“As I soon discovered, for before I had time to say to Henslowe the words, ‘To thy good health,’ as I drank, Jonson said, ‘And what cares he for blood when wine will quench his thirst.’ Thus beginning with a sly sneer at Tamburlaine.”
“He evidently considers Shakespere an imitator of the dead Marlowe,” said Peele, looking at Marlowe.
“Not necessarily,” remarked Marlowe, “I hardly think that the passage from Tamburlaine was in his mind. He had evidently just read the first scene of Romeo and Juliet, where the prince rebukes his subjects for quenching their rage ‘With purple fountains issuing from your veins.’”[29]
“Ah! there it is again,” exclaimed Peele.
“Well, I paid no attention to Jonson, but addressed myself to Henslowe. The upshot of the matter was that he wanted no more plays with plots laid in foreign lands.”
“You are right,” interrupted Marlowe, “he is under Jonson’s influence.”
“Jonson had much to say in the conversation. At one time he asked me if I did not think I was following too closely the ‘mighty lines’ of Marlowe to ever be deemed anything more than a mere imitator, and he whipped out this paper, which he said I might keep for future reference, and as a warning that his eyes were open. He either knew that what he had read of Romeo and Juliet was written by thee, Marlowe, or he wanted no thefts to be made from his own plays. This is his arraignment:
‘If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.’
—Romeo and Juliet, ii, 1.
Love moderately, long love doth so.
—Romeo and Juliet, ii, 6.
Love goes toward love.
—Romeo and Juliet, ii, 2.