Editing Christopher Marlowe (section)

==Adult life and legend==
Little is known about Marlowe's adult life. All available evidence, other than what can be deduced from his literary works, is found in legal records and other official documents. Writers of fiction and non-fiction have speculated about his professional activities, private life, and character. Marlowe has been described as a spy, a brawler, and a heretic, as well as a "magician", "duellist", "tobacco-user", "counterfeiter" and "[[Rake (character)|rakehell]]". While J. A. Downie and Constance Kuriyama have argued against the more lurid speculations, [[J. B. Steane]] remarked, "it seems absurd to dismiss all of these Elizabethan rumours and accusations as 'the Marlowe myth{{'"}}.{{sfnp|Kuriyama|2002|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}}{{sfnp|Downie|Parnell|2000|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}}<ref name="steane"/> Much has been written on his brief adult life, including speculation of: his involvement in royally sanctioned espionage; his vocal declaration of [[atheism]]; his (possibly same-sex) sexual interests; and the puzzling circumstances surrounding his death.

===Spying===
[[File:OldCurtCC.JPG|thumb|left|The corner of Old Court of [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]], where Marlowe stayed while a Cambridge student and, possibly, during the time he was recruited as a spy]]
Marlowe is alleged to have been a government spy.{{sfnp|Honan|2005|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}} [[Park Honan]] and [[Charles Nicholl (author)|Charles Nicholl]] speculate that this was the case and suggest that Marlowe's recruitment took place when he was at Cambridge.{{sfnp|Honan|2005|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}}{{sfnp|Nicholl|1992|loc="12"}} In 1587, when the Privy Council ordered the University of Cambridge to award Marlowe his degree as Master of Arts, it denied rumours that he intended to go to the English Catholic college in [[Rheims]], saying instead that he had been engaged in unspecified "affaires" on "matters touching the benefit of his country".<ref>This is from a document dated 29 June 1587, from the National Archives – ''Acts of Privy Council''.</ref> Surviving college records from the period also indicate that, in the academic year 1584–1585, Marlowe had had a series of unusually lengthy absences from the university which violated university regulations. Surviving college [[Buttery (shop)|buttery]] accounts, which record student purchases for personal provisions, show that Marlowe began spending lavishly on food and drink during the periods he was in attendance; the amount was more than he could have afforded on his known scholarship income.{{sfnp|Nicholl|1992|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}}{{efn|It is known that some poorer students worked as labourers on the Corpus Christi College chapel, then under construction, and were paid by the college with extra food. It has been suggested this may be the reason for the sums noted in Marlowe's entry in the buttery accounts.<ref name="Riggs2004">{{cite book|first=David|last=Riggs|title=The World of Christopher Marlowe|page=65|year=2004a|publisher=Faber|isbn=978-0-571-22159-2}}</ref>}}

