Christopher Marlowe

The English dramatist Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was the first English playwright to reveal the full potential of dramatic blank verse and the first to exploit the tragic implications of Renaissance humanism.

Although a number of English dramatists before Christopher Marlowe had achieved some notable successes in the field of comedy, none had produced a first-rate tragedy. It was Marlowe who made the first significant advances in tragedy. In each of his major plays he focuses on a single character who dominates the action by virtue of his extraordinary strength of will. Marlowe's thundering blank verse, although for the most part lacking the subtlety of Shakespeare's mature poetry, proved a remarkably effective medium for this kind of drama.

Marlowe was born in February 1564, about 2 months before Shakespeare. His father was a prosperous middle-class merchant of Canterbury. Christopher received his early education at King's School in Canterbury and at the age of 17 went to Cambridge, where he held a scholarship requiring him to study for the ministry. He received a bachelor of arts degree in 1584 and a master of arts degree in 1587. Toward the end of his stay at Cambridge he evidently aroused the suspicions of the university authorities, who threatened to withhold his degree. The Queen's Privy Council intervened, however, and assured the authorities that Marlowe "had done Her Majesty good service." The nature of this service is still a mystery, but it is likely that Marlowe was involved in a secret espionage mission abroad.

Shortly after receiving his master's degree, Marlowe went to London. He soon became known for his wild, bohemian ways and his unorthodox thinking. In 1589, for example, he was imprisoned for a time in connection with the death of a certain William Bradley, who had been killed in a violent quarrel in which Marlowe played an important part. He was several times accused of being an "atheist" and a "blasphemer," most notably by his fellow playwright Thomas Kyd. These charges led to Marlowe's arrest in 1593, but he died before his case was decided.

Literary Career

Marlowe's career as a poet and dramatist spanned a mere 6 years. Between his graduation from Cambridge in 1587 and his death in 1593 he wrote only one major poem (Hero and Leander, unfinished at his death) and six or seven plays (one play, Dido Queen of Carthage, may have been written while he was still a student). Since the dating of several plays is uncertain, it is impossible to construct a reliable history of Marlowe's intellectual and artistic development.

Tamburlaine the Great, a two-part play, was first printed in 1590 but was probably composed several years earlier. The famous prologue to the first part announces a new poetic and dramatic style: "From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits,/ And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay/ We'll lead you to the stately tent of war,/ Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine/Threat'ning the world with high astounding terms/ And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword./ View but his picture in this tragic glass,/ And then applaud his fortunes as you please." The play itself is a bold demonstration of Tamburlaine's rise to power and his singleminded, often inhumanly cruel exercise of that power. The hero provokes awe and wonder but little sympathy.

Although written sometime between 1588 and 1592, The Jew of Malta was not printed until 1633. The chief figure, the phenomenally wealthy merchant-prince Barabas, is one of the most powerful Machiavellian figures of the Elizabethan drama. Unlike Tamburlaine, who asserts his will openly and without guile, Barabas is shrewd, devious, and secretive.

Doctor Faustus, which is generally considered Marlowe's greatest work, was probably also his last. Its central figure, a scholar who feels he has exhausted all the conventional areas of human learning, attempts to gain the ultimate in knowledge and power by selling his soul to the devil. The high point comes in the portrayal of the hero's final moments, as he awaits the powers of darkness who demand his soul.

His Death

The circumstances of Marlowe's death first came to light in the 20th century. On May 30, 1593, Marlowe dined at Deptford with a certain Ingram Frizer and two others. In the course of an argument over the tavern bill, Marlowe wounded Frizer with a dagger, whereupon Frizer seized the same dagger and stabbed Marlowe over the right eye. According to the coroner's inquest, from which this information is drawn, Marlowe died instantly.

Despite the unusual wealth of detail surrounding this fatal episode, there has been much speculation about the affair. It has been suggested, for example, that the deed was politically motivated and that Frizer (who was subsequently judged to have acted in self-defense) was simply acting as an agent for a more prominent person. In any case, within 3 or 4 years of his death, Marlowe's career was being cited by contemporary moralists as a classic illustration of the workings of divine retribution against a blasphemous atheist. But he was also recognized as a remarkable dramatic genius who, if he had lived longer, would certainly have rivaled Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

Further Reading

Among the best of the many full-length studies of Marlowe's life are Frederick S. Boas, Christopher Marlowe: A Biographical and Critical Study (1940); John E. Bakeless, The Tragicall History of Christopher Marlowe (2 vols., 1942); and Paul H. Kocher, Christopher Marlowe: A Study of His Thought, Learning, and Character (1946). The facts of Marlowe's death were discovered by Leslie Hotson and set forth in his The Death of Christopher Marlowe (1925; repr. 1967).

