MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER (1564–1593)
Born in Canterbury in 1564, Christopher Marlowe was
the son of a shoemaker. In January 1579, he was
awarded a scholarship to the King’s School in Canter-
bury. Near the end of 1580, he enrolled at Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge University, where he had
received a scholarship intended for students who
planned to become clergymen. He received his B.A. in
July 1584 and his M.A. in July 1587. The award of the
latter degree has left a tantalizing biographical mystery.
The university was going to deny the M.A. to Marlowe
because of a rumor that he was planning to enter the
English seminary at Rheims (that is, convert to Roman
Catholicism). However, the Privy Council intervened
on Marlowe’s behalf in June, writing that “he had done
her majesty good service” and that his degree should
not be hindered. Precisely what service Marlowe had
provided is not known, though it is usually thought to
have involved some kind of undercover work, perhaps
as a courier or spy.
After graduation, Marlowe embarked on a literary
career in London. Several of his works are commonly
attributed to his years in Cambridge, though without
hard evidence: All Ovid’s Elegies; “The PASSIONATE SHEP-
HERD TO HIS LOVE”; and his tragedy Dido, Queen of Car-
thage. The fi rst part of Tamburlaine the Great must have
been written in Cambridge as well, since part 2 of the
play was already being performed by fall 1587. Between
1588 and 1592, Marlowe authored four more plays:
Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, The Massacre at Paris,
and Edward II. Their order and precise dating are
uncertain. His poem “On the Death of Sir Roger Man-
wood” was written sometime after Sir Roger’s death in
December 1592, with HERO AND LEANDER and Marlowe’s
translation of Lucan’s First Book probably following in
1593.
This brief career encompasses extraordinary accom-
plishment, infl uence, and innovation. Marlowe’s
much-imitated lyric “The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love” established the classical “invitation” poem in
English literature, and his translations of OVID’s Amores
and the fi rst book of Lucan’s Pharsalia are the fi rst in
English. All Ovid’s Elegies revitalized the use of the
HEROIC COUPLET in early modern England; and Tambur-
laine, together with Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy,
made BLANK VERSE into the standard meter of English
Renaissance drama. His Hero and Leander is the fi nest
EPYLLION in English, approached only by WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE’s VENUS AND ADONIS. Marlowe and Shake-
speare clearly imitated and learned from each other in
their drama as well, and while Shakespeare’s plays
would soon transcend Marlowe’s, Marlowe was the
more prominent playwright at the time.
Marlowe’s life in London was not simply the life of a
sedate and scholarly writer. It is commonly assumed
that he continued to perform at least occasional under-
cover services for the government. Records also exist of
several violent or criminal acts in which he was
involved. In 1589, he was involved in a swordfi ght
with one William Bradley. The poet Thomas Watson
intervened and killed Bradley. Marlowe was arrested
and released; Watson pled self-defense and was par-
doned. In 1592, Marlowe and Richard Baines were
arrested in Flushing, the Netherlands, for counterfeit-
ing. He was returned to England and apparently suf-
fered no legal consequences. Baines later accused
Marlowe of atheism and sodomy.
In 1593, Thomas Kyd, with whom Marlowe once
roomed, was arrested and tortured on suspicion of
authoring a libel against immigrants. A document
found in Kyd’s possession was deemed heretical, and
he claimed that it belonged to Marlowe. Shortly there-
after, Marlowe was arrested by the Privy Council, who
received additional reports of Marlowe’s atheism,
including the note from Baines. Released on his own
cognizance, four days later, on May 30, Marlowe was
killed in a tavern brawl at Eleanor Bull’s house in Dept-
ford, a suburb of London. Ingram Frizer stabbed Mar-
lowe over the bill, and one of the greatest geniuses of
English literature was dead at the age of 29.
FURTHER READING
Honan, Park. Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2005.
Hopkins, Lisa. Christopher Marlowe: A Literary Life. Hound-
mills, U.K.: Palgrave, 2000.
Kuriyama, Constance Brown. Christopher Marlowe: A Renais-
sance Life. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002.
Riggs, David. The World of Christopher Marlowe. New York:
Henry Holt, 2004.
Bruce E. BrandtMARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER 265