Chapter 20

The books on Marlborough are very numerous. Under his name in the catalogue of the British Museum there are 165 entries, and 44 under that of his wife. The chief works are Lediard’s, Archdeacon William Coxe’s (1818-1819), Sir Archibald Alison’s (1855), and Viscount Wolseley’s (1894)Lives, but Wolseley stops with the accession of Queen Anne; a French memoir in three volumes, 1808; Marlborough’sLetters and Despatches, edited by Sir George Murray (5 vols., 1845); and the interesting summaries of Mrs Creighton (1879) and George Saintsbury (1885). The descriptions in John Hill Burton’sReign of Queen Anneof the battle scenes of Marlborough are from personal observation. A good account of his birthplace and country will be found in G. P. R. Pulman’sBook of the Axe District(4th ed., 1875); and for the home of the duchess the reader can refer to theHistory of Hertfordshire, by J. E. Cussans. A memoir of her, by one of her descendants, Mrs Arthur Colville, appeared in 1904. The pamphlets written on her conduct at court relate to matters of little interest at the present time.

(W. P. C.)

MARLBOROUGH,a market town and municipal borough in the Devizes parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, 753⁄4m. W. of London, on the Great Western and the Midland and South Western Junction railways. Pop. (1901), 3887. It is an old-fashioned place on the skirts of Savernake Forest, lying in a valley of the chalk uplands known as Marlborough Downs, and traversed by the river Kennet. It consists mainly of one broad street, in which a majority of the houses are Jacobean; those on the north side, which have projecting upper storeys, forming the colonnade commended in the Diary of Samuel Pepys for 1668. St Peter’s church, a Perpendicular building, is said to have been the scene of the ordination of Cardinal Wolsey in 1498. The church of Preshute, largely rebuilt, but preserving its Norman pillars, has a curious piscina, and a black basalt font of great size dating from 1100-1150, in which according to a very old tradition King John was baptized. Other noteworthy buildings are the town-hall, 16th century grammar school and Marlborough College. This important public school was opened in 1843, originally for the sons of clergymen, by whom alone certain scholarships are tenable. The number of boys is about 600. Marlborough possesses little trade other than agricultural; but there are breweries, tanneries and roperies. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 598 acres.

The antiquity of Marlborough is shown by the Castle Mound, a British earthwork, which local legend makes the grave of Merlin; and the name of Marlborough has been regarded as a corrupt form of Merlin’s Berg or Rock.

Near the site of the modern Marlborough (Merleberge,Marleberge) was originally a Romancastrumcalled Cunetio, and later there was a Norman fortress in which William I. established a mint. In Domesday it was royal demesne and during the following centuries figures in numerous grants generally as the dowry of queens. The castle, built under Henry I., by Roger, bishop of Salisbury, was held for Matilda against Stephen, and became a favourite residence of Henry II., Savernake being a royal deer-park. In 1267 Henry III. held his last parliament here, at which the Statute of Marlborough was passed. The castle ceased to be an important stronghold after the Wars of the Roses, but was garrisoned for Charles I. by its owners, the Seymour family. Marlborough itself, however, is mentioned by Clarendon as “the most notoriously disaffected [town] in Wiltshire,” and was captured by the royal forces in 1642, and partly burnt. At the Restoration Charles II. was received and magnificently entertained by Lord Seymour, whose mansion forms the oldest part of Marlborough College. The town was constituted a suffragan see by Henry II. Sacheverell, the politician and divine, was born here in 1674, and educated at the grammar school. In 1653 the town was nearly destroyed by fire, and it again suffered in 1679 and 1690; after which an act was passed forbidding the use of thatch. Marlborough, from its position on the Great Bath Road, was a famous coaching centre.

The first charter was granted by John in 1204, and conferred a gild merchant, together with freedom from all pleas except pleas of the Crown and from all secular exactions by sea and land. This was confirmed by subsequent sovereigns from Henry III. to Henry VIII. Later charters were obtained from Henry IV. in 1407 and from Elizabeth in 1576. The former granted some additional exemptions whilst the latter incorporated the town under the title of mayor and burgesses of Marlborough. The corporation was finally reconstructed in 1835 under the title of a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Marlborough returned two members to parliament until 1867 when the number was reduced to one, and in 1885 the representation was merged in that of the county. A yearly fair was granted by John in 1204, for eight days from August 14, and two more by Henry III. for three days from November 11 and June 29 respectively. In 1204 John also granted a weekly market on Wednesday and Saturday. In Tudor times the corn trade prospered here.

See “Victoria County History”:Wilts; James Waglen,History of Marlboro(London, 1854).

