Famous Works by Christopher Marlowe
Famous book / play : Dr Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great

William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe - the Authorship Issue
The Mystery surrounding the life and death of Christopher Marlowe has intrigued many. It has even lead to serious debate as to whether Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare are in fact the same person...
Christopher Marlowe moved in high circles within the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The chief advisor to the Queen was Sir Francis Walsingham whose role necessitated a network of spies and it was believed that Marlowe was in his employ in this capacity. Marlowe was reported to have been killed in a tavern in Deptford, a district of London, on May 30th 1593. Marlowe and his friend Ingram Frizer were drinking together and when they were about to leave began to argue over the payment of the bill. He grabbed Ingram Frizer's dagger from its sheath, there was a struggle and Ingram Frizer retrieved the dagger and struck a blow to Marlowe's eye. The blow was a lethal one and Christopher Marlowe's body was said to have been buried two days later at an unspecified location in an unmarked grave. The mystery is that a week earlier a warrant had been issued by the Church's Star Chamber for the poet's arrest on charges of heresy, which carried the death penalty. Both men were spies and secret agents for Walsingham, his killer, Frizer, pleaded self-defence and immediately received a Royal pardon from Queen Elizabeth. Marlowe lived between 1564 -1593. William Shakespeare lived between 1564 - 1616, their writing styles were extremely similar especially their use of Blank Verse. Was he really killed? Did he perhaps write some of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare?

Christopher the person
Marlowe was born the son of a Canterbury shoemaker in 1564, he was well educated obtaining a B.A. in 1584 and a M.A. in 1587, at Benet Collage (now named Corpus Christi). Marlowe is remembered for firstly his "Mighty Line", a reference to his ability to bring Blank Verse to life in a way never achieved before, and secondly his total irreverence for all convention especially the Church. The unusual circumstances of his death at the age of 29, his links to Walsingham's spy network, not to mention the lack of a body at the time of the inquest, have helped ensure he is still a topic of discussion some 400 years after his death.