Christopher Marlowe

Copyright Michael D. Robbins 2005

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Christopher Marlowe, English Poet-Dramatist

February 6 1564 OS, Canterbury, England, 4:00 AM, LMT. (Source: speculative from Marc Penfield; 4:12 AM is given by Freedman in Astrological Quarterly, December 1957. A time in the evening is also reasonable, 9:48 PM, LMT (MDR), giving a Libra Ascendant, and stellium in the fifth house of creativity.) Died of stabbing wounds (in the eye) as a result of a drunken brawl on May 30, 1593 Deptford, London, England  .




The power, grandeur and majesty of Marlowe’s plays are, perhaps, second only to Shakespeare. Given the sudden and violent nature of his death, it is likely that late Libra (or even Scorpio) was the Ascendant, placing the Sun in or near the fifth house and Mars in or near the eighth.

No Quotations; the following are from writings.

Jewels being lost are found againe, this never,
T’is lost but once, and once lost, lost for ever.
ATTRIBUTION: Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), British poet. Hero and Leander (II, l. 85-86)

Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?
ATTRIBUTION: Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), British dramatist, poet. Hero and Leander, “First Sestiad” l. 175-6 (1598).

It lies not in our power to love, or hate,
For will in us is over-rul’d by fate.
ATTRIBUTION: Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), British poet. Hero and Leander (I, l. 167-168). . .

I count religion but a childish toy,
And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
ATTRIBUTION: Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), British dramatist, poet. Machiavel, in The Jew of Malta, “Prologue,” (writen c. 1589, first published 1633).

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.—
Her lips suck forth my soul; see where it flies!—
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
(Mercury conjunct Sun)

All women are ambitious naturallie,

Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Or woods or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

ATTRIBUTION: Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), British poet. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (l. 1–8). . .

That perfect bliss and sole felicity,
The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.
ATTRIBUTION: Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), British dramatist, poet. Tamburlaine, in Tamburlaine the Great, pt. 1, act 2, sc. 7.

 

ChrisChristopher Marlowe
Born: 6 February 1564
Canterbury, England
Died: 30 May 1593
Deptford, England
Occupation(s): Playwright, poet
Christopher ("Kit") Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593?) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Perhaps the foremost Elizabethan tragedian before Shakespeare, he is known for his magnificent blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own untimely death.

Born on 6th Feb. 1564 to a shoemaker in Canterbury[1], Marlowe attended The King's School, Canterbury (where a house is now named after him) and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on a scholarship and received his bachelor of arts degree in 1584. In 1587 the university hesitated to award him his master's degree because of a rumour that he had converted to Roman Catholicism and gone to the English college at Rheims to prepare for the priesthood. However, his degree was awarded on schedule when the Privy Council intervened on his behalf, commending him for his "faithful dealing" and "good service" to the queen[2]. The nature of Marlowe's service was not specified by the Council, but their letter to the Cambridge authorities has provoked much speculation, notably the theory that Marlowe was operating as a secret agent working for Sir Francis Walsingham's intelligence service. No direct evidence supports this theory, although Marlowe obviously did serve the government in some capacity.

Literary career
Dido, Queen of Carthage seems to be Marlowe's first extant dramatic work, possibly written at Cambridge with Thomas Nashe.

Marlowe's first known play to be performed on the London stage was Tamburlaine (1587), a story of the conqueror Timur, who rises from a lowly shepherd to wage war on the kings of the world. It was one of the first popular English plays to use blank verse, and, with The Spanish Tragedy, it is generally considered the beginning of the mature phase of the Elizabethan theatre. Tamburlaine was a smash success, and Tamburlaine Part II soon followed. The sequence of his remaining plays is unknown. All were written on controversial themes. The Jew of Malta, depicting a Maltese Jew's barbarous revenge against the city authorities, features a prologue delivered by a character representing Machiavelli. It is also a complex play in that the Jew, Barabas, is consistently portrayed sympathetically (whilst the Christians are shown to be highly unsympathetic) and in his constant plotting and 'script writing' Barabas is often linked to the author himself. Edward the Second is an English history play about the dethronement of the homosexual Edward II by his dissatisfied barons and French queen. The Massacre at Paris is a short, sketchy play (believed to be a memorial construction made by actors) portraying the events surrounding the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre in 1572, an event that English Protestants frequently invoked as the blackest example of Catholic treachery. It also features a character, the silent 'English Agent', rumoured to have been portraying, and possibly even played by, Marlowe himself (see below for links of Marlowe with the Elizabethan secret service). This play, along with Faustus, is believed to have been Marlowe's last play and is regarded as his most dangerous, dealing as it does with living monarchs and politicians, (at the time a treasonable act) and indeed addressing Elizabeth 1st herself in the last scene. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, based on the recently published German Faustbuch, was the first dramatic version of the Faust legend of a scholar's dealing with the devil. Whilst versions of 'The Devil's Pact' can be traced back to the 4th centuary Marlowe deviates significantly by having his hero unable to 'burn his books' or have his contract repudiated by a meciful god at the end of the play. Marlowe's protagonist is instead torn apart by demons and dragged off screaming to hell. Dr Faustus is a textual problem for scholars as it was highly edited (and possibly censored) and rewritten after Marlowe's death. It seems that the A-Text is the most representitive of Marlowe's work and is believed to be taken from 'foul papers' (uncorrected and jumbled manuscript copies), thus suggesting that it was incomplete at the time of Marlowe's murder.

Born on 6th Feb. 1564 to a shoemaker in Canterbury[1], Marlowe attended The King's School, Canterbury (where a house is now named after him) and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge on a scholarship and received his bachelor of arts degree in 1584. In 1587 the university hesitated to award him his master's degree because of a rumour that he had converted to Roman Catholicism and gone to the English college at Rheims to prepare for the priesthood. However, his degree was awarded on schedule when the Privy Council intervened on his behalf, commending him for his "faithful dealing" and "good service" to the queen[2]. The nature of Marlowe's service was not specified by the Council, but their letter to the Cambridge authorities has provoked much speculation, notably the theory that Marlowe was operating as a secret agent working for Sir Francis Walsingham's intelligence service. No direct evidence supports this theory, although Marlowe obviously did serve the government in some capacity.

