MARLOWE, CHRISTOPHER ), English dramatist, the father of English tragedy, and instaurator of dramatic blank verse, the eldest son of a shoemaker, was born in Canterbury on Feb. 6, 1564. He was christened at St. George's Church, Canterbury, on Feb. 26, 1563/4, some two months before Shakespeare's baptism at Stratford-on-Avon. His father, John Marlowe, is said to have been the grandson of John Morley or Marlowe, a substantial tanner of Canterbury. The father, who survived by a dozen years or so his illustrious son, married on May 22, 1561 Catherine, daughter of Christopher Arthur, at one time rector of St. Peter's, Canterbury, who had been ejected by Queen Mary as a married minister. The dramatist had as fellow pupils at the King's School, Canterbury, Richard Boyle, after wards earl of Cork, and Will Lyly, the brother of the dramatist. He matriculated at Benet (Corpus Christi) College, on March 17, 1571, taking his B.A. degree in 1584, and that of M.A. three or four years later.
Francis Kett, the mystic, burnt in 1589 for heresy, was a fellow and tutor of his college, and may have had some share in develop ing Marlowe's opinions in religious matters. Marlowe's classical acquirements were of a kind which was then extremely common, being based for the most part upon a minute acquaintance with Roman mythology, as revealed in Ovid's Metamorphoses. His spirited translation of Ovid's Amores (printed 1596), was at any rate commenced at Cambridge. His translation of "The First Book of Lucan," printed posthumously in i600, belongs to the last years of his short life. The famous lyric, "Come live with me and be my love" was first printed in its entirety in England's Helicon (i600). Hero and Leander, based on Musacus, also be longs to the last years. Before 1587 he seems to have quitted Cambridge for London ; of his life there, apart from his four great theatrical successes and his connection as a dramatist with the Lord Admiral's and Strange's companies, we know hardly anything; but he evidently knew Thomas Kyd, who shared his unorthodox opinions. Nash criticized his verse, Greene affected
to shudder at his atheism ; Gabriel Harvey maligned his memory.
On the other hand, Marlowe was intimate with the Waising hams of Scadbury, Chiselhurst, kinsmen of Sir Francis Walsing ham: he was also the personal friend of Sir Walter Raleigh, and perhaps of the poetical earl of Oxford, with both of whom, and with Walter Warner and Robert Hughes the mathematicians, Thomas Harriott the astronomer, and Matthew Royden, the dramatist is said to have met in free converse. He seems at least to have been associated with what was denounced as Sir Walter Raleigh's school of atheism, and to have dallied with opinions which were then regarded as putting a man outside the pale of civilized humanity. In October 1588 Marlowe gave bail for his appearance for an unspecified offence. Serious charges were brought in 1593. As the result of some depositions made by Thomas Kyd under the influence of torture, the Privy Council were upon the eve of investigating some charges against Mar lowe when his career was abruptly terminated. Thanks to the researches of Dr. Hotson, it is now established definitely on the evidence of documents in the Public Record Office, that Marlowe was killed by a companion of his, one Ingram Frizer, at an inn at ,Deptford on May 3oth, 1593. Frizer and Marlowe, together with two friends named Robert Poley and Nicholas Skeres, had re paired to the inn to dine and sup. A quarrel arose about paying the bill; Marlowe in a sudden fit of temper attacked Frizer from behind. Frizer in the ensuing struggle stabbed Marlowe, who died instantly. Frizer was subsequently pardoned, as having killed Marlowe in self-defence. A full account of the docu mentary evidence which supports these facts is given in Dr. Hotson's book, The Death of Christopher Marlowe (1925). Dr. Hotson points out that it is important to note that Ingram Frizer was, in the relevant documents, described as "gentleman" and did not forfeit the good graces of his employers, the Walsinghams, who were friends of the man whom he slew.