Christopher Marlowe

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about Christopher Marlowe and the mysteries that are still attached to his name today.
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Always cross-check your
answers and make sure
- England’s sovereign between 1555-1603: Elizabeth I that your sources are
- Christopher Marlowe’s date of birth: 6 February 1564 reliable.

- Son of an upmarket shoemaker and a clergyman’s daughter

- 26 February 1564 to him: baptism

- Born April 23, 1564 - Baptised 26 April 1564 in Stratford-Upon-Avon: William Shakespeare

- His nickname: Kit

- Place of Birth: Canterbury

- Father’s job: shoemaker

- December 1580: attended Bene’t College now Corpus Christi Cambridge

- Role of Archbishop Parker in his studies: scholarship given to attendees who aimed at becoming clericals.

- Matthew Parker’s theological thought: Anglican (a mix between Catholicism traditions and Protestant dogma. More on this later.)

- 1584: BA degree Latin and Greek

 British library, Andrew Dickson, 2017 Royal Shakespeare Company
Christopher WHO WAS CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE?
Marlowe: The man, the Spy? Brawler? Or heretic? As with other playwrights
myth and the mighty of the Elizabethan period, little is known about
line Christopher Marlowe, leading to much speculation
about his life and character.

First things first:

check that these The Guardian.com, Dalya Alberge, 2016
sources are reliable!
Christopher Marlowe
credited as one of
Shakespeare’s co-writers

- 1587: nearly failed to get his MA because of his frequent absences from college.
- Way he graduated anyhow: carefully phrased ambiguous government letter saying that he had been busy in ‘matters touching the
benefitt of the Counbtrie’ Letter written by the Privy Council.
- A secret agent: his regular absences and the Privy Council’s letter arose speculation that Marlowe was operating as a secret agent
for Sir Francis Walsingham’s service.
- It’s also been suggested that he spent time infiltrating Catholic circles in Paris (more on this letter – plots against Queen)
- Circa 1587: Tamburlaine the Great.
- Critics on the play: Audacious historical saga about a not-so-humble medieval shepherd who ends up ruling Central Asia. The play
fed an Elizabethan fascination with distant and exotic worlds. Even more than that, it announced Marlowe’s own ambition in the
loudest possible terms, pouring scorn on the playwright’s elders and supposed betters.

“In the theatre, the sheer force of this brawny blank verse, with its driving pentameter rhythm ('from jig-ging vei-ns of rhy-
ming moth-er wits’), must have left audiences’ ears ringing.”

Blank verse: poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter
Christopher Marlowe was the first English author to achieve critical fame for his use of blank verse. The major achievements in English
blank verse were made by William Shakespeare, who wrote much of the content of his plays in unrhymed iambic pentameter, and John
Milton, whose Paradise Lost is written in blank verse.

Iambic pentameter: a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter,
established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambic" refers to the type of foot used,
here the iamb, which in English indicates an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as in a-bove). "Pentameter" indicates a
line of five "feet".
Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry.

- Marlowe’s early 20’s: reputation as the most exciting playwright in Elizabethan London.
- Circa 1589 The Jew of Malta (The Guardian)
- 1592: performances of The Jew of Malta and Edward II
The Jew of Malta: a wickedly caustic satire about a Jewish moneylender, Barabas, who gets his revenge on ‘swine-eating Christians’ who
defraud him. While Barabas does any number of dastardly deeds – poisoning wells is one favourite activity – he is not an unsympathetic
figure, and is by far the most exciting thing on stage.
 - Edward II: a historical drama on one of the most contentious monarchs in English history, notorious for failures as a ruler and his
intimate relationship with a male favourite, Piers Gaveston. Edward II offers what has been called ‘the first great depiction of
same-sex love for the stage’, portraying the doomed relationship between Edward and Gaveston in terms that must have surprised
audiences expecting a far more critical portrayal
- According to Andrew Dickson, both plays show Marlowe’s talent for going against the grain.
- 1588-1593: The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus- 1592-9: Doctor Faustus was first performed
- 1593: Marlowe wrote a manuscript that pointed out (what he considered to be) inconsistencies in the Bible, and he fell under the
suspicion of heresy. Another contemporary of Shakespeare's, and Marlowe's roommate, Thomas Kyd, was tortured into giving evidence
against him
- Sunday 20 May 1593: Marlowe was arrested for the crime of being an atheist – the penalty for which being burned at the stake.
He was, however, released on the condition that he reported each day to a court officer.
- May 1593: when arrested, Richard Baines, a double agent, had already claimed that Marlowe was an atheist and later accused
the playwright of having “poured scorn on the existence of God.”. As a consequence, the authorities charged him with heresy.
- 30 May 1593: Marlowe was assassinated during a pub brawl / tussle.
There are a few theories about his death:
§ He was allegedly assassinated by Ingram Frizer, another government secret agent.
§ Elizabeth I had ordered his death (because of atheism – The Guardian)
§ He had a meeting with three commissioned agents who were paid to kill him
§ Killed by a love rival (The Guardian)
§ He faked his death and fled the country, mater writing plays under the pseudonym ‘William Shakespeare.’
- Was Christopher Marlowe William Shakespeare after all? No, this long-held suggestion is now widely dismissed.
- What is the Marlowe Myth? Rumor had it that Marlowe wrote a handful of William Shakespeare’s works.
- What is he credited with now? He is credited w/ co-authoring the three Henry VI plays.
- When did scholars start suspecting Marlowe’s contribution? 18th century
- Since 1986, it has been made clear that William Shakespeare did a great amount of collaborative work.
-
The findings shed new light on the supposed rivalry between Marlowe and Shakespeare. Taylor added: “We can now be confident that they
didn’t just influence each other, but they worked with each other. Rivals sometimes collaborate.” […]
The researchers believe that computerised textual analysis is now so sophisticated that they can even distinguish between Shakespeare writing
under Marlowe’s influence and Marlowe writing alone. […]

In 1925, the scholar Leslie Hotson published the coroner’s report in his book The Death of Christopher Marlowe. Witnesses testified that he
was stabbed in the eye during a fight over payment of a bill and died instantly. The document did not end speculation, with some supporting
the theory that Marlowe faked his death and continued to write as Shakespeare.