 384. This MS discussed in Mark Eccles, Marlowe in Kentish Tradition, N&Q, 169 (20 July 1935), 39-41.

In: A folio miscellany of verse and prose, in English and Latin, largely in one hand, iv + 544 pages (including numerous blanks), in vellum boards.

Inscribed, and evidently compiled, by Sir Henry Oxinden (1609-70), of Barham, Kent.

c.1642-70

Inscribed Lee Warly. Canterbury. 1764. Booklabel of Henry Huth (1815-78), book collector.

The Massacre at Paris

First published in London, [1594?]. Bowers, I, 353-417. Tucker Brooke, pp. 440-84. Gill et al., V, 317-62.

MrC 23
A portion of a single folio leaf, both sides in a secretary hand, comprising probably a fragment of a fair copy of one scene, including entrances and exits, now in green morocco.
c.1590s

This fragment printed in Bowers, I, 390-1, as scene xvii, lines 806-20 (with a facsimile as frontispiece), and in Tucker Brooke as an Appendix, pp. 482-3; first published in J.P. Collier's introduction to The Jew of Malta in his edition of Dodsley's Old Plays (London, 1825), VIII, 244; also printed in The Massacre at Paris, ed. W.W. Greg, Malone Society (Oxford, 1928). For discussions of this MS, which has been mistakenly considered an autograph, see particularly J.Q. Adams, The Massacre at Paris Leaf, The Library, 4th Ser. 14 (1934), 447-69; J.M. Nosworthy, The Marlowe Manuscript, The Library, 4th Ser. 26 (1946), 158-71; Wraight & Stern, pp. 224-32 (with facsimiles); Croft, Autograph Poetry, I, xiv; R.E. Alton, Marlowe Authenticated, TLS (26 April 1974), pp. 446-7; Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 35 (with a facsimile); P.J. Croft, TLS (24 February 1978), p. 241.

Documents

Document(s)
*MrC 24
Autograph
Marlowe's signature (Christofer Marley), as well as his father's (Jhan Marley), as witnesses to the last will and testament of Katherine Benchkin, November 1585.
1585

Facsimiles of the signature in Bakeless, I, facing p. 208; in Wraight & Stern, pp. 229-30; in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 34; in Gill et al., I, 11; and in Park Honan, Christopher Marlowe Poet and Spy (Oxford, 20050, p. 108. Full text of the document in William Urry, Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury, ed. Andrew Butcher (London, 1988), pp. 123-7.

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