Page:The works of Christopher Marlowe - ed. Dyce - 1859.djvu/17

 SOME ACCOUNT

the latest biographer of Marlowe set out with a declaration that "the time of this writer's birth cannot be ascertained," he rather hastily assumed the impossibility of discovering it. Christopher Marlowe, the son of John Marlowe, shoemaker, was born at Canterbury in February 1563-4, and baptized there in the Church of St. George the Martyr on the 26th of that month. 1563-4, "The 26 day of ﬀebruary was christened Christofer the sonne of John Marlow." Register of St. George the Martyr, Canterbury.—The following entries are found in the same Register; which, though very old, is only a transcript; and the scribe was unable to decypher the Christian names in the fourth, seventh, and eighth entries:

1548, "The 28$th$ day of December was christened Marget the daughter of John Marlow."

1562, "The xxi$st$ of May was christened Mary the daughter of John Marlowe."

1565, "The [date illegible] day of December was christened Margarit the daughter of John Marlowe."

1568, "The last day of October was christened[sic] the sonne of John Marlow."

1569, "The 20$th$ day of August was christened John the sonne of John Marlow."

1566, "The 10$th$ day of December was buried Simon the sonne of Thomas Marlow."

1567, "The 5$th$ day of November was buried[sic] the sonne of John Marlow."

1568, "The 28$th$ day of August was buried[sic] the daughter of John Marlow."

1570, "The 7$th$ day of August was buried Thomas sonne of John Marlow."

1604, "John Marloe clarke of St. Maries was buried 26$th$ of January."

Qy. does the last entry refer to the elder or to the younger John Marlowe (see the fifth entry)? It is possible that, while our poet's father followed the business of a shoemaker (which, according to the stanza of the ballad referred to in the preceding note, he continued to do till his death), he also held the situation of "clarke of St. Maries."

So unsettled was the orthography of the time, that our author's name (as will be seen) was written in ten different ways,—Marlo, Marloe, Marlow, Marlowe, Marley, Marly, Marlye, Marlen, Marlin, Marlyn!