Para1Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 into the lower artisanal class in Canterbury, England as the second of nine children born to shoemaker John Marlowe and his wife Katherine. His birth was not officially recorded. However, it is likely that he would have been born a few days prior to his baptism on February 26, 1564. Fellow playwright William Shakespeare was born only a few months later in April of 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Para2Canterbury was a small but bustling market town, anchored since the Middle Ages by pilgrims to its shrine to St. Thomas a Becket. In the late 16th century, the city was full of immigrants fleeing religious persecution from France and the Netherlands. Living in Canterbury, it is likely that Marlowe would have heard of the massacre of French Protestants from these immigrants, which would end up being the basis for his 1592 play Massacre at Paris.

Para3In this period, the education system allowed for the basic education of boys from the poorer classes by awarding scholarships to some boys endowed with minds apt for learning (Nicholl). Around six to seven years of age, the boys would begin attending petty school where they would learn the alphabet and catechism, plus the basics of reading in English. After this, they would have attended a local grammar school for six years. In grammar school, they would study Greek and Latin language and literature, and it is here that Marlowe would have encountered Ovid and Virgil for the first time. Virgil in particular was a great influence on Marlowe as his first play was based on Virgil’s Aeneid, called Dido, Queen of Carthage.

Para4We also see multiple allusions to Virgil’s Aeneid in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine The Great:

Philemus: Madam, your father and th’ Arabian King,

The first affector of your excellence,

Comes now as Turnus ‘gainst Aeneas did,

Armed with lance into Egyptian fields,

Ready for battle ‘gainst my lord the King.

(5.2.314-318)

Zenocrate: But as the gods, to end the Trojans’ toil,

Prevented Turnus of Lavinia

And fatally enriched Aeneas’ love,

Must Tamburlaine by their resistless powers,

With virtue of a gentle victory,

Conclude a league of honour, to my hope.

(5.2.326–335)

Para5Marlowe enrolled in King’s School in Canterbury on a scholarship when he turned 14, which was considered late to be starting school.Scholars speculate he had the financial backing of Judge Sir Roger Manwood, which may explain the Latin elegy Marlowe wrote upon Manwood’s death. At 16, he won the Parker scholarship funded by the Archbishop Matthew Parker to finish his education at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. After four years of college, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1584 and then his Master of Arts in 1587. Interestingly, Marlowe’s scholarship stipulated recipients should become clergyman. Since he was supposed to become a clergyman, he was sponsored for six years rather than the typical three. Joining the clergy was one of the few ways that a commoner like Marlowe could raise his social status. However, Marlowe never ended up becoming a member of the clergy, and he most likely never intended to, because, immediately after graduating, he moved to London and began to write literary works.

Para6Speculation in his own time existed about Marlowe being what we would call a gay man, although a word for that concept did not exist at the time. The most notable reference is from Richard Baines, who also accused Marlowe of being an atheist; he famously quotes Marlowe as saying all they that love not tobacco and boies were fooles. Scholars do not rely only on Baines’ word, but look to some of Marlowe’s writings in which there are possible same-sex romantic relationships; scenes from the 1585 play Dido, Queen of Carthage and the 1592 play Edward II stand out:

Para7Dido, Queen of Carthage:

Jupiter: Come, gentle Ganymede, and play with me;

I love thee well, say Juno what she will.

Ganymede: I am much better for your worthless love,

That will not shield me from her shrewish blows:

To-day, when as I fill’d into your cups,

And held the cloth the pleasance while you drank,

She reach’d me such rap for that I spill’d,

As made the blood run down mine ears.

Jupiter: What! Dares she strike the darling of my thoughts?

By Saturn’s soul, and this earth threat’ning air,

That, shaken thrice, makes nature’s buildings quake,

I vow, if she but once frown on thee more,

To hang her, meteor-like, ‘twixt heaven and earth,

And bind her hand and foot with golden cords,

As once I did for harming Hercules!

