Homework, Research, Shakespeare 
1 Comment Other Playwrights in the Shakespeare Era.
Christopher Marlowe ‘ the not so famous playwright’.
When you think of playwrights in general only one name pops into your head, William Shakespeare. Unknown to most he wasn’t the first or most popular of his time to some, the man who actually inspired William Shakespeare was called Christopher Marlowe.
Unfortunately we don’t know Christopher Marlowe’s date of birth, but we know that he was baptised on the 26th of February 1564 in Canterbury, England and he was mysteriously stabbed to death on the 30th of May 1593 Deptford, England. He was born to John Marlowe and his wife Catherine, Christopher went on to attend kings school which now have a house named after him, and was awarded a scholarship which allowed him to go to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge from 1580 to 1587. He got his degree in arts in 1584 but the college hesitated in 1587 to give him his master’s degree due to the rumour that he had converted to Roman Catholicism. These rumours died down when the Privy Council sent him a letter to work for the government ‘on matters touching his country’. The nature of Marlowe’s service to England was not specified by the council but the letter sent to Cambridge has provoked a speculated theory that he had become a secret agent working for Sir Francis Walshinghams intelligence service.
Christopher Marlowe, in his short life had published seven plays which have been seen as incredible plays. The first play he wrote that was performed is believed to be Dido, Queen of Carthage. This was performed by “the children of the chapel” from 1587 to 1593. Probably his most well known play is “The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus”, based on the German Faustbuch, and was the first drama performed version of the Faust legend of a scholar’s dealing with the devil. The play is similar to some versions of “The Devil’s Pact” which can be traced back to the 4th century. Despite this Marlowe significantly uses a “possessed” style of character by having his hero unable to “burn his books” or repent his sins to God in order to have his contract cancelled at the end of the play. Instead of letting the character immediately have freedom in his actions and conscience. Marlowe’s protagonist Doctor Faustus is instead torn apart by demons and dragged off screaming to burn in hell. This could be one of the first demon style performances which could have inspired the great horror movies based on demons such as The Exorcist, Fallen and The Last Exorcism.
On the Sunday of May 20th 1593 the rumours of his Atheist beliefs finally caught up with him and he was arrested for the ‘serious’ crime of not believing in a God or for that matter the ‘correct’ God. The penalty for this crime was burning at the stake, despite the magnitude of the crime he was not tortured or jailed on the condition he reported daily to an officer. Unfortunately for him, even though being theoretically acquitted, on May 30th he was killed by Ingram Frizer who was also with Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley at the time of the murder. They was all tied to the same charge and many researchers believe it was due to Christopher’s Atheism and ‘spy’ activities being the reason for the murder. Despite an apparent fight breaking out over money, conspiracy theorists think there was a plot to kill Christopher dating back earlier than just the day of the murder.
His plays have had a great influence in the media and acts of the last 500 years. With his plays going on to inspire new playwrights, changing the genre of plays and affecting things such as the movies and books of today. This is a reason of why many more people should know about Christopher Marlowe.