Literary career
Dido, Queen of Carthage seems to be Marlowe's first extant dramatic work, possibly written at Cambridge with Thomas Nashe.

Marlowe's first known play to be performed on the London stage was Tamburlaine (1587), a story of the conqueror Timur, who rises from a lowly shepherd to wage war on the kings of the world. It was one of the first popular English plays to use blank verse, and, with The Spanish Tragedy, it is generally considered the beginning of the mature phase of the Elizabethan theatre. Tamburlaine was a smash success, and Tamburlaine Part II soon followed. The sequence of his remaining plays is unknown. All were written on controversial themes. The Jew of Malta, depicting a Maltese Jew's barbarous revenge against the city authorities, features a prologue delivered by a character representing Machiavelli. It is also a complex play in that the Jew, Barabas, is consistently portrayed sympathetically (whilst the Christians are shown to be highly unsympathetic) and in his constant plotting and 'script writing' Barabas is often linked to the author himself. Edward the Second is an English history play about the dethronement of the homosexual Edward II by his dissatisfied barons and French queen. The Massacre at Paris is a short, sketchy play (believed to be a memorial construction made by actors) portraying the events surrounding the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre in 1572, an event that English Protestants frequently invoked as the blackest example of Catholic treachery. It also features a character, the silent 'English Agent', rumoured to have been portraying, and possibly even played by, Marlowe himself (see below for links of Marlowe with the Elizabethan secret service). This play, along with Faustus, is believed to have been Marlowe's last play and is regarded as his most dangerous, dealing as it does with living monarchs and politicians, (at the time a treasonable act) and indeed addressing Elizabeth 1st herself in the last scene. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, based on the recently published German Faustbuch, was the first dramatic version of the Faust legend of a scholar's dealing with the devil. Whilst versions of 'The Devil's Pact' can be traced back to the 4th centuary Marlowe deviates significantly by having his hero unable to 'burn his books' or have his contract repudiated by a meciful god at the end of the play. Marlowe's protagonist is instead torn apart by demons and dragged off screaming to hell. Dr Faustus is a textual problem for scholars as it was highly edited (and possibly censored) and rewritten after Marlowe's death. It seems that the A-Text is the most representitive of Marlowe's work and is believed to be taken from 'foul papers' (uncorrected and jumbled manuscript copies), thus suggesting that it was incomplete at the time of Marlowe's murder.

Marlowe's plays were enormously successful, thanks in part, no doubt, to the imposing stage presence of Edward Alleyn. He was unusually tall for the time, and the haughty roles of Tamburlaine, Faustus, and Barabas were probably written especially for him. Marlowe's plays were the foundation of the repertoire of Alleyn's company, the Admiral's Men, throughout the 1590s.

Marlowe also wrote poetry, including a, possibly, unfinished minor epic, Hero and Leander (published with a continuation by George Chapman in 1598), the popular lyric The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, and translations of Ovid's Amores and the first book of Lucan's Pharsalia.

The two parts of Tamburlaine were published in 1590; all Marlowe's other works were published posthumously. In 1599, his translation of Ovid was banned and copies publicly burned as part of Archbishop Whitgift's crackdown on offensive material.

The Marlowe legend
As with other writers of the period, such as Shakespeare, little is known about Marlowe. Most of the evidence is legal records and other official documents that tell us little about him. This has not stopped writers of both fiction and non-fiction from speculating about his activities and character. Marlowe has often been regarded as a spy, a brawler, a heretic, and a homosexual, as well as a "magician", "duelist", "tobacco-user", "counterfeiter", and "rakehell". The evidence for most of these claims is slight. The bare facts of Marlowe's life have been embellished by many writers into colourful, and often fanciful, narratives of the Elizabethan underworld.

Spying and Death
Marlowe is often alleged to have been a government spy. Marlowe was killed in a private house in Deptford in an alleged dispute between him and his acquaintances (themselves linked to the secret service) over the tab. It is said that he was stabbed just above his right eye and died screaming blasphemies.

Possible evidence of spying
As noted above, in 1587 the Privy Council ordered Cambridge University to award Marlowe his MA, denying rumours that he had been to the English Catholic college in Rheims, saying instead that he had been engaged in unspecified "affaires" in the Queen's service.

It has sometimes been theorized that Marlowe was the "Morley" who was tutor to Arbella Stuart in 1589, described by Arbella's mother as "much damnified by leaving the University" [3]. This possibility was first raised in a TLS letter by E. St John Brooks in 1937; in a letter to Notes and Queries, John Baker has added that only Marlowe could be Arbella's tutor due to the absence of any other known "Morley" from the period with an MA and not otherwise occupied[4]. This possibility has not been acknowledged in any Marlowe biographies; some consider the "Morley" in question to have been a son of the musician Thomas Morley[5], although Thomas Morley (who was born 1558) could not have had a son old enough to attend university at this time. If Marlowe was Arbella's tutor, it might indicate that he was a spy, since Arbella, niece of Mary Queen of Scots and cousin of James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, was at the time a strong candidate for the succession of Elizabeth's throne.[6]

In 1592, Marlowe was arrested in the Dutch town of Flushing for attempting to counterfeit coins. He appeared before the Privy Council but was not charged.

