Mini-Episode: Christopher Marlowe

In today's mini-episode, we are talking all about Christopher Marlowe, one of Shakespeare's contemporaries. We'll talk about what is known about this mysterious playwright's life as well as the legends that surround him!

Kourtney Smith (KS): Welcome to another Shakespeare Anyone mini-episode! In these mini-episodes, we’ll be exploring topics that are related to Shakespeare but aren’t necessarily connected to whatever play we’ve been discussing. 

Elyse Sharp (ES): And they’re mini, because, well, they’re shorter than our other episodes. They’re like quartos if the regular episodes are folio editions.  

KS: In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Christopher Marlowe.

ES: Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe, was born in 1564, the same year as Shakespeare, to a Canterbury shoemaker, John Marlowe, and Katherine Arthur, a clergyman’s daughter. He was baptized on February 26, 1564. He attended The King’s School on a scholarship; and, later, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, again, on a scholarship. Unlike Shakespeare, he completed his formal education with a Bachelor’s of Art degree in 1584 and barely received his Master of Arts in 1587.

KS: Now, even though he received patronage for his schooling, the university allegedly hesitated to award him his degree because of a rumor he intended to go to an English seminary and be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest. Remember, this would have violated Queen Elizabeth I’s laws criminalizing English subjects for being ordained in the Roman Catholic Church. In spite of this, his degree was awarded when the Privy Council intervened and commended his good service to the queen. 

ES: It’s important to note, Marlowe’s life is full of rumours and mystery. This is one particular area where the course of Marlowe’s life is a bit shaky. The nature of Marlowe’s good service to the Queen was not specified by the council, which has led modern scholars to speculate. How would a student on scholarship from Canterbury offer good service to the queen? And why would the Privy Council intervene? Here’s our first “MarlowES: the myth” theory: he was operating as a secret agent for the Privy Council member Sir Francis Walsington, Elizabeth’s spymaster.

KS: Now, who knows if the theory is true. The only surviving evidence of the Privy Council’s correspondence with Cambridge is found in their minutes because the letter to Cambridge was lost. How convenient. The minutes do not mention espionage. But, there is a segment that mentions that it did not please Her Majesty that government agents “should be defamed by those ignorant in the affairs he went about.” Scholars agree that the vague wording was intended to protect.

ES: Once Marlowe left school, he arrived in London. Marlowe worked with the Admiral’s Men into the early 1590s. He is credited with writing six plays. The most famous today is probably Doctor Faustus. In 2016, the New Oxford Shakespeare series credited Marlowe as a collaborator on Shakespeare’s three Henry VI plays. Although, some scholars doubt any collaboration. Scholars continue to seek out evidence of additional collaborations between Marlowe and Elizabethan writers. He also wrote poetry and translations. In 1599, Marlowe’s translation of Ovid was banned and copies were publicly burned as part of Archbishop Whitgift’s crackdown on offensive material.

KS: He continued to live and work in London until his mysterious death in 1593.

ES: So, that’s MarlowES: the man. Now let’s talk about MarlowES: the myth. He has been characterized as a spy, a brawler, a heretic, a “magician”, a “duellist”, a “tobacco-user”, a “counterfeiter”, and a “rakehall” (or a man who habituated in immoral conduct for those of you who aren’t familiar with early modern slang).

KS: The first big rumour about Marlowe is that he was a government spy. American academic and author Park Honan and English author Charles Nicholl speculate that this recruitment would have taken place during his time at Cambridge. In addition to the Privy Council’s letter to Cambridge, surviving college records indicate Marlowe had unusually lengthy absences from school that would have violated university regulations. The university’s buttery accounts also show records of his lavish spending on food and drink, which would have exceeded his scholarship income. The blind eye that the university turned to Marlowe’s behavior contributes to scholar’s suspicions.

ES: It has also been speculated that Marlowe was the “Morley” who was a tutor to King James’s cousin, Arabella Stuart, in 1589. This myth was first raised in 1937 by a Times Literary Supplement letter by E. St John Brooks. There was an addition to the myth when modern Marlovian-theorist John Baker wrote in a letter to Notes and Queries that Marlowe could have been Arabella’s tutor due to the absence of any other “Morley” from the same period with an M.A. who was unemployed or unoccupied.

KS: If this was true, it might indicate the spy theory. Marlowe could have been sent to spy on Arabella by Elizabeth I. Arabella was the niece of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the cousin of James the I and VI. But proving and disproving these theories becomes murky when written records only tell us so much. During this possible “Morley” period, Marlowe was arrested in London for a quarrel, let out on bail and returned to court to be acquitted. However, there are two months where his whereabouts are not recorded.

ES: One last element of the spy theory is a mishap in Flushing in the Netherlands. In 1592, Marlowe was arrested for alleged involvement in the counterfeiting of coins, presumably related to Catholic activities. He was sent to the Lord Treasurer Burghley, who did not charge or imprison Marlowe. If he was on one of his spying missions, he might have been infiltrating the followers of Catholic plots and reporting back to Burghley.

