next plays, _The Massacre of
Paris_ and _The Tragedy of Dido_ (written with Nash, _q.v._), both show a
marked falling off; and it seems likely that in his last years, perhaps,
breaking down under the effects of a wild life, he became careless of
fame as of all else. Greene, in his _Groat's Worth of Wit_, written on
his deathbed, reproaches him with his evil life and atheistic opinions,
and a few days before his hapless death an information was laid against
him for blasphemy. The informer was next year hanged for an outrageous
offence, and his witness alone might not be conclusive, but M.'s life and
opinions, which he made no secret of, were notorious. On the other hand,
his friends, Shakespeare, Nash, Drayton, and Chapman, all make kindly
reference to him. To escape the plague which was raging in London in
1593, he was living at Deptford, then a country village, and there in a
tavern brawl he received a wound in the head, his own knife being turned
against him by a serving man, upon whom he had drawn it. The quarrel was
about a girl of the town. The parish record bears the entry, "Christopher
Marlowe, slain by ffrancis Archer, the 1 of June 1593." M. is the father
of the modern English drama, and the introducer of the modern form of
blank verse. In imagination, richness of expression, originality, and
general poetic and dramatic power he is inferior to Shakespeare alone
among the Elizabethans. In addition to his plays he wrote some short
poems (of which the best known is _Come live with me and be my love_),
translations from Ovid's _Amores_ and Lucan's _Pharsalia_, and a glowing
paraphrase of Musaeus' _Hero and Leander_, a poem completed by Chapman.

Ed. of _Works_ by Dyce, Cunningham, and Bullen; Ingram's _C. Marlowe and
his Associates_, etc.

MARMION, SHACKERLEY (1603-1639).--Dramatist, _s._ of a country gentleman
of Northamptonshire, was _ed._ at Oxford. After a youth of extravagance,
he fought in the Low Countries. His writings consist of an epic, _Cupid
and Psyche_, and three comedies, _Holland's Leaguer_, _A Fair Companion_,
and _The Antiquary_. His plays show some power of satire, and were
popular, but he had little of the dramatist.

MARRYAT, FREDERICK (1792-1848).--Novelist, _s._ of a West India merchant,
was _b._ in London. In 1806 he entered the navy as a midshipman under
Lord Cochrane (afterwards Earl of Dundonald), and saw much service in the
Mediterranean, at Walcheren, and in the Burmese War of 1824