Volume 3 — APPENDICES.
Reading edition
APPENDICES.
No. I.
THE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDIE.[677]
All you that have got eares to heare, Now listen unto mee; Whilst I do tell a tale of feare; A true one it shall bee: A truer storie nere was told, As some alive can showe; 'Tis of a man in crime grown olde, Though age he did not know. This man did his owne God denie And Christ his onelie son, And did all punishment defie, So he his course might run. Both day and night would he blaspheme, And day and night would sweare, As if his life was but a dreame, Not ending in dispaire. A poet was he of repute, And wrote full many a playe, Now strutting in a silken sute, Then begging by the way. He had alsoe a player beene Upon the Curtaine-stage, But brake his leg in one lewd scene, When in his early age. He was a fellow to all those That did God's laws reject, Consorting with the Christians' foes And men of ill aspect. Ruffians and cutpurses hee Had ever at his backe, And led a life most foule and free, To his eternall wracke. He now is gone to his account, And gone before his time, Did not his wicked deedes surmount All precedent of crime. But he no warning ever tooke From others' wofull fate, And never gave his life a looke Untill it was too late. He had a friend, once gay and greene.[678] Who died not long before, The wofull'st wretch was ever seen, The worst ere woman bore, Unlesse this Wormall[679] did exceede Even him in wickednesse, Who died in the extreemest neede And terror's bitternesse. Yet Wormall ever kept his course, Since nought could him dismay; He knew not what thing was remorse Unto his dying day. Then had he no time to repent The crimes he did commit, And no man ever did lament For him, to dye unfitt. Ah, how is knowledge wasted quite On such want wisedome true, And that which should be guiding light But leades to errors newe! Well might learnd Cambridge oft regret He ever there was bred: The tree she in his mind had set Brought poison forth instead. His lust was lawlesse as his life, And brought about his death; For, in a deadlie mortall strife, Striving to stop the breath Of one who was his rivall foe, With his owne dagger slaine, He groand, and word spoke never moe, Pierc'd through the eye and braine. Thus did he come to suddaine ende That was a foe to all, And least unto himselfe a friend, And raging passion's thrall. Had he been brought up to the trade His father follow'd still, This exit he had never made, Nor played a part soe ill. Take warning ye that playes doe make, And ye that doe them act; Desist in time for Wormall's sake, And thinke upon his fact. Blaspheming Tambolin must die, And Faustus meete his ende; Repent, repent, or presentlie To hell ye must discend. What is there, in this world, of worth, That we should prize it soe? Life is but trouble from our birth, The wise do say and know. Our lives, then, let us mend with speed, Or we shall suerly rue The end of everie hainous deede, In life that shall insue. Finis. Ign.
FOOTNOTES:
No. II.
In a copy of Hero and Leander Collier found, together with other questionable matter, the following MS. notes:—"Feb. 10, 1640. Mr. [two words follow in cipher], that Marloe was an atheist, and wrot a booke against [two words in cipher,] how that it was all one man's making, and would have printed it, but it would not be suffred to be printed. Hee was a rare scholar, and made excellent verses in Latine. He died aged about 30."—"Marloe was an acquaintance of Mr. [a name follows in cipher] of Douer, whom hee made become an atheist; so that he was faine to make a recantation vppon this text, 'The foole hath said in his heart there is no God.'"—"This [the name in cipher] learned all Marloe by heart."—"Marloe was stabd with a dagger and dyed swearing."
No. III.
A NOTE[680]
CONTAYNINGE THE OPINION OF ONE CHRISTOFER MARYLE, CONCERNYNGE HIS DAMNABLE OPINIONS AND JUDGMENT OF RELYGION AND SCORNE OF GODS WORDE.
From MS. Harl. 6853, fol. 320.
That the Indians and many Authors of Antiquitei have assuredly written of aboue 16 thowsande yeers agone, wher Adam is proved to have leyved within 6 thowsande yeers.
He affirmeth[681] That Moyses was but a Juggler, and that one Heriots can do more then hee.
