8-5Marlowe


 * Who was Christopher Marlowe? What role did he play in Shakespeare’s life?**

// Answer prepared by Juliet d.l.H //

Christopher Marlowe was “the father of English Tragedy” says Anniina Jokien. He was born in Canterbury where he was also brought up. He was christened on th 26th of February in the same church two months after Shakespeare. He also was in the same place in the social scale as Shakespeare. He went to the King’s School at Canterbury 1579 but he was on a scholarship. There are many different beliefs to what his actingcareer was like. Some say he originally started in Lord Admiral’s acting company writing and acting plays. It is also to be believed that a few months before he died to change to Lord Strange’s Company. What does that matter? When he moved to Lord Strange’s acting company this is where he would have met Shakespeare. Others say that he would have gotten to know Shakespeare at the Rose Theater, where Will’s work would replace Marlowe’s. Some say that they became friends, but their friendship ended when Will started to steal Christopher’s work! Marlowe also had a huge rap-sheet with prisons across Europe. He would be caught and the English government paid his bail. Why would they do that? What was so special about him? The unknown fact to the common people at that time was that Marlowe was a member of the secret service since his last year at Canterbury and would pass information to the government from other countries. He was very unpopular in society because people thought he was being treated more royal than others in his class. His death is a disputed thing. Some say that when he was assigned one of his very supper-secret missions he went to dinner with the enemy. Everything and who knows if he could have changed the future. After dinner and a few shots of scotch a fight broke out between the host and Marlowe. The fight escalated and Marlowe was stabbed between the eyes. Others say that it was an accident and that was a staged death. Some historians say that Sir Walter Ralegh, a supposed friend, killed him because Ralegh thought that the Queen liked Marlowe more than she liked him. His life was mysterious so we don’t know what really happened.

Works Cited "Christopher Marlowe." __Elizabethan Era__. 16 Apr. 2009 .

"In Search of Shakespeare . Christopher Marlowe |." __PBS__. 16 Apr. 2009 .

"Life of Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)." __Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature__. 16 Apr. 2009 .

Sales, Roger. __Christopher Marlowe (English Dramatists)__. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991.