[[File:Sir Francis Walsingham by John De Critz the Elder.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Portrait of alleged "spymaster" Sir [[Francis Walsingham]] ''c.'' 1585; attributed to [[John de Critz]]]]
It has been speculated that Marlowe was the "Morley" who was tutor to [[Arbella Stuart]] in 1589.{{efn|He was described by Arbella's guardian, the Countess of Shrewsbury, as having hoped for an annuity of some £40 from Arbella, his being "so much damnified (i.e. having lost this much) by leaving the University."<ref>British Library [[Lansdowne MS.]] 71, f.3.</ref>{{sfnp|Nicholl|1992|pp=340–342}}}} This possibility was first raised in a ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' letter by E. St John Brooks in 1937; in a letter to ''[[Notes and Queries]]'', John Baker has added that only Marlowe could have been Arbella's tutor owing to the absence of any other known "Morley" from the period with an MA and not otherwise occupied.<ref>John Baker, letter to ''Notes and Queries'' 44.3 (1997), pp. 367–368</ref> If Marlowe was Arbella's tutor, it might indicate that he was there as a spy, since Arbella, niece of [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], and cousin of James VI of Scotland, later [[James I of England]], was at the time a strong candidate for the [[succession to Elizabeth's throne]].{{sfnp|Kuriyama|2002|p=89}}{{sfnp|Nicholl|1992|p=342}}<ref name="Handover">{{cite book |last1=Handover |first1=P. M. |title=Arbella Stuart, royal lady of Hardwick and cousin to King James |date=1957 |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode |location=London}}</ref><ref>[http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Elizabeth/index.html Elizabeth I and James VI and I] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214113207/http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Elizabeth/index.html |date=14 December 2006 }}, [http://www.history.ac.uk/ History in Focus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908034533/http://www.history.ac.uk/ |date=8 September 2011 }}.</ref> [[Frederick S. Boas]] dismisses the possibility of this identification, based on surviving legal records which document Marlowe's "residence in London between September and December 1589". Marlowe had been party to a fatal quarrel involving his neighbours and the poet [[Thomas Watson (poet)|Thomas Watson]] in [[Norton Folgate]] and was held in [[Newgate Prison]] for a fortnight.{{sfnp|Boas|1953|pp=101ff}} In fact, the quarrel and his arrest occurred on 18 September, he was released on bail on 1 October and he had to attend court, where he was acquitted on 3 December, but there is no record of where he was for the intervening two months.{{sfnp|Kuriyama|2002|p=xvi}}

In 1592 Marlowe was arrested in the English [[Cautionary Towns|garrison town]] of [[Flushing, Netherlands|Flushing]] (Vlissingen) in the Netherlands, for alleged involvement in the [[Counterfeit money|counterfeiting]] of coins, presumably related to the activities of seditious Catholics. He was sent to the Lord Treasurer ([[William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley|Burghley]]), but no charge or imprisonment resulted.<ref>For a full transcript, see [http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/flushing.htm Peter Farey's Marlowe page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031527/http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/flushing.htm |date=4 March 2016 }} (Retrieved 30 April 2015).</ref> This arrest may have disrupted another of Marlowe's spying missions, perhaps by giving the resulting coinage to the Catholic cause. He was to infiltrate the followers of the active Catholic plotter [[William Stanley (Elizabethan)|William Stanley]] and report back to Burghley.{{sfnp|Nicholl|1992|pp=246–248}}

===Philosophy===
[[File:Sir Walter Ralegh by 'H' monogrammist.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Sir [[Walter Raleigh]], shown here in 1588, was the alleged centre of the "[[The School of Night|School of Atheism]]" ''c.'' 1592.]]
Marlowe was reputed to be an atheist, which held the dangerous implication of being an enemy of God and, by association, the state.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stanley|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Stanley (author)|title=The History of Philosophy 1655–61|publisher=quoted in [[Oxford English Dictionary]]|year=1687}}</ref> With the rise of public fears concerning [[The School of Night]], or "School of Atheism" in the late 16th century, accusations of atheism were closely associated with disloyalty to the Protestant monarchy of England.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Riggs|first1=David|title=The World of Christopher Marlowe|date=2005|publisher=Henry Holt and Co.|isbn=978-0805077551|edition=1st American|page=294|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hYhWAgAAQBAJ&q=atheism&pg=PP2|access-date=3 November 2015|archive-date=28 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228193647/https://books.google.com/books?id=hYhWAgAAQBAJ&q=atheism&pg=PP2|url-status=live}}</ref>

Some modern historians consider that Marlowe's professed atheism, as with his supposed Catholicism, may have been no more than a sham to further his work as a government spy.{{sfnp|Riggs|2004|p=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00chen_319/page/n56 38]}} Contemporary evidence comes from Marlowe's accuser in [[Flushing, Netherlands|Flushing]], an informer called [[Richard Baines]]. The governor of Flushing had reported that each of the men had "of malice" accused the other of instigating the counterfeiting and of intending to go over to the Catholic "enemy"; such an action was considered atheistic by the [[Church of England]]. Following Marlowe's arrest in 1593, Baines submitted to the authorities a "note containing the opinion of one Christopher Marly concerning his damnable judgment of religion, and scorn of God's word".<ref>For a full transcript, see [http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/baines1.htm Peter Farey's Marlowe page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024355/http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/baines1.htm |date=4 March 2016 }} (Retrieved 30 April 2012).</ref> Baines attributes to Marlowe a total of eighteen items which "scoff at the pretensions of the [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]]" such as, "Christ was a bastard and his mother dishonest [unchaste]", "the woman of Samaria and her sister were whores and that Christ knew them dishonestly", "St [[John the Evangelist]] was bedfellow to Christ and leaned always in his bosom" (cf. John 13:23–25) and "that he used him as the sinners of [[Sodom and Gomorrah|Sodom]]".<ref name="steane">{{cite book|last=Steane|first=J. B.|title=Introduction to Christopher Marlowe: The Complete Plays|publisher=Penguin|year=1969 |location=Aylesbury, UK|isbn=978-0-14-043037-0|url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/completeplays0000marl}}</ref> He also implied that Marlowe had Catholic sympathies. Other passages are merely sceptical in tone: "he persuades men to atheism, willing them not to be afraid of [[bugbear]]s and [[hobgoblins]]". The final paragraph of Baines's document reads:

[[File:ThomasHarriot.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.9|Portrait often claimed to be [[Thomas Harriot]] (1602), which hangs in [[Trinity College, Oxford]]]]
{{Blockquote|These thinges, with many other shall by good & honest witnes be approved to be his opinions and Comon Speeches, and that this Marlowe doth not only hould them himself, but almost into every Company he Cometh he persuades men to Atheism willing them not to be afeard of bugbeares and hobgoblins, and vtterly scorning both god and his ministers as I Richard Baines will Justify & approue both by mine oth and the testimony of many honest men, and almost al men with whome he hath Conversed any time will testify the same, and as I think all men in Cristianity ought to indevor that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped, he saith likewise that he hath quoted a number of Contrarieties oute of the Scripture which he hath giuen to some great men who in Convenient time shalbe named. When these thinges shalbe Called in question the witnes shalbe produced.<ref name="bainesnote">{{cite web|title=The 'Baines Note'|url=http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/baines1.htm|access-date=30 April 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024355/http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/baines1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

Similar examples of Marlowe's statements were given by [[Thomas Kyd]] after his imprisonment and possible torture (see above); Kyd and Baines connect Marlowe with mathematician [[Thomas Harriot]]'s and Sir [[Walter Raleigh]]'s circle.<ref name="Peter Farey's Marlowe page"/> Another document claimed about that time that "one Marlowe is able to show more sound reasons for Atheism than any divine in England is able to give to prove divinity, and that ... he hath read the Atheist lecture to Sir Walter Raleigh and others".<ref name="steane"/>{{efn|The so-called 'Remembrances' against Richard Cholmeley.<ref>For a full transcript, see [http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/chumley1.htm Peter Farey's Marlowe page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125220642/http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/chumley1.htm |date=25 January 2016 }}. (Retrieved 30 April 2015)</ref>}}

Some critics believe that Marlowe sought to disseminate these views in his work and that he identified with his rebellious and iconoclastic protagonists.<ref>Waith, Eugene. ''The Herculean Hero in Marlowe, Chapman, Shakespeare, and Dryden''. Chatto and Windus, London, 1962. The idea is commonplace, though by no means universally accepted.</ref> Plays had to be approved by the [[Master of the Revels]] before they could be performed and the censorship of publications was under the control of the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. Presumably these authorities did not consider any of Marlowe's works to be unacceptable other than the ''Amores''.

===Sexuality===
[[File:Hero-und-Leander.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.8|Title page to 1598 edition of Marlowe's ''[[Hero and Leander (poem)|Hero and Leander]]'']]
It has been claimed that Marlowe was homosexual. Some scholars argue that the identification of an Elizabethan as gay or homosexual in the modern sense is "[[Anachronism|anachronistic]]," saying that for the Elizabethans the terms were more likely to have been applied to homoerotic affections or sexual acts rather than to what we currently understand as a settled sexual orientation or personal role identity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Bruce R.|title=Homosexual desire in Shakespeare's England|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|date= 1995|page=74|isbn=978-0-226-76366-8}}</ref> Other scholars argue that the evidence is inconclusive and that the reports of Marlowe's homosexuality may be rumours produced after his death. Richard Baines reported Marlowe as saying: "all they that love not Tobacco & Boies were fools". [[David Bevington]] and [[Eric C. Rasmussen]] describe Baines's evidence as "unreliable testimony" and "[t]hese and other testimonials need to be discounted for their exaggeration and for their having been produced under legal circumstances we would now regard as a witch-hunt".<ref>Bevington, David, and Eric Rasmussen, eds. ''Doctor Faustus and Other Plays''. Oxford English Drama. Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. viii–ix. {{ISBN|0-19-283445-2}}</ref>

Literary scholar [[J. B. Steane]] considered there to be "no evidence for Marlowe's homosexuality at all".<ref name="steane"/> Other scholars point to the frequency with which Marlowe explores homosexual themes in his writing: in ''[[Hero and Leander (poem)|Hero and Leander]]'', Marlowe writes of the male youth Leander: "in his looks were all that men desire..."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=White |editor-first=Paul Whitfield |title=Marlowe, History and Sexuality: New Critical Essays on Christopher Marlowe |publisher=AMS Press |location=New York |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-404-62335-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher Marlowe |chapter=Hero and Leander |title=The works of Christopher Marlowe |editor=A. H. Bullen |year=1885 |volume=3 |place=London |publisher=John C. Nimmo |pages=88, 157–193 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21262/21262-h/21262-h.htm |via=[[Project Gutenberg]] |access-date=21 May 2009 |archive-date=21 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921083327/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21262/21262-h/21262-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Edward II (play)|Edward the Second]]'' contains the following passage enumerating homosexual relationships:
{{blockquote|<poem>
The mightiest kings have had their minions;
Great [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]] loved [[Hephaestion]],
The conquering [[Hercules]] for [[Hylas]] wept;
And for [[Patroclus]], stern [[Achilles]] drooped.
And not kings only, but the wisest men:
The Roman [[Cicero|Tully]] loved [[Augustus|Octavius]],
Grave [[Socrates]], wild [[Alcibiades]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGvavCqLW2AC&pg=PA128 |title=The Routledge Anthology of Renaissance Drama |author=Simon Barker, Hilary Hinds |publisher=Routledge |date=2003 |access-date=9 February 2013 |isbn=9780415187343 |archive-date=29 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229075917/https://books.google.com/books?id=eGvavCqLW2AC&pg=PA128 |url-status=live }}</ref>
</poem>
}}

Marlowe wrote the only [[Edward II (play)|play]] about the life of [[Edward II]] up to his time, taking the [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]] literary discussion of male sexuality much further than his contemporaries. The play was extremely bold, dealing with a star-crossed love story between Edward II and [[Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall|Piers Gaveston]]. Though it was a common practice at the time to reveal characters as homosexual to give audiences reason to suspect them as culprits in a crime, Christopher Marlowe's Edward II is portrayed as a sympathetic character.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Edward the Second|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=axTzkFP9IHoC|publisher = Manchester University Press|date = 1995|isbn = 9780719030895|first1 = Christopher|last1 = Marlowe|first2 = Charles R.|last2 = Forker|access-date = 4 November 2015|archive-date = 21 May 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160521190848/https://books.google.com/books?id=axTzkFP9IHoC|url-status = live}}</ref> The decision to start the play ''[[Dido, Queen of Carthage (play)|Dido, Queen of Carthage]]'' with a homoerotic scene between [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]] that bears no connection to the subsequent plot has long puzzled scholars.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Williams|first=Deanne|date=2006|title=Dido, Queen of England|journal=ELH|volume=73|issue=1|pages=31–59|doi=10.1353/elh.2006.0010|jstor=30030002|s2cid=153554373}}</ref>

===Arrest and death===
[[File:marlowe.jpg|thumb|Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Nicholas, [[Deptford]]. This modern plaque is on the east wall of the churchyard.]]
In early May 1593, several bills were posted about London threatening the Protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands who had settled in the city. One of these, the "Dutch church libel", written in rhymed [[iambic pentameter]], contained allusions to several of Marlowe's plays and was signed, "[[Tamburlaine]]".<ref>For a full transcript, see [http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/libell.htm Peter Farey's Marlowe page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622092454/http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/libell.htm |date=22 June 2015 }} (Retrieved 31 March 2012).</ref> On 11 May 1593 the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] ordered the arrest of those responsible for the libels. The next day, Marlowe's colleague [[Thomas Kyd]] was arrested and when his lodgings were searched, a three-page fragment of a [[heresy|heretical]] tract was found. On being charged with atheism and tortured, Kyd declared the document to be Marlowe's, and to have been shuffled together with his own papers when they were writing together in the same chamber two years previously.<ref>The document was identified in the 20th century as transcripts from the historian [[John Proctor (historian)|John Proctor]]'s book ''The Fal of the Late Arrian'' (1549). See George T. Buckley, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2911627 "Who was 'the Late Arrian'?"], ''Modern Language Notes'' v. 49, no. 8 (Dec. 1934), p. 500-503.</ref><ref name="Peter Farey's Marlowe page">[[Thomas Kyd]], letter to Sir [[John Puckering]], undated, held by the British Library, Harley MS. 6849, folio 218r-v. The letter was published in F.S. Boas, ''Works of Kyd'', p. cx–cxiii. For a full transcript, see [http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/kyd2.htm Peter Farey's Marlowe page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622085958/http://www.rey.myzen.co.uk/kyd2.htm |date=22 June 2015 }} (Retrieved 8 February 2025).</ref> In a second letter, Kyd said they had both been working for an aristocratic patron (probably [[Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby|Ferdinando Stanley]]), and he described Marlowe as blasphemous, disorderly, holding treasonous opinions, being an irreligious reprobate and "intemperate & of a cruel hart".<ref name=ODNB>Mulryne, J. R. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/search?q=Thomas+Kyd&searchBtn=Search&isQuickSearch=true "Thomas Kyd."]''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]''. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]], 2004.{{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904211123/https://www.oxforddnb.com/search?q=Thomas+Kyd&searchBtn=Search&isQuickSearch=true |date=4 September 2022 }}</ref> 
A warrant for Marlowe's arrest was issued on 18 May 1593, when the Privy Council apparently knew that he might be found staying with [[Thomas Walsingham (literary patron)|Thomas Walsingham]], whose father was a first cousin of the late Sir [[Francis Walsingham]], Elizabeth's [[Secretary of State (England)|principal secretary]] in the 1580s and a man more deeply involved in state espionage than any other member of the Privy Council.<ref>Haynes, Alan. ''The Elizabethan Secret Service''. London: Sutton, 2005.</ref> Marlowe duly presented himself on 20 May 1593 but there apparently being no Privy Council meeting on that day, was instructed to "give his daily attendance on their Lordships, until he shall be licensed to the contrary".<ref>National Archives, ''Acts of the Privy Council''. Meetings of the Privy Council, including details of those attending, are recorded and minuted for 16, 23, 25, 29 and the morning of 31 May 1593 , all of them taking place in the Star Chamber at Westminster. There is no record of any meeting on either 18 or 20 May 1593, however, just a note of the warrant being issued on 18 May 1593 and the fact that Marlowe "entered his appearance for his indemnity therein" on the 20th.</ref> On Wednesday, 30 May 1593, Marlowe was killed.

