Marlowe cut short
Marlowe cut shortMarlowe Cut Short
Christopher Marlowe, the author of many wonderful poems and plays, was born on February 6, 1564, the same year that the infamous William Shakespeare was born. Marlowe was raised in Canterbury, England and attended King's School in Canterbury in 1579 and 1580 after which he received a scholarship to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge and was expected to take a post in the Anglican Church. Marlowe received his bachelor of arts degree in 1584 and his masters in 1587. The college did not want to grant him his masters degree because they believed that he was going to be ordained a Catholic priest upon graduation. The college believed this because Marlowe visited a Catholic seminary. However, Queen Elizabeth explained to the college that Marlowe had been sent to this seminary on matters relating to national security. Due to the Queen's intervention the Cambridge officials granted Marlowe his masters degree. From this incident many people believe that Marlowe was a spy for the government and that he continued to work for the Queen after he obtained his degree.
After Marlowe obtained his masters degree he went to London to work on his new profession as an author. He began getting into a lot of trouble with the law and having enemies around every corner. On May 18, 1593 a warrant was issued for Marlowe due to heretical documents found in his room. Marlowe's roommate, Thomas Kyd, was arrested and charged with atheism claimed that these documents did not belong to him but instead
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to Marlowe. However, before Marlowe went to trial he was murdered on May 30, 1953 at Eleanor Bull's tavern in Deptford. No one was ever charged with the murder because the owner of the murder weapon, a knife, pleaded self-defense and the coroner's jury accepted this. However, the facts in the case are few and far between and do not adequately explain what happened.
Suspiciously Shakespeare began his own career in the early 1950's in London. Some believe that Shakespeare had something to do with the murder of Marlowe. Shakespeare may have felt threatened by Marlowe's success with the English language (Marlowe created many of the English language's phrases and figures of speech). Shakespeare also refers to many of Marlowe's works, including Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" in "Merry Wives of Windsor" Act III Sc. I....
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