valuable new information about Marlowe's Cambridge
career from the Corpus Christi College Account books.
To Mr. Bakeless we are now indebted for disclosing a fresh
source in the College Buttery books recording Kit's ex-
penditure from week to week, of which he gave a few
details in his recent volume, Christopher Marlowe. By the
kindness of the Estates Bursar of Corpus Christi College,
Mr. T. R. B. Sanders, I have been able to examine the
Buttery books and to draw conclusions from the evidence
that they supply, compared with that of the scholarship
payments in the Account books, about the periods of
Marlowe's residence at the College. The Estates Bursar
has also allowed me to reproduce part of a leaf from the
Buttery book that contains Marlowe's first item of ex-
penditure. Other documents here reproduced in facsi-
mile, so far as I know, for the first time are the inquisi-
tion returned by the Coroner on Marlowe's death ¹ and
parts of Richard Baines's original 'Note'.

While not attempting to fill in the background of the
Elizabethan 'scene' or theatre I have tried to follow up
all clues concerning Marlowe himself and such related
figures as Poley, Frizer, and Baines. Here I have in-
corporated parts of Marlowe and his Circle, with the
requisite additions and modifications. Every piece of new
evidence gives greater significance to Poley's career and
brings Richard Baines into clearer view. It will be seen
that the picture here presented of Marlowe differs in con-
siderable degree from the traditional conception of him as
'unhappy in his life and end', though an enigmatic element
remains.

In my critical interpretation of the plays and poems
special attention has been given to two aspects. Recent
investigation has proved that, however revolutionary
otherwise, Marlowe was remarkably faithful to his
sources. I have therefore entered into a detailed analy-
sis of his plots in relation to these sources, and I have

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