MARLBOROUGH,a city of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 28 m. W. of Boston. Pop. (1900), 13,609 (3311 were foreign-born); (1910), 14,579; it is served by the Boston & Maine and the New York New Haven & Hartford railways, and by interurban electric lines. The city, with a total area of 21.08 sq. m., lies in a fertile hilly country, and contains several ponds, including the beautiful Williams Pond, which covers1⁄4sq. m. A public library was established here in 1792; it was housed in a new building in 1904. Other public buildings are the city hall, the Federal building and a state armoury. There is a boarding school for girls, St Ann’s Academy (1887), under the direction of the Sisters of St Ann. The city’s importance is industrial; in 1905 its factory product was valued at $7,468,849 (an increase of 66% since 1900), of which 88.6% was the value of boots and shoes. Whether the city is named from Marlborough in Wiltshire, or, as seems more probable, because of early spellings “Marlberg” and “Marlbridge,” from the presence of marl in the neighbourhood, is uncertain. Settlers from Sudbury in 1665 took possession of a hill called by the Indians Whipsuffenicke and gradually hemmed in the Christian Indian village of Ockoocangansett (or Ognoikonguamescitt), on an adjoining hill still bearing this name. The town was incorporated in 1660. It was destroyed by Indians in March 1676, during King Philip’s war, and was abandoned for a year. Westborough was separated from it in 1717, Southborough in 1727, and a part of Berlin in 1784; parts of it were annexed to Northborough in 1807, to Bolton in 1829 and to Hudson in 1866; and it annexed parts of Framingham in 1791, and of Southborough in 1843. In 1890 it was incorporated as a city.

See S. A. Drake,History of Middlesex County, ii. 137 sqq., “Marlborough” by Rev. R. S. Griffin and E. L. Bigelow (Boston, 1880).

MARLITT, E.,the pseudonym ofEugenie John(1825-1887), German novelist, who was born at Arnstadt in Thuringia, the daughter of a merchant, on the 5th of December 1825. By her musical talent she attracted the notice of the reigning princessof Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, who provided for her training as a singer at the Vienna Conservatoire. After three years’ study she made a successful stage début, but was compelled in consequence of deafness to abandon this career. She then became reader and travelling companion to her patroness, and her life at the court and on her many travels furnished her with material for her novels. In 1863 she resigned her post, and then lived with her brother at Arnstadt until her death on the 22nd of June 1887.

Her first novel,Die zwölf Apostel, was published in theGartenlaubein 1865 and this was followed in 1866 byGoldelse(23rd ed., 1890), with which she established her literary reputation. Among others of her novels may be mentionedBlaubart(1866);Das Geheimnis der alten Mamsell(1867; 13th ed., 1888);Reichsgräfin Gisela(1869; 9th ed., 1900),Das Heideprinzesschen(1871; 8th ed., 1888) andIm Hause des Kommerzienrats(1877; 5th ed., 1891). All these works are directed against social prejudices, but, although attractively written, are deficient in higher literary qualities and appeal mostly to juvenile readers.E. Marlitt’sGesammelte Romane und Novellenwere published in 10 volumes (1888-1890; 2nd ed., 1891-1894), to which is appended a biographical memoir.

E. Marlitt’sGesammelte Romane und Novellenwere published in 10 volumes (1888-1890; 2nd ed., 1891-1894), to which is appended a biographical memoir.

MARLOW(Great Marlow), a market town in the Wycombe parliamentary division of Buckinghamshire, England, 311⁄2m. W. of London on a branch of the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 4526. It is beautifully situated on the north (left) bank of the Thames, which is here confined closely between low wooded hills. A weir and lock, near which rise the high tower and spire of the modern church of All Saints, separate two fine reaches of the river, and the town is a favourite resort for boating and fishing. The village of Little Marlow, where the foundations of a Benedictine nunnery of the time of Henry III. have been revealed by excavation, lies near the river two miles below. The town is, as a whole, modern in appearance, but a few old houses remain, such as the grammar school, founded as a bluecoat school in 1624, adjoining which is a house occupied by the poet Shelley in 1817. The town has manufactures of chairs, lace and embroidery, paper mills and breweries.

Great Marlow (Merlaue,Merlawe,Marlowe,Marlow) appears as a manor in Domesday Book, but its “borough and liberties” are not mentioned before 1261. It was then held by the earls of Gloucester, and its importance was probably due to the bridge across the Thames, first built, according to tradition, by the Templars at Bisham. No charter of incorporation was ever granted to the town, but there are faint traces of its constitution in the 14th century. In 1342 the mayor and burgesses presented to a chantry and continued to be the patrons till 1394. Later writs addressed to the town only mention two bailiffs as officers of the borough, nor were the pontage rights and dues held by it until the 15th century. Two burgesses sat in parliament from 1300 to 1309, but the representation of the borough lapsed until 1621, when the right to return members was re-established. After the Reform Bill of 1832 the boundaries of the parliamentary borough were enlarged, but in 1867 its representation was reduced to one member, and in 1885 was merged in that of the county. No grant of a market in the borough has been found, but a market was held by the Despensers who had succeeded the De Clares as lords of the manor in the 14th century. In the 16th century the market seems to have been given up, but it was revived and held in the 18th century, only to disappear again before 1862. Fairs were mentioned in 1306 on the death of Gilbert de Clare, when they were held on St Luke’s Day and on the Wednesday in Whit-week by the earl of Gloucester, and Hugh le Despenser was granted a fair in his manor of Marlow in 1324. In 1792 there were two fairs, one of which, for horses and cattle, is still held on the 29th of October. Lace and satin-stitch work used to be made to a considerable extent.

MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER(1564-1593), English dramatist, the father of English tragedy, and instaurator of dramatic blank verse, the eldest son of a shoemaker at Canterbury, was born in that city on the 6th of February 1564. He was christened at St George’s Church, Canterbury, on the 26th of February, 1563/4, some two months before Shakespeare’s baptism at Stratford-on-Avon. His father, John Marlowe, is said to have been the grandson of John Morley or Marlowe, a substantial tanner of Canterbury. The father, who survived by a dozen years or so his illustrious son, married on the 22nd of May 1561 Catherine, daughter of Christopher Arthur, at one time rector of St Peter’s, Canterbury, who had been ejected by Queen Mary as a married minister. The dramatist received the rudiments of his education at the King’s School, Canterbury, which he entered at Michaelmas 1578, and where he had as his fellow-pupils Richard Boyle, afterwards known as the great earl of Cork, and Will Lyly, the brother of the dramatist. Stephen Gosson entered the same school a little before, and William Harvey, the famous physician, a little after Marlowe. He went to Cambridge as one of Archbishop Parker’s scholars from the King’s School, and matriculated at Benet (Corpus Christi) College, on the 17th of March 1571, taking his B.A. degree in 1584, and that of M.A. three or four years later.

Francis Kett, the mystic, burnt in 1589 for heresy, was a fellow and tutor of his college, and may have had some share in developing Marlowe’s opinions in religious matters. Marlowe’s classical acquirements were of a kind which was then extremely common, being based for the most part upon a minute acquaintance with Roman mythology, as revealed in Ovid’sMetamorphoses. His spirited translation of Ovid’sAmores(printed 1596), which was at any rate commenced at Cambridge, does not seem to point to any very intimate acquaintance with the grammar and syntax of the Latin tongue. Before 1587 he seems to have quitted Cambridge for London, where he attached himself to the Lord Admiral’s Company of Players, under the leadership of the famed actor Edward Alleyn, and almost at once began writing for the stage. Of Marlowe’s career in London, apart from his four great theatrical successes, we know hardly anything; but he evidently knew Thomas Kyd, who shared his unorthodox opinions. Nash criticized his verse, Greene affected to shudder at his atheism; Gabriel Harvey maligned his memory. On the other hand Marlowe was intimate with the Walsinghams of Scadbury, Chiselhurst, kinsmen of Sir Francis Walsingham: he was also the personal friend of Sir Walter Raleigh, and perhaps of the poetical earl of Oxford, with both of whom, and with such men as Walter Warner and Robert Hughes the mathematicians, Thomas Harriott the notable astronomer, and Matthew Royden, the dramatist is said to have met in free converse. Either this free converse or the licentious character of some of the young dramatist’s tirades seems to have sown a suspicion among the strait-laced that his morals left everything to be desired. It is probable enough that this attitude of reprobation drove a man of so exalted a disposition as Marlowe into a more insurgent attitude than he would have otherwise adopted. He seems at any rate to have been associated with what was denounced as Sir Walter Raleigh’s school of atheism, and to have dallied with opinions which were then regarded as putting a man outside the pale of civilized humanity. As the result of some depositions made by Thomas Kyd under the influence of torture, the Privy Council were upon the eve of investigating some serious charges against Marlowe when his career was abruptly and somewhat scandalously terminated. The order had already been issued for his arrest, when he was slain in a quarrel by a man variously named (Archer and Ingram) at Deptford, at the end of May 1593, and he was buried on the 1st of June in the churchyard of St Nicholas at Deptford. The following September Gabriel Harvey referred to him as “dead of the plague.” The disgraceful particulars attached to the tragedy of Marlowe in the popular mind would not seem to have appeared until four years later (1597) when Thomas Beard, the Puritan author ofThe Theatre of God’s Judgements, used the death of this playmaker and atheist as one of his warning examples of the vengeance of God. Upon the embellishments of this story, such as that of Francis Meres the critic, in 1598, that Marlowe came to be “stabbed to death by a bawdy servingman, a rival of his in his lewde love,” or that of William Vaughan in theGolden Groveof 1600, in which the unfortunate poet’s dagger is thrust into his own eye in prevention of his felonious assault upon an innocent man, his guest, it is impossible now to pronounce. We really do not know thecircumstances of Marlowe’s death. The probability is he was killed in a brawl, and his atheism must be interpreted not according to theex parteaccusation of one Richard Baines, a professional informer (among the Privy Council records), but as a species of rationalistic antinomianism, dialectic in character, and closely related to the deflection from conventional orthodoxy for which Kett was burnt at Norwich in 1589. A few months before the end of his life there is reason to believe that he transferred his services from the Lord Admiral’s to Lord Strange’s Company, and may have thus been brought into communication with Shakespeare, who in such plays asRichard II.andRichard III.owed not a little to the influence of his romantic predecessor.

