Christopher Marlowe

"What nourishes me, destroys me,"

• baptized 26 February 1564–30 May 1593

• (Shakespeare, baptized 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616)

Marlowe

• Son of shoemaker, Canterbury, England• Attended Cambridge University on scholarship• Earned BA and MA• Wrote for production, not publication• Wrote with others (Thomas Nash) and alone

University Wits

• 1590’s • Up to 60 men, mostly university graduates• Writing styles– Verse• Marlowe known for his mighty line

– Tragic– Heroic

Blank Verse

• Unrhymed iambic pentameter poetry• Is this / the face / that launched / a thou /

sand ships

Poet!!!• Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,And all is dross that is not Helena.I will be Paris, and for love of thee,Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd;And I will combat with weak Menelaus,And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,And then return to Helen for a kiss.O, thou art fairer than the evening airClad in the beauty of a thousand stars;Brighter art thou than flaming JupiterWhen he appear'd to hapless Semele;More lovely than the monarch of the skyIn wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;And none but thou shalt be my paramour!

Catholic!!!

• Marlowe was initially denied his Masters Degree on suspicion of being a Catholic

• The crown intervened and Marlowe was given his degree

Atheist!!!

• Thomas Kyd’s house was raided, Marlowe’s name were on some heretical papers found

• Kyd tortured for information• Ordered to be arrested for being an atheist

Satanic!!!

The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

• Performed around 1592• First published 1604

(quarto, A text)• Published again 1616

(quarto, B text)

Secret Agent!!!

• Marlowe became a secret agent at university• Went to jail for participating in a fight,

resulting in a man’s death

Assassinated???

• Stabbed to death (in the eye) in a brawl in Deptford in a "dispute over an unpaid bill." – Two government agents were involved with killing

– assassination?

Shakespeare?

• http://youtu.be/OsJTbWF1-lg