A the fifteenth century was nearing its close there
was born in the Bavarian medieval it of Nuremberg,
on 5 November 1494, the cobbler-poet, Hans Sachs. His
life, divided, as has been said, between his last and his lyre,
was prolonged for what was at that time an unusual
span, till 1576. By 1567, according to his own computa-
tion, he had written over 4,000 Meisterlieder, 1,700 tales
and poems, and over 200 dramas, mainly dialogue-pieces
or Shrovetide farces. Three years before this date, in the
English medieval city of Canterbury, there was born to
another shoemaker, John Marlowe, a son, Christopher,
whose life's measure was to be little more than a third of
that of Sachs, and who, leaving behind him less than a
dozen plays and poems has through them brought im-
perishable reflected glory to the paternal 'gentle craft'.

It is not, however, as shoemakers that Marlowes first
appear in the Canterbury city records. The name had
even more than the normal auota of variant spellings--
Marlowe, Marlow, Marloe, Marlo, Marlen, Marlin, Mar-
lyne, Marlinge, Merlin, Marley, Marlye, Morley, Morle.
In 1414 William Morle, a fuller, became a freeman of the
city by redemption, on payment of ten shillings. In 1438
Simon Morle, a vintner, was similarly admitted. In 1459
Thomas Morle, son of William, and also a fuller, gained the
privilege without payment by virtue of his birth. In 1478
Thomas Marlow, roper, was admitted by redemption.

A fuller, a vintner, and a roper have little in common
with a shoemaker, but John Marley, a tanner, admitted
a freeman by redemption in 1467, introduces into the
record of the Canterbury Marlowes a closely allied trade.
John was followed both as a tanner and a freeman by his

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