Christopher Marlowe - A Screenplay by Francis Hamit

This Screenplay is the copyright of the Author and must NOT be Performed without the Author's PRIOR consent

INT. QUEEN ELIZABETH’S PRIVATE OFFICE - DAY

The Queen is sitting, a bit majestically, behind a large table. Two of
her ladies are in attendance, handing her various papers to read. She
signs one, then another. Reads a third and then looks sharply at Sir
Robert Cecil, who is standing to one side waiting patiently. She
beckons him over.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
(showing him the paper)
Is this the matter you wished to discuss?

CECIL
Yes, Mum.

She sighs, looks upward and gestures to her ladies.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
Leave us.

The two women exit.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
Pygmy, I would think a lawyer such as yourself would know when not to
bring such a case to my attention. You are unfamiliar with the works
of Machiavelli?

CECIL
Very familiar. I read them daily.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
Then why not just try the man and be done with it? If he has turned
his coat then execute him!

CECIL
It touches Raleigh as well. 'Twas at his house the speech was made.
And we have other proofs.

Queen Elizabeth leans back, studying him carefully.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
So you seek to implicate Sir Walter in heresy? (disgusted) Fie, sir!
You know that his ‘School of Night’ is but a clever trap set for
heretics to bring them out of the dark and into the light where we may
know them. And that Kit Marlowe is simply his unwitting cat’s-paw in
the scheme.

CECIL
So it might seem, but Sir Walter is a devious man.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
And you are more devious still, but you lack the skill that Walsingham
had. You think that, because I banished Walter for getting that little
bitch Bess Throckmorton with child, he is now out of favour and I have
no further use for him? The man is a star soldier and I may yet need
him to lead an army. His head is safe as long as I live. More so than
yours with all your schemes and plots, Robert. You do weary me.

CECIL
I did not mean ...

QUEEN ELIZABETH
Oh, please, Pygmy. Please do not dissemble. For a master of spies, you
are really rather bad at it. Now this Marlowe? He who wrote
Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus and that disgusting play about Edward the
Second, whose vices we tolerate only because he has done us such great
service? Why should he die?

CECIL
He now denies God. Publicly and draws others to that opinion.
Queen Elizabeth reads again the paper, slowly, and finally gives off a
big sigh.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
And in so doing denies me my majesty and right to rule.

CECIL
Just so. And we dare not try him publicly. We have as many secret
atheists as secret Catholics.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
Then dispose of the matter and of him. My pardon for the man who does
the deed be it never revealed. I am sorry it has come to this for I do
love a good play, but prosecute this to the fullest extent.

She signs the death warrant and hands it to Cecil.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
Leave now. I must pray.

INT. RED BULL INN - GREAT ROOM - AFTERNOON

Marlowe is resting.

INT. RED BULL INN - POLEY’S ROOM - EVENING

Poley is alone. He is looking at a paper. He hears sounds from the
Great Room.

INT. RED BULL INN - OUTER TAVERN AREA - EVENING
Marlowe enters, drunk, laughing with Frizer and Skeres.

MARLOWE
Mistress Bull! Give us more beer.

MISTRESS BULL
Aye, sir.

MARLOWE
(to Frizer and Skeres)
Ah, my friends, ‘tis a goodly day ...

SKERES
And a goodly company.

FRIZER
Aye, and with good meat and beer ... and such a fair day.

MARLOWE
And friends. Good friends such as I have not many of nowadays ... for
we are dark and dangerous fellows, tested by the fire. Where is that
Master of Knaves, our good Robert?

SKERES
You forgot, Kit ... he felt poorly and took to his bed for a time.

FRIZER
Let me go up and see to it, Kit.

SKERES
Come, Kit, and we will play at Tables.

MARLOWE
Ah ... a wager then.

SKERES
A shilling on the counter and he who is gammoned pays twice.

INT. RED BULL INN - POLEY’S ROOM - EVENING

FRIZER
Robert?

POLEY
Aye, did ye talk further on it?

FRIZER
He will not be deterred from his rash course. He now speaks of a
pamphlet.

POLEY
Pamphlet? What manner of pamphlet?

FRIZER
His title prospective is 'Policy Gone Mad, or My Secret Services to
the Nation' by Christopher Marlowe, Gentleman and Master of Arts.

POLEY
(a bit stunned)
That's drink talking. He would not be so foolish. But still, he would
prosecute the quarrel with Cecil.

FRIZER
In that madness is he most determined, Robert, and he would have us
its surety.

POLEY
Why, he cannot, for we did swear a solemn oath ne'er to speak nor
write on such service as we have given.

FRIZER
Can he not? He speaks of compelling you, for some irregularity of
accounts. His voice is powerful in the ear, my master, I tremble at
the curses he laid on Cecil's head.

POLEY
There must be a bond between us two and yon Nicholas ... a bond in
blood.

FRIZER
I like not the sound of that.

POLEY
Aye. It means what you think it does.

FRIZER
Murder, then.

POLEY
Assassination, for reasons of state ... it matters not that it touches
our own interests.

FRIZER
Nay, let us be straight each with the other. You've never forgotten
Newgate, and would be revenged on him. His treason is to you. This is
Kit Marlowe, who saved my own life divers times. He is a brother in arms.

POLEY
By law, Ingram. I am no murderer. Here is a secret warrant from the
Star Chamber that commands his death at our hands. For the love of
God, Ingram! He's a mad dog now, full of vice. Do we suffer such an
animal to live, or do our duty and put it down?

[End of Extract]