Christopher Marlowe lived a short and wild life. He was criticized for his religious views. He was known to have a violent temper. And he even worked as a spy for Queen Elizabeth. In addition, Thomas Kyd, another playwright of the Renaissance, also accused Marlowe of atheism and treason.
Marlowe died in 1593 at the age of 29. There are several versions about how he died. But sources place his death at the Widow Bull, an inn or tavern where Marlowe apparently had been drinking.
During a fight about paying the bill, someone stabbed Marlowe with a knife. A short but promising career thus came to an unfortunate end.
Marlowe was born in Canterbury in 1564, the same year that William Shakespeare was born. Marlowe attended Cambridge University. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1584 and his Master of Arts in 1587. By the time he had graduated, he had already written a couple of plays and some poems.
Marlowe wrote several plays in his lifetime, but four of them are considered especially noteworthy:
Tamburlaine the Great c. 1587
The Jew of Malta c. 1592
Edward II c. 1592
Doctor Faustus c. 1593
Some critics note that Tamburlaine introduced blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) to the stage. This is an error. Actually, Gorboduc, one of the earliest English tragedies, has that honor: Gorboduc was first performed in 1561.
Although Tamburlaine was not the first play to introduce blank verse to the English stage, it was the first play to produce great blank verse on stage. More importantly, the play is important because the central character, Tamburlaine, who was a warrior chieftain in Mongolia during the 14th century, represents two negative aspects of the Renaissance man: ambition and a quest for power. In this respect, he is quite similar to the central character in Marlowe's greatest play, Doctor Faustus.