Christopher Marlowe Biography

Christopher Marlowe was an English poet, play writer, and translator during the 16th Century, better known as the Elizabethan era. One of his most famous works is considered to be the play Tamburlaine. According to many scholars, who studied his work, he is one of the finest play writers of the Elizabethan era.

Some scholars also believed that the plays written by Christopher Marlowe were highly influenced by the world’s most famous writer “William Shakespeare”. Christopher’s blank verse was the feature that helped him in achieving critical notoriety and also, this feature became the standard of the era.

The plays written by Christopher were said to have a humanistic genre with realistic emotions of the characters. But the other thing which made his plays stand out in the crowd was the concept of overreaching protagonists. It is said that the events in his life were sometimes as extreme as shown in his writings.

Who was Christopher Marlowe?

According to the Christopher Marlowe biography, he was a 16th-century writer, whose forte was writing poems, plays, and translations. The other name given to Christopher was Kit Marlowe. He was born on 26th February in 1564 and he lived for around 29 years as he died on 30th May in 1593. To be exact, on 26th February 1564, he was baptized due to which this date is considered as his birthdate. Many people think of him as the foremost dramatic play writer in London. He started receiving his fame just a few years before he died mysteriously.

The themes which seemed to be prominent in his plays were said to be humanistic but were filled with real emotions. His other side of the writing was filled with a generous display of physical violence and cruelty. His death is such a mystery to date that the scholars conduct frequent debates on the topic, as they lack proper documentation and piece evidence of his death.

Christopher Marlowe Poems and Writing Career 

After 1587, Marlowe was in London, writing for a theatre and perhaps even engaging in some form of public service. According to the information written in the documents, the first play written by Christopher was Dido, the Queen of Carthage, which was not published until 1594, but till date, it is considered as it was written by him while he was a student in Cambridge.

 According to records, the play was performed by Children of the Chapel, a company for boys’ actors, between 1587 and 1593. Christopher Marlowe poems are also considered as his great works.

Marlowe's second play was in two parts Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587; published in 1590). The first play which was written by Marlowe was set to be performed on a regular stage in London. And that was the first English play that had a concept of blank verse. It is considered the beginning of a mature section of the Elizabethan theatre and was the last of Marlowe's plays published before his premature death.

There is disagreement among Marlowe students regarding the order in which the plays that followed Tamburlaine were written.

Some argue that Dr. Faustus immediately followed Tamburlaine and that Marlowe turned to write Edward the Second, The Massacre in Paris, eventually becoming The Jew of Malta. According to the Marlowe Society's chronology, the order was as follows: The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus, Edward the Second and The Massacre in Paris, and Doctor Faustus performed first (1604) and finally The Jew of Malta (1633).

What can be argued is that he only wrote these four plays after Tamburlaine, from 1589 to 1592, and that they fortified his legacy and proved themselves to be very influential.

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Famous Plays Were Written by Christopher Marlowe

• Jew of Malta

A Jew in Malta (full of the famous Tragedy of the Rich Man of Malta), with an introduction introduced by the character representing Macavavelli, portrays the Jew Barabbas, the richest man on the island of Malta. His wealth is confiscated; however, he fights against the government to get it until his death at the hands of Maltese soldiers.

The play revolves around religious conflict, cunning, and revenge, and is considered to have had a major impact on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. The main character, Barabbas, is seen as the great inspiration of Shakespeare's Shylock character to the Merchant. The play is also considered as the first (successful) Black comedy or tragicomedy.

Barabas is a complex character who has created a variety of reactions from the audience, and there has been a great debate about the portrayal of the Jewish play (as in Shakespeare's Dealer). Full of unpopular characters, the play also features comics and Christian monks and depicts greedy friars for Barabbas' riches. The Maltese Jew in this way is a good example of what the last four works of Marlowe are in part: controversial themes.

• Doctor Faustus

Marlowe's most famous play is Doctor Faustus' The Tragicall History, but, as with most of his plays, he survived only in a horrible way, and when Marlowe wrote it he was actually the subject of a debate.

According to the German Faustbuch, Doctor Faustus was accepted as the first playable version of Faust's fable, in which man sells his soul to the devil for knowledge and power. While the news media first appeared in the 4th century, Marlowe was so deviant that his hero could turn around and his contract be terminated at the end of the play. He is warned to do so in all other forms of Marlowe's repetition - the Good Angel - but Faustus always ignores the angel's advice.

In the end, Faustus finally seems to repent for his actions, but it may be too late or it just doesn't matter, as Mephistopheles gathers his soul, and it is clear that Faustus is coming out of hell with him.

• Paris Massacre

The massacre in Paris is a short and terrifying work, the only surviving document that can be reconstructed from memory, or the "reported text," of real work. Because of its origins, the play is rated for part of the length of Edward II, a Maltese Jew, and each part of Tamburlaine, and contains a blood action with a slight analogy or quality verse. For these reasons, the play has been largely ignored in Marlowe's scale.

Massacre recounts the events of Santa Bartholomew's Day of Assassination in 1572 when French nobles and Catholic officials incited the massacre and thousands of Huguenot protesters. In London, the perpetrators held their title to promote the assassination of refugees, an event in which the play alerts the queen of its final state. Interestingly, the warning came from an actor known as the "English Agent," an actor who was thought to be Marlowe himself, representing his career and the queen's secret service.

• Marlowe’s Life as a Secret Agent

Marlowe's working status in England was not disclosed by the council, but a letter sent to Cambridge dispelled several speculations, particularly the notion that Marlowe had become a secret lawyer working for Sir Francis Walsingham's intelligence. There is no direct evidence to support this view, but the council's letter clearly indicates that Marlowe was secretly working for the government.

Survival of Cambridge records from that period shows that Marlowe had a long absence from the university, far longer than allowed by school rules. And the dining room accounts show that he spent a lot of money on food and drink while he was there, more money than he could have earned on his scholarship. Both of these can point to a second source of revenue, such as a secret government service.

But with little hard evidence and widespread speculation, the mystery surrounding Marlowe's queen's service may remain operational. Spy or not, after earning a master’s degree, Marlowe moved to London to begin his career in the field of writing.

• Christopher Marlowe’s Death

The constant rumours that Marlowe was not in God's presence finally found him on Sunday, May 20, 1593, and he was arrested for the "crime". Atheism, or apostasy, was a serious crime, punishable by death on a stake. Despite the magnitude of the crime, however, he was not arrested or tortured but released on the condition that he report daily to a court official.

On May 30, however, Marlowe was assassinated by Ingram Frizer. He was accompanied by Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley, and all three men were detained at one or more of the Walsinghams - either Sir Francis Walsingham (a man who apparently hired Marlowe himself to work secretly on behalf of the queen) or a relative spy business. According to the records and some debates, it is said that after spending a day with Marlowe in the dormitory, a fight broke out between Marlowe and Frizer over the bill, as to who is going to pay the bill. The fight between both of them increased so much that they started hitting each other and in the next moment Marlowe was stabbed in the forehead and killed.

The conspiracy theory has been rampant since then, disbelief in Marlowe's existence and allegations that spy activities are at the heart of assassination plots, but the real reason for Marlowe's assassination is still debated.

Controversial about the importance of Marlowe's books, as he is the most important prime minister in Shakespeare and second only to Shakespeare himself in the field of Elizabethan's ill-fated play.