Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe (26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593)

Christopher Marlowe’s memorial is in the new window in Poets' Corner

Westminster Abbey unveiled on 11 July 2002.

Marlowe was born in Canterbury, a son of John Marlowe, a shoemaker, and his
wife Katherine.

He was educated at King's School Canterbury and at Cambridge university.

He became a playwright and also a poet.

Marlowe's plays are known for the use of blank verse, and their overreaching
protagonists.

Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his day.[

His plays include: Doctor Faustus, The Massacre at Paris and Edward the
second

Marlowe's plays were enormously successful

On 30 May 1593 he was stabbed to death by Ingram Frizer at the house of Mrs
Bull. Frizer was pardoned because the jury ruled his actions were of self
defense. His killing was never properly researched and investigated but there
are several theories on what really happened, including one which states that
Elizabeth the first ordered his death because of his staunch atheism.

He was buried at St Nicholas's church, Deptford.

There are theories about his involvement with William Shakespeare. For
example, the most controversial states that William Shakespeare was simply a
name put onto Marlowe’s works or that Shakespeare copied Marlowe’s
unpublished work.