"To John Shirley, Canon of Canterbury, Headmaster of The King's School, 1935 - 1962; Friend from Trenarren days."

"As Stratford was a singularly appropriate birthplace for William Shakespeare, in the heart of England, so there was a certain rightness in Christopher Marlowe's birth in Canterbury, that ancient capital of the faith which racked him so much in life, and which he died denying -- on the main road between London and the Continent, looking outward to those wider horizons he always sought."

"Yet, when we consider the significance, the originality and power of his work -- even in bulk his achievement in so short a working life places him alongside the great poets -- when we think of the inspiration as yet not fulfilled, the force that was in him to carry him forward, we may conclude that his was the greatest individual loss our literature has ever suffered."