Christopher Marlowe was born at Canterbury in 1564, two months before Shakespeare.  He was the son of a shoemaker, and was the pupil of Kett, a fellow and tutor of Corpus Christi College.  This tutor was probably accountable for much in the future Marlowe, for he was a mystic, and was burnt for heresy in 1589.  After a short and extremely violent life, the pupil followed his master four years later to the grave, having been killed in a brawl under very disgraceful circumstances.  He only lived twenty-nine years, and yet he, along with Kyd, changed the literature of England.  Lyly’s Pastorals had been the favourite reading of the people until these men came, keen and audacious, to lead and sing their “brief, fiery, tempestuous lives.”  When they wrote their plays and created their villains, they were not creating so much as remembering.  Marlowe’s plays were four, and they were all influential.  His Edward the Second was the precursor of the historical plays of Shakespeare.  His other plays were Tamburlaine the Great, Dr. Faustus, and The Jew of Malta (Barabbas).  These three were all upon congenial lines, expressing that Titanism in revolt against the universe which was the inspiring spirit of Marlowe.  But it was the character of Faust that especially fascinated him, for he found in the ancient magician a pretty clear image of his own desires and ambitions.  He was one of those who loved “the dangerous edge of things,” and, as Charles Lamb said, “delighted to dally with interdicted subjects.”  The form of the plays is loose and broken, and yet there is a pervading larger unity, not only of dramatic action, but of spirit.  The laughter is loud and coarse, the terror unrelieved, and the splendour dazzling.  There is no question as to the greatness of this work as permanent literature.  It has long outlived the amazing detractions of Hallam and of Byron, and will certainly be read so long as English is a living tongue.

The next stage in this curious history is a peculiarly interesting one.  In former days there sprang up around every great work of art a forest of slighter literature, in the shape of chap-books, ballads, and puppet plays.  By far the most popular of the puppet plays was that founded upon Marlowe’s Faust.  The German version continued to be played in Germany until three hundred years later.  Goethe constructed his masterpiece largely by its help.  English actors travelling abroad had brought back the story to its native land of Germany, and in every town the bands of strolling players sent Marlowe’s great conception far and wide.  In England also the puppet play was extremely popular.  The drama had moved from the church to the market-place, and much of the Elizabethan drama appeared in this quaint form, played by wooden figures upon diminutive boards.  To the modern mind nothing could be more incongruous than the idea of a solemn drama forced to assume a guise so grotesque and childish; but,