2.9: Christopher Marlowe

Early Life and Education

Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564, the son of a shoemaker. He attended King’s School in Canterbury and then, by winning an Archbishop Parker scholarship, he studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree which should have been followed three years later by a Master’s degree. To earn a Master’s, Marlowe was expected to take orders. He did not, so the university awarded Marlowe the Master's only after receiving a letter from the Privy Council, which speaks to mysteries and uncertainties in Marlowe’s activities while at Cambridge. During the time he was ostensibly studying for his Master’s, Marlowe left Cambridge for extended lengths of time. His destinations and actions during these frequent absences remain unknown. However, the Privy Council reassured the university by letter, declaring that Marlowe was working for England’s benefit and for the Queen’s good service. Some scholars believe that this service involved spying against expatriate Roman Catholics (and their conspiracies against Elizabeth) in Rheims. Marlowe’s work remaining a mystery suggests that it was deliberately kept secret by the government.

 A Bold New Voice in Elizabethan Theater

His post-graduate public career began when he left Cambridge for London. There, he may have continued his work for the government, but it is proven that he began writing plays. His play Tamburlaine the Great (1590) proved a great success and heralded the new age of great Elizabethan Theater, directly influencing its development. Marlowe was one of the first playwrights to use blank verse; Thomas Kyd (1558- 1594) imitated it in The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1585). Marlowe’s style was astounding; his title characters and his plays’ actions are larger than life—almost incomprehensibly so. Edward II was a powerful monarch who was also flawed and ultimately deposed (though it is unclear whether or not Marlowe wrote a play called Edward II); the Jew of Malta was phenomenally wealthy yet morally bankrupt; Dr. Faustus is a demigod in his magical powers and heedlessly diminishes and damns himself. In Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Faustus aspires to a dominion that stretches “as far as doth the mind of man” but ultimately wishes to be changed to a dumb beast (7, 73-75).

Controversy, Death, and Lasting Influence

Marlowe’s own character may have been as compelling and ambiguous as those in his plays. Suspicion surrounded him, and friends and acquaintances denounced him for atheism or leanings toward the Roman Catholic faith. In 1593, Thomas Kyd, with whom Marlowe at one time shared lodgings, testified that Marlowe had read atheistical texts, on the basis of which Marlowe was arrested for heresy (which was then a crime). He was not brought to trial, nor even imprisoned. Instead, he was released on the condition that he report to an officer of the court. Within days of his release, Marlowe was killed by Ingram Frizer (d. 1627). Apparently, the two fought over a lodging house bill, and Frizer fatally stabbed Marlowe in the forehead. Frizer served Sir Francis Walsingham (c. 1532-1590), who ran an intelligence service. Some scholars believe Frizer assassinated Marlowe for being a spy or counter-spy, but there is no evidence to prove this.

We do know that Marlowe was an extraordinary artist and playwright, one who certainly influenced his contemporaries, including William Shakespeare. Shakespeare also created a famously-divided character similar to Dr. Faustus in his play Hamlet and an avaricious, vengeful Jew through his character Shylock. When Shakespeare acknowledges envy for “this man’s art" in his poem "Sonnet 29," it is a wonder if he may have had Marlowe in mind.

Works Cited

Marlowe, Christopher. Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus with Related Texts, edited by Stephen J. Lynch, Hackett Publishing Company, 2023, pp. 1-77. EBSCO, (CRC Library).

Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 29." The Sonnets. Project Gutenberg.