Arrest and death
In early May 1593 several bills were posted about London threatening Protestant refugees from France and the Netherlands who had settled in the city. One of these, the "Dutch church libel"[2], written in blank verse, contained allusions to several of Marlowe's plays and was signed "Tamburlaine." On 11 May the Privy Council ordered the arrest of those responsible for the libels. The next day, Marlowe's colleague Thomas Kyd was arrested. Kyd's lodgings were searched and a fragment of a heretical tract was found. Kyd asserted, possibly under torture, that it had belonged to Marlowe. Two years earlier they had both been working for an aristocratic patron, probably Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange,[citation needed] and Kyd suggested that at this time, when they were sharing a workroom, the document had found its way among his papers. Marlowe's arrest was ordered on 18 May. Marlowe was not in London, but was staying with Thomas Walsingham, the cousin of the late Sir Francis Walsingham, who was known as Elizibeth I's spymaster.[citation needed] However, he duly appeared before the Privy Council on 20 May and was instructed to "give his daily attendance on their Lordships, until he shall be licensed to the contrary." On 30 May, Marlowe was murdered.

Various versions of Marlowe's death were current at the time. Francis Meres says Marlowe was "stabbed to death by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love" as punishment for his "epicurism and atheism".[citation needed] In 1917, in the Dictionary of National Biography, Sir Sidney Lee wrote that Marlowe was killed in a drunken fight, and this is still often stated as fact today.

The facts only came to light in 1925 when the scholar Leslie Hotson discovered the coroner's report on Marlowe's death in the Public Record Office [3]. Marlowe had spent all day in a house (not a tavern) in Deptford, owned by the widow Eleanor Bull, along with three men, Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley. All three had been employed by the Walsinghams. Skeres and Poley had helped snare the conspirators in the Babington plot. Frizer was a servant of Thomas Walsingham. Witnesses testified that Frizer and Marlowe had earlier argued over the bill, exchanging "divers malicious words." Later, while Frizer was sitting at a table between the other two and Marlowe was lying behind him on a couch, Marlowe snatched Frizer's dagger and began attacking him. In the ensuing struggle, according to the coroner's report, Marlowe was accidentally stabbed above the left eye, killing him instantly. The coroner concluded that Frizer acted in self-defense, and he was promptly pardoned. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford, on 1 June, 1593.

Marlowe's death is alleged by some to be an assassination for the following reasons:

The three men who were in the room with him when he died all had links to the intelligence service as well as to the London underworld.[citation needed] Frizer and Skeres also had a long record as loan sharks and con-men, as shown by court records.
Their story that they were on a day's pleasure outing to Deptford is considered implausible. In fact, they spent the whole day closeted together, deep in discussion. Also, Robert Poley was carrying confidential despatches to the Queen, who was at Greenwich nearby, but instead of delivering them, he spent the day with Marlowe and the other two.[citation needed]
It seems too much of a coincidence that Marlowe's death occurred only a few days after his arrest for heresy.
Marlowe's arrest for heresy was handled by the Privy Council in an unusual way[citation needed]. He was released in spite of prima facie evidence, and even though the charges implicitly connected Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Northumberland with the heresy. This suggests to some that the Privy Council considered the heresy charge to be a set-up, and/or that it was connected with a power struggle within the Privy Council itself.[citation needed]
The various incidents that hint at a relationship with the Privy Council (see above), and by the fact that his patron was Thomas Walsingham, Sir Francis' second cousin, who was actively involved in intelligence work.
For these reasons and others, some believe there was more to Marlowe's death than emerged at the inquest. However, on the basis of our current knowledge, it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions about what happened or why. There are many different theories, of varying degrees of probability, but no solid evidence. Since there are only written documents on which to base any conclusions, and since it is probable that the most crucial information about his death was never committed to writing at all, it is unlikely that the full circumstances of Marlowe's death will ever be known.

Atheist
Marlowe had a reputation for atheism. The only contemporary evidence for this is from Marlowe's accuser in Flushing, an informer called Richard Baines. The governor of Flushing had reported that both men had accused one another of instigating the counterfeiting and of intention to go over to the Catholic side (considered atheism by Protestants), "both as they say of malice one to another". Following Marlowe's arrest on a charge of atheism in 1593, Baines submitted to the authorities a "note containing the opinion of one Christopher Marly concerning his damnable judgment of religion, and scorn of God's word"[4]. Baines attributes to Marlowe ideas such as, "Christ was a bastard and his mother dishonest [unchaste]", "the woman of Samaria and her sister were whores and that Christ knew them dishonestly" and, "St John the Evangelist was bedfellow to Christ and leaned always in his bosom" (cf. John 13:23-25) and "that he used him as the sinners of Sodom". He also claims that Marlowe had Catholic sympathies. Other passages are merely skeptical in tone: "he persuades men to atheism, willing them not to be afraid of bugbears and hobgoblins". Similar statements were made by Thomas Kyd after his imprisonment and possible torture[5][6](see below); both Kyd and Baines connect Marlowe with the mathematician Thomas Harriot and Walter Raleigh's circle. Another document claims that Marlowe had read an "atheist lecture" before Raleigh. Baines ends his "note" with the ominous statement: "I think all men in Christianity ought to endeavour that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped".

Some critics believe that Marlowe sought to disseminate these views in his work and that he identified with his rebellious and iconoclastic protagonists. [citation needed] However, plays had to be approved by the Master of the Revels before they could be performed, and the censorship of publications was under the control of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Presumably these authorities did not consider any of Marlowe's works to be unacceptable (apart from the Amores).

Sexuality
Marlowe is often described today as homosexual, and the evidence for this is inconclusive. Some believe that the question of whether an Elizabethan was 'gay' or 'homosexual' in a modern sense is anachronistic; for the Elizabethans, what is often today termed homosexual or bisexual was more likely to be recognised as simply a sexual act, rather than an exclusive sexual orientation and identity. Two documents suggest that Marlowe may have been homosexual, though all are clearly circumstantial, or reported by people of questionable motives.