Marlowe’s career as a dramatist lies between the years 1587 and 1593, and the four great plays to which reference has been made wereTamburlaine the Great, an heroic epic in dramatic form divided into two parts of five acts each (1587, printed in 1590);Dr Faustus(1588, entered at Stationers’ Hall 1601);The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta(dating perhaps from 1589, acted in 1592, printed in 1633); andEdward the Second(printed 1594). The very first words ofTamburlainesound the trumpet note of attack in the older order of things dramatic:—

“From jigging veins of riming mother witsAnd such conceits as clownage keeps in payWe’ll lead you to the stately tent of war,Where you shall hear the Scythian TamburlaineThreatening the world with high astounding termsAnd scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.”

“From jigging veins of riming mother wits

And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay

We’ll lead you to the stately tent of war,

Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine

Threatening the world with high astounding terms

And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.”

It leapt with a bound to a place beside Kyd’sSpanish Tragedy, and few plays have been more imitated by rivals (Greene’sAlphonsus of Aragon, Peek’sBattle of Alcazar, Selimus, Scanderbeg) or more keenly satirized by the jealousy and prejudice of out-distanced competitors.

(T. Se.)

The majestic and exquisite excellence of various lines and passages in Marlowe’s first play must be admitted to relieve, if it cannot be allowed to redeem, the stormy monotony of Titanic truculence which blusters like a simoom through the noisy course of its ten fierce acts. With many and heavy faults, there is something of genuine greatness inTamburlaine the Great; and for two grave reasons it must always be remembered with distinction and mentioned with honour. It is the first poem ever written in English blank verse, as distinguished from mere rhymeless decasyllabics; and it contains one of the noblest passages, perhaps indeed the noblest, in the literature of the world, ever written by one of the greatest masters of poetry in loving praise of the glorious delights and sublime submission to the everlasting limits of his art. In its highest and most distinctive qualities, in unfaltering and infallible command of the right note of music and the proper tone of colour for the finest touches of poetic execution, no poet of the most elaborate modern school, working at ease upon every consummate resource of luxurious learning and leisurely refinement, has ever excelled the best and most representative work of a man who had literally no models before him and probably or evidently was often if not always compelled to write against time for his living.

The just and generous judgment passed by Goethe on theFaustusof his English predecessor in tragic treatment of the same subject is somewhat more than sufficient to counterbalance the slighting or the sneering references to that magnificent poem which might have been expected from the ignorance of Byron or the incompetence of Hallam. And the particular note of merit observed, the special point of the praise conferred, by the great German poet should be no less sufficient to dispose of the vulgar misconception yet lingering among sciolists and pretenders to criticism, which regards a writer than whom no man was ever born with a finer or a stronger instinct for perfection of excellence in execution as a mere noble savage of letters, a rough self-taught sketcher or scribbler of crude and rude genius, whose unhewn blocks of verse had in them some veins of rare enough metal to be quarried and polished by Shakespeare. What most impressed the author ofFaustin the work of Marlowe was a quality the want of which in the author ofManfredis proof enough to consign his best work to the second or third class at most. “How greatly it is all planned!” the first requisite of all great work, and one of which the highest genius possible to a greatly gifted barbarian could by no possibility understand the nature or conceive the existence. That Goethe “had thought of translating it” is perhaps hardly less precious a tribute to its greatness than the fact that it has been actually and admirably translated by the matchless translator of Shakespeare—the son of Victor Hugo; whose labour of love may thus be said to have made another point in common, and forged as it were another link of union, between Shakespeare and the young master of Shakespeare’s youth. Of all great poems in dramatic form it is perhaps the most remarkable for absolute singleness of aim and simplicity of construction; yet is it wholly free from all possible imputation of monotony or aridity.Tamburlaineis monotonous in the general roll and flow of its stately and sonorous verse through a noisy wilderness of perpetual bluster and slaughter; but the unity of tone and purpose inDoctor Faustusis not unrelieved by change of manner and variety of incident. The comic scenes, written evidently with as little of labour as of relish, are for the most part scarcely more than transcripts, thrown into the form of dialogue, from a popular proseHistory of Dr Faustus, and therefore should be set down as little to the discredit as to the credit of the poet. Few masterpieces of any age in any language can stand beside this tragic poem—it has hardly the structure of a play—for the qualities of terror and splendour, for intensity of purpose and sublimity of note. In the vision of Helen, for example, the intense perception of loveliness gives actual sublimity to the sweetness and radiance of mere beauty in the passionate and spontaneous selection of words the most choice and perfect; and in like manner the sublimity of simplicity in Marlowe’s conception and expression of the agonies endured by Faustus under the immediate imminence of his doom gives the highest note of beauty, the quality of absolute fitness and propriety, to the sheer straightforwardness of speech in which his agonizing horror finds vent ever more and more terrible from the first to the last equally beautiful and fearful verse of that tremendous monologue which has no parallel in all the range of tragedy.

