Christopher Marlowe

Considered the predecessor of William Shakespeare, Marlowe contributed to the Elizabethan theater thanks to the production of such important works as Dido, Queen of Carthage, Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, and Edward II.

Biography

(Canterbury, England, 1564 - Deptford, id., 1593) English playwright and poet. The mystery surrounding his life has given rise to numerous legends about him and his work. The most surprising is the one attributed to him in the authorship of Shakespeare's dramas: the appearance of Shakespeare on the scene just after Marlowe's death, and the similarity of some verses and formal procedures, has led some to venture the hypothesis of that the death of Marlowe, the supposed secret agent of the English Crown, was only a trick to free him from his numerous enemies.

Declared officially dead, Christopher Marlowe would have continued his work as a writer through the figure of a second-rank actor, who would be none other than Shakespeare. Without discussing the possible foundation of such theories, the truth is that Marlowe was the first great author of English theater, although his literary career only spanned six years.

Of a shoemaker, details about his early childhood and youth are unknown. At the age of fifteen he studied at the Royal School of Canterbury, and two years later at the University of Cambridge, where in 1584 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. His prolonged absences from classrooms were motivated by his activities as a secret agent of the English Crown. Graduated in 1587, that same year he moved to London, where he released his first dramatic work: the two parts of Tamerlán el Grande.

Of violent character, in 1589 he was accused of murder and a little later of atheism, blasphemy and sodomy. Marlowe died in a dark brawl, shortly after an arrest warrant was issued against him for conspiracy.

Along with the cited work, its production includes the dramas Dido, Queen of Carthage (1594), Edward II (1594), The Paris Massacre (1594), Doctor Faust (1601) and The Jew of Malta (1633), and the poems The Passionate Shepherd (1599) and Hero and Leandro (1598), the latter unfinished.

MORE IMPORTANT WORKS

Tamerlan the great

Doctor faust

The Maltese Jew

The Paris massacre

Eduardo II