The most graphic is the testimony of Richard Baines, an informer who made a long list of allegations against Marlowe after his arrest in Flushing (see above). Most of these allegations concern Marlowe's atheism, but Baines also claimed that Marlowe said "all they that love not tobacco and boys were fools" and that "St John the Evangelist was bedfellow to Christ and leaned always in his bosom, that he used him as the sinners of Sodom".

In 1593, Marlowe's one-time roommate and fellow dramatist, Thomas Kyd was imprisoned and interrogated after atheistic papers were found in his room. Claiming the papers belonged to Marlowe, Kyd later produced a list detailing some of Marlowe's "monstrous opinions," which included the claim that Marlowe "would report St. John to be our saviour Christ's Alexis ... that is, that Christ did love him with an extraordinary love."
In addition, it has been pointed out that there is no evidence of any marriage or female companionship for Marlowe.

Some scholars argue that the evidence is inconclusive and that the reports of Marlowe's homosexuality may simply be exaggerated rumours produced after his death. David Bevington and Eric Rasmussen describe Baines's evidence as "unreliable testimony" and make the comment: "These and other testimonials need to be discounted for their exaggeration and for their having been produced under legal circumstances we would regard as a witch-hunt" [7]. It has also been noted that Kyd's evidence was given after torture, and thus may have little connection to reality.[citation needed]

Edward II (c.1592) is one of the very few English Renaissance plays to be concerned with homosexuality, since Edward II had that reputation. The portrayal of Edward and his love, Piers Gaveston, is unflattering, but so too is the portrayal of the barons who usurp him, and the play's numerous modern revivals have demonstrated that Edward's tragic decline and death can elicit sympathetic responses; it is thus conceivable that some contemporary audience members might have responded similarly.
In Dido, Queen of Carthage, he opens with a scene of Jupiter "dandling Ganymede upon his knee" and says "what is't, sweet wag, I should deny thy youth?, whose face reflects such pleasure to mine eyes." Venus complains during the play that Jupiter is playing "with that female wanton boy."
In Hero and Leander, Marlowe writes of the male youth Leander, "in his looks were all that men desire" and that when the youth swims to visit Hero at Sestos, the sea god Neptune becomes sexually excited, "imagining that Ganymede, displeas'd... the lusty god embrac'd him, call'd him love... and steal a kiss... upon his breast, his thighs, and every limb", while the boy naive and unaware of Greek love practices said that, "You are deceiv'd, I am no woman, I... Thereat smil'd Neptune."
The mere inclusion of same-sex love themes, often in very tender terms, in Marlowe's works is seen by some as a significant fact. While heterosexual playwrights could have written the same, people tend to write about what they're interested in.

Much of Marlowe's work is also concerned with heterosexuality. However, heterosexuality is frequently presented negatively, such as when Aeneas must escape the clutches of Dido in order to fulfil his destiny. In Marlowe's work, heterosexuality is most frequently presented as a restriction of freedom, lacking the elevated nature of same-sex attraction.[citation needed] However, this could also be interpreted as a contrast between love and friendship; love presents difficulties not inherent in a non-erotic relationship.

For debates of a somewhat similar nature, compare Sexuality of William Shakespeare.

Marlowe's reputation among contemporary writers
Whatever the particular focus of modern critics, biographers and novelists, for his contemporaries in the literary world, Marlowe was above all an admired and influential artist. Within weeks of his death, George Peele remembered him as "Marley, the Muses' darling"; Michael Drayton noted that he "Had in him those brave translunary things/That the first poets had", and Ben Jonson wrote of "Marlowe's mighty line". Thomas Nashe wrote warmly of his friend, "poor deceased Kit Marlowe". So too did the publisher Edward Blount, in the dedication of Hero and Leander to Sir Thomas Walsingham.

The only contemporary dramatist[citation needed] to say anything negative about Marlowe was the anonymous author of the Cambridge University play The Return From Parnassus (1598) who wrote, "Pity it is that wit so ill should dwell, Wit lent from heaven, but vices sent from hell."

The most famous tribute to Marlowe was paid by Shakespeare in As You Like It, where he not only quotes a line from Hero and Leander (Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?") but also gives to the clown Touchstone the words "When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room." This appears to be a reference to Marlowe's murder (which involved a fight over the 'reckoning' - the bill). Shakespeare was indeed very influenced by Marlowe in his early work as can be seen in the re-using of Marlowe themes in Anthony and Cleopatra, The Merchant Of Venice, Richard II, and Macbeth (Dido, Jew of Malta, Edward II and Dr Faustus respectively). Indeed in Hamlet, after meeting with the travelling actors, Hamlet starts discussing Dido, Queen of Carthage and quoting from it. As this was Marlowe's only play not to have been played in the public theatre we can see that Shakespeare was quite the Marlovian scholar. Indeed in Love's Labour's Lost, echoing Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris, Shakespeare brings on a character called Marcade (French for Mercury - the messenger of the Gods - a nickname Marlowe bestowed upon himself) who arrives to 'interrupt'st' the 'merriment' with news of the King's death. A fitting tribute for one who delighted in destruction in his plays.

Recent Marlowe controversies
In November 2005, a production of Tamburlaine at the Barbican Arts Centre in London was accused of deferring to Muslim sensibilities by amending a section of the play in which the title character burns the Koran and excoriates the prophet Muhammad. The sequence was changed so that Tamburlaine instead defiles books representing all religious texts. The director denied censoring the play, stating that the change was a "purely artistic" decision "to focus the play away from anti-Turkish pantomime to an existential epic". This however shifts a considerable degree of focus from a number of anti-theist (and specifically anti-Muslim) points within the play and changes, significantly, the tone and tenor of the work. [8] [9]

Marlowe as Shakespeare
Main articles: Shakespearean authorship and Marlovian theory
Given the murky inconsistencies concerning the account of Marlowe's death, an ongoing conspiracy theory has arisen centred on the notion that Marlowe may have faked his death and then continued to write under the assumed name of William Shakespeare. Authors who have propounded this theory include:

 

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE - Some biographical facts
Peter Farey

The earliest record we have of the poet and dramatist Christopher Marlowe is of his baptism at St. George's Church, Canterbury, on 26th February 1564. So, although his actual date of birth is unknown, at least we know that it must have been before this. We can also work out the earliest date for his birth in fact, as he must have been under fifteen - the maximum age for acceptance - when he entered the King's School, Canterbury on 14th January 1579. Any birthday between 15th January and 25th February 1564 is possible therefore, but a date nearer to the later of these is much more likely. There is no known basis for the web-wide belief that he was born on 6th February.

