At a Glance
Christopher Marlowe will, historically, always be a runner-up to Shakespeare. Although Marlowe was one of the earliest writers to make use of blank verse, the style is most often associated with Shakespeare. Adding insult to injury, Marlowe’s early plays have been overshadowed by some of Shakespeare’s works that “borrowed” certain character ideas (see, for example, the similarities between Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice). And finally, Marlowe’s body of work is less expansive than the Bard’s—but perhaps only because Shakespeare managed to live a full three decades longer than Marlowe did. Despite these inevitable comparisons, Marlowe’s plays have stood the test of time and should be regarded as classics in their own right.
Facts and Trivia
- Marlowe was stabbed to death at the age of twenty-nine under circumstances that remain a mystery to this day. Some believe his death was faked and that he continued to write plays under Shakespeare’s name.
- Like many of Shakespeare’s plays, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus has been scrutinized for its authorship. Two different versions of the work were published over a decade apart, and many believe that another author (or authors) added many of the comic scenes that make up the middle of the play.
- One of the many, many rumors surrounding Marlowe’s life is that he was a spy in the service of Queen Elizabeth I. In fact, some scholars believe that Marlowe’s death—usually thought to be the result of a bar fight—was an assassination.
- Another area of speculation in Marlowe’s life is his sexuality. The question of whether or not he was gay is most often tied to same-sex love themes in his poetry and plays. The clearest example of this is in Edward II, which follows a monarch who rejects his queen in favor of a male lover.
- Despite the endless comparisons, the overlap between Marlowe’s and Shakespeare’s careers is relatively brief. Shakespeare arrived in London only a few short years before Marlowe’s murder.
Download Christopher Marlowe Study Guide
Biography
(History of the World: The Renaissance)
Article abstract: An author concerned largely with the question of power and how it affects human beings, Marlowe was complex, lyrical, and frequently erotic in both his dramatic and his poetic writing.
Early Life
Dead at twenty-nine from stab wounds suffered in a tavern brawl, Christopher Marlowe led a life of violence, intrigue, mystery, and remarkable productivity. His dramas and poetry have established him as an Elizabethan dramatist second only to William Shakespeare. It is tempting to speculate on what he might have produced had he lived a normal life span.
The son of John and Catherine Arthur Marlowe, Christopher was born on February 6, 1564, and was thus almost an exact contemporary of Shakespeare, who was born on or near April 23 of the same year. Marlowe was the second child in a family of nine children, six of whom, two boys and four girls, survived infancy. John Marlowe was a leatherworker and a member of an affluent guild in Canterbury, the Kentish cathedral town in southeastern England in which the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket is located.
Despite the prosperity of the guild to which he belonged, John Marlowe was not a wealthy man. His family had gained the reputation of being contentious and litigious. John, judging from court records of the time, followed in his ancestors’ footsteps, as did his offspring. John was said to be loud, arrogant, demanding, and profligate.
Marlowe was enrolled in the King’s School in Canterbury—a noble institution of which Roger Ascham had been headmaster in the generation before Marlowe—at fifteen, the top age for admitting new students. The school was renowned for its emphasis on theater and was considered one of the best schools in Elizabethan England. The young Marlowe, fair of countenance, with unruly dark hair and the bright eyes of one ever alert to and aware of his surroundings, read selectively in the extensive private library of the headmaster, concentrating on medieval...
(The entire section is 4,546 words.)