8-3Marlowe

WHO WAS CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, AND WHAT ROLE DID HE PLAY IN SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE? //Answer prepared by Emma K.// According to the article //In Search of Shakespeare: Christopher Marlowe from PBS, Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564, the same year as Shakespeare. He came from the same social class as Shakespeare as well; however, Marlowe was university-educated. This gave him a “solid foundation in the classics,” making him a “talented translator.” It also contributed a great deal to his “darkly hip” poetry. As the way poetry was written began to change, it became greatly influenced by Latin; Marlowe popularized this new style of writing. By the late 1580s, his writing style was very hip and modern; almost all other writers from his time aspired to write like Marlowe. In fact, according to Kathryn Hinds, author of Life in Elizabethan England: The Countryside, Shakespeare himself quoted Marlowe’s poem ////The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.//

Although Christopher Marlowe was brilliant, he was deeply troubled. He could be scathingly sarcastic and irascible. He was not afraid to speak his mind and criticize other writers and their techniques. He was one for overindulgence, both “in his plays and in his hunger for tobacco and for boys.” In fact, his motto was "What nourishes me, destroys me." The article from the PBS website put it well: “If Marlowe's university had a yearbook, then this brilliant but flawed playwright would probably have earned the entry ‘Least Likely to See the Age of 30.’” The world of theatre was fairly small, so Shakespeare would have actually gotten to know Marlowe personally around 1591. They probably would have met at the Rose Theatre where Marlowe's best actor, Edward Alleyn, was performing the main roles in his plays. Shakespeare undoubtedly learned a lot from Marlowe's work. In fact, Marlowe would later find himself “knocked off the top spot at the box office” as Shakespeare became a star. This defeat must have been extremely difficult to take for the university-educated Marlowe, especially because he was so reproachful of those who came from a more modest educational background than. In London in 1593, an intolerant group of people began to use Marlowe’s works to attack local immigrants, using them as a scapegoat for troubles such as plague, bad harvests, the threat of invasion, and growing unemployment. That very same year, State conspiracy theorists began to see plots by religious extremists everywhere. The term “State” refers to the British government. The home of Thomas Kyd, the author of "Spanish Tragedy", and the “spark behind the new wave in writing” that Marlowe had made popular, was raided. Some notes found in the raid were suggested to be “heretical in content.” The name Marlowe was mentioned in these notes. Kyd was interrogated and brutally tortured; he denied any knowledge of the items found in his house. Kyd later died of his injuries. Marlowe was later arrested and examined by the Privy Council. It was his second arrest that winter; the first time, Marlowe was arrested on the Dutch island of Flushing for purportedly forging coins and expressing pro-Catholic sympathies. At that time, he was actually being paid as an agent by the government. After his second arrest, he was released on the condition that he would present himself to the authorities every day. Though his mouth may have gotten him into trouble, his death was probably more a “case of death by allegory.” People found metaphors in Marlowe’s plays and presumed they were comments on current events. In a time of great suspicion, The State may have seen a work like Marlowe's "Edward II" as an attack on the reign of Elizabeth I and The State itself. This was definitely not a good time for Marlowe to make enemies.

On May 30, 1593, Christopher Marlowe attended a meeting with three men, all of whom were involved in spying. Marlowe himself was disguised as a State spy. They met at a government safe house in Deptford, an area that was “bristling with State establishments.” The three men who Marlowe are thought to have been Nicholas Skeres, a common street thug; Ingram Frizer, a blackmailer; and Robin Poley, a member of the State secret police. It is assumed that the men ate, smoked and later walked in the garden pleasantly until later that evening when a quarrel broke out. Frizer allegedly stabbed Marlowe between the eyes after a dispute. After an investigation, the argument was attributed to a disagreement over the bill. Frizer was pardoned; Marlowe, of course, was dead. But Marlowe's death that night probably had little to do with the bill. His plays had “ruffled feathers,” and he was arrogant and held strong beliefs. It is unlikely his death was the result of a mere fight; in none of the records is there mention of defense wounds, and such a precise stroke between the eyes is in “true assassin-style.” In short, it seems that Marlowe’s murder was planned long before his actual demise.

"Christopher Marlowe." __PBS__. 2003. PBS. 5 Apr. 2009 . Hinds, Kathryn. __The Countryside (Life in Elizabethan England)__. New York: Benchmark Books (NY), 2007.  **//Links: //**[|PBS Website-In Search of Shakespeare] //Good site with a pretty thorough overview of Marlowe's life//
 * //Works Cited://**