The Reputation of Christopher Marloivc. 3S1 



contaminations from the Jcic, was acted even later than the closing 

 of the theatres in 1642.'^ To the evidence which Cowley's Guar- 

 dian gives for a late revival of Tamburlainc at the Bull"* should 

 Ije added the statement of Edmund Gayton (Fcstirous Notes on 

 Don Quixote, 1654) on the particular popularity of that play and 

 The Jczv of Malta: 



I have known, upon one of these festivals . . . where the players have 

 Ijeen appointed, notwithstanding their bills to the contrary, to act what the 

 major part of the company had a mind to; sometimes Tamburlainc, some- 

 limes Jugnrth, sometimes The Jez^' of Malta, and sometimes parts of all 

 these . . . 



]\Iarlowe's plays were early carried to Germany In' English 

 acting companies ; and two of them — Doctor Faustus and The Jczv 

 of Malta — enjoyed there a lasting vogue. The traveling diary 

 of a merchant from \\Tirteml)erg is said to record the performance 

 at Frankfort duriiig the autumn fair of 1592 of several plays of 

 the *dort im Inselland gar heriihmten Herrn Christopher ]\Iar- 

 lowe.''' The company was that of Robert Browne, which had left 

 England the previous year, and the language was presumably 

 English. A letter of the Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Graz 

 notes the performance by English actors (under the leadership 

 of John Green) on Sunday. February 10, 1608 of 'dockhtor 

 Faustus' and on the Thursday following 'von dem Juden, die sy 

 auch zu passau gehalten haben.''*' The same company, still under 



" See below, p. 385. 



" See above, p. ^,72. 



'" Cf . J. Meissner, Die cngUschen Komocdianten aiir Zeit Shakespcares in 

 Oesterreieh, p. 89 f . ; and particularly Elisabeth Mentzel, Geschichte der 

 Schauspielkunst itiFrankfiirt aui Main. The chapter in the latter work on 

 'Die ersten Berufskomodianten in Frankfurt' notes that the repertory of the 

 tirst English actors and the place in Frankfurt where they performed are 

 not indicated in the extant documents. The author then continues (p. 23) : 

 'Aber was hier unzulanglich ist, crgiinzt eine Notiz aus dem Reisebiichlein 

 eines "Wiirtenbergischen Kaufmanns," der einige Jahre friiher eine Reise 

 nach "dem Inselland" unternommen hatte und der englischen Sprache voU- 

 standig mjichtig war. Hiernach wurdcn wahrend seiner Aufenthaltes in 

 der Herbstmesse 1592 von den "Englischen" in Frankfurt mehrere Stiicke 

 des "dort im Inselland gar beriihmten Herrn Christopher Marlowe" und 

 auch "das lustig Spill Gammer Gurtons Needle mit allerley kunstlich Verdre- 

 hungen auf das theatro gebracht." ' The document cited appears now to be 

 untraceable. 



'" The performance at Passau took place during the previous November. 

 See Meissner, p. 76. 



