1564-1593
Christopher
Marlowe's life was more like a James Bond movie than that
of a 16th century writer who wrote the first English tragedies and paved the way for
another famous author, William Shakespeare.
He was born in 1564, in Canterbury, England. When he was ready to go
away to college, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave him a scholarship to
attend England's famous Cambridge University, with the understanding that he
would study for the Anglican ministry.
In 1587, however, the university refused to give Marlowe his masters degree, because
he had visited a Catholic seminary (minister's school) in Rheims, France,
and they thought that he was going to become a Catholic priest instead. Luckily,
the Queen's Council stepped in and said that Marlowe had been sent to Rheims
on business relating to national security. This succeeded in convincing the university
to give Marlowe his degree, but it also made many people suspect that he was
a spy for the government.
Then, instead of taking a job with the Anglican Church or becoming a Catholic
priest, Marlowe went to London and became a playwright. While he was making a name
for himself in the budding London scene, Marlowe also managed to get into all sorts
of trouble with the law: he was charged with counterfeiting, homosexuality, blasphemy
and even murder. He was never convicted of murder.
In 1593 (the year Shakespeare was born), a friend of Marlowe's revealed, under
torture, to the Queen's Council, that Marlowe was an atheist, someone who doesn't
believe in God. In those days in England, this was a punishable offense, and
so the same Queen's Council that had helped Marlowe get his degree issued a
warrent for his arrest.
People thought that his connections to the English Seceret Service was the only
thing that kept him from being jailed immediately, but before a hearing could
take place, Marlowe was stabbed to death in a fight, supposedly over the bill,
at a bar in Deptford, England.
The timing and murky circumstances surrounding his death, as well as the fact
that no one was ever punished for his murder, led many to suspect that something
fishy was going on. Some people believe that Marlowe was murdered for religous and
political reasons. Others believe that Marlowe had faked his own death and taken up
another identity to escape from going to jail.
In Marlowe's 29 short but mysterious years, he wrote many poems and plays, like Dr.
Faustus and The Rich Jew of Malta.
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