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Christopher Marlowe
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Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. He was born in 1564, the same year as Shakespeare, and was a product of the same social class. Unlike Shakespeare... Marlowe was university-educated. In 1584 he earned his B.A. at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and in 1587 he earned his M.A.
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Historically, Christopher Marlowe will always be a runner-up to Shakespeare. Although Marlowe was one of the earliest writers to make use of blank verse, the style is most often associated with Shakespeare. Adding insult to injury, Marlowe’s early plays have been overshadowed by some of Shakespeare’s works that “borrowed” certain character ideas (see, for example, the similarities between Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice). And finally, Marlowe’s body of work is less expansive than the Bard’s—but perhaps only because Shakespeare managed to live a full three decades longer than Marlowe did. Despite these inevitable comparisons, Marlowe’s plays have stood the test of time and should be regarded as classics in their own right.
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Although a number of English dramatists before Christopher Marlowe had achieved some notable successes in the field of comedy, none had produced a first-rate tragedy. It was Marlowe who made the first significant advances in tragedy. In each of his major plays he focuses on a single character who dominates the action by virtue of his extraordinary strength of will. Marlowe's thundering blank verse, although for the most part lacking the subtlety of Shakespeare's mature poetry, proved a remarkably effective medium for this kind of drama.
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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. Marlow is the eldest son of John Marlowe a Shoemakers Guld and Katherine Arthur, a Dover girl of yeoman stock. Christopher Marlowe was baptized at St. George's Church, Canterbury on February 26, 1564. Christopher's intermediate and extended family had a reputation of getting into quarrels and trouble with the law.
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Christopher Marlowe entered the world at a stirring period, when the old times were rapidly passing away and a new era of mingled hope and doubt was dawning upon his country. England was just recovering from internal and foreign conflicts, and during the lull a partial truce was patched up between followers of the rival creeds. The rapid diffusion of printed books was creating a revolution in every branch of learning, and the new knowledge ... gained aroused men to dare in thought and deed things hitherto undreamt of. A feeling of new-born hope permeated the nation. The time was ripe for thinkers and actors. There was a stir and excitement in the mental atmosphere of the age, influencing and moulding the minds of the new generation, which seethed in a turmoil of speculative thought, and by its aspirations and actions reacted upon and controlled not only those who lived in it, but those who came after it.
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Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury as the son of a shoemaker. He attended the King's School and was awarded a scholarship from the foundation of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury. Marlowe studied the Bible and the Reformation theologians as well as philosophy and history at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 1584 he took a degree of A.B. Instead of continuing in Cambride, Marlowe left his studies to carry out a secret mission for the government. In 1587 he took the degree of M.A. University authorities, believing he had been converted to Catholicism, were first unwilling to grant his degree. It did not help him either, that he had been away too much from his studies.
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Christopher Marlowe