Tamburlaine Must Die -- Louise Welsh

London
29th May 1593

I have four candles and one evening in which to write this account.  Tomorrow I will lodge these papers with my last true friend.  If I survive the day, they will light our pipes.  But should I not return, he has instructions to secrete this chronicle where it will lie undiscovered for a long span, in the hope that when these pages are found, the age will be different and my words may be judged by honest eyes.

So begins Louise Welsh's (fictional) account of Christopher Marlowe's last few days and of his suspicious death.  (Officially, he was stabbed in the head in an argument about a bar tab--unofficially, who knows?)  She incorporated most of the known facts of the case into her story--his past as a spy, his problems with the crown due to the accusations of atheism brought against him (including some of his actual quotes) as well as questions about his sexuality.  Sometimes the voice seemed too modern-day to me, but other than that I enjoyed it.

Bits and pieces of the story were familiar to me, but after I finished the book (novella, really) I had to dig out Volume VII of the Durant set--both because I wanted to read about Marlowe and about Sir Walter Raleigh (who I'm going to have to read about--SOON).  This is the end of the Marlowe section:

Marlowe's achievement was immense in its brief moment.  He made blank verse a flexible and powerful speech.  He saved the Elizabethan stage from the classicists and the Puritans.  He gave their definite forms to the drama of ideas and that of English history.  He left his mark on Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice, in Richard II, in love poetry, and in a tendency to magniloquent rhetoric.  Through Marlowe, Kyd, Lodge, Green, and Peele the way had been opened; the form, structure, style and material of the Elizabethan drama had been prepared.  Shakespeare was not a miracle, he was a fulfillment.

This was one of those books that I liked more after I'd finished it.  After reading the related sections in the Durant I realized just how much Welsh had taken from history and how much she'd created on her own.  The people, even the minor characters for the most part, were all actual historical figures and she quoted Marlowe (both his plays and his blasphemy) often.

So now I have to find a good book about Raleigh and read Louise Welsh's other book.  Sheesh.  Read one, add two more to the list.