352 Tucker Brooke, 



intended in the allusion to 'the onely Shake-scene in a countrie.' 

 In this earliest reference, then, Greene very neatly caught the two 

 sides of Marlowe's reputation which piqued the imagination of his. 

 contemporaries. They continued to think of him chiefly either as 

 the creator of the mighty line or as the reckless utterer of atheistic 

 iconoclasm. 



No new element, beyond the deeper strain of moral admonition, 

 is found in the words which Greene addresses to Marlowe in the 

 Groatsworth of Wit (1592) : 



Wonder not, (for with thee wil I first begin), thou famous gracer of 

 Tragedians, that Greene, who hath said with thee like the foole in his heart. 

 There is no God, should now giue glorie vnto his greatnesse : for penitrating 

 is his power, his hand lies heauie vpon me, he hath spoken vnto me with a 

 voice of thunder, and I haue felt he is a God that can punish enimies. Why 

 should thy excellent wit, his gift, be so blinded, that thou shouldst giue no 

 glory to the giuer? Is it pestilent Machiuilian pollicie that thou hast 

 studied? O punish f ollie ! What are his rules but meere confused mock- 

 eries, able to extirpate in small time, the generation of mankinde. For if 

 Sic volo, sic iubeo, hold in those that are able to comma"nd : and if it be 

 lawful! Fas & nefas to doe any thing that is beneficiall, onely Tyrants should 

 possesse the earth, and they striuing to exceede in tyranny, should each to 

 other bee a slaughter man ; till the mightiest outlining all, one stroke were 

 left for Death, that in one age man's life should ende. The brother of this 

 Diabolicall Atheisme is dead, and in his life had neuer the felicitie he aimed 

 at: but as he began in craft, liued in feare, and ended in despaire. Qiiam 

 inscrutabilia sunt Dei indicia ? This murderer of many brethren, had his 

 conscience seared like Caine : this betrayer of him that gaue his life for him, 

 inherited the portion of ludas : this Apostata perished as ill as lulian : and 

 wilt thou my friend be his Disciple? Looke vnto me, by him perswaded to 

 that libertie, and thou shalt finde it an infernall bondage. I knowe the least 

 of my demerits merit this miserable death, but wilfull striuing against 

 knowne truth, exceedeth all the terrors of my soule. Defer not (with me) 

 till this last point of extremitie ; for little knowest thou how in the end thou 

 shalt be visited. 



Though again Marlowe is not named, it is hardly possible to 

 doubt that he is here meant ; and it is equally probable that it is 

 he whom Chettle's Kind-Harts Drcanic (December, 1592) couples 

 with Shakespeare as having protested against the tone of Greene's 

 address, and of whom Chcttle proceeds to speak very cavalierly: 

 'With neither of them that take otTence was I acquainted, and with 

 one of them 1 care not if I neuer be.' Then Chettle inserts his 

 famous apology to Shakespeare and returns to Marlowe: 'For 

 the first, whose learning I reuerence. and. at the perusing of 