Christopher was the second child of John Marlowe, a shoemaker and freeman of Canterbury, who had come there from Ospringe - a village some ten miles nearer London - about eight years earlier. His mother, who had married John in May 1561, was Katherine Arthur, from a family in Dover, roughly fifteen miles south-east of Canterbury. Their first child, a daughter (Mary), lived for only a very few years after Christopher's birth, and of the other Marlowe children, only six apparently reached adulthood - Christopher himself, Margaret, Joan, Ann, Dorothy and Thomas.

It is perhaps worth mentioning the fact that spelling was not standardized at that time, and Marlowe's name was spelt many different ways in the course of his life. This has given rise to doubt in some people's minds as to whether it is necessarily the same person being referred to each time in his 'standard' biography. This is considered in more detail in my essay The Spelling of Marlowe's Name, which gives reasons for us to be confident that it is the same person. Although, as we shall see, today's conventional spelling was not how he himself spelt his name, I shall as far as this account is concerned stick to the conventional one.

Nothing is known about Christopher's education before 14th January 1579, when he officially started, with a scholarship, at the King's School, Canterbury. What we do know, however, is that by then he must have been not only able to read and write but also, to be accepted at such a relatively late stage, well-versed in Latin.

A former Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, had endowed in his will a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for a boy from the King's School, and Marlowe was successful in being selected for this by Matthew's son, Jonathan Parker. Among the requirements for selection were to be able "at first sight to solf and sing plainsong" and to be "if it may be, such as can make a verse". Towards the end of 1580, therefore, he left Canterbury for university, where he would be officially resident for the next six and a half years, gaining his B.A. degree in 1584, and M.A. in 1587.

There is a fairly clear record of his actual presence in College, both from the accounts of the payment of his scholarship funds, which depended upon his being there, and his expenditure at the College buttery. From these it is clear that he was occasionally absent for quite long periods. Some seven weeks of the June-September 1582 trimester are unaccounted for, as are another seven in April-June 1583. He was there most of the time between July 1583 and September 1584, but for the academic year following that (1584/5 - his first full year as Dominus Marlowe, B.A.) he seems to have been there for less than half the time that he should have been. Although the payment records are missing for the academic year 1585/6, the buttery accounts show him to have been less absent then, other than during April-June 1586, when it looks as though he was away for some eight weeks in all.

Such absences were not necessarily unusual, however, and it must be made clear that there is no record at all as to what he might have been doing while he was away, other than on one occasion in August 1585, when he is known to have been in Canterbury, having witnessed a will there. He signed it 'Christofer Marley', which is in fact the only known example of his handwriting.

Before the award of the M.A. in 1587, some rumours had apparently been circulating that he intended ('was determined') to go to Rheims and, having gone, to remain there. This would normally mean training for priesthood at the Catholic College at Rheims, with the probable intention of eventually returning to England as a Catholic subversive. It seems that his M.A. was likely to be withheld because of this, but a letter was sent from the Privy Council to the University authorities, insisting that he had no such intent. He had apparently been employed in "matters touching the benefit of his country", the rumour should be allayed by all possible means, and he should be "furthered in the degree he was to take this next Commencement". There is no other indication of what he might have been doing to justify this high-powered commendation, nor who it was that had actually employed him in "doing her Majesty good service". Though the wording of the letter is somewhat ambiguous to modern ears, there really is little reason to interpret it as meaning that he had already been to Rheims at the time it was written.

The request from the Privy Council apparently worked, and he commenced M.A. (i.e. he was awarded the degree) that July. As the last payment of his scholarship had been for the Lent trimester (January-March) 1587, in fact it seems probable that he had already left Cambridge by then. The next time we actually know of his whereabouts, however, is not until some two and a half years later, in September 1589, when he is said to have been residing in the Norton Folgate area of London, Shoreditch, just outside and to the north of the City boundary.

Although Philip Henslowe built his theatre The Rose on the south bank of the Thames in 1588, the main two London theatres - The Theatre and The Curtain - were situated very near Norton Folgate, where Marlowe had been lately resident in '89, and his earlier plays would almost certainly have had their first public performances at one of them, more probably the former. At least seven plays, one narrative poem, two lengthy translations in verse from the original Latin and a hugely successful short pastoral poem are generally accepted as having been written by Marlowe before his death in 1593, although some scholars do claim to have identified his hand in other plays too.

There is no certainty as to exactly when any of his known works were actually written, but it is generally inferred that his Tamburlaine the Great, Part One would have had its first public performance in 1587, with Part Two presented the following year. Dido Queen of Carthage may well have been written while he was at Cambridge, as Thomas Nashe - who apparently had a hand in it - was there at the same time.

The other plays were most probably written and performed between 1588 and 1593 - Edward the Second, Doctor Faustus (whose prologue seems to refer to Edward The Second but not to the next two plays), The Jew of Malta and The Massacre at Paris, the last being described by Henslowe as 'ne' (i.e. new) in 1593. The poem Hero and Leander was unfinished at the time of his death, so could have been his last work. The dates of his translations of Ovid's Amores and Lucan's Pharsalia are completely unknown, as is when he wrote the famous Passionate Shepherd poem ('Come live with me and be my love...').

