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The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe
In 1593 the brilliant but controversial young playwright Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a Deptford lodging house. The circumstances were shady, the official account—a violent quarrel over the bill, or "recknynge"—has been long regarded as dubious.
Here, in a tour de force of scholarship and ingenuity, Charles Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to reveal not only a complex and unsettling story of entrapment and betrayal, chimerical plot and sordid felonies, but also a fascinating vision of the underside of the Elizabethan world.
"Provides the sheer enjoyment of fiction, and might just be true."—Michael Kenney, Boston Globe
"Mr. Nicholl's glittering reconstruction of Marlowe's murder is only one of the many fascinating aspects of this book. Indeed, The Reckoning is equally compelling for its masterly evocation of a vanished world, a world of Elizabethan scholars, poets, con men, alchemists and spies, a world of Machiavellian malice, intrigue and dissent."—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"The rich substance of the book is his detail, the thick texture of betrayal and evasion which was Marlowe's life."—Thomas Flanagan, Washington Post Book World
Winner of the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction Thriller
Here, in a tour de force of scholarship and ingenuity, Charles Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to reveal not only a complex and unsettling story of entrapment and betrayal, chimerical plot and sordid felonies, but also a fascinating vision of the underside of the Elizabethan world.
"Provides the sheer enjoyment of fiction, and might just be true."—Michael Kenney, Boston Globe
"Mr. Nicholl's glittering reconstruction of Marlowe's murder is only one of the many fascinating aspects of this book. Indeed, The Reckoning is equally compelling for its masterly evocation of a vanished world, a world of Elizabethan scholars, poets, con men, alchemists and spies, a world of Machiavellian malice, intrigue and dissent."—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
"The rich substance of the book is his detail, the thick texture of betrayal and evasion which was Marlowe's life."—Thomas Flanagan, Washington Post Book World
Winner of the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction Thriller
413 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Charles Nicholl
27 books64 followersCharles Nicholl is an English author specializing in works of history, biography, literary detection, and travel. His subjects have included Christopher Marlowe, Arthur Rimbaud, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Nashe and William Shakespeare. Besides his literary output, Nicholl has also presented documentary programs on television. In 1974 he was the winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer Award for his account of an LSD trip entitled 'The Ups and The Downs'.
Nicholl was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.
Nicholl was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
February 16, 2011
According to the coroner's report, Christopher Marlowe was fatally knifed following an argument with friends over a dinner bill. Rumor later augmented this story, making Marlowe's killer a romantic rival and the location of their fracas a bawdy house. In fact, it wasn't a bawdy house but a respectable inn run by a widow of means, and Marlowe's killer was a con man, as proved by surviving legal documents, just as documents of a more clandestine nature prove that one of the witnesses to Marlowe's murder was employed as a spy in the service of Elizabeth I. So too, evidence strongly indicates, was a second witness, and Marlowe himself appears to have been a spy, beginning with his student days at Cambridge. Though only twenty-nine at the time of his death, he was already well established as a dramatist and poet, but espionage paid the bills as literature could not. Ah, the writing life. Le plus le change, le plus le meme chose.
In trying to ferret out the reason for Marlowe's murder, The Reckoning finally and convincingly points to the power struggle between Marlowe's patron, Sir Walter Ralegh, and Ralegh's nemesis, the Earl of Essex, with Marlowe unwittingly caught in the middle, and more than a few strings pulled by Robert Cecil, who succeeded Sir Francis Walsingham as Elizabeth's spymaster. And then there are the various minions, renegades, double agents, provocateurs, counterfeiters, and occasionally reluctant claimants to the English throne. Convoluted? Yes, it is -- at times dizzily so -- and that's my only lament about an otherwise brilliant book that here and there brings the Elizabethans refreshingly to life.
In trying to ferret out the reason for Marlowe's murder, The Reckoning finally and convincingly points to the power struggle between Marlowe's patron, Sir Walter Ralegh, and Ralegh's nemesis, the Earl of Essex, with Marlowe unwittingly caught in the middle, and more than a few strings pulled by Robert Cecil, who succeeded Sir Francis Walsingham as Elizabeth's spymaster. And then there are the various minions, renegades, double agents, provocateurs, counterfeiters, and occasionally reluctant claimants to the English throne. Convoluted? Yes, it is -- at times dizzily so -- and that's my only lament about an otherwise brilliant book that here and there brings the Elizabethans refreshingly to life.
July 31, 2017
Marlowe is an author I've dedicated a lot of attention to and who has weirdly meant a lot to me since I was fifteen or so, which I can't entirely explain to others. This is a book I've known about for ages. I remember in my first English class at university the professor spoke about this book when filling us in on Marlowe's biography, and I meant to read it then. I meant to read it at so many different times in the intervening years, and this very website repeatedly recommended it as a book aligned with my interests.
Given my interest in Marlowe and my tendency to engage with any piece of information about him that comes my way, very little in the first part of this book was new to me. Yet I liked that. It was like going back to a comforting re-read, except with the novelty of reading something for the first time. I knew all the players, I knew the scene, I knew the long day at Eleanor Bull's and the suspicious connections of all those involved. I still thrilled at every revelation that I knew was coming, and, by god, I could not stop talking about it to anyone too polite to ask me to shut it. As I progressed through the book it drew out more about the 'secret theatre' of Elizabethan intelligence work, with all its peculiar double-dealing characters. Nicholl makes quite liberal connections and suppositions at times, but also acknowledges this and notes that we only have documents to work with, and can seldom know the motives or reception of those documents.
Part of what made this book familiar is the love I bore for Anthony Burgess' A Dead Man in Deptford, which I found in a used bookstore when I was sixteen on a trip to The City and which was one of my favourites for quite some time. It's probably been ten years since I last read it, but now I'm deeply inclined to revisit it and determine what debt it owes to this work of Nicholl's.
Given my interest in Marlowe and my tendency to engage with any piece of information about him that comes my way, very little in the first part of this book was new to me. Yet I liked that. It was like going back to a comforting re-read, except with the novelty of reading something for the first time. I knew all the players, I knew the scene, I knew the long day at Eleanor Bull's and the suspicious connections of all those involved. I still thrilled at every revelation that I knew was coming, and, by god, I could not stop talking about it to anyone too polite to ask me to shut it. As I progressed through the book it drew out more about the 'secret theatre' of Elizabethan intelligence work, with all its peculiar double-dealing characters. Nicholl makes quite liberal connections and suppositions at times, but also acknowledges this and notes that we only have documents to work with, and can seldom know the motives or reception of those documents.
Part of what made this book familiar is the love I bore for Anthony Burgess' A Dead Man in Deptford, which I found in a used bookstore when I was sixteen on a trip to The City and which was one of my favourites for quite some time. It's probably been ten years since I last read it, but now I'm deeply inclined to revisit it and determine what debt it owes to this work of Nicholl's.
April 16, 2013
What becomes a legend most ?
The writing herein murders Marlowe a 2d time.
The writing herein murders Marlowe a 2d time.
June 25, 2016
The death of Marlowe in 1593 is the start and end point of this dense and detailed investigation as Nicholl attempts to uncover what really happened on that day in Deptford. His archival research is exemplary but I found myself less and less convinced by his theory as the book went on. The 'evidence' is so fragmentary, fraught and fluid that it could be made to tell other stories than the one that Nicholl tells here, and there is nothing that privileges the one he chooses, other than his own conviction.
There are various points at which Nicholl's understanding of Elizabethan concepts is less than exact and he tends to assume that words had the same meanings in the 1590s that they have today: 'gay', for example, or 'atheism' which tended to be used for any kind of religious (and social) unorthodoxy e.g. Catholicism, rather than the modern meaning; 'magic', too, could be used for what we now recognise as science rather than the esoteric and occult practises that Nicholl assumes. All of these misunderstandings colour his theory which doesn't, then, stand up to more rigorous interrogation.
Marlowe's use of Machiavelli in his dramas (which Nicholl makes much of) needs to be contextualised against the plethora of literary mentions of Machiavelli (e.g. Shakespeare's Edmund in King Lear) and seen as a cultural marker rather than an indication, necessarily, of Marlowe's own political beliefs.
Although I enjoyed reading this, I felt that the story became more fevered and insubstantial as it drew towards the end and the final conclusion (I was reading the 1992 edition which I understand has now been revised) I personally found unbelievable. That anyone should target Marlowe as a stand-in for a more powerful rival seems unnecessary given the politics of the time and the supposed perpetrator is hardly a man known for his political subtleties... It makes the whole story ultimately extremely convoluted which I found unconvincing.
So if you're interested in a clever archival search which delves deep into the Elizabethan underworld, then this is a good read. But I think there are still stories about Marlowe and others to be uncovered.
There are various points at which Nicholl's understanding of Elizabethan concepts is less than exact and he tends to assume that words had the same meanings in the 1590s that they have today: 'gay', for example, or 'atheism' which tended to be used for any kind of religious (and social) unorthodoxy e.g. Catholicism, rather than the modern meaning; 'magic', too, could be used for what we now recognise as science rather than the esoteric and occult practises that Nicholl assumes. All of these misunderstandings colour his theory which doesn't, then, stand up to more rigorous interrogation.
Marlowe's use of Machiavelli in his dramas (which Nicholl makes much of) needs to be contextualised against the plethora of literary mentions of Machiavelli (e.g. Shakespeare's Edmund in King Lear) and seen as a cultural marker rather than an indication, necessarily, of Marlowe's own political beliefs.
Although I enjoyed reading this, I felt that the story became more fevered and insubstantial as it drew towards the end and the final conclusion (I was reading the 1992 edition which I understand has now been revised) I personally found unbelievable. That anyone should target Marlowe as a stand-in for a more powerful rival seems unnecessary given the politics of the time and the supposed perpetrator is hardly a man known for his political subtleties... It makes the whole story ultimately extremely convoluted which I found unconvincing.
So if you're interested in a clever archival search which delves deep into the Elizabethan underworld, then this is a good read. But I think there are still stories about Marlowe and others to be uncovered.
Read
March 27, 2024The Reckoning argues that Christopher Marlowe was murdered, not in a tavern brawl, as often claimed, but by co-conspirators in an act of low espionage. Charles Nicholl brings an encyclopedic knowledge of late sixteenth century London to make his case. The degree to which he was able to delineate 400-year-old social networks is little shy of astonishing. Mostly-forgotten people from across the social strata spring back to life in the light of his investigations. I can imagine a casual reader drowning in the swamp of names and associations. But if Elizabethan period minutiae is your thing, this book is a must.
With the standard caveat that I'm no expert, I thought Nicholl made a compelling case. He does indulge in more than a bit of speculation, but it's so well-informed and seemingly well-intentioned that I found it impossible to begrudge. My sense is that he was genuinely obsessed with unearthing the true story of Marlowe's sordid death, and not trying to bend the facts to support a favored theory.
At any rate, there is a great historical suspense film to be derived from the premise of The Reckoning. (Or certainly better than the last one I saw on the theme of Elizabethan intrigue: Anonymous (2011). That movie was absolute crap.)
With the standard caveat that I'm no expert, I thought Nicholl made a compelling case. He does indulge in more than a bit of speculation, but it's so well-informed and seemingly well-intentioned that I found it impossible to begrudge. My sense is that he was genuinely obsessed with unearthing the true story of Marlowe's sordid death, and not trying to bend the facts to support a favored theory.
At any rate, there is a great historical suspense film to be derived from the premise of The Reckoning. (Or certainly better than the last one I saw on the theme of Elizabethan intrigue: Anonymous (2011). That movie was absolute crap.)
December 29, 2019
I love novels set in Shakespeares time and so when I saw a book focused on the mysterious death of Shakespeares rival Marlowe I was interested.
When I started reading I was surprised that this was not a novel but a nonfiction investigation. This is not the fault of the author just a surprise for me.
I can’t imagine how difficult it is to investigate a murder that took place over 400 years. Having said that I’m very impressed with the research done to create this book. No leaf is left unturned however when all the pieces are presented it ended up just not being very interesting.
Chapter after chapter presents a new character with a similar story of being involved as a spy. The best part of the book for me is when the Babbington plot is discussed. I found myself wishing I bought a book about that as opposed to the Marlowe murder.
I walk away agreeing with the authors belief that Marlowe may have been murdered for more than just a disagreement in a bar but I didn’t love the journey.
When I started reading I was surprised that this was not a novel but a nonfiction investigation. This is not the fault of the author just a surprise for me.
I can’t imagine how difficult it is to investigate a murder that took place over 400 years. Having said that I’m very impressed with the research done to create this book. No leaf is left unturned however when all the pieces are presented it ended up just not being very interesting.
Chapter after chapter presents a new character with a similar story of being involved as a spy. The best part of the book for me is when the Babbington plot is discussed. I found myself wishing I bought a book about that as opposed to the Marlowe murder.
I walk away agreeing with the authors belief that Marlowe may have been murdered for more than just a disagreement in a bar but I didn’t love the journey.
October 28, 2014
Here is a totally misleading phrase:
"Provides the sheer enjoyment of fiction, and might just be true."
I was totally mislead by this critic's statement, and duped into reading this scholarly tome. No, I am not using the word, "tome" to show off. It's the best word choice, because it describes exactly what this book is: "a book, especially a large, heavy, scholarly one."
Other reviewers have said that this book reads like a John le Carre novel. It doesn't. It reads like a scholarly exploration of a viable theory about a somewhat obscure writer, and his even more obscure acquaintances. That's not a bad thing if that's what you expect. From that perspective, this is a definite four star book, maybe even a five star one.
However, if you're Jo Average (like I am), and you're expecting something similar to Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey, this is not it. In this case, it's a two star book. Sure, the section on the Babington Plot (Mary Queen of Scots) is pretty fascinating, but the rest is just a slog.
If you would like to ready something about the Elizabethan time period that is entertaining, I would recommend reading The School of Night before I would ever recommend The Reckoning. Leave The Reckoning for the literary history fiends.
"Provides the sheer enjoyment of fiction, and might just be true."
I was totally mislead by this critic's statement, and duped into reading this scholarly tome. No, I am not using the word, "tome" to show off. It's the best word choice, because it describes exactly what this book is: "a book, especially a large, heavy, scholarly one."
Other reviewers have said that this book reads like a John le Carre novel. It doesn't. It reads like a scholarly exploration of a viable theory about a somewhat obscure writer, and his even more obscure acquaintances. That's not a bad thing if that's what you expect. From that perspective, this is a definite four star book, maybe even a five star one.
However, if you're Jo Average (like I am), and you're expecting something similar to Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey, this is not it. In this case, it's a two star book. Sure, the section on the Babington Plot (Mary Queen of Scots) is pretty fascinating, but the rest is just a slog.
If you would like to ready something about the Elizabethan time period that is entertaining, I would recommend reading The School of Night before I would ever recommend The Reckoning. Leave The Reckoning for the literary history fiends.
July 19, 2017
What's known is always limited, the present only views a partial past. What Charles Nicholl does with Christopher Marlowe's murder is examine it from every known angle, like a wet weapon found in an empty room, then share his findings: "Posterity prefers poets to spies, but this young man could not be so choosy. He lived on his wits or else went hungry[.]" For fans of Marlowe, espionage, history, and those who wish to consider the workings of government, then and now.
December 11, 2014
A good attempt at unravelling something which is probably going to be shrouded in mystery for ever. The questions about Marlowe's life and interests make him a fascinating figure in late Elizabethan London; stir in his ambiguous sexuality and the possibility he was a paid agent of the English intelligence service and you have a rich brew for a novel, let alone a history.
February 18, 2024
Nicholl sifts through documents to uncover the truth of the murder of Christopher Marlowe, Elizabethan playwright and poet.
The official story is that he was killed by an acquaintance over the bill for the dinner they’d just had. But further investigation into the documents, personalities, and political realities of the time lead Nicholl to believe the true explanation has more to do with the world of intelligence and espionage.
The official story is that he was killed by an acquaintance over the bill for the dinner they’d just had. But further investigation into the documents, personalities, and political realities of the time lead Nicholl to believe the true explanation has more to do with the world of intelligence and espionage.
November 25, 2013
Nicholl makes a very strong case for his theory of political intrigue as the motivation behind the murder of Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. Nicholl’s scholarly and convincing arguments notwithstanding, I find in my 2000 edition of The Oxford Guide to English Literature that “Marlowe died in a knife fight in a London tavern.” Old myths die hard.
The Elizabethan era was a brutal one. The plague was claiming hundreds of victims annually, the antagonism between Catholics and Protestants was escalating, England was mired in a seemingly endless conflict with Spain, there was a growing resentment of the large immigrant population of London, and the question of the succession to the throne loomed large since the aging Elizabeth had no heir. In many ways this society bears a striking resemblance to that of America today. It was highly polarized along religious, political, class, and ethnic lines. Huge amounts of resources were being poured into international conflicts. In such an environment conspiracies abounded, spying was rampant, compromise was viewed as weakness, and the ends were considered to justify any and all means. For a man of humble origins with literary aspirations, like Marlowe, undercover work could provide a financial safety net, as well as an entrée to the circles of wealthy and powerful potential patrons.
Nicholl lucidly presents well-researched, well-documented evidence for his interpretation of the events surrounding Marlowe’s death. He builds his case methodically and logically, but the result is never tedious. Although his findings cannot be said to be conclusive, they are certainly compelling.
The Elizabethan era was a brutal one. The plague was claiming hundreds of victims annually, the antagonism between Catholics and Protestants was escalating, England was mired in a seemingly endless conflict with Spain, there was a growing resentment of the large immigrant population of London, and the question of the succession to the throne loomed large since the aging Elizabeth had no heir. In many ways this society bears a striking resemblance to that of America today. It was highly polarized along religious, political, class, and ethnic lines. Huge amounts of resources were being poured into international conflicts. In such an environment conspiracies abounded, spying was rampant, compromise was viewed as weakness, and the ends were considered to justify any and all means. For a man of humble origins with literary aspirations, like Marlowe, undercover work could provide a financial safety net, as well as an entrée to the circles of wealthy and powerful potential patrons.
Nicholl lucidly presents well-researched, well-documented evidence for his interpretation of the events surrounding Marlowe’s death. He builds his case methodically and logically, but the result is never tedious. Although his findings cannot be said to be conclusive, they are certainly compelling.
December 12, 2012
As he did in his book on Shakespeare, The Lodger, Nicholl teases out seemingly unconnected pieces of evidence, here concerning the death of Marlowe, and shows a likely relationship between them. Using the same technique that a classical era detective might apply to traces of a crime, but without bringing in a man with a gun, Nicholl makes the reader aware of a lot of Elizabethan history not usually mentioned in the history books, but true nevertheless. The Elizabethan age turns out to have been a highly unstable one, with Catholic Spain a constant threat, and men died in the Cold War being raged. One of them was Marlowe, the most gifted of all Elizabethan authors. One of the survivors was Shakespeare, a much more cautious man. This is a great piece of investigative history writing, and well worth the effort to come to grips with a very different age, which has yet many similarities with the one we live in.
May 24, 2016
A long and scholarly investigation into the underside of the Elizabethan police state, with its informers, provocateurs, traitors, infiltrators and victims: all too often the same people. The thread that binds and motivates the work is the events leading up to the sudden and violent death of one of England's great poet/playwrights in a Deptford boarding house. Was it a pointless brawl over a disputed bill, as the official investigation claims? Or the last desperate move in a conspiracy gone wrong?
December 1, 2020
Ugh. This is what happens if you let a researcher write a book: the two skills are not the same. I'm honestly sure that every Elizabethan male between 20 and 60 is somehow implicated. Maybe they once met Marlowe's mother in the market; maybe they once bought a pamphlet from the same bookstall as Marlowe; maybe they passed him in the street on a wet Wednesday in Whitechapel. I lost the will to care.
Honestly, the middle half of the book needs to be ruthlessly edited, possibly even to the point of losing 50% of it. I understand what Nicholl was trying to show: the seedy world of Elizabethan court politics and the poet-spies and downright thugs who orbited it. That's all well and good, but if that's the focus of the book then lose the link to Marlowe's death and write about the world he inhabited.
This started well, there are flashes of brilliance, and the research is definitely there (therein lies the rub), but I found this desperately disappointing and the pleasure lay in finally finishing it.
'We find Marlowe in the company of spies and swindlers because, regrettably, he was one himself. Our regret has no real claim on him. Posterity prefers poets to spies, but this young man could not be so choosy. He lived on his wits or else went hungry, and he was probably rather better rewarded for spying than he was for the poetry we remember him by.'
Honestly, the middle half of the book needs to be ruthlessly edited, possibly even to the point of losing 50% of it. I understand what Nicholl was trying to show: the seedy world of Elizabethan court politics and the poet-spies and downright thugs who orbited it. That's all well and good, but if that's the focus of the book then lose the link to Marlowe's death and write about the world he inhabited.
This started well, there are flashes of brilliance, and the research is definitely there (therein lies the rub), but I found this desperately disappointing and the pleasure lay in finally finishing it.
'We find Marlowe in the company of spies and swindlers because, regrettably, he was one himself. Our regret has no real claim on him. Posterity prefers poets to spies, but this young man could not be so choosy. He lived on his wits or else went hungry, and he was probably rather better rewarded for spying than he was for the poetry we remember him by.'
August 20, 2019
I was very impressed with the scholarship and research that Nicholl's applied to the murder of Kit Marlowe. Having spent some time in libraries research 100 year old baptismal records I cant imagine Nicholl's effort to not only decipher a word but to understand sentences and paragraphs given Elizabethan syntax.
Sometimes, however, it was all too much. Too many characters, too many labyrinthine twists and turns, too many Earls. Although Nicholl's often summarizes, it became hard to put the whole thing together. I have been on an English renaissance kick in my 2019 reading. This book definitely added to that enjoyment. It's a great history of the late 1590s. A great history of the English movers and shakers.
Don't expect any real understanding of Marlowe the pet playwright. This is a crime story through and through - a really good crime story with the benefit of a history lesson.
Sometimes, however, it was all too much. Too many characters, too many labyrinthine twists and turns, too many Earls. Although Nicholl's often summarizes, it became hard to put the whole thing together. I have been on an English renaissance kick in my 2019 reading. This book definitely added to that enjoyment. It's a great history of the late 1590s. A great history of the English movers and shakers.
Don't expect any real understanding of Marlowe the pet playwright. This is a crime story through and through - a really good crime story with the benefit of a history lesson.
September 8, 2020
I read this as research for my Shakespeare Twins novel.
It's an intriguing topic -- Christopher Marlowe's murder and his career as a spy (simultaneous with his career as a playwright).
Meticulously researched, but told very tediously. Almost unreadable.
It's an intriguing topic -- Christopher Marlowe's murder and his career as a spy (simultaneous with his career as a playwright).
Meticulously researched, but told very tediously. Almost unreadable.
July 22, 2022
Fascinating enough to re-read after a gap of 15 years or more; disappointing to find out that I'd lost my original copy; doubly disappointing to find out the revised edition currently available has lost some of the spark of the original version.
Like many an English graduate I knew both that Marlowe was rumoured to be a spy in his youth, and that he died tragically young in a tavern brawl. Turns out most of the things weren't necessarily quite what they seemed. Marlowe in fact might have been on the fringes of the world of espionage throughout his life; he didn't die in a tavern, and it might have been something more sinister than a brawl. Like a cold blooded, if not premeditated, murder. Certainly the company he was with when he died was decidedly shady.
What the book does well is brilliantly create the paranoid mood of late Elizabethan England. A world dominated by fears of Catholic uprising and invasion, and by anxieties about the succession. Its a world where secret intelligence flourishes, of plots, forgery and agent provocateurs. Trust no-one, for no-one is quite what they seem. Its a world of paranoia and conspiracy, and hence of conspiracy theory. And Kit Marlowe is right in the middle of it.
Where the new edition goes wrong, and this is really only in the critical, final section is get over excited by fresh details about hitherto minor characters about whom, frankly I couldn't care less. Too much detail, too many rabbit holes, and not enough atmosphere.
The original book is definitely five star material, and not for its thoughts on literature. Its a great book book about late late Tudor politics and about espionage and conspiracy theories more generally.
Like many an English graduate I knew both that Marlowe was rumoured to be a spy in his youth, and that he died tragically young in a tavern brawl. Turns out most of the things weren't necessarily quite what they seemed. Marlowe in fact might have been on the fringes of the world of espionage throughout his life; he didn't die in a tavern, and it might have been something more sinister than a brawl. Like a cold blooded, if not premeditated, murder. Certainly the company he was with when he died was decidedly shady.
What the book does well is brilliantly create the paranoid mood of late Elizabethan England. A world dominated by fears of Catholic uprising and invasion, and by anxieties about the succession. Its a world where secret intelligence flourishes, of plots, forgery and agent provocateurs. Trust no-one, for no-one is quite what they seem. Its a world of paranoia and conspiracy, and hence of conspiracy theory. And Kit Marlowe is right in the middle of it.
Where the new edition goes wrong, and this is really only in the critical, final section is get over excited by fresh details about hitherto minor characters about whom, frankly I couldn't care less. Too much detail, too many rabbit holes, and not enough atmosphere.
The original book is definitely five star material, and not for its thoughts on literature. Its a great book book about late late Tudor politics and about espionage and conspiracy theories more generally.
December 20, 2019
Fascinating and well-researched book on the death of Christopher Marlowe in 1593. The author deals not only with the physical and legal details (which, to be honest, are fairly minimal at this point) but with the probable reasons for his murder and the climate of fear and suspicion in late 16th Century England. Much of this book focuses on the intersection of spies, criminals, and literati in the period - and by "spies," this is more likely to be secret police, informers, and agent provocateurs (called "projectors"), than actual intelligence agents ("intelligencers"). Nicholl deals with Marlowe's relationship in the intelligence community, as well as the individuals present when he was killed. The middle of the book seems to digress a bit, with bios of English agents whose connectios to Marlowe seem tenuous at best, but he pulls things back together in the last few chapters and makes a good case for the reasons for his death. This is not a biography of Marlowe or a analysis of his works (except as involved in the 16th Century "intelligence community"). 4 stars.
October 27, 2017
Any account of Christopher Marlowe's untimely death at the age of 29 is fraught with questions. Charles Nicholl presents a highly engaging and intelligent analysis of why Marlowe died and who was ultimately responsible, unhesitatingly labelling it 'murder'.
This was one of the first books I read about Marlowe, and I loved it. It inspired a desperate desire to know as much as possible about Marlowe and the dangerous times in which he lived.
Coming back to Nicholl's book years later, and I'm a little less impressed. My research has suggested a couple of points which should have been obvious to Nicholl but which he misses. Most of his lines of enquiry now seem to me to stop before they start.
But I would still thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery, is interested in the Tudor period and, most of all, is interested in Marlowe. This is the best kind of mystery: one which is rooted in the real world and which has yet to be solved.
This was one of the first books I read about Marlowe, and I loved it. It inspired a desperate desire to know as much as possible about Marlowe and the dangerous times in which he lived.
Coming back to Nicholl's book years later, and I'm a little less impressed. My research has suggested a couple of points which should have been obvious to Nicholl but which he misses. Most of his lines of enquiry now seem to me to stop before they start.
But I would still thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery, is interested in the Tudor period and, most of all, is interested in Marlowe. This is the best kind of mystery: one which is rooted in the real world and which has yet to be solved.
August 12, 2018
How wonderful it is to find something so in depth about a man that is not given nearly enough recognition for who he was.
This is a brilliant fete of research and investigation and is argued in very interesting and unique points.
I did find it sad reading about the death of one of my favourite figures in history but the amount I learned from this book was well worth it. Not only does it explore the life of Marlowe but others around him that could have been connected to him.
Very interesting.
This is a brilliant fete of research and investigation and is argued in very interesting and unique points.
I did find it sad reading about the death of one of my favourite figures in history but the amount I learned from this book was well worth it. Not only does it explore the life of Marlowe but others around him that could have been connected to him.
Very interesting.
January 3, 2018
My rating is 4 star mostly because I had a hard time following all the references. I don’t know a lot about this period so it is my fault I found it hard to grasp. However, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Elizabethan period. I think the author did an enormous amount of research. Through deduction he has concluded, in my opinion correctly, that Christopher Marlowe was murdered because of his involvement with the politics of the time.
September 10, 2009
This is essential reading for anyone interested in Elizabethan Theater and the enigma that was Christopher Marlowe. It reads like a mystry novel and focuses on the events surrounding his murder. Nicholl introduces all the protagonists and the myriad of theories as to why by whom and how Kit Marlowe was killed. A Wonderful read.
October 24, 2014
Rich, dense, informed history fu. Replete with depressing information about the spies, informers, and agents provocateur of Elizabethan police state intelligence, and a compelling theory regarding Christopher Marlowe's death. This is the original edition, I understand Nicholl completely revised his thesis for the second edition. I find that charming, more historians should do that.
December 29, 2017
This is not a book for someone to skim through expecting easy answers. It is dense, and contains a great deal of information about the Elizabethan secret state, politics and the histories of the people surrounding Marlowe who may have contributed to his demise. It is intriguing, though, and its central hypothesis plausible. Best digested in moderate sized chunks.
August 7, 2018
'I am not trying to argue that Marlowe's death has to have a meaning. My reading tends only to a more complex kind of meaninglessness than that of a 'tavern brawl'.
David Riggs' marvellous 'The World of Christopher Marlowe' (Faber & Faber: London, 2004) led me to this work.
Whilst the focus is very much on the early - perhaps tragic - death of the charismatic trailblazer of modern drama, Nicholl also gives us a systemic overview of the incestuous and claustrophobic world of Elizabethan intelligence services.
Frequently described by Nicholls as a 'poet-spy', Marlowe (and others, like Thomas Kyd) occupied the common ground where the worlds of poetry and espionage collided and overlapped. Nicholls provides a compelling case for the similarities between these two groups, and the exigencies which might lead an impoverished poet to try his hand at what John Le Carré is quoted by Nicholl as calling 'secret theatre of our society'.
We meet an almost overwhelming cast of ruthless, minor-league Machiavells: Nicholls paints a bleak picture of a society riddled with ambitious, untustworthy young men, each quite prepared to fabricate evidence or 'project' snares to entrap the unwitting. An interesting section focuses on The Babington Plot which resulted in the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots - partly because it exposes the methods of Walsingham and his agents, but also because various names crop up who are later important in Marlowe's death.
This is no elegy or lionisation of Marlowe. At best, he echoes Thomas Nashe's tribute that:
'His life he contemned in comparison of the liberty of speech'
but Nicholls also reaches the regretful conclusion that:
'Marlowe enters this devious, predatory company because he was himself a devious, predatory young man.'
In Richard II, Sir Pierce of Exton claims to have inferred a deadly instruction from Bolingbroke:
he wistly look'd on me,
And who should say, 'I would thou wert the man'
That would divorce this terror from my heart;'
Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go:
I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [a]
and this tends to Nicholls' conclusion - not that Marlowe was murdered on specific orders from above, but more, perhaps, that Frazier Ingram and his accomplices believed that killing him would gain them friends in high places. Marlowe lived by the sword, and eventually died by it.
The book is well written, plausible and detailed. It's almost a police procedural of a 400-year-old cold case. If there's one complaint to be made it is that the cast of characters he surveys is sometimes hard to keep track of - the book is almost too complete in its scholarly scope.
Otherwise, an excellent read. ****/*
You can find other - short - reviews/recommendations of over 80 Shakespeare / Early Modern books here.
[a] William Shakespeare, Richard II (V.iv) at www.opensourceshakespeare.org
April 8, 2019
Review title: 400 year old cold case
The outline of Christopher Marlowe's life and death are well known: the near-contemporary of Shakespeare wrote the great play Faustus (one of my favorite theater performances), but died ignominiously in a fight over the bill after a day carousing in 1593 London. But it has long been suspected there was more to the end of his life than preserved in the official record of his death. Nicholl trawls deep in 400 year old records to try to solve this 400 year old cold case, and his circumstantial conclusion points to shady dealings involving treason, religious and political intrigue, and shadowy spy craft, with Marlowe in the middle of it all.
The journey, for Nicholl's reader, is a crooked path through his thought process and documentary discovery and analysis. His arguments can become extended and convoluted, compounded by names, places and incidents two or three steps removed from Marlowe and his death. Most of his arguments, even when compelling and logical, would not stand up in a court of law, but in the court of history they carry enough weight to suggest why Marlowe died and how he got involved in such dark byways of Elizabeth's London even as he was a popular writer for the stage.
I'll leave the details of Nicholl's concluding argument for the reader to discover. This book was listed as one of the 1,000 books to read before you die, a great source for reading wish list recommendations, even though in this case I can only give it 3 stars because of the complexity of the argument. Nicholls has certainly done yeoman research and evidentiary analysis, and delved deep to shine the dim light he finds in the scattered documentary evidence into the dark alleys of a distant past. The author of a fictional procedural murder mystery would have the freedom to spice up his tale with more direct connections and salacious details. Constrained to the facts and the conclusions and speculations he can extract from them, Nicholls story is both less exciting and more interesting than fiction, as it sets the stage for Shakespeare's ascendancy over Marlowe and the ascent of King James to the throne in the new 17th century.
The outline of Christopher Marlowe's life and death are well known: the near-contemporary of Shakespeare wrote the great play Faustus (one of my favorite theater performances), but died ignominiously in a fight over the bill after a day carousing in 1593 London. But it has long been suspected there was more to the end of his life than preserved in the official record of his death. Nicholl trawls deep in 400 year old records to try to solve this 400 year old cold case, and his circumstantial conclusion points to shady dealings involving treason, religious and political intrigue, and shadowy spy craft, with Marlowe in the middle of it all.
The journey, for Nicholl's reader, is a crooked path through his thought process and documentary discovery and analysis. His arguments can become extended and convoluted, compounded by names, places and incidents two or three steps removed from Marlowe and his death. Most of his arguments, even when compelling and logical, would not stand up in a court of law, but in the court of history they carry enough weight to suggest why Marlowe died and how he got involved in such dark byways of Elizabeth's London even as he was a popular writer for the stage.
I'll leave the details of Nicholl's concluding argument for the reader to discover. This book was listed as one of the 1,000 books to read before you die, a great source for reading wish list recommendations, even though in this case I can only give it 3 stars because of the complexity of the argument. Nicholls has certainly done yeoman research and evidentiary analysis, and delved deep to shine the dim light he finds in the scattered documentary evidence into the dark alleys of a distant past. The author of a fictional procedural murder mystery would have the freedom to spice up his tale with more direct connections and salacious details. Constrained to the facts and the conclusions and speculations he can extract from them, Nicholls story is both less exciting and more interesting than fiction, as it sets the stage for Shakespeare's ascendancy over Marlowe and the ascent of King James to the throne in the new 17th century.
May 10, 2024
Never have I passed so thoroughly from enthralled to defeated. Reminded me of Tom O'Neill's Chaos, a book which starts as an earnest attempt to work out what the hell was going on with Charles Manson and then becomes a book about realizing you have become too invested but unable to abandon the quest. Or of certain characters in Zodiac or Foucault's Pendulum. I'm not even unconvinced by the loosest form of Nicholl's claim: that Marlowe's murder, of which all four people in attendance were either involved in espionage or confidence-trickery (or 'cony-catching' or 'cozenage' or whatever the more general of the more period-appropriate terms is), is likely to have been over something more than settling a bill. I'm not qualified to evaluate the next level of it (that it was likely connected to an attempt to unseat Walter Ralegh re popular unrest re immigration anxieties) and I doubt anyone is qualified to evaluate Nicholl's peramulating six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon attempt to limn exactly who intended what in this and how their goals filtered down to Ingram Frazer punching through Marlowe's lacrimal with his twelve-pence dagger. Periodically little bubbles of ideas surface that suggest a more interesting synthesis of the same research, an actually cohesive account of the inter-connection of the Elizabethan intelligence service and the criminal underworld, and every time they pop into a kind of curdling foam: "For these reasons, and perhaps as some kind of respite from the claustrophobia of these last chapters, I offer now for the first time a brief biography of Thomas Drury, which might be subtitled 'the life and times of an Elizabethan projector'"; sir, this is a Wendy's.
