The major question raised by Nicholl is why, if Marlowe were employed by the Cecils, he did not use the fact to exonerate himself. Nicholls has several answers, the most important being that Marlowe did not have “the all important warranty which would prove it” (42 yes 42) which only raises more questions. If employed by the Cecils, why was this unofficial? Clearly Sidney did not know about any mission, and if Marlowe kept quiet, he was risking summary punishment under martial law, which happened to another Burghley agent, Ralph Birkinshaw who had his ears cut off. But this did not happen to Marlowe and he escaped scot free. Nicholl has no explanation for what Marlowe is doing in Flushing, admitting “Whether Flushing was his only destination, or whether he was en route to or from other places in the Netherlands, we do not know” and that “I can find nothing about Gilbert”. (43)
Of the other three major authors to have published on Marlowe in the twentyfirst century, and have dealt with the Flushing episode Professor Kuriyama has nothing to say about the goldsmith or an attempt to reach Stanley’s Catholic rebels. She accepts Baines and Marlowe were agents, and possibly their business would involve counterfeiting writing “Baines was a government agent like Marlowe, he was presumably in Flushing on business, so why would Baines inform on Marlowe and abort the operation, and incense his superiors?” (44). She has no discussion of what their superiors might want. Kuriyama neglects to examine why Marlowe was in Flushing with a goldsmith.
Honan sees the relationship of Marlowe and the goldsmith as already prepared, with Baines accidentally falling in with the two – why he was in Flushing he does not examine – and “Sooner or later Baines posed a distinct problem for his chambermates… he might be very dangerous. The throttling of Baines… did not seem a viable option: and how to get rid of a corpse may not have been included in the Cecils’ instructions (45) a statement which like Nicholls assumes the mission had been approved by the de facto controllers of government activities.
The reasons for the mission are not discussed at length, Honan only hinting that Marlowe
was seeking to offer the goldsmith – and thus coining – to the Catholics but “Marlowe faced some difficulties: If he meant to reach the Brussels group, he had to advertise Gilbert’s skills discreetly… (and that TF) …in the enemy’s zone in Brussels, Sir William Stanley was little more than a figurehead” (46). Honan unusually does not see Stanley as having an important role to play and the objective of setting Marlowe to reach the Catholics in Brussels is not explained, but Honan is firm in his belief Marlowe and Gilbert were agents employed by Burghley.
This view is shared by David Riggs, whose sketch of the episode in his chapter 13 (47) covers the known facts clearly, but does not explain why the three men behaved as they did. He assumes that Marlowe’s passport was checked by Sidney and joined up with the other two “ When and how this trio came together is unknown” but that the Stanley plots could be a reason for Baines and Marlowe being in Flushing, to gain information from the Catholic rebels. Riggs argues “the counterfeiting scheme brings Marlowe a step closer to the Stanley conspirators at Brussels and Nijmegen” and Marlowe is “supposed to go to the enemy” (48) but Baines gets cold feet and brings the garrison commander to stop Marlowe working. After a brief unrelated discussion that Marlowe was looking for a publication for a seditious book, perhaps the one Kyd was to get in trouble for two years later, Riggs finishes by noting when Marlowe was sent to Burghley “Burghley had the authority to hang him” (49) but he is let free. Riggs concludes that Burghley had decided to hold both Baines and Marlowe in reserve – without providing any evidence for Baines being one of his agents. Marlowe is assumed to be an agent of the Cecils but again without evidence. We are back at the problem set out by Nicholl that if Marlowe was an agent – he lacked the warrant which would protect him from summary justice by the garrison commander, which could be savage indeed.