Authors

British · 1564–1593

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was the first great English dramatist and Shakespeare's only true contemporary rival, whose plays — Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta, and Edward II — transformed the English stage and invented blank verse tragedy. He was also a government spy, a university scholar (Cambridge), and almost certainly an atheist in a time when atheism was punishable by death. He died at twenty-nine in a Deptford tavern brawl — whether from a dispute over the bill or a government assassination remains debated. Without his innovations, Shakespeare's work as we know it would have been impossible.