Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/196

Marmion 'Shakespeare's Zeitgenossen und ihre Werke,' Band 3, 1860. Editions of separate plays have been already noticed.

Twice has the tragedy of Marlowe's life been made the subject of a play. In 1837 Richard Hengist Horne [q. v.] published his 'Death of Marlowe,' which Mr. A. H. Bullen reprinted in his collective edition of the dramatist's works in 1885. Mr. W. L. Courtney contributed to the 'Universal Review' in 1890 (vi. 356 sq.) a dramatic sketch entitled 'Kit Marlowe.' This piece was performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 4 July 1890, and was revived at the St. James's Theatre in 1892.

No portrait of Marlowe is known. A fanciful head appears in Cunningham's edition. A monument to his memory, executed by Mr. E. Onslow Ford, A.R.A., has been placed, by public subscription, near the cathedral at Canterbury. It was unveiled by Mr. Henry Irving on 16 Sept. 1891.

 MARMION, ROBERT (d. 1218), justice itinerant and reputed king's champion, was descended from the Lords of Fontenay le Marmion in Normandy, who are said to have been hereditary champions of the Dukes of Normandy. Wace mentions a Robert or Roger Marmion as fighting at Hastings (Roman de Rou, 13623, 13776). In 'Domesday Book ' (i. 368 b) a 'Robertus Dispensator' occurs as holding Tamworth Castle and Scrivelsby, together with other lands which afterwards belonged to the Marmion family. But the exact connection of these early Marmions with one another or with the later family is not quite clear, and, except for the untrustworthy 'Battle Abbey Roll,' there is no English record of a Marmion till the reign of Henry I, when Roger Marmion (d. 1130) appears as the holder of Tamworth and Scrivelsby. Roger's son, (d. 1143), was a warlike man, who in the days of the anarchy under Stephen had no match for boldness, fierceness, and cunning (, i. 47). In 1140 Geoffrey of Anjou captured his castle of Fontenay in Normandy, because he held Falais against him (, iv. 139). Three years later he expelled the monks of Coventry, and made a castle of their church. Soon after, on 8 Sept. 1143, he engaged in a fight with the Earl of Chester outside the walls of his strange fortress. Being thrown from his horse between the two armies, he broke his thigh, and as he lay on the ground was despatched by a cobbler with his knife. He was buried at Polesworth, Warwickshire, in unconsecrated ground as an excommunicated person (, i. 47; Ann. Mon. ii. 230). Dugdale says his wife was Matilda de Beauchamp, but her true name seems to have been Melisent. Robert restored the nuns to Polesworth, of which they had been dispossessed, and began the foundation of the monastery of Barberay in Normandy. His son Robert (d. 1185) married Elizabeth, daughter of Gervase, count of Rethel, who was brother to Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem. Robert Marmion the justiciar was his son.

The justiciar, who was probably the sixth baron of Tamworth, appears first as a justiciar at Caen in 1177. He was one of the justices before whom fines were levied in 1184, and in 1186 was sheriff of Worcester. He was a justice itinerant for Warwickshire and Leicestershire in 1187–8, Staffordshire in 1187–92, Shropshire in 1187–94, Herefordshire in 1188–90, Worcestershire in 1189, Gloucestershire in 1189–91 and 1193, and Bristol in 1194. Marmion had taken the vow for the crusade, but purchased exemption. In 1195 he was with Richard in Normandy, and in 1197 witnessed the treaty between Richard and Baldwin of Flanders. During the early years of John's reign he was in attendance on the king in Normandy. In 1204-5 he was again one of the justices before whom fines were levied. He sided with the barons against the king, but after John's death rejoined the royal party. He died on 15 May 1218. He gave a mill at Barston, Warwickshire, to the Templars, and was a benefactor of Kirkstead Abbey, Lincolnshire.

Marmion was twice married, first, to Matilda de Beauchamp, by whom he had a son, Robert the elder, and two daughters; secondly, to Philippa, by whom he had four sons: Robert the younger; William, who was dean of Tamworth; Geoffrey, who was ancestor of the Marmions of Checkendon, Stoke Marmion, and Aynho, to which branch