Another Tom for Kit?

[Marlovian]

Terry asks,

<<When do you think Thorpe witnessed Marlowe's early literary endeavors?>>

I don't know, Terry, when do you think he might have, based on the bographical
data that follows?

Thorpe was born in 1569 or 1570 which made him 5 or 6 years younger than both
Shakespeare and Marlowe. In midsummer 1584 young Thorpe was apprenticed for
nine years to Richard Watkins who had a shop at Little Conduit in Cheapside.
Watkins, a respected member of the Stationers' Company, had been a Warden and
its Master on several occasions. On the fourth of February in 1594 Thorpe took
up his freedom in the Stationers' Company and from then on he had the rights of
a publisher, but not a printer. We don't know the whereabouts of Thorpe during
the six years between the time he gained his freedom from his apprenticeship
until 1600 when he published his first book.
That book on which Thorpe cut his publishing teeth in 1600 was Christopher
Marlowe's THE FIRST BOOK OF LUCAN, Marlowe's translation from the Latin
concerning the war between Caesar and Pompey. He had obtained it in a rather
roundabout way. The work had originally been entered in the Stationers'
Register by publisher John Wolfe in September 1593. At some later date its
copyright was assigned to Edward Blount who sold it-or more likely gave it-to
his young friend, Thorpe.

(excerpt from C.Michaels biography of Thorpe reprinted from Marlovian
newsletter)

David More

[Terry Ross]

I take it that the answer is that there is no evidence, even "hearsay" (to
use your term) that Thorpe ever "witnessed Marlowe's early literary
endeavors" or, for that matter, ever saw Marlowe at all.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Ross Visit the SHAKESPEARE AUTHORSHIP home page
http://www.clark.net/pub/tross/ws/will.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------