Although the sources of our information are not always necessarily to be relied upon, Marlowe seems to have had a fairly wide circle of friends and acquaintances. These included his particular friend and patron, Thomas Walsingham, and a circle of intellectuals centred around the Earl of Northumberland and Sir Walter Raleigh, including in particular the mathematicians Thomas Hariot and Walter Warner, and the poet Matthew Royden. He seems to have known the stationers Edward Blount, publisher of Shakespeare's First Folio, and Thomas Thorpe, of Shakespeare's Sonnets fame, pretty well; also other so-called 'University Wits' - Thomas Nashe, Robert Greene, and George Peele for example. He moved in theatrical circles too, of course, and must have been well acquainted with Philip Henslowe, who staged his plays, and Edward Alleyn, who played the lead in most of them. He also claimed to be well-known to Lord Strange (the future Earl of Derby) whose players had performed some of his plays.

It is an unfortunate fact that historical records about individuals, especially commoners, mostly concern either their own or someone else's brushes with the law, however, and Marlowe is no exception.

The September '89 record mentioned above is an example of this, when he was involved in an affray which resulted in someone's death. This was only after Marlowe had withdrawn from the fight, however. The only known aggressor on that day was William Bradley, the person who was killed - by the poet and dramatist Thomas Watson, whose claim that this was in self-defence was accepted.

Two and a half years later, in January 1592, we find Marlowe on the continent, in Flushing, where he was arrested on a charge of arranging the counterfeit of some coins. Flushing was still an English garrison town, and the Governor, Sir Robert Sidney, sent him back to England with a letter requesting that he be dealt with by the Lord Treasurer - William Cecil, Lord Burghley. What Marlowe was alleged to have done was in fact a capital offence, so it is of interest that the next record we have of him, only some three months later, finds him a free man. One obvious explanation, given his previous links with the Privy Council, would be that whatever he was doing there had been on behalf of Burghley in the first place.

The record of his being free shortly afterwards is in early May 1592, when he had apparently failed to 'keep the peace', whatever that meant, towards two constables in the Shoreditch area. He was therefore required to do so, and to appear before the magistrates at the next General session, on penalty of £20. Whether he did or not is unknown.

Marlowe next turns up in September '92, back in his home-town of Canterbury where he was involved in a fracas - involving a (walking?) stick and a dagger - with a tailor, William Corkine. The case appears to have been settled out of court, but it is clear from the evidence originally submitted that no bodily harm was done to the plaintiff, only damage to property (to the value of £10, according to Corkine).

Clearly, none of these offences was thought to have been at all serious, as far as his own involvement was concerned. It is perhaps worth recalling that there is no record of Marlowe ever having wounded anyone physically before the last day of his life, and that the details of this have been much disputed. In Kyd's letter, mentioned below, he writes of Marlowe's "attempting sudden privy injuries to men", but in the context of what else he is saying, and of how those words tended to be used at the time, this almost certainly concerns verbal, rather than physical, abuse.

In May 1593, however, a sequence of events started which did apparently put Marlowe in a far more dangerous position.

On the evening of 5th May, an anti-immigrant poem, now known as the "Dutch Church Libel", was posted on the wall of a London church. It was in blank verse similar to Marlowe's, was signed by someone calling himself 'Tamburlaine', one of his most famous characters, and included references to two of his other plays. The implication seemed to be that he was, at least in part, responsible for stimulating the civil unrest that was being threatened in it. The Privy Council insisted that the author should be found and punished.

A few days later, the playwright Thomas Kyd was arrested, apparently following a tip-off that he was responsible for the libel. His room was searched, and allegedly heretical papers found, which he said must have come from Marlowe, when they were 'writing in one chamber' together a couple of years earlier. Although innocent of the original charge, Kyd was tortured, and - trying to distance himself from Marlowe as much as possible - accused him of atheism. He later repeated in writing roughly what accusations he must have made, and followed this up with a letter to Sir John Puckering, the Lord Keeper, giving further details.

On 18th May, Marlowe was sent for to appear before the Privy Council, the Court being then at Nonsuch in Surrey, which he did on Sunday the 20th. In contrast to the way Kyd had been treated, however, he was released 'on bail', with a requirement that he report back to them daily until told otherwise. There is no record as to whether he did in fact do so or not.

Meanwhile, other damning documents were appearing, all of which confirmed him not only as an atheist himself, but one who encouraged atheism in others. These were the so-called 'Remembrances' concerning Richard Cholmeley, some further accusations about him, and the famous Baines 'Note', with its list of accusations levelled against Marlowe. So much damning material seems to have appeared in such a short time, in fact, that it is difficult to escape the conclusion that an orchestrated campaign had been mounted against him. The question of who might have been behind it is considered in my essay 'The Reckoning' Revisited, commenting upon the first edition of Charles Nicholl's book, The Reckoning.

Only ten days after his first appearance before the Privy Council, however, Christopher Marlowe was gone. According to the report of the inquest on his death, he and three other men - Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley - met on the morning of 30th May 1593 at the Deptford home of a widow called Eleanor Bull. They had lunch together, and spent a quiet afternoon in the house and walking in the garden. After dinner that evening the other three were sitting with their backs to Marlowe, who was lying on a bed near to them. An argument broke out between Marlowe and Frizer concerning the payment of the bill, or 'reckoning'. Marlowe drew Frizer's dagger from behind him and hit him on the scalp with it, wounding him. A struggle ensued in which Frizer thrust the dagger into Marlowe's head, just above the right eye, killing him instantly. Two days later the Coroner of the Queen's Household, who officiated at the inquest, and sixteen jurors, found Frizer to have acted in self-defence, and he was free within the month. Marlowe was buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford, on the evening of 1st June.

All of the circumstances surrounding this event, including my reasons for doubting the truth of the Coroner's report, are discussed in detail in my essay Marlowe's Sudden and Fearful End.