That Moyses made the Jewes to travell fortie yeers in the wildernes (which iorny might have ben don in lesse then one yeer) er they came to the promised lande, to the intente that those whoe wer privei to most of his subtileteis might perish, and so an everlastinge supersticion remayne in the hartes of the people.
That the firste beginnynge of Religion was only to keep men in awe.
That it was an easye matter for Moyses, beinge brought up in all the artes of the Egiptians, to abvse the Jewes, being a rvde and grosse people.
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That he [Christ] was the sonne of a carpenter, and that, yf the Jewes amonge whome he was born did crvcifye him, thei best knew him and whence he came.
That Christ deserved better to dye than Barrabas, and that the Jewes made a good choyce, though Barrabas were both a theife and a murtherer.
That yf ther be any God or good Religion, then it is in the Papistes, becavse the service of God is performed with more ceremonyes, as elevacion of the masse, organs, singinge men, shaven crownes, &c. That all protestantes ar hipocriticall Asses.
That, yf he wer put to write a new religion, he wolde vndertake both a more excellent and more admirable methode, and that all the new testament is filthely written.
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That all the Appostels wer fishermen and base fellowes, nether of witt nor worth, that Pawle only had witt, that he was a timerous fellow in biddinge men to be subiect to magistrates against his conscience.
That he had as good right to coyne as the Queen of Englande, and that he was acquainted with one Poole, a prisoner in newgate, whoe hath great skill in mixture of mettalls, and havinge learned such thinges of him, he ment, thorough help of a cvnnynge stampe-maker, to coyne french crownes, pistolettes, and englishe shillinges.
That, yf Christ had instituted the Sacramentes with more cerymonyall reverence, it would have ben had in more admiracion, that it wolde have ben much better beinge administred in a Tobacco pype.
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That one Richard Cholmelei[683] hath confessed that he was perswaded by Marloes reason to become an Athieste.
Theis thinges, with many other, shall by good and honest men be proved to be his opinions and common speeches, and that this Marloe doth not only holde them himself, but almost in every company he commeth, perswadeth men to Athiesme, willinge them not to be afrayed of bugbeares and hobgoblins, and vtterly scornynge both God and his ministers, as I Richard Bome [sic] will justify bothe by my othe and the testimony of many honest men, and almost all men with whome he hath conversed any tyme will testefy the same: and, as I thincke, all men in christianitei ought to endevor that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped.
He sayeth moreover that he hath coated[684] a number of contrarieties out of the scriptures, which he hath geeven to some great men, who in convenient tyme shalbe named. When theis thinges shalbe called in question, the witnesses shalbe produced.
Rychard Bame.
(Endorsed)
Copye of Marloes blasphemyes
as sent to her H[ighness].
[Now-a-days inquiries as to the age of the earth are of interest only to Geologists; and all may criticise with impunity the career of Moses—provided that they do not employ the shafts of ridicule too freely. Marlowe's strictures on the New Testament—grossly exaggerated by the creature who penned the charges—were made from the literary point of view. We should blame nobody to-day for saying that the language of Revelations is poor and thin when compared with the language of Isaiah. Again, as to the statement that Romanism alone is logical, and that Protestantism has no locus standi,—has not the doctrine been proclaimed again and again in our own day by writers whom we all respect? The charge that Marlowe had announced his intention of coining French crowns is so utterly absurd as to throw discredit upon all the other statements. It must be remembered that the testimony was not upon oath, and that the deponent was a ruffian.]
FOOTNOTES:
No. IV.
An edition of Marlowe cannot be more fitly concluded than by a reprint of Mr. R. H. Horne's noble and pathetic tragedy, The Death of Marlowe (originally published in 1837), one of the few dramatic pieces of the present century that will have any interest for posterity. For permission to reprint this tragedy I am indebted to Mr. Horne's literary executor, Mr. H. Buxton Forman.
THE DEATH OF MARLOWE.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
Christopher Marlowe,Thomas Heywood, Dramatists and Actors.
Thomas Middleton, Dramatist.
Cecilia, Runaway Wife of the drunkard, Bengough.
Jacconot, alias Jack-o'-nightA Tavern Pander and Swashbuckler.
Gentlemen, Officers, Servants, &c.