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Article: The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- August 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Charles Nicholl (Hardcourt, Brace, 413 pp., $24.95)
ON MAY 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe was killed in the port town of Deptford, a few miles downriver of London. He was stabbed through the eye by a certain Ingram Frizer in a dispute (so said Frizer and the two other men present, Robert Poley and Nicholas Skeres) over "the reckoning"--the bill for the day's entertainment. Frizer was eventually acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
The case caused an enormous stir --even though sudden death was scarcely rare in London that plague year--because of the dead man's high stature and dubious character. At the age of 29, he had already been a wildly popular ...