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE - Some biographical facts
Peter Farey

The earliest record we have of the poet and dramatist Christopher Marlowe is of his baptism at St. George's Church, Canterbury, on 26th February 1564. So, although his actual date of birth is unknown, at least we know that it must have been before this. We can also work out the earliest date for his birth in fact, as he must have been under fifteen - the maximum age for acceptance - when he entered the King's School, Canterbury on 14th January 1579. Any birthday between 15th January and 25th February 1564 is possible therefore, but a date nearer to the later of these is much more likely. There is no known basis for the web-wide belief that he was born on 6th February.

Christopher was the second child of John Marlowe, a shoemaker and freeman of Canterbury, who had come there from Ospringe - a village some ten miles nearer London - about eight years earlier. His mother, who had married John in May 1561, was Katherine Arthur, from a family in Dover, roughly fifteen miles south-east of Canterbury. Their first child, a daughter (Mary), lived for only a very few years after Christopher's birth, and of the other Marlowe children, only six apparently reached adulthood - Christopher himself, Margaret, Joan, Ann, Dorothy and Thomas.

It is perhaps worth mentioning the fact that spelling was not standardized at that time, and Marlowe's name was spelt many different ways in the course of his life. This has given rise to doubt in some people's minds as to whether it is necessarily the same person being referred to each time in his 'standard' biography. This is considered in more detail in my essay The Spelling of Marlowe's Name, which gives reasons for us to be confident that it is the same person. Although, as we shall see, today's conventional spelling was not how he himself spelt his name, I shall as far as this account is concerned stick to the conventional one.

Nothing is known about Christopher's education before 14th January 1579, when he officially started, with a scholarship, at the King's School, Canterbury. What we do know, however, is that by then he must have been not only able to read and write but also, to be accepted at such a relatively late stage, well-versed in Latin.

A former Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, had endowed in his will a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for a boy from the King's School, and Marlowe was successful in being selected for this by Matthew's son, Jonathan Parker. Among the requirements for selection were to be able "at first sight to solf and sing plainsong" and to be "if it may be, such as can make a verse". Towards the end of 1580, therefore, he left Canterbury for university, where he would be officially resident for the next six and a half years, gaining his B.A. degree in 1584, and M.A. in 1587.

There is a fairly clear record of his actual presence in College, both from the accounts of the payment of his scholarship funds, which depended upon his being there, and his expenditure at the College buttery. From these it is clear that he was occasionally absent for quite long periods. Some seven weeks of the June-September 1582 trimester are unaccounted for, as are another seven in April-June 1583. He was there most of the time between July 1583 and September 1584, but for the academic year following that (1584/5 - his first full year as Dominus Marlowe, B.A.) he seems to have been there for less than half the time that he should have been. Although the payment records are missing for the academic year 1585/6, the buttery accounts show him to have been less absent then, other than during April-June 1586, when it looks as though he was away for some eight weeks in all.

Such absences were not necessarily unusual, however, and it must be made clear that there is no record at all as to what he might have been doing while he was away, other than on one occasion in August 1585, when he is known to have been in Canterbury, having witnessed a will there. He signed it 'Christofer Marley', which is in fact the only known example of his handwriting.

Before the award of the M.A. in 1587, some rumours had apparently been circulating that he intended ('was determined') to go to Rheims and, having gone, to remain there. This would normally mean training for priesthood at the Catholic College at Rheims, with the probable intention of eventually returning to England as a Catholic subversive. It seems that his M.A. was likely to be withheld because of this, but a letter was sent from the Privy Council to the University authorities, insisting that he had no such intent. He had apparently been employed in "matters touching the benefit of his country", the rumour should be allayed by all possible means, and he should be "furthered in the degree he was to take this next Commencement". There is no other indication of what he might have been doing to justify this high-powered commendation, nor who it was that had actually employed him in "doing her Majesty good service". Though the wording of the letter is somewhat ambiguous to modern ears, there really is little reason to interpret it as meaning that he had already been to Rheims at the time it was written.

The request from the Privy Council apparently worked, and he commenced M.A. (i.e. he was awarded the degree) that July. As the last payment of his scholarship had been for the Lent trimester (January-March) 1587, in fact it seems probable that he had already left Cambridge by then. The next time we actually know of his whereabouts, however, is not until some two and a half years later, in September 1589, when he is said to have been residing in the Norton Folgate area of London, Shoreditch, just outside and to the north of the City boundary.

Although Philip Henslowe built his theatre The Rose on the south bank of the Thames in 1588, the main two London theatres - The Theatre and The Curtain - were situated very near Norton Folgate, where Marlowe had been lately resident in '89, and his earlier plays would almost certainly have had their first public performances at one of them, more probably the former. At least seven plays, one narrative poem, two lengthy translations in verse from the original Latin and a hugely successful short pastoral poem are generally accepted as having been written by Marlowe before his death in 1593, although some scholars do claim to have identified his hand in other plays too.

There is no certainty as to exactly when any of his known works were actually written, but it is generally inferred that his Tamburlaine the Great, Part One would have had its first public performance in 1587, with Part Two presented the following year. Dido Queen of Carthage may well have been written while he was at Cambridge, as Thomas Nashe - who apparently had a hand in it - was there at the same time.

The other plays were most probably written and performed between 1588 and 1593 - Edward the Second, Doctor Faustus (whose prologue seems to refer to Edward The Second but not to the next two plays), The Jew of Malta and The Massacre at Paris, the last being described by Henslowe as 'ne' (i.e. new) in 1593. The poem Hero and Leander was unfinished at the time of his death, so could have been his last work. The dates of his translations of Ovid's Amores and Lucan's Pharsalia are completely unknown, as is when he wrote the famous Passionate Shepherd poem ('Come live with me and be my love...').

