Tamburlaine Must Die Read Free Page A

friends.'

    `Perhaps
Master Kyd has fewer friends than I.' I hesitated, but hearing no
cock-crow went on. `I count him an acquaintance. Since I quit the
service of our mutual patron we've seen each other only when our
paths crossed by chance.'

    `Did
you ever have him copy work for you?? 'He is a scrivener, son of a
scrivener, and makes fine copies by dint of practice. It would not be
strange if I had asked him to scribe for me, but I can recollect no
occasion when I did so.' At the far end of the room the tapestry
wavered, but whether it was the movement of some concealed listener,
or merely in response to a draught as somewhere a door closed, I
could not tell.

    The
man's voice became dangerously intimate. `So you would deny that a
piece of heresy copied in Kyd's hand was initiated by you??

    'I
do deny it. I'm accountable for my own writing and blameless of other
men's heresies.' The questioning was taken up from the other side of
the table.

    `But
you are responsible for your own heresies?' My voice wavered with the
effort of freeing contradiction from insult.

    `I
make no heresies, your Lordships.'

    `But
there are some who accuse you of being an atheist and attempting to
recruit others to the cause.'

    `Then
they are liars spreading slander.' `Perhaps,' the new speaker's voice
was smooth with a polite disinterest, which belied the sting in his
words. `But your play Tamburlaine is known as an atheist tract. It
seems strange for a man who is no heretic to write sacrilege.'

    `Sir,
you know that there are those who dispute our right to have plays at
all. Tamburlaine was submitted to your Lordships' scrutiny and found
to be in accord. Whoever describes it thus casts a slur not just on
me but on Her Majesty's Privy Council.'

    He
ignored my speech and raised a ragged handbill.

    `Can
you account for this?

    The
bill was tattered and torn, it had been roughly pasted somewhere
before it was ripped down and delivered to the Council. Traces of the
paste used to stick it in place still curled its edges, but the words
were clear enough. Tou strangers that do inhabit in this land, Note
this same writing, do it understand. Conceive it well, for safeguard
your lives, Tour goods; your children, & your dearest wives . . .
Tour Machiavellian Merchant spoils the state, Tour usury doth leave
us all for dead, Tour artifex & craftsman works our fate And like
the 7ews you eat us up as bread. Since words nor threats nor any
other thing Can make you to avoid this certain ill,

    We'll
cut your throaty, in your temples praying, No Paris massacre so much
blood did spill. Signed, Tamburlaine `This bill refers to your plays
Tamburlaine and Massacre of Paris, does it not?

    The
Privy Council stared at me unblinking, like an audience absorbed in
the final act of a thrilling play.

    `Sirs,
anyone who thinks this my handiwork insults me not simply because of
its abhorrent sentiments but because of the ill-formed nature of the
verse. If I were to write a libel I would not make it so illiterate.
I can only think that this has been contrived with my slander in
mind, or by someone who, liking my poetry, has made some misguided
attempt to imitate it. It does not reflect my views or my ability.
Ask any poet you care to, even one who hates me, and he will tell you
the same.'

    `We
asked Thomas Kyd. He seemed to think it the kind of libel you would
relish.'

    Even
though the knowledge had been with me from the first mention of his
name, confirmation of Kyd's betrayal made me flinch. I gathered
myself and cast my eyes around the assembly, hoping to impress my
innocence on them.

    `It
is not, but even if it were, I have been away from London this last
month.'

    `Not
so far you couldn't return.' `Aye sir, but I didn't.'

    It
occurred to me I could cite Walsingham as witness to my unbroken stay
at Scadbury, but I kept silent. Friends do not thank you for Council
summons and I realised I was unsure my patron would provide an alibi.
My uncertainty came as a