Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) was an English playwright and poet, the most celebrated dramatist in London before Shakespeare. Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus and The Jew of Malta gave English drama its 'mighty line'. He was killed in a tavern brawl at twenty-nine.
Works
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Canterbury and Cambridge
Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury in February 1564, the son of a shoemaker, a few weeks before Shakespeare. He won scholarships to the King's School in Canterbury and to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
In 1587 the university hesitated to grant him his master's degree because of his absences, until the Privy Council intervened, stating that he had done the queen good service. Historians believe he was working as an agent of the government.
The playwright
In London, his two-part Tamburlaine the Great (1587–1588), about a Scythian shepherd who conquers an empire, was a triumph. Its powerful blank verse transformed English tragedy.
Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, Edward II and The Massacre at Paris followed, as well as poems such as Hero and Leander and The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. His work influenced the young Shakespeare.
Death at Deptford
In May 1593 Marlowe was arrested in connection with accusations of heresy and ordered to report daily to the Privy Council. On 30 May he spent the day in a house in Deptford with three men linked to the world of spies.
According to the coroner's inquest, he was stabbed above the eye by one of them, Ingram Frizer, in a quarrel over the bill. The circumstances of his death are still debated.
Anecdotes
The reckoning
The quarrel that led to Marlowe's death was said to be about 'the reckoning', the bill for the day. In As You Like It, Shakespeare seems to allude to it in a line about 'a great reckoning in a little room'.
Discovered in 1925
The coroner's report on Marlowe's death was only found in the National Archives in 1925, by the scholar Leslie Hotson.
Frequently asked questions
How did Christopher Marlowe die?
He was stabbed in the head by Ingram Frizer in a house in Deptford on 30 May 1593, according to the inquest during a quarrel over the bill.
What are Marlowe's main plays?
Tamburlaine the Great, Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta and Edward II.
Was Marlowe a spy?
Many historians think he worked for Queen Elizabeth's secret service, as suggested by the Privy Council's letter of 1587 and by the men present at his death.