Arthur_.

MARKHAM, GERVASE (1568?-1637).--Translator and miscellaneous writer,
served as a soldier in the Low Countries and Ireland. Retiring into civil
life about 1593 he displayed extraordinary industry as a translator,
compiler, and original writer. Among his original writings are a poem on
the _Revenge_ (1595) (Sir R. Grenville's ship), a continuation of
Sidney's _Arcadia_, _The Discourse of Horsemanshippe_ (1593), _The Young
Sportsman's Instructor_, _Country Contentments_ (1611), and various books
on agriculture; also plays and poems, some of the latter of which are
religious.

MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER (1564-1593).--Dramatist, _s._ of a shoemaker at
Canterbury, where he was _b._, was _ed._ at the King's School there, and
in 1581 went to Benet's (now Corpus Christi) Coll., Camb., where he
graduated B.A. 1583, and M.A. in 1587. Of his life after he left the
Univ. almost nothing is known. It has, however, been conjectured, partly
on account of his familiarity with military matters, that he saw service,
probably in the Low Countries. His first play, _Tamburlaine_, was acted
in 1587 or 1588. The story is drawn from the Spanish Life of Timur by
Pedro Mexia. Its resounding splendour, not seldom passing into bombast,
won for it immediate popularity, and it long held the stage. It was
followed in 1604 by _Faustus_, a great advance upon _Tamburlaine_ in a
dramatic sense. The absence of "material horror" in the treatment, so
different in this respect from the original legend, has often been
remarked upon. M.'s handling of the subject was greatly admired by
Goethe, who, however, in his own version, makes the motive knowledge,
while M. has power, and the mediaeval legend pleasure. In his next play,
_The Jew of Malta_, M. continues to show an advance in technical skill,
but the work is unequal, and the Jew Barabas is to Shylock as a monster
to a man. In _Edward II._, M. rises to his highest display of power. The
rhodomontade of _Tamburlaine_ and the piled-up horror of _The Jew_ are
replaced by a mature self-restraint, and in the whole workmanship he
approaches more nearly to Shakespeare than any one else has ever done.
Speaking of it Lamb says, "The death scene of Marlowe's King moves pity
and terror beyond any scene, ancient or modern, with which I am
acquainted." M. is now almost certainly believed to have had a large
share in the three parts of _Henry VI._, and perhaps also he may have
collaborated in _Titus Andronicus_. His