It is now a commonplace of criticism to observe and regret the decline of power and interest after the opening acts ofThe Jew of Malta. This decline is undeniable, though even the latter part of the play (the text of which is very corrupt) is not wanting in rough energy; but the first two acts would be sufficient foundation for the durable fame of a dramatic poet. In the blank verse of Milton alone—who perhaps was hardly less indebted than Shakespeare was before him to Marlowe as the first English master of word-music in its grander forms—has the glory or the melody of passages in the opening soliloquy of Barabbas been possibly surpassed. The figure of the hero before it degenerates into caricature is as finely touched as the poetic execution is excellent; and the rude and rapid sketches of the minor characters show at least some vigour and vivacity of touch.

InEdward the Secondthe interest rises and the execution improves as visibly and as greatly with the course of the advancing story as they decline inThe Jew of Malta. The scene of the king’s deposition at Kenilworth is almost as much finer in tragic effect and poetic quality as it is shorter and less elaborate than the corresponding scene in Shakespeare’sKing Richard II. The terror of the death-scene undoubtedly rises into horror; but this horror is with skilful simplicity of treatment preserved from passing into disgust. In pure poetry, in sublime and splendid imagination, this tragedy is excelled byDoctor Faustus; in dramatic power and positive impression of natural effect it is certainly the masterpiece of Marlowe. It was almost inevitable, in the hands of any poet but Shakespeare, that none of the characters represented should be capable of securing or even exciting any finer sympathy or more serious interest than attends on the mere evolution of successive events or the mere display of emotions (except always in the great scene of the deposition) rather animal than spiritual in their expression of rage or tenderness or suffering. The exact balance of mutual effect, the final note of scenic harmony, between idealconception and realistic execution is not yet struck with perfect accuracy of touch and security of hand; but on this point also Marlowe has here come nearer by many degrees to Shakespeare than any of his other predecessors have ever come near to Marlowe.

OfThe Massacre at Paris(acted in 1593, printed 1600?) it is impossible to judge fairly from the garbled fragment of its genuine text which is all that has come down to us. To Mr Collier, among numberless other obligations, we owe the discovery of a noble passage excised in the piratical edition which gives us the only version extant of this unlucky play, and which, it must be allowed, contains nothing of quite equal value. This is obviously an occasional and polemical work, and being as it is overcharged with the anti-Catholic passion of the time has a typical quality which gives it some empirical significance and interest. That antipapal ardour is indeed the only note of unity in a rough and ragged chronicle which shambles and stumbles onward from the death of Queen Jeanne of Navarre to the murder of the last Valois. It is possible to conjecture, what it would be fruitless to affirm, that it gave a hint in the next century to Nathaniel Lee for his far superior and really admirable tragedy on the same subject, issued ninety-seven years after the death of Marlowe.

In the tragedy ofDido Queen of Carthage(completed by Thomas Nash, produced and printed 1594), a servile fidelity to the text of Virgil’s narrative has naturally resulted in the failure which might have been expected from an attempt at once to transcribe what is essentially inimitable and to reproduce it under the hopelessly alien conditions of dramatic adaptation. The one really noble passage in a generally feeble and incomposite piece of work is, however, uninspired by the unattainable model to which the dramatists have been only too obsequious in their subservience. It is as nearly certain as anything can be which depends chiefly upon cumulative and collateral evidence that the better part of what is best in the serious scenes ofKing Henry VI.is mainly the work of Marlowe. That he is at any rate the principal author of the second and third plays passing under that name among the works of Shakespeare, but first and imperfectly printed asThe Contention between the two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster, can hardly be now a matter of debate among competent judges. The crucial difficulty of criticism in this matter is to determine, if indeed we should not rather say to conjecture, the authorship of the humorous scenes in prose, showing as they generally do a power of comparatively high and pure comic realism to which nothing in the acknowledged works of any pre-Shakespearian dramatist is even remotely comparable. Yet, especially in the original text of these scenes as they stand unpurified by the ultimate revision of Shakespeare or his editors, there are tones and touches which recall rather the clownish horseplay and homely ribaldry of his predecessors than anything in the lighter interludes of his very earliest plays. We find the same sort of thing which we find in their writings, only better done than they usually do it, rather than such work as Shakespeare’s a little worse done than usual. And even in the final text of the tragic or metrical scenes the highest note struck is always, with one magnificent and unquestionable exception, rather in the key of Marlowe at his best than of Shakespeare while yet in great measure his disciple.

A Taming of a Shrew, the play on which Shakespeare’s comedy was founded, has been attributed, without good reason, to Marlowe. The passages in the play borrowed from Marlowe’s works provide an argument against, rather than for his authorship; while the humorous character of the play is not in keeping with his other work. He may have had a share inThe Troublesome Raigne of King John(1591), and Fleay conjectured that the playsEdward III.andRichard III.usually included in editions of Shakespeare are at least based on plays by Marlowe.Lust’s Dominion, printed in 1657, was incorrectly ascribed to him, and a play no longer extant,The True History of George Scanderbage, was assumed by Fleay on the authority of an obscure passage of Gabriel Harvey to be his work.The Maiden’s Holiday, assigned to Day and Marlowe, was destroyed by Warburton’s cook. Day was considerably Marlowe’s junior, and collaboration between the two is not probable.

