The twentieth century was a good time to be a Marlovian. When John Ingram, in 1904, published the first full-length biography of Christopher Marlowe (aka Morley, Marley, or Marlin), he did not even know the name of the man’s killer. Not until twenty years later did Leslie Hotson’s Death of Christopher Marlowe make public the actual coroner’s inquest describing the death of the poet at Deptford Strand on May 30, 1593. Hotson thought he had provided “the authoritative answer to the riddle of Marlowe’s death,” putting to rest rumors of a romantic intrigue over a bawdy woman, which had spawned centuries of pontification about God’s judgment on the wicked. But in the same book Hotson brought to light evidence of Marlowe’s possible involvement in Francis Walsingham’s intelligence service, giving rise to even more speculation about murder, feigned murder, and, inevitably, how you-know-who wrote...

 

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