CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE,
The summary of
(February 6, 1564 - May 30, 1593)

Christopher Marlowe has been identified as the most important of Shakesphere's predecessors. "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus", remains the most celebrated and most often anthologized of Marlowe's plays. Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, England, on February 6,1564. He was born into a family of leatherworkers. He was baptized February 26, 1564 in St. George's Church, Canterbury. Marlow attended the King's School of Canterbury in 1579 and 1580, leaving in 1581 to study at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was a recipient of a scholarship funded by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury. Marlowe's acedemic career was eneventful, except for mysterious and increasingly long absences after his second year. It is now assumed that in these periods he was involved in yet undiclosed government service either as a secret agent or as a confidential messenger. Marlowe was the kind of man who could not help making enemies. Many times during his life he was in trouble with the law.

In the early summer of 1591 Thomas Kyd and Marlowe shared a rooom which they used for studying. Two years later Kyd was arrested and interrogated concerning heretical papers "denying the deity of Jesus Christ", which he said belong to Marlowe and must have been shuffled with his own papers, while sharing a room. Before Marlowe could be called upon to answer these serious charges, Marlowe was murdered at Deptford by Ingram Frizer. It is difficult to underestimate the poetic and dramatic achievements of Marlowe. Although his career was short, Marlowe wrote plays that appealed to an emerging popular audience and strongly influenced other dramatists.


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