Had every copy of Marlowe’s boyish version or perversion of Ovid’sElegies(P. Ovidii NasonisAmorumcompressed into three books) deservedly perished in the flames to which it was judicially condemned by the sentence of a brace of prelates, it is possible that an occasional bookworm, it is certain that no poetical student, would have deplored its destruction, if its demerits could in that case have been imagined. His translation of the first book of Lucan alternately rises above the original and falls short of it,—often inferior to the Latin in point and weight of expressive rhetoric, now and then brightened by a clearer note of poetry and lifted into a higher mood of verse. Its terseness, vigour and purity of style would in any case have been praiseworthy, but are nothing less than admirable, if not wonderful, when we consider how close the translator has on the whole (in spite of occasional slips into inaccuracy) kept himself to the most rigid limit of literal representation, phrase by phrase and often line by line. The really startling force and felicity of occasional verses are worthier of remark than the inevitable stiffness and heaviness of others, when the technical difficulty of such a task is duly taken into account.

One of the most faultless lyrics and one of the loveliest fragments in the whole range of descriptive and fanciful poetry would have secured a place for Marlowe among the memorable men of his epoch, even if his plays had perished with himself. HisPassionate Shepherdremains ever since unrivalled in its way—a way of pure fancy and radiant melody without break or lapse. The untitled fragment, on the other hand, has been very closely rivalled, perhaps very happily imitated, but only by the greatest lyric poet of England—by Shelley alone. Marlowe’s poem ofHero and Leander(entered at Stationers’ Hall in September 1593; completed and brought out by George Chapman, who divided Marlowe’s work into two sestiads and added four of his own, 1598), closing with the sunrise which closes the night of the lovers’ union, stands alone in its age, and far ahead of the work of any possible competitor between the death of Spenser and the dawn of Milton. In clear mastery of narrative and presentation, in melodious ease and simplicity of strength, it is not less pre-eminent than in the adorable beauty and impeccable perfection of separate lines or passages. It is doubtful whether the heroic couplet has ever been more finely handled.

The place and the value of Christopher Marlowe as a leader among English poets it would be almost impossible for historical criticism to over-estimate. To none of them all, perhaps, have so many of the greatest among them been so deeply and so directly indebted. Nor was ever any great writer’s influence upon his fellows more utterly and unmixedly an influence for good. He first, and he alone, guided Shakespeare into the right way of work; his music, in which there is no echo of any man’s before him, found its own echo in the more prolonged but hardly more exalted harmony of Milton’s. He is the greatest discoverer, the most daring and inspired pioneer, in all our poetic literature. Before him there was neither genuine blank verse nor a genuine tragedy in our language. After his arrival the way was prepared, the paths were made straight, for Shakespeare.

(A. C. S.)

Marlowe’s fame, so finely appreciated by Shakespeare and Drayton, was in obscuration from the fall of the theatres until the generation of Lamb and Hazlitt. A collected edition was brought out by Pickering in 1826. This was greatly improved upon by A. Dyce (1858, 1865, 1876). A one-volume edition was prepared by Colonel Francis Cunningham in 1871. The standard edition of Mr A. H. Bullen in 3 vols. appeared in 1884-1885 and is now under revision. The “Best Plays” were edited for the Mermaid series by Havelock Ellis with an Introduction by J. A. Symonds (1887-1889). The best modern text is that edited by C. F. Tucker Brooke (Oxf. Univ. Press, 1910). A sketch in outline of Marlowe’s Life was essayed by J. G. Lewis (Canterbury, 1891). A not very conclusive monograph onChristopher Marlowe and his Associatesby J. H. Ingram, followed in 1904. For further information the reader should consult the histories of the stage by Collier, Ward, Fleay, Schelling, and the studies of Shakespeare’s Predecessors by Symonds, Mezières, Boas, Manley, Churton Collins, Feuillerat and J. M. Robertson. See also Verity’sEssay on Marlowe’s Influence(1886);Mod. Lang. Rev.iv. 167 (M. at Cambridge); Swinburne,Study of Shakespeare(1880); Elze,Notes, and HazlittDramatic Lit. of the Age of Elizabeth;Fortnightly Review, xiii., lxxi., and Sept.-Oct., 1905; Jusserand,Hist. of English Lit.; theCambridge Hist. of English Lit.; Seccombe and Allen,Age of Shakespeare(vol. ii. 3rd ed., 1909), and the separate editions ofDr Faustus,Edward II., &c. The main sources of Marlowe were as follows: forTamburlaine, Pedro Mexia’sLife of Timurin hisSilva(Madrid, 1543), anglicized by Fortescue in hisForeste(1571) and Petrus PerondinusVita Magni Tamerlanis(1551); forFaustus: a contemporary English version of the Faust-buch orHistoria von D. Johann Fausten(Frankfort, 1587), and forEdward II., theChroniclesof Fabyan (1516), Holinshed (1577) and Stow (1580).

