Literature

Christopher Marlowe

orn in Canterbury, England on February 6th 1564 to a shoemaker, Marlowe is considered the second most influential and prolific English dramatist after William Shakespeare.

After attending the University of Cambridge, he set off for London where he worked as part of the Admiral's Men (a London theatre company), writing most of his plays for the company. In general, Marlowe lived an adventurous life and had somewhat extraordinary and unorthodox views on religion. It is also believed he was a secret government agent. Many of his friends were prominent personalities, such as Sir Walter Raleigh. Marlowe was accused of heresy, however he was stabbed to death in a Deptford tavern brawl in 1593.

Although Marlowe was actively involved in playwriting for only 6 years, he wrote 4 well-known plays (3 of which were published after his death). These plays were:

Tamburlane the Great - written in 1590, a great heroic epic about a 14th Century Mongol conqueror.

Edward the second - written in 1594, this was one of the first successful English historical dramas. It is believed Shakespeare based his Richard the second and Richard the third on this play.

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus - this well-known early dramatization of the Faust legend was written in 1604, and is Marlowe's masterpiece. The Jew of Malta - a tragedy written in 1633.

Marlowe concentrated his efforts on writing tragedies and advancing this dramatic form substantially at a time when comedy was the ruling drama. In the majority of Marlowe's plays the main protagonist has a domineering passion and desire for power. Other characteristics of his plays are his beautiful, sonorous language and emotional vitality (however sometimes exaggerated to the point of bombast). Two lesser plays by Marlowe are Tragedy of Dido, queen of Carthage (which Thomas Nashe completed in 1594) and Massacre at Pans (1600).

Marlowe was also a poet, and is well known for The Passionate Shepherd, written in 1599 (and which goes by the lyric of Come Live with me and be my love. He also wrote Hero and Leander a romantic mythological poem. He did not complete this poem before his death, and it was finished by George Chapman and published in 1598.

Marlowe also wrote some plays and poetry in blank verse, by doing so he revealed this poetic form has promising possibilities of expression, and thereby established it as a dominating poetic form in English drama. He also translated several works by Lucan and Ovid, ancient Latin poets.

It is also believed that Marlowe wrote parts of Shakespeare's plays.