Tanner, Bibl. Britanniae (1748), says, ‘Petowius in praefatione ad secundam partem Herois et Leandri multa in Marlovii commendationem adfert; hoc etiam facit Tho. Nash in Carmine Elegiaco tragediae Didonis praefixo in obitum Christoph. Marlovii, ubi quatuor eius tragediarum mentionem facit, necnon et alterius de duce Guisio’. The existence of this elegy is confirmed by Warton, who saw it either in 1734 or 1754 (Hist. Eng. Poet. iv. 311; cf. McKerrow, ii. 335). It was ‘inserted immediately after the title-page’, presumably not of all copies, as it is not in the three now known. Whether Nashe’s own share in the work was as collaborator, continuator, or merely editor, remains uncertain. Fleay, ii. 147, gives him only I. i. 122 to end, III. i, ii, iv; IV. i, ii, v; Knutowski regards him as responsible for only a few trifling passages. As, moreover, the play has affinities both to early and to late work by Marlowe, it cannot be dated. Beyond its title-page and that of the anonymous Wars of Cyrus there is nothing to point to any performances by the Chapel between 1584 and 1600. It is true that Tucker Brooke, 389, says, ‘The one ascertained fact concerning the history of this company during the ten years previous to 1594 seems to be that they acted before the Queen at Croydon in 1591, under the direction of N. Giles, and Mr. Fleay assumes, apparently with no further evidence, that Dido was presented on this ‘occasion’. But this only shows what some literary historians mean by an ‘ascertained fact’. A company played Summers Last Will and Testament (q.v.) at Croydon in 1592 and said that they had not played for a twelvemonth. But the Queen was not present, and they are not known to have been the Chapel, whose master was not then Nathaniel Giles. Nor did they necessarily play twelve months before at Croydon; and if they did, there is nothing to show that they played Dido. There is nothing to connect the play with the Admiral’s Dido and Aeneas of 1598 (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 189).
Lust’s Dominion. c. 1600 (?)
1657. Lusts Dominion; Or, The Lascivious Queen. A Tragedie. Written by Christopher Marlowe, Gent. For F. K., sold by Robert Pollard.
Editions by C. W. Dilke (1814, O. E. P. i) and in Dodsley4, xiv (1875).
The attribution of the play, as it stands, to Marlowe is generally rejected. Fleay, i. 272, supported by Greg (Henslowe, ii. 211), suggests an identification with The Spanish Moor’s Tragedy, which Day, Dekker, and Haughton were writing for the Admiral’s in Feb. 1600, although the recorded payment does not show that this was finished. They think that a play in which Marlowe had a hand may perhaps underlie it, and attempt, not wholly in agreement with each other, to distribute the existing scenes amongst the collaborators.
Lost Play
The Maiden’s Holiday
Entered on the Stationers’ Register on 8 April 1654 (Eyre, i. 445) by Moseley as ‘A comedie called The Maidens Holiday by Christopher Marlow & John Day’, and included in Warburton’s list of burnt plays (3 Library, ii. 231) as ‘The Mayden Holaday by Chri[~s]. Marlowe’.
Doubtful Plays
Marlowe’s hand has been sought in An Alarum for London, Contention of York and Lancaster, Edward III, Locrine, Selimus, Taming of A Shrew, and Troublesome Reign of King John (cf. ch. xxiv), and in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Henry VI, and Richard III.