KS: Another myth is that Marlowe was an atheist. With rising fears of The School of Atheism of the late 16th century, accusations of atheism were associated with disloyalty to the Protestant monarchy. Charges of atheism were equivalent to treason. The School of Atheism was a hypothesis by Jesuit priest Robert Persons in 1592 that claimed there was an intellectual organization of atheists. And, of course, Marlowe is allegedly a member of this group. Now, there is no evidence that Marlowe or any of these poets and scientists of this alleged The School were known to each other; but there has been speculation of their connection from writings of the Elizabethan era. However, the theory of The School of Atheism has fallen out of academic mainstream favor.

ES: Unfortunately for Marlowe, these accusations of atheism were also accompanied by letters providing alleged insight into Marlowe’s “damnable judgment of religion, and scorn of God’s word.” Elizabethean double agent and informer, Richard Baines, and Thomas Kyd, a fellow playwright, connect Marlowe with the circles of alleged members of The School of Atheism, principally mathematician Thomas Harriet and Sir Walter Raleigh. Although, please keep in mind, Thomas Kyd’s statements were taken after his imprisonment and possible torture.

KS: Another myth is that Marlowe was a homosexual. And it is in this moment that we want to take a moment to remind listeners that to classify an Elizabethan as gay or homosexual in the modern sense is anachronistic. To Elizabethans, the term was more likely to be applied to the sexual act rather than our modern understanding of sexual orientation and identity. Nonetheless, some scholars point to Marlowe’s homosexual themes in his plays and poems as a clue. Other scholars do not think there is sufficient evidence to classify Marlowe’s sexuality. In fact, the reports of his sexuality are primarily credited to a report by Richard Baines, the informer who accused Marlowe of being an atheist. Either way, we don’t know for sure.

ES: Now, scandal surrounding Marlowe’s life reaches its height in May 1593. Several bills, including the “Dutch church libel”, a bill threatening Dutch and French Protestant refugees to the city, were found. This bill contained allusions to Marlowe's plays and it was signed “Tamburlaine”, the name of a 1587 or ‘88 Marlowe play. The Privy Council ordered the arrest of those responsible for the libels. Thomas Kyd, Marlowe’s colleague, was arrested and his lodgings were searched. Kyd blamed the heretical evidence found in his home on Marlowe and described Marlowe as blasphemous, disorderly, and holding treasonous opinions, amongst other claims. So a warrant was sent out for Marlowe’s arrest. When Marlowe presented himself to the Privy Council on May 20, he was told to come back. However, on May 30, he was killed. He died at the age of 29.

KS: What actually happened to Christopher Marlowe has been muddled by various accounts and reports over the years. In 1598, English churchman and author Francis Meres wrote that Marlowe was “stabbed to death by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love”. In 1917, English biographer Sir Sidney Lee wrote that Marlowe was killed in a drunken fight. And, finally, an official explanation came to light in 1925 when scholar Leslie Hotson discovered the coroner’s report of the inquest of Marlowe’s death. According to the Coroner of the Queen’s Household William Danby, Marlowe stayed in Deptford with the widow Eleanor Bull and three men who were under the employment of Thomas Walsington, a courtier and relative to Francis Walsington, Elizabeth’s spymaster. According to the report, Marlowe and one of the men, Ingram Frizer, argued over payment of a bill. Marlowe snatched Frizer’s dagger and wounded him on the head; in the struggle, Marlowe was stabbed in the eye, killing him instantly. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford.

ES: Now I know it sounds like the mystery of Marlowe’s death is case closed, but scholars have doubts about the legitimacy of the inquest. For one, one year after Hotson’s book was published, literary scholar Samuel A. Tannenbaum insisted that such a wound to Marlowe’s eye could not realistically result in death, as it claimed. In addition, there was no local county coroner to accompany the Coroner of the Queen’s Household, making the inquest null and void. But one of the main factors for doubting the inquest is the character of all three witnesses. All three men were known professional liars.

KS: If the inquest is untrue, what happened to Marlowe? Don’t worry. There are plenty of murder theories. Here are a few of them:

ES: Jealous of her husband Thomas's relationship with Marlowe, Audrey Walsingham arranged for the playwright to be murdered.

KS: Sir Walter Raleigh arranged the murder, fearing that under torture Marlowe might incriminate him.

ES: He was killed on the orders of father and son Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil, who thought that his plays contained Catholic propaganda.

KS: The Queen ordered his assassination because of his subversive atheistic behavior.

ES: Marlowe's death was faked to save him from trial and execution for subversive atheism.

KS: However intriguing these theories are, the likelihood of finding out the full circumstances of Marlowe’s death is very unlikely.

ES: So that Marlowe’s life in under 10 minutes. Some can be confirmed true, some can only be accepted with a decently sized grain of salt, and some is probably wildly false. So now, let’s talk about Christopher MarlowES: the playwright. 

KS: As we mentioned, Marlowe has been attributed to six plays, as well as translations and poetry. If you are now interested in this less-famous Elizabethean’s work, here are his plays!

ES: Dido, the Queen of Carthage is believed to be the first play by Marlowe to be performed; Edward II is considered by recent scholars as Marlowