Christopher Marlowe 1564 - 1593

The strange life of Christopher Marlowe who was killed and buried in Deptford (neighbouring Greenwich).

Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564, the year of William Shakespeare's birth.

Marlowe was educated at Cambridge and was involved in difficulties there with the authorities with regard to the granting of his Master of Arts degree in 1587. It seems that Marlowe refused to take holy orders and that he was suspected of "converting" to Roman Catholicism. However, the government authorities intervened in Marlowe's behalf, and the degree was granted. Marlowe, at this time, undoubtedly was active in some form of government service.

From 1587 to 1593 Marlowe wrote and produced his plays. He established himself as a major dramatist with Tamburlaine, Parts I and II, The Jew of Malta, Edward the Second, and Doctor Faustus.

Marlowe's death involved considerable intrigue. He was killed on May 30, 1593 in a tavern brawl in Deptford (neighbouring Greenwich) which may well have been part of a deliberate plot to assassinate Marlowe.

Marlowe died at the age of twenty-nine, and it is interesting to note that at this time Shakespeare was just beginning his dramatic career. In many particulars Marlowe gave to the English popular theater the foundation upon which Shakespeare was to build.

Christopher Marlowe & William Shakespeare

Christopher Marlowe was born on 6 February 1564, the eldest son of a shoemaker.  At 23, he went off to London and became the dramatist for the theatre company owned by Lords Admiral and Strange. Christopher had several outside hobbies, like talking to his friend Sir Walter Raleigh, being an atheist, and getting arrested for an 'unspecified' offense.

Marlowe's plays include works such as The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta, Edward the Second, and the infamous Dr. Faustus. His most ambitious work was the heroic epic Tamburlaine the Great, a play in two parts of five acts each. This was in poem form, as all plays were then, but it has the added distinction of being the first play written in English blank verse. Marlowe's pioneering use of blank verse that encouraged Shakespeare to try it. He was the first to write a genuine tragedy in English, again paving the way for Shakespeare. Marlowe also wrote one of the most famous lyric poems in the English language, "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love".

In spring 1593, a friend of Marlowe's was captured and tortured by the Queen's Privy Council.  Based on this 'evidence,' the Council was preparing to arrest Marlowe but before this arrest could take place, Marlowe was killed in a brawl at a tavern (pub) in the town of Deptford.

He was staying there with three of his friends. Ingram Frizer was a known con artist and moneylender. Nicholas Skeres was Frizer's frequent accomplice and probably a fence. Robert Poley was an occasional courier/spy for Her Majesty's secret service, who had boasted of his ability to lie convincingly under any circumstances. Frizer's master, Thomas Walsingham, was a cousin of the noted spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham.

On the night of 30 May 1593, the four of them had just finished eating when Frizer and Marlowe began arguing over the bill.  Marlowe eventually grabbed Frizer's dagger and attacked him from behind, and in the ensuing fight, Frizer regained his dagger and stabbed and killed his friend. He was quickly pardoned on grounds of self-defence.

Both the timing of Marlowe's death and the lack of any retribution against his murderer have led some scholars to theorize that his death was faked and Marlowe himself took up a new identity to escape the Privy Council. Some go so far as to state that this new identity, was, of course, obviously, that of William Shakespeare.

• Useful links about Marlowe
• Was Marlowe the real Shakespeare?