[23] In their edition of Love's Labour's Lost (1923, p. xxxiii), Mr. Dover Wilson and Professor Quiller-Couch erroneously include the name of the ingenious Stanley, fifth Earl of Derby, in this group. George Chapman, the authorities say, was one of the coterie; Shakspere was not, as far as we know.
[24] An account of these documents (MS. Harl. 6842, ff. 183-90) and extracts from them were published by Mr. J.M. Stone ("Atheism under Elizabeth and James I." in The Month for June, 1894, vol. 81, pp. 174-87) and by Professor Boas (in Literature, Nos. 147 and 148).
[25] Works of Thomas Kyd, p. lxxiii.
[26] Harriott was again coupled with Marlowe in a letter (Harl. MS. 6848, f. 176) written to Justice Young by a spy concerning Cholmely and his "crues." We may recall that at Sir Walter's trial, in 1603, Lord Chief Justice Coke branded the accused as "a damnable atheist" and denounced him for associating with that "devil" Harriott.
[27] This "note Containing the opinion of on[e] Christopher Marly, Concerning his damnable Judgment of Religion and scorn of gods words" (Harl. MS. 6848, fol. 185-6, also Harl. MS. 6853, fo. 320) has been reprinted in an expurgated version by Boas (op. cit., pp. cxiv-cxvi), by Ingram (op. cit., pp. 260-2) and in Mr. H. Ellis's "unexpurgated" edition of Marlowe's Plays in the Mermaid Series (1893, pp. 428-30). It is transcribed, without abridgement, in my Notes and Additions to 'The Books of Sir Thomas Moore.'
[28] Concerning Baines we are told by Mr. Havelock Ellis (op. cit., p. xliv) that he "was hanged at Tyburn next year for some degrading offence," but, as Mr. Ellis says, "there seems no reason—while making judicious' reservations—to doubt the substantial accuracy of his statements."
[29] That Poley was a "secret agent" we know from Conyers Read's Mr. Secretary Walsingham, 1925, II. 383. For additional information about him, see Mr. Chambers' review of Hotson's book, in Modern Language Review, 1926, vol. 21, pp. 84-85.
[30] For a translation of the Coroner's report, see pp. 71-75.
[31] William Vaughan, who has given us (in his Golden Grove, 1600) the most nearly authentic account of the assassination, tells us that Ingram invited Marlowe to Deptford "to a feast." Neither Frizer, Skeres, nor Poley, be it remembered, gave the Coroner any explanation of how they happened to meet Marlowe that morning and why they did not leave him out of their sight all day.
[32] For expert medical opinions on this matter, see pp. 65-67.