The backstory about Christopher Marlowe has many theories. Fortunately there is an excellent site http://www.crimelibrary.com/ that offers some fine scholarship on the subject.
The story is by Russel Aiuto and we will be sharing it on this blog as we grow close to our show opening (May 18).
THE OFFICIAL STORY
May 31, 1593. A widow's house in Deptford, three miles from London. She rents rooms for meetings, and provides food and drink to those who wish to spend the day in contemplation. It is just after six in the evening, the sun not yet set, the room suffused in a pale, golden light. Supper is over. In a matter of minutes, Christopher Marlowe will be dead.
Three of the men are seated on a bench, "cheek by jowl," as one of them is to report later, in front of a trestle table. They are playing an Elizabethan version of backgammon. The only other furniture in the beamed, dark, low-ceiling room is a bed, upon which the fourth man, recovering from too much wine, is reclining. One of the men at the table, the one sitting in the middle of the three, says, over his shoulder, that the bill for their day's food and drink must be paid to their hostess. The young, drunken man on the bed protests. His share of the reckoning is too large, he says. The man at the table replies that the share is only right. The young man lurches to his feet and grabs the dagger from the seated man's belt -- kept in his belt at the small of his back, "Spanish style" -- and strikes him on his head, a superficial gash that bleeds profusely. He strikes him again, opening a second wound. The man struggles to his feet, grabs the wrist of the young man, and forces the dagger into the eye of his assailant. He falls to the floor, instantly dead. The man at the table had no choice. He had to defend himself.
This is the account of the three men, given to the coroner the next day, June 1, 1593, as the coroner and his jury of 16 men view the room and the body. It is a case of self-defense. The next day, June 2, in the churchyard of St. Mary's, Deptford, the dead man is buried. The grave is unmarked.
Death was a common event in Elizabethan London. Plague, violence, execution -- each day brought the end of life to more than a few 16th century Londoners, with little regard to rank or station. Death hovered above the city day after day. Why should the death of this one man concern us?
Two weeks later, the man who thrust the fatal blow is pardoned by Queen Elizabeth I.
Who is he, the man who is dead on the floor of a chamber in a widow's house? And how did he really die?
He must have been important.
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1 comment:
Although I am enjoying your approach with this particular blog, I am wondering if you’ve ever considered doing some Podcasts here. It would especially add dimension to something like this especial blog (The Official Story) and I think add excitement for your upcoming play.
Podcasts are not as complicated as some might think. It doesn’t need to be every blog and doesn’t need to be done as a program, per se. A quick sound file with this blog of this reading would add a sense of personal touch to the audience and might help to bring them in to the play itself.
What you have right here could be simply read and recorded as a sound file with the text remaining in the blog, too. Then someone can ‘read along’ as you speak. (This is something I actually do for Podcasts – write it out, then record it -as it helps me to keep within time limits, too.) You would upload the sound file (mp3 is best) to your Web Site and then make a link to the file on you blog. If that takes too much memory for your Site to absorb, I would suggest uploading to archive.org and then making a link to the file from there.
Certainly there are other things that can be done for Podcasts (linking it to Feedburner and iTunes); but it needed be. It can be as simple as a link to a sound file. I am saying this because I truly feel this would be something neat here. Adding dimension and a personal touch.
With much luck for your upcoming plays – they sound great!
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