posted on Apr, 21 2009 @ 01:01 PM
Christopher Marlowe, the “father of English tragedy” and the “inventor of dramatic blank verse”, received his education at the King's School
in Canterbury and Corpus Christi College of Cambridge. The mystic Francis Kett, burnt in 1589 for heresy, was a fellow and tutor of his college.
In Londen, around 1587, Marlowe started writing for the stage as one of the Lord Admiral's Company of Players. He was befriended with the famous
dramatist Thomas Kyd, who shared his unorthodox religious opinions. His atheism and homosexuality brought him in great danger, but fortunately,
Marlowe had some mighty friends, like Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Walter Raleigh, mathematicians as Walter Warner and Robert Hughes and the astronomer
Thomas Harriott. However, as the result of some declarations of Thomas Kyd (who was tortured), the Privy Council was investigating a number of serious
charges against Marlowe. But then, in a tavern fight in Deptford, in May 1593, Marlowe got slain by a man named Archer or Ingram. Curious enough, the
following September he was referred to as “dead of the plague”.
We don't really know for sure the circumstances of Marlowe's death. There is some evidence he worked as a spy for Sir Francis Walsingham, and it is
possible his death was a set-up. A few months before, Marlowe got in touch with Lord Strange's Company, and may have been brought in contact with
Shakespeare, who clearly wrote plays as Richard II and Richard III under the influence of his predecessor.
Marlowe has written four great plays: “Tamburlaine the Great” (1587), “Dr. Faustus” (1588), “The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta”
(1589?) and “Edward II” (printed in 1594). Some say Shakespeare could not have written all those magnificent plays, he hadn't the education to do
that... Christopher Marlowe had and he could have survived his “death”, starting a new career… as William Shakespeare.
Full story of his life and work, together with some of his famous poetry:
Christopher Marlowe