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Part One: (See/print audio script) (pdf doc)
Part Two: (See/print audio script) (pdf doc)
Tommaso spent his first day in London looking for The Mermaid. He couldn’t believe how dirty the city was. People sometimes said that his hometown of Venice was dirty – and it was true, the canals in Venice smelt terrible, especially in the summer – but London was something else! London was a labyrinth of tiny, narrow streets, and buildings that seemed to grow every day. Venice, too, was a labyrinth, but the buildings in Venice were made of beautiful coloured stone, while here in London the buildings were made of wood, paper and straw. They looked very unsafe, small, dark and dirty. Thousands of people packed into these small streets and smaller buildings. Everywhere there was the smell of roasting meat and the horses that passed through the crowds. Eventually, Tommaso found The Mermaid. He went down some stairs into a dark cellar. The only light was from a few candles, even though it was daytime. There was a group of men playing cards sitting at one table, and one other man sitting at the bar. He was asleep, probably drunk, thought Tommaso.
'Excuse me,' Tommaso said to the barman. 'I’m looking for Mr. Christopher Marlowe.'
'There are a lot of people looking for Kit Marlowe,' said the barman. 'Who wants him this time?'
'I have a letter from a friend of his, from Mr. Giordano Bruno in Oxford.' When Tommaso said this name, the drunk man asleep at the bar woke up.
'It’s for me,' he said tiredly. 'Give me the letter then go away.' Tommaso gave him the letter, but he didn’t go away.
'Bruno told me that you are a poet, sir. Is it true?' he asked.
Marlowe looked at Tommaso angrily.
'Of course I’m a poet! I’m the finest poet in England today! Don’t you know anything! Haven’t you heard of Doctor Faustus? Or Tamburlaine?'
Tommaso summoned up his courage and said, “I am a poet too, Mr. Marlowe. I would be very grateful to you if you could read some of my work.” Tommaso pulled out some of the sonnets he had written recently and gave them to Marlowe.
At first Marlowe just laughed, but then he read Tommaso’s sonnets.
'Well, they’re not bad,' he said, 'but they need a bit of work …'
After that Tommaso and Marlowe became friends. Tommaso discovered a whole new world in London with Marlowe, or ‘Kit’ as everybody called him. Marlowe was very interested in Bruno, and asked Tommaso lots of questions about Oxford and the other people there. He wanted to know what Bruno was doing, who he was visiting, what he was writing, and what speeches he had made. Tommaso wanted to help his new friend Kit and told him everything – the rumours of heresy and atheism, the gossip that said Bruno was a spy. Kit was very interested.
There were always a lot of other people with Kit. Tommaso met some of the most important poets in London – Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser were Kit’s friends – and a lot of young poets and playwrights. There was one young man in particular who had written a play set in Verona. He asked Tommaso lots of questions about Venice and Verona and Italy. Tommaso told the young playwright lots of stories that he remembered – the one about the Moorish general in Venice who killed his wife out of jealousy, the one about the Jewish merchant in Venice, then the famous old story about the two rival families in Verona. The playwright was very interested, and wrote everything down.
Kit joked with Tommaso. 'You’re giving him all the best stories! Anyway, you look like him – you could be twins!' Tommaso looked at the man. They both had the same little beard, it was true, and both were wearing one silver earring, both were going a bit bald, but Tommaso couldn’t see a strong resemblance. Besides, Kit made fun of the young playwright’s uneducated country accent. Tommaso didn’t speak like that! No, Tommaso thought, he didn’t look like the young writer with a strange name.
There were also a lot of other people around Kit Marlowe who Tommaso didn’t know. Tommaso didn’t really like these people. A lot of them were dirty and ugly and impolite. They looked like common thieves and criminals. Tommaso couldn’t understand why Kit liked them. When he asked, Kit replied, 'A poet should know everything about life,' but Tommaso thought there was something sinister about these people. Sometimes Kit disappeared for long periods of time. Tommaso had no idea where he went. He thought that a poet’s life was very mysterious.
Things began to get more mysterious, and more complicated. One day Kit had some bad news for Tommaso. He told Tommaso that Bruno had gone back to Italy, and in Italy he had been arrested for heresy. It was a bad situation for Bruno: he risked a death penalty if he didn’t change his dangerous ideas. Tommaso didn’t really understand very much about politics – he believed that poetry was much more important.
'Times are hard for poets, for men of genius and vision,' said Kit. 'Strong forces are trying to control us – but the true poet will not be restricted!' Kit Marlowe did not hide. He became more and more rebellious and wild. Very often he was drunk. When he was drunk he started to shout out his poetry at the top of his voice. Tommaso was a little bit frightened, but also exhilarated and thrilled by the wild, crazy times in London with his new poet friends. Life seemed to be both dangerous and exciting in a way that his life in Venice had never been.
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