Christopher Marlowe
The fiery playwright who ignited the Elizabethan stage with blank verse and tragic ambition before his life ended in a tavern brawl.
1564–1593 (age 29)·English playwright and poet·Birthday: February 26
Biography
Christopher Marlowe's brief, blazing career changed English theatre forever. The son of a Canterbury shoemaker, he used a scholarship to study at Cambridge, where rumors of espionage already swirled. Arriving in London, he unleashed a new kind of drama: muscular, poetic, and obsessed with overreaching men. His play 'Tamburlaine the Great' introduced audiences to the thunder of blank verse and a protagonist of insatiable ambition. In quick succession, he produced 'Doctor Faustus', a profound tragedy of a scholar bargaining his soul for knowledge, and 'The Jew of Malta', a darkly comic exploration of greed. His life was as dramatic as his work—involved in secret service, accused of atheism, and frequently in trouble with the law. At 29, he was killed in a Deptford lodging house, a stabbing that remains shrouded in mystery. In his short seven-year window, he provided the template that his contemporary, William Shakespeare, would later master and expand.
#1 When Christopher Was Born
The biggest hits of 1564
Christopher's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1564Born
1569Started school
1577Became a teenager
1580Could drive
1582Could vote
1585Turned 21
1593Died at 29
Key Achievements
- Pioneered the use of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) in English drama, which became the standard for Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights.
- Wrote the seminal tragedy 'Doctor Faustus', establishing the story of a man selling his soul to the devil as a cornerstone of Western literature.
- Authored the two-part blockbuster 'Tamburlaine the Great', which revolutionized popular theatre with its epic scale and powerful protagonist.
- Is credited by many scholars with influencing the early works of William Shakespeare.
Did You Know?
He was arrested for counterfeiting coins in the Netherlands just a year before his death.
A coroner's report stated his death was the result of a fight over a bill, or 'reckoning', at a tavern.
Some conspiracy theories suggest he faked his death and continued to write, possibly as Shakespeare, though this is widely dismissed by scholars.
He translated the Latin poet Ovid's 'Amores' and parts of Lucan's 'Pharsalia' into English.
“I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.”