Among the critical studies that take in all of Marlowe's works are Harry Levin, The Overreacher: A Study of Christopher Marlowe (1952), and J. B. Steane, Marlowe: A Critical Study (1964). An important critical study is Roy W. Battenhouse, Marlowe's Tamburlaine: A Study in Renaissance Moral Philosophy (1941). For an interesting aspect of Renaissance drama see Eugene M. Waith, The Herculean Hero in Marlowe, Chapman, Shakespeare and Dryden (1962).

Additional Sources

Bakeless, John Edwin, Christopher Marlowe, New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1975.

Henderson, Philip, Christopher Marlowe, New York: Barnes &Noble Books, 1974.

Hilton, Della, Christopher Marlowe and the new London theatre, Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1993.

Hilton, Della, Who was Kit Marlowe?: The story of the poet and playwright, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977.

Ingram, John Henry, Marlowe & his poetry, Philadelphia: R. West, 1977.

Lewis, J. G., Christopher Marlowe: outlines of his life and works, Philadelphia: R. West, 1977.

Pinciss, G. M., Christopher Marlowe, New York: Ungar, 1975.

Urry, William, Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury, London; Boston: Faber and Faber, 1988. □

Marlowe, Christopher (1564–93). In 1589 he was involved in a street fight in which the poet T. Watson killed a man. Early in 1592 he was deported from the Netherlands for attempting to issue forged gold coins. On 30 May 1593 he was killed by Ingram Frizer in a Deptford tavern after a quarrel over a bill; Marlowe was at the time under warrant to appear before the Privy Council on unknown charges. Kyd and another friend, Richard Baines, testified after his death to his blasphemy and outrageous beliefs.

He wrote The Tragedie of Dido, Queene of Carthage (1594) in collaboration with Nashe; Tamburlaine was published in 1590. The next plays may have been The Jew of Malta, not published until 1633, and Edward II, published in 1594. The highly topical Massacre at Paris, which survives only in a fragmentary and undated text, and Dr Faustus, published 1604, may both belong to the last year of Marlowe's life. At various times he translated Ovid's Amores, published without date as All Ovids Elegies, together with some of Sir John Davies's ‘Epigrammes’; wrote two books of an erotic narrative poem Hero and Leander (1598), which was completed by G. Chapman; made a fine blank verse rendering of Lucans First Booke, Book 1 of Lucan's Pharsalia; and wrote the song ‘Come live with me and be my love’, published in The Passionate Pilgrim (1599) and England's Helicon (1600), with a reply by Ralegh. In spite of his violent life Marlowe was an admired and highly influential figure. Shakespeare's early histories are strongly influenced by Marlowe, and he paid tribute to him in As You Like It as the ‘dead shepherd’. Jonson referred to ‘Marlowes mighty line’.

Marlowe, Christopher (1564–93). English playwright, poet, and spy, reportedly an atheist and probably homosexual. Born in Canterbury (Kent), he was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, possibly beginning his brief career as a spy on the continent while still enrolled there, and receiving his degree only after intervention by the Privy Council. His plays, beginning with Dido, Queen of Carthage (c.1587), are energetic, restless, generically daring explorations of selfhood. Success came with his two-part epic of ambition and war, Tamburlaine (1587–8), and between 1588 and 1593 he wrote four more plays: The Massacre at Paris, The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus, and Edward II. The last two are generally considered his masterpieces, the former a deceptively simple tale of aspiration and damnation, which reconfigures the morality play tradition for the early modern stage, the latter a remarkably frank account both of a homosexual king's relations with his favourite and of the bleak outworkings of realpolitik. Shortly after a warrant for his arrest was issued in May 1593 on charges of atheism (and before he had completed his narrative poem Hero and Leander), Marlowe was killed, apparently in a pub brawl.

Gordon Macmullan

Marlowe, Christopher (1564–93). English playwright, poet, and spy. Born in Canterbury, he was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His plays, beginning with Dido, Queen of Carthage (c. 1587), are energetic, restless, generically daring explorations of selfhood. Success came with his two‐part epic of ambition and war, Tamburlaine (1587–8), and between 1588 and 1593 he wrote four more plays: The Massacre at Paris, The Jew of Malta, Doctor Faustus, and Edward II. Shortly after a warrant for his arrest was issued in May 1593 on charges of atheism and Marlowe was killed, apparently in a pub brawl.

Marlowe, Christopher (1564–93) English playwright and poet. Marlowe helped make blank verse the vehicle of Elizabethan drama. Much of his success derives from his ability to humanize his heroes, such as Tamburlaine the Great (1590), The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1604), and The Jew of Malta (1633). His masterpiece is the tragedy Edward II (1592). His greatest poems are Hero and Leander (1598) and The Passionate Shepherd (1599). Marlowe served as a spy in Francis Walsingham's intelligence service.

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