Big I, Eye, Aye.

Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, England (?) and baptised on February 26. During his very short life, he attended school, wrote popular plays, and was accused of espionage and rumoured to be atheist, and homosexual. He died at the young age of 29 on May 30, 1593 after being stabbed in the eye by Frizer (a servant of Thomas Walsingham – a man of espionage)’s dagger. His career as a playwright lasted 6 years. He is remembered for vaulting blank verse into higher esteem, his overzealous protaganists (their fatal flaw), and his very short life.

Family:
parents: John Marlowe (Ospringe) and Katherine Arthur (Dover)
siblings: Mary first child, died a few years later, Margaret, Joan, Ann, Dorothy and Thomas.

School: King’s School, Corpus Christi College. At Corpus Christi College, he disappeared periodically, and there is a belief that he was employed by the Queen to be a spy. He was almost withheld his MA at his college because he had been attending, or hanging about a college that was not Protestant. This made it appear as if he was converting to Roman Catholicism.. Privy council straightened it out for him, possibly validating the belief of espionage for the Queen, as this ’saving’ by the higher-ups continued until only just before his death.
1584 = Bachelor’s of Arts
1587 = Master’s degree

Death: There are many theories as to the motive behind Marlowe’s killing. Some say he was assassinated on orders of the Queen for his controversial beliefs, as he was dining with the Queen’s spymaster the night of his death. Others claim it to have been merely the unfortunate outcome of a bar brawl over the payment of a bill. Some even believe that in fact Marlowe did not die, but faked his death and continued to write as William Shakespeare. A little over a week before his death, a warrant for his arrest was put out on suspicion of heresy (May 18). This is because of a number of reasons. (A) A threatening bill was posted in a square using blank verse (one of Marlowe’s signatures), and was signed Tamburlaine (a character he developed in one of his plays). (B) His friend Kyd had been arrested, and under pressure had unveiled that the heretic piece of writing found in his possessions was in fact Marlowes and had slipped in among his things. On June 1, 1593, Christopher Marlowe was buried in St. Nicholas, Deptford in the churchyard.

 Works: During his career, his most important contribution to English literature/drama is his use of blank verse. Because of how artfully he used it, it became much more accepted and popular. His works include:
Tamburlaine the Great (Part 1)            1587
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus                   1588?
The Jew of Malta
Edward II                           1592
Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage
Massacre at Paris
                      It is believed by some that Marlowe was the author of plays credited to Shakespeare. Marlowe was alive and writing at the same time as Shakespeare, and greatly influenced Shakespeare in his writing.

On accusation of atheism = may not be actually atheist, but moving from being Protestant to Catholic. But, he is also rumoured to have scorned the Old and New Testament, and having said sacriligious or atheistic things.
On accusation of homosexuality = meanings of homosexuality may be different from our times and Marlowe’s times. Also, because it was so long ago records do not say for certain. There are examples in his plays, however, that would support it. But, “diligent classicists often mimicked the homosexual themes they found in Greek and Roman texts” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe#Sexuality).

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