Another Marlowe
Sir: In his article 'No great Shakes' (30 April) Martin Green attacks the myths people create about Shakespeare, but happily perpetuates one about Marlowe, describing him as `an atheist homosexual'. There is no reliable evidence that he was either.
The myth is based upon the depositions made after Marlowe's death by Richard Baines, a dubious government informer. Baines claims that Marlowe regularly scof- fed at Jesus, holding that if the Jews among whom he was born did crucify him they best knew him and whence he came.' There is other similar 'evidence'. Thomas Beard in his Theatre of God's Judgements (1597) wrote that Marlowe 'cursed and blasphemed to his last gasp, and together with his breath an oath flew out of his mouth'.
Meanwhile on the question of sexual preference, Baines asserted that Marlowe had once said 'all they that love not tobacco and boys are fools'. Marlowe's comments, assuming that he ever said them, sound more like the provocative witticisms one might find on page eight of The Spectator than serious statements of religious or sexual position.
Patrick French
The Residence, 17 Royal Crescent, Edinburgh
Previous page