June 12, 2018
I'm slightly conflicted about this book. I really liked the first half or so that doesn't even really deal with Marlowe but the other plots that led up to the time of his death. (The Babington Plot has its own chapter which is pretty decent.) I didn't love the last half nearly as much. I thought that Nicholl's theory is just a little too complicated and, in my own opinion, it doesn't make a lot of sense. If he was right about the motives (if there were motives) behind Marlowe's death, then he's also still missing something. Everything Nicholls added up still comes a little short of making sense as to why Marlowe was killed. Because the whole last part of the book was so speculative, it kind of lost my interest. I would have preferred facts compared to guessing based on some person being the cousin, brother or former colleague of someone else. It's just too much guesswork and it doesn't really demonstrate a strong connection or motive.
I also didn't feel like I really got to know much about Marlowe himself. Many of the other people involved are very well described and I think I got a good idea of what they were like. It wouldn't be a big issue for me that Marlowe was kind of a background character if the entire book hadn't been to explain his death.
Overall, this was a decent attempt at looking into Marlowe's death, but not convincing enough for me to fully buy Nicholl's theory.
I also didn't feel like I really got to know much about Marlowe himself. Many of the other people involved are very well described and I think I got a good idea of what they were like. It wouldn't be a big issue for me that Marlowe was kind of a background character if the entire book hadn't been to explain his death.
Overall, this was a decent attempt at looking into Marlowe's death, but not convincing enough for me to fully buy Nicholl's theory.
February 11, 2024
Nicholl attempts to solve the murder of Kit Marlowe, a cold case over 400 years old. Finding clues in both the literary world and the underground world of police-state Elizabethan England, he pieces together a quite convincing narrative. Part true crime detective yarn, part espionage tale worthy of Len Deighton or le Carre, and part exploration of the literary world of Elizabethan London, it intrigued me on many levels.
I especially enjoyed the chapter illuminating the many Marlowe references in Shakespeare's As You Like It, apparently prompted by Shakespeare's outrage that Marlowe's Ovid translation had been banned and burned by Archbishop Whitgift in 1599, just the latest in a series of attacks on the tight-knit community of authors and playwrights. In recent years, the police state had attacked Kyd, Jonson, Nashe, Middleton, and Marlowe, and there seemed to be no end in sight.
That Nicholl was able to find so much documentary evidence is astounding. There is no wild or unsubstantiated speculation here. When there is guesswork involved, it is well supported. The portraits of Elizabethan kleptocrats doing what they did best---destroying everyone and everything they touched with callous disregard--- were appalling. I learned a lot, but a lot of what I learned was sordid in the extreme.
I especially enjoyed the chapter illuminating the many Marlowe references in Shakespeare's As You Like It, apparently prompted by Shakespeare's outrage that Marlowe's Ovid translation had been banned and burned by Archbishop Whitgift in 1599, just the latest in a series of attacks on the tight-knit community of authors and playwrights. In recent years, the police state had attacked Kyd, Jonson, Nashe, Middleton, and Marlowe, and there seemed to be no end in sight.
That Nicholl was able to find so much documentary evidence is astounding. There is no wild or unsubstantiated speculation here. When there is guesswork involved, it is well supported. The portraits of Elizabethan kleptocrats doing what they did best---destroying everyone and everything they touched with callous disregard--- were appalling. I learned a lot, but a lot of what I learned was sordid in the extreme.
June 24, 2022
Another great find from James Mustich’s 1000 books to read list.
I knew very little about Christopher Marlowe: I knew he was an Elizabethan playwright, that he was the author of the play Doctor Faustus, and that there was a theory that Marlowe wrote Shakespeare’s plays.
It seems that Marlowe was a bit of an Elizabethan bad-boy. An atheist, very likely gay, arrested several times (once for involvement in a street fight where a man died, once for counterfeiting money), he died at age 29 when he was stabbed through the eye. The official ruling on his death was that it was a fight over the bill (or reckoning) at a lodging house.
This is where it gets super interesting, because Marlowe was also a spy, part of Walsingham’s whisper network. And the fight in which Marlowe died… very likely NOT about a bill.
Fascinating look at Elizabethan history, where truth and lies didn’t really matter, what mattered was what you could make LOOK like truth or lies. Walsingham would have been a master of the social media smear campaign if he were alive today.
I knew very little about Christopher Marlowe: I knew he was an Elizabethan playwright, that he was the author of the play Doctor Faustus, and that there was a theory that Marlowe wrote Shakespeare’s plays.
It seems that Marlowe was a bit of an Elizabethan bad-boy. An atheist, very likely gay, arrested several times (once for involvement in a street fight where a man died, once for counterfeiting money), he died at age 29 when he was stabbed through the eye. The official ruling on his death was that it was a fight over the bill (or reckoning) at a lodging house.
This is where it gets super interesting, because Marlowe was also a spy, part of Walsingham’s whisper network. And the fight in which Marlowe died… very likely NOT about a bill.
Fascinating look at Elizabethan history, where truth and lies didn’t really matter, what mattered was what you could make LOOK like truth or lies. Walsingham would have been a master of the social media smear campaign if he were alive today.
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