About the playwright: Christopher Marlowe

Born in the same year as Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593) was to become the first great poet of the theatre's Golden Age. In a short and violent life he wrote seven plays: Dido Queen of Carthage, Tamburlaine (in two parts), The Jew of Malta, Edward II, The Massacre at Paris and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.

The son of a shoemaker, Marlowe attended King's School, Canterbury and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. According to university records, his attendance was poor. He disappeared to Rheims (probably to work as a spy for the Government observing English Catholics abroad), and to socialise in colourful literary circles with figures such as Phillip Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh. There are very few hard facts about his life though rumours abounded about his supposed atheism and homosexuality. It is known that in 1589 he was arrested after a street fight and in 1592 he was bound over to keep the peace. A week before his death, he was summoned to report to the Privy Council (to stand trial at the Queen’s court) accused of heresy. His roommate, the playwright Thomas Kyd, was tortured into giving evidence against him, and died shortly after.

Before Marlowe could be brought before the Privy Council, he was stabbed and died at Dame Eleanor Bull's tavern in Deptford, London. On May 30, 1593, he had gone to the tavern to have dinner with some friends. According to witnesses, there was an argument over the bill: Marlowe suddenly drew his dagger on another man, Ingram Frizer, who, defending himself, drove the dagger back into the young poet's eye, killing him. There is reason to believe, however, that Marlowe may have been deliberately provoked and murdered in order to prevent his arrest. Had he been brought before the Privy Council, he might have implicated more powerful men. Other, more colourful, theories are that his death was faked and he went on to assume the identity of one William Shakespeare!