Now I think if I had been alive in the London of 1593 and enjoyed going to the theatre, I would have been shocked and intrigued at the death of Christopher Marlowe in shady circumstances in a Deptford lodging house.
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| Possibly an image of Christopher Marlowe, 1598 |
All of which means I shall tune in to Radio Four's dramatization of that book The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl.*
The first of three episodes is broadcast today at 3pm on the wireless.**
"It's London, 1593. Christopher Marlowe, a young writer, is fatally stabbed in a Deptford lodging house because of a disagreement over the bill. There's an investigation, the witnesses are interrogated, and the suspect walks free. The authorities find that Marlowe was the aggressor and was killed in self-defence.
History says it was just a drunken quarrel, nothing more. But Charles Nicholl thinks it was murder, and an unsolved murder never grows old.
In this series, Nicholl traces Marlowe's political and intelligence dealings, explores the shadowy underworld of Elizabethan crime and espionage, and penetrates a complex and chilling story of entrapment and betrayal.
Christopher Marlowe was a playwright and in 1593 his star was at its height. More than any, he was the writer who influenced Shakespeare and had he lived there would have been two stars in that constellation. But he died at the age of 29 and how and why he died – thereby hangs a tale.
This is a true story. The people in it are real people, the events are documented, the words were spoken, though we have invented some of them, and set them in a modern idiom for the sake of clarity. But this true story is also a mystery, a jigsaw with many pieces missing, and the spaces have to be filled with what historians call speculation and detectives call hunches. Using drama, we show what might have happened – what could have happened – maybe even what did happen.
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| Faustus by Christopher Marlow, 1937 |
Charles Nicholl's book The Reckoning is the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Non-Fiction and the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Non-Fiction.
Christopher Marlowe . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Robert Poley . . . . . Burn Gorman
Ingram Frizer . . . . . Carl Prekopp
Nicholas Skeres . . . . . Matthew Durkan
Thomas Heneage . . . . . Neil McCaul
Coroner Danby . . . . . Michael Begley
Drew Woodleff . . . . . Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Mrs Bull . . . . . Ruth Everett
Maid . . . . . Alexandra Hannant
Dramatised by Mike Walker, based on The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl
Sound by Peter Ringrose
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko"
Pictures; Unknown 21-year old man, supposed to be Christopher Marlowe, 1598, from the Collection Corpus Christi College and reproduced from Christopher Marlowe, Wikipedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christopher_Marlowe.jpg and W.P.A. Theatre Presents “Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe, 1937. Silkscreen poster. Federal Theatre Project Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress (011.00.00), Digital ID # ftp0011. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (A Federal Theatre Production, Project 891 of the WPA) by Christopher Marlowe. Directed by Orson Welles. Maxine Elliott's Theatre, New York, January 8–May 9, 1937.
*The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe by Charles Nicholl, 1992, revised edition, 2002
** What Feeds Me Destroys Me, The Reckoning, Episode 1 of 3, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017cds
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