(1.1.1–15)

Para8This scene offers a loving portrait of the relationship between Jupiter and the boy Ganymede, whose name became a synonym for male same-sex love during the early modern period (McHenry and Baker)

Para9In Marlowe’s 1592 history play depicting the life and death of the English monarch, Edward II (r.1307–1327), the king is very close to a courtier named Piers Gaveston:

Para10Edward II:

Enter Gaveston, reading a letter

Gaveston: My father is deceas’d! Come, Gaveston,

And share the kingdom with thy dearest friend.

Ah, words that make me surfeit with delight!

What greater bliss can hap to Gaveston,

Than live and be the favourite of a king!

Sweet prince, I come! These, these thy amorous lines

Might have enforc’d me to have swum from France,

And like Leander, gasp’s upon the sand,

So thou would’st smile, and take me in thine arms.

(1.1.1–9)

Para11In referencing the myth of Hero and Leander, Marlowe compares the relationship between Gaveston and the King to the one between the lovers in the myth. It could also be said that Marlowe calls attention to male sexual desire due to Neptune’s extensive pursuit of Leander as he swims towards his beloved.

Para12However, despite what scholars can infer from the language in Dido and Edward II, no concrete proof exists regarding Marlowe’s sexuality. Marlowe could just have been trying to shock the public or capture the attitudes portrayed in classical literature.

Para13Besides being a playwright, around the time of getting his Master of Arts at Cambridge, Marlowe also became a government agent in the employ of Elizabeth I’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. He missed a lot of classes because of how busy he was on Walsingham’s business, and, at the same time, rumours circulated that he was sympathetic to Catholics. Due to this distrust and sporadic attendance, Marlowe was almost denied receiving his degree. It was ultimaately granted was because officers of Elizabeth I’s Privy council overruled the denial from the University, stating that Marlowe had helped the queen herself.

Para14Shortly before Marlowe died in 1593, his friend Thomas Kyd, a fellow playwright best known for The Spanish Tragedy, was arrested on suspicions of treason. Officials claimed to have found a heretical treatise that Kyd claimed was Marlowe’s (Martin 13). Kyd was tortured until he accused Marlowe of blasphemy, resulting in a warrant for Marlowe’s arrest. However, he would never be brought into custody.

Para15Marlowe died on May 30, 1593, at a tavern in Deptford, a town just outside London. Marlowe entered an altercation with a friend of his, Ingram Frizer, over how the bill would be split. Marlowe grabbed Frizer’s dagger and inflicted shallow head wounds. In the struggle following, Marlowe was given a mortal wound above his right eye, of the depth of two inches and the width of one inch and died instantly. This detail comes from Frizer’s royal pardon given to him June 28, 1593, which also states that Frizer acted in self-defence. Many scholars presume that Frizer may have been acting on orders from the government to eliminate Marlowe.

Para16After Marlowe’s death, rumour and speculation surrounding his life and death ran rampant. Marlowe may have been assassinated because he was either a a rogue spy, an atheistic rebel, or a convenient scapegoat (Martin 13). Marlowe was buried on June 1st, 1593, at St Nicholas’s, Deptford and the location of his grave is unknown.

Para17

Para18Marlowe in particular is known for his dramatic poetry, which made blank verse, poetry written with regular meter but unrhymed lines, common on the English stage. Often this is referred to as Marlowe’s Mighty Line so dubbed by the slightly younger playwright Ben Jonson in an elegy called To the Memory of My Beloved Master William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us, written as an introduction the collected works of Shakespeare’s plays known as The First Folio. Marlowe’s most famous play is Doctor Faustus, a retelling of the fable of a scholar who sells his soul to Satan in return for more knowledge and power.

Para19Chaucer, who wrote centuries before Marlowe in the 1300’s, had used the same line and iambic pentameter, but it had always rhymed. Marlowe was not the first playwright to use blank verse, but he most certainly made it popular. His works are frequently performed in modern playhouses such as The Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe.