Christopher Marlowe
From Conservapedia
Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593) was was an Elizabethan poet and playwright. He is most well known for The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, a play in which Doctor Faustus makes a deal with the Devil, exchanging his soul for knowledge and power.
Marlowe was born in Canterbury, two months before the birth of William Shakespeare. In 1580, he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on a scholarship awarded to students preparing for a career in the ministry. In school, Marlowe began writing plays. In 1587, he applied to do his Master of Arts. The University attempted to deny him on the grounds that he had been absent from the course previously, and associated with the seminary at Rheims, a hotbed of Catholic intrigue and propaganda against Queen Elizabeth. However, the privy council intervened, stating that he had been on government business, and approved his application. This incident has given rise to suggestions that he was engaged in espionage.
Before leaving Cambridge, Marlowe had already completed two plays, Tamburlaine and the tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage. He was one of the leading proponents of English drama at this time, employing devices such as blank verse, which would be built upon by his successors such as William Shakespeare. Indeed, his play Tamburlaine the Great was so successful that he went on to write a sequel to it. Along with his plays, he wrote a number of poems, including a translation of the Amores by Ovid while still at university. Because of its lascivious subject matter and disregard for the proprieties of chastity and piety, this work was condemned and burned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Besides his contribution to literature, Marlowe became known for his blasphemy and homosexuality. At a time when both were capital offences, this brought him into conflict with the authorities.[1]
In 1593 he was arrested in connection to a collection of xenophobic libels published in London, attacking Protestant refugees form the Continent. Later that year he was murdered in a tavern. Ostensibly, this was a result of a fight over payment of the bill; however, some historians have suggested more intricate motives involving his underground activities or his role as a social and religious dissident.
References
- ↑ Richard Baines' report (MSS BL Harleian 6848, fos. 185-6) as cited in Honan, 'Christopher Marlowe: Poet and Spy' (Oxford 2005)