(T. Se.)

MARLOWE, JULIA[Sarah Frances Frost] (1870- ), American actress, was born near Keswick, England, on the 17th of August 1870, and went with her family to America in 1875. Her first formal appearance on the stage was in New York in 1887, although she had before that travelled with a juvenile opera company inH.M.S. Pinafore, and afterwards was given such parts as Maria inTwelfth Nightin Miss Josephine Riley’s travelling company. Her first great success was as Parthenia inIngomar, and her subsequent presentations of Rosalind, Viola, and Julia inThe Hunchbackconfirmed her position as a “star.” In 1894 she married Robert Taber, an actor, with whom she played until their divorce in 1900. Subsequently she had great success as Barbara Frietchie in Clyde Fitch’s play of that name, and other dramas; and from 1904 to 1907 she acted with E. H. Sothern in a notable series of Shakespeare plays, as well as in modern drama.

MARLY-LE-ROI,a village of northern France in the department of Seine-et-Oise, 5 m. N. by W. of Versailles by road. Pop. (1906), 1409. Notwithstanding some fine country houses, Marly is dull and unattractive, and owes all its celebrity to the sumptuous château built towards the end of the 17th century by Louis XIV., and now destroyed. It was originally designed as a simple hermitage to which the king could occasionally retire with a few of his more intimate friends from the pomp of Versailles, but gradually it grew until it became one of the most ruinous extravagances of the Grand Monarque. The central pavilion (inhabited by the king himself) and its twelve subsidiary pavilions were intended to suggest the sun surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. Seldom visited by Louis XV., and wholly abandoned by Louis XVI., it was demolished after the Revolution, its art treasures having previously been dispersed, and the remains now consist of a large basin, the Abreuvoir, a few mouldering ivy-grown walls, some traces of parterres with magnificent trees, the park, and the forest of 81⁄2sq. m., one of the most pleasant promenades of the neighbourhood of Paris, containing the shooting preserves of the President of the Republic.

Close to the Seine, half-way between Marly-le-Roi and St Germain, is the village of Port-Marly, and one mile farther up is the hamlet of Marly-la-Machine. Here, in 1684, an immense hydraulic engine, driven by the current of the river, was erected; it raised the water to a high tower, where the aqueduct of Marly began (700 yds. in length, 75 in height, with 36 arches, still well-preserved), carrying the waters of the Seine to Versailles.

MARMALADE(adopted from Fr.marmelade, frommarmelo, a quince, derived through the Lat.melimelum, from Gr.μέλι, honey, andμῆλον, an apple, an apple grafted on a quince), a preserve originally made of quinces, but now commonly of Seville oranges. The “marmalade-tree” (Lucuma mammosa) bears a fruit whose thick pulp resembles marmalade and is called natural marmalade. “Marmalade box” is the name of the fruit of theGenipa Americana, which opens in the same manner as a walnut, the nut being replaced by a soft pulp.

MARMANDE,a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, 35 m. N.W. of Agen, on the Southern railway from Bordeaux to Cette. Pop. (1906), town 6373; commune, 9748. Marmande is situated at the confluence of the Trec with the Garonne on the right bank of the latter river, which is here crossed by a suspension bridge. Public institutions include the sub-prefecture, the tribunals of first instance and commerce, the communal college and schools of commerce and industry and of agriculture. Apart from the administrative offices, the only building of importance is the church of Nôtre-Dame, which dates from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The graceful windows of the nave, the altarpiece of the 18th century, and in particular, the Renaissance cloister adjoining the south side, are its most interesting features. Among the industries are iron-founding, steam sawing, the manufacture of woollens, carriage-making, cooperage and brandy-distilling. There is a large trade in wine, plums, cattle, grain and other agricultural produce.

Marmande was abastidefounded about 1195 on the site of a more ancient town by Richard Cœur de Lion, who granted it a liberal measure of self-government. Its position on the banks of the Garonne made it an important place of toll. It soon passed into the hands of the counts of Toulouse, and was three times besieged and taken during the Albigensian crusade, its capture by Amaury de Montfort in 1219 being followed by a massacre of the inhabitants. It was united to the French crown under Louis IX. A short occupation by the English in 1447, an unsuccessful siege by Henry IV. in 1577 and its resistance of a month to a division of Wellington’s army in 1814, are the chief events in its subsequent history.

MARMIER, XAVIER(1809-1892), French author, was born at Pontarlier, in Doubs, on the 24th of June 1809. He had a passion for travelling, and this he combined throughout his life with the production of literature. After journeying in Switzerland, Belgium and Holland, he was attached in 1835 to the Arctic expedition of the “Recherche”; and after a couple of years at Rennes as professor of foreign literature, he visited (1842) Russia, (1845) Syria, (1846) Algeria, (1848-1849) North and South America, and numerous volumes from his pen were the result. In 1870 he was elected to the Academy, and he was for many years prominently identified with the Sainte-Geneviève library. He did much to encourage the study of Scandinavian literature in France, publishing translations of Holberg, Oehlenschläger and others. He died in Paris on the 11th of October 1892.