Although the sources of our information are not always necessarily to be relied upon, Marlowe seems to have had a fairly wide circle of friends and acquaintances. These included his particular friend and patron, Thomas Walsingham, and a circle of intellectuals centred around the Earl of Northumberland and Sir Walter Raleigh, including in particular the mathematicians Thomas Hariot and Walter Warner, and the poet Matthew Royden. He seems to have known the stationers Edward Blount, publisher of Shakespeare's First Folio, and Thomas Thorpe, of Shakespeare's Sonnets fame, pretty well; also other so-called 'University Wits' - Thomas Nashe, Robert Greene, and George Peele for example. He moved in theatrical circles too, of course, and must have been well acquainted with Philip Henslowe, who staged his plays, and Edward Alleyn, who played the lead in most of them. He also claimed to be well-known to Lord Strange (the future Earl of Derby) whose players had performed some of his plays.

It is an unfortunate fact that historical records about individuals, especially commoners, mostly concern either their own or someone else's brushes with the law, however, and Marlowe is no exception.

The September '89 record mentioned above is an example of this, when he was involved in an affray which resulted in someone's death. This was only after Marlowe had withdrawn from the fight, however. The only known aggressor on that day was William Bradley, the person who was killed - by the poet and dramatist Thomas Watson, whose claim that this was in self-defence was accepted.

Two and a half years later, in January 1592, we find Marlowe on the continent, in Flushing, where he was arrested on a charge of arranging the counterfeit of some coins. Flushing was still an English garrison town, and the Governor, Sir Robert Sidney, sent him back to England with a letter requesting that he be dealt with by the Lord Treasurer - William Cecil, Lord Burghley. What Marlowe was alleged to have done was in fact a capital offence, so it is of interest that the next record we have of him, only some three months later, finds him a free man. One obvious explanation, given his previous links with the Privy Council, would be that whatever he was doing there had been on behalf of Burghley in the first place.

The record of his being free shortly afterwards is in early May 1592, when he had apparently failed to 'keep the peace', whatever that meant, towards two constables in the Shoreditch area. He was therefore required to do so, and to appear before the magistrates at the next General session, on penalty of £20. Whether he did or not is unknown.

Marlowe next turns up in September '92, back in his home-town of Canterbury where he was involved in a fracas - involving a (walking?) stick and a dagger - with a tailor, William Corkine. The case appears to have been settled out of court, but it is clear from the evidence originally submitted that no bodily harm was done to the plaintiff, only damage to property (to the value of £10, according to Corkine).

Clearly, none of these offences was thought to have been at all serious, as far as his own involvement was concerned. It is perhaps worth recalling that there is no record of Marlowe ever having wounded anyone physically before the last day of his life, and that the details of this have been much disputed. In Kyd's letter, mentioned below, he writes of Marlowe's "attempting sudden privy injuries to men", but in the context of what else he is saying, and of how those words tended to be used at the time, this almost certainly concerns verbal, rather than physical, abuse.

In May 1593, however, a sequence of events started which did apparently put Marlowe in a far more dangerous position.

On the evening of 5th May, an anti-immigrant poem, now known as the "Dutch Church Libel", was posted on the wall of a London church. It was in blank verse similar to Marlowe's, was signed by someone calling himself 'Tamburlaine', one of his most famous characters, and included references to two of his other plays. The implication seemed to be that he was, at least in part, responsible for stimulating the civil unrest that was being threatened in it. The Privy Council insisted that the author should be found and punished.

A few days later, the playwright Thomas Kyd was arrested, apparently following a tip-off that he was responsible for the libel. His room was searched, and allegedly heretical papers found, which he said must have come from Marlowe, when they were 'writing in one chamber' together a couple of years earlier. Although innocent of the original charge, Kyd was tortured, and - trying to distance himself from Marlowe as much as possible - accused him of atheism. He later repeated in writing roughly what accusations he must have made, and followed this up with a letter to Sir John Puckering, the Lord Keeper, giving further details.

On 18th May, Marlowe was sent for to appear before the Privy Council, the Court being then at Nonsuch in Surrey, which he did on Sunday the 20th. In contrast to the way Kyd had been treated, however, he was released 'on bail', with a requirement that he report back to them daily until told otherwise. There is no record as to whether he did in fact do so or not.

Meanwhile, other damning documents were appearing, all of which confirmed him not only as an atheist himself, but one who encouraged atheism in others. These were the so-called 'Remembrances' concerning Richard Cholmeley, some further accusations about him, and the famous Baines 'Note', with its list of accusations levelled against Marlowe. So much damning material seems to have appeared in such a short time, in fact, that it is difficult to escape the conclusion that an orchestrated campaign had been mounted against him. The question of who might have been behind it is considered in my essay 'The Reckoning' Revisited, commenting upon the first edition of Charles Nicholl's book, The Reckoning.

Only ten days after his first appearance before the Privy Council, however, Christopher Marlowe was gone. According to the report of the inquest on his death, he and three other men - Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley - met on the morning of 30th May 1593 at the Deptford home of a widow called Eleanor Bull. They had lunch together, and spent a quiet afternoon in the house and walking in the garden. After dinner that evening the other three were sitting with their backs to Marlowe, who was lying on a bed near to them. An argument broke out between Marlowe and Frizer concerning the payment of the bill, or 'reckoning'. Marlowe drew Frizer's dagger from behind him and hit him on the scalp with it, wounding him. A struggle ensued in which Frizer thrust the dagger into Marlowe's head, just above the right eye, killing him instantly. Two days later the Coroner of the Queen's Household, who officiated at the inquest, and sixteen jurors, found Frizer to have acted in self-defence, and he was free within the month. Marlowe was buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford, on the evening of 1st June.

All of the circumstances surrounding this event, including my reasons for doubting the truth of the Coroner's report, are discussed in detail in my essay Marlowe's Sudden and Fearful End.