by Christopher Marlowe

Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) is often called the most influential English dramatist before Shakespeare. The son of a modestly successful shoemaker, Marlowe was born and raised in Canterbury, England. He was educated there and at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he received his B.A. degree in 1584 and his M.A. degree in 1587. Because very little is known about his life, the order in which he wrote his plays is uncertain. Possibly while still at Cambridge he collaborated with a younger friend, Thomas Nashe, in writing Dido, Queen of Carthage. Scholars believe that Marlowe wrote two other plays while still at Cambridge: Tamburlaine the Great and its sequel, Tamburlaine, Part II, both of which opened to extraordinary success in London before the end of 1587. For the next six years, Marlowe lived in London and enjoyed unprecedented popularity with theatergoers. In 1593, when he...