MARMONT, AUGUSTE FRÉDÉRIC LOUIS VIESSE DE,Duke of Ragusa(1774-1852), marshal of France, was born at Châtillon-sur-Seine, on the 20th of July 1774. He was the son of an ex-officer in the army who belonged to thepetite noblesseand adopted the principles of the Revolution. His love of soldiering soon showing itself, his father took him to Dijon to learn mathematics prior to entering the artillery, and there he made the acquaintance of Bonaparte, which he renewed after obtaining his commission when he served in Toulon. The acquaintance ripened into intimacy; Marmont became General Bonaparte’s aide-de-camp, remained with him during his disgrace and accompanied him to Italy and Egypt, winning distinction and promotion to general of brigade. In 1799 he returned to Europe with his chief; he was present at thecoup d’étatof the 18th Brumaire, and organized the artillery for the expedition to Italy, which he commanded with great effect at Marengo. For this he was at once made general of division. In 1801 he became inspector-general of artillery, and in 1804 grand officer of the Legion of Honour, but was greatly disappointed at being omitted from the list of officers who were made marshals. In 1805 he received the command of a corps, with which he did good service at Ulm. He was then directed to take possession of Dalmatia with his army, and occupied Ragusa. For the next five years he was military and civil governor of Dalmatia, and traces of his beneficent régime still survive both in great public works and in the memories of the people. In 1808 he was made duke of Ragusa, and in 1809, being summoned by Napoleon to take part in the Austrian War, he marched to Vienna and bore a share in the closing operations of the campaign. Napoleon now made him a marshal and governor-general of all the Illyrian provinces of the empire. In July 1810 Marmont was hastily summoned to succeed Masséna in the command of the French army in the north of Spain. The skill with which he manœuvred his army during the year he commanded it has been always acknowledged. His relief of Ciudad Rodrigo in the autumn of 1811 in spite of the presence of the English army was a great feat, and in the manœuvring which preceded the battle of Salamanca he hadthe best of it. But Wellington more than retrieved his position in the battle (seeSalamanca), and inflicted a severe defeat on the French, Marmont himself being gravely wounded in the right arm and side. He retired to France to recover, and was still hardly cured when in April 1813 Napoleon, who soon forgot his fleeting resentment for the defeat, gave him the command of a corps. With it he served at the battles of Lützen, Bautzen and Dresden, and throughout the great defensive campaign of 1814 until the last battle before Paris, from which he drew back his forces to the commanding position of Essonne. Here he had 20,000 men in hand, and was the pivot of all thoughts. Napoleon said of this camp of Essonne, “C’est là que viendront s’addresser toutes les intrigues, toutes les trahisons; aussi y ai-je placé Marmont, mon enfant élevé sous ma tente.” Marmont then took upon himself a political rôle which has, no doubt justly, been stigmatized as ungrateful and treasonable. A secret convention was concluded, and Marmont’s corps was surrounded by the enemy. Napoleon, who still hoped to retain the crown for his infant son, was prostrated, and said with a sadness deeper than violent words, “Marmont me porte le dernier coup.”

This act was never forgiven by Marmont’s countrymen. On the restoration of the Bourbons he was indeed made a peer of France and a major-general of the royal guard, and in 1820 a knight of the Saint Esprit and a grand officer of the order of St Louis; but he was never trusted. He was the major-general of the guard on duty in July 1830, and was ordered to put down with a strong hand any opposition to the ordinances (seeFrance). Himself opposed to the court policy, he yet tried to do his duty, and only gave up the attempt to suppress the revolution when it became clear that his troops were outmatched. This brought more obloquy upon him, and the duc d’Angoulême even ordered him under arrest, saying, “Will you betray us, as you betrayed him?” Marmont did not betray them; he accompanied the king into exile and forfeited his marshalate thereby. His desire to return to France was never gratified and he wandered in central and eastern Europe, settling finally in Vienna, where he was well received by the Austrian government, and strange to say made tutor to the duke of Reichstadt, the young man who had once for a few weeks been styled Napoleon II. He died at Venice on the 22nd of March 1852.

Much of his time in his last years was spent upon hisMémoires, which are of great value for the military history of his time, though they must be read as a personal defence of himself in various junctures rather than as an unbiased account of his times. They show Marmont, as he really was, an embittered man, who never thought his services sufficiently requited, and above all, a man too much in love with himself and his own glory to be a true friend or a faithful servant. His strategy indeed tended to become pure virtuosity, and his tactics, though neat, appear frigid and antiquated when contrasted with those of the instinctive leaders, the fighting generals whom the theorists affect to despise. But his military genius is undeniable, and he was as far superior to the mere theorist as Lannes and Davout were to the puredivisionnaireor “fighting” general.

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