[[File:Palladis Tamia 1598.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Title page to the 1598 edition of ''[[Palladis Tamia]]'' by [[Francis Meres]], which contains one of the earliest descriptions of Marlowe's death]]
Various accounts of Marlowe's death were current over the next few years. In his ''[[Palladis Tamia]]'', published in 1598, [[Francis Meres]] says Marlowe was "stabbed to death by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love" as punishment for his "[[Epicureanism|epicurism]] and atheism".<ref>''Palladis Tamia''. London, 1598: 286v–287r.</ref> In 1917, in the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Sir [[Sidney Lee]] wrote, on slender evidence, that Marlowe was killed in a drunken fight. His claim was not much at variance with the official account, which came to light only in 1925, when the scholar [[Leslie Hotson]] discovered the [[coroner]]'s report of the inquest on Marlowe's death, held two days later on Friday 1 June 1593, by the [[Coroner of the Queen's Household]], [[William Danby (coroner)|William Danby]].<ref name="rey.myzen.co.uk"/> Marlowe had spent all day in a house in [[Deptford, London|Deptford]], owned by the widow [[Eleanor Bull]], with three men: [[Ingram Frizer]], [[Nicholas Skeres]] and [[Robert Poley]]. All three had been employed by one or other of the Walsinghams. Skeres and Poley had helped snare the conspirators in the [[Babington plot]], and Frizer was a servant{{sfnmp|Kuriyama|2002|1pp=102–103, 135, 156|Honan|2005|2p=355}} to Thomas Walsingham, probably acting as a financial or business agent, as he was for Walsingham's wife [[Audrey Walsingham|Audrey]] a few years later.{{sfnp|Hotson|1925|p=65}}{{sfnp|Honan|2005|p=325}} These witnesses testified that Frizer and Marlowe had argued over payment of the bill (now famously known as the "Reckoning"), exchanging "divers malicious words", while Frizer was sitting at a table between the other two and Marlowe was lying behind him on a couch. Marlowe snatched Frizer's dagger and wounded him on the head. According to the coroner's report, in the ensuing struggle Marlowe was stabbed above the right eye, killing him instantly. The jury concluded that Frizer acted in self-defence and within a month he was pardoned. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford, immediately after the inquest, on 1 June 1593.<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 30125). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.</ref>

The complete text of the inquest report was published by Leslie Hotson in his book, ''The Death of Christopher Marlowe'', in the introduction to which Professor [[George Lyman Kittredge]] wrote: "The mystery of Marlowe's death, heretofore involved in a cloud of contradictory gossip and irresponsible guess-work, is now cleared up for good and all on the authority of public records of complete authenticity and gratifying fullness". However, this confidence proved to be fairly short-lived. Hotson had considered the possibility that the witnesses had "concocted a lying account of Marlowe's behaviour, to which they swore at the inquest, and with which they deceived the jury", but decided against that scenario.{{sfnp|Hotson|1925|pp=39–40}} Others began to suspect that this theory was indeed the case. Writing to the ''Times Literary Supplement'' shortly after the book's publication, Eugénie de Kalb disputed that the struggle and outcome as described were even possible, and [[Samuel A. Tannenbaum]] insisted the following year that such a wound could not have possibly resulted in instant death, as had been claimed.<ref name="de Kalb">de Kalb, Eugénie (May 1925). "The Death of Marlowe", in ''The Times Literary Supplement''</ref>{{sfnp|Tannenbaum|1926|pp=41–42}} Even Marlowe's biographer John Bakeless acknowledged that "some scholars have been inclined to question the truthfulness of the coroner's report. There is something queer about the whole episode", and said that Hotson's discovery "raises almost as many questions as it answers".<ref>Bakeless, John (1942). ''The Tragicall History of Christopher Marlowe'', p. 182</ref> It has also been discovered more recently that the apparent absence of a local county coroner to accompany the Coroner of the Queen's Household would, if noticed, have made the inquest null and void.{{sfnp|Honan|2005|p=354}}

One of the main reasons for doubting the truth of the inquest concerns the reliability of Marlowe's companions as witnesses.<ref>Nicholl, Charles (2004). "Marlowe [Marley], Christopher", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18079 online edn], January 2008. Retrieved 24 August 2013. "The authenticity of the inquest is not in doubt, but whether it tells the full truth is another matter. The nature of Marlowe's companions raises questions about their reliability as witnesses."</ref> As an ''agent provocateur'' for the late Sir Francis Walsingham, Robert Poley was a consummate liar, the "very genius of the Elizabethan underworld", and was on record as saying "I will swear and forswear myself, rather than I will accuse myself to do me any harm".{{sfnp|Boas|1953|p=293}}{{sfnp|Nicholl|2002|p=38}} The other witness, Nicholas Skeres, had for many years acted as a [[confidence trickster]], drawing young men into the clutches of people involved in the [[loanshark|money-lending]] racket, including Marlowe's apparent killer, Ingram Frizer, with whom he was engaged in such a swindle.{{sfnp|Nicholl|2002 |pp=29–30}} Despite their being referred to as ''generosi'' (gentlemen) in the inquest report, the witnesses were professional liars. Some biographers, such as Kuriyama and Downie, take the inquest to be a true account of what occurred, but in trying to explain what really happened if the account was not true, others have come up with a variety of murder theories:{{sfnp|Kuriyama|2002|p=136}}<ref>{{harvc|last=Downie |first=J. A. |c=Marlowe, facts and fictions |in1=Downie |in2=Parnell |year=2000 |pages=26–27}}</ref>
* Jealous of her husband Thomas's relationship with Marlowe, Audrey Walsingham arranged for the playwright to be murdered.<ref name="de Kalb"/>
* Sir Walter Raleigh arranged the murder, fearing that under torture Marlowe might incriminate him.{{sfnp|Tannenbaum|1926|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}}
* With Skeres the main player, the murder resulted from attempts by the [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex|Earl of Essex]] to use Marlowe to incriminate Sir Walter Raleigh.{{sfnp|Nicholl|2002|p=415}}
* He was killed on the orders of father and son Lord Burghley and [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Sir Robert Cecil]], who thought that his plays contained Catholic propaganda.<ref>Breight, Curtis C. (1996). '' Surveillance, Militarism and Drama in the Elizabethan Era'', p. 114</ref>
* He was accidentally killed while Frizer and Skeres were pressuring him to pay back money he owed them.<ref>Hammer, Paul E. J. (1996) "A Reckoning Reframed: the 'Murder' of Christopher Marlowe Revisited", in ''English Literary Renaissance'', pp. 225–242</ref>
* Marlowe was murdered at the behest of several members of the Privy Council, who feared that he might reveal them to be atheists.<ref>Trow, M. J. (2001). ''Who Killed Kit Marlowe? A contract to murder in Elizabethan England'', p. 250</ref>
* The Queen ordered his assassination because of his subversive atheistic behaviour.<ref>{{cite book|last=Riggs|first=David|year=2004a|title=The World of Christopher Marlowe|pages=334–337|publisher=Faber|isbn=978-0-571-22159-2}}</ref>
* Frizer murdered him because he envied Marlowe's close relationship with his master Thomas Walsingham and feared the effect that Marlowe's behaviour might have on Walsingham's reputation.{{sfnp|Honan|2005|p=348}}
* Marlowe's [[Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship|death was faked]] to save him from trial and execution for subversive atheism.{{efn|"Useful research has been stimulated by the infinitesimally thin possibility that Marlowe did not die when we think he did. ... History holds its doors open."{{sfnp|Honan|2005|p=355}}}}

Since there are only written documents on which to base any conclusions, and since it is probable that the most crucial information about his death was never committed to paper, it is unlikely that the full circumstances of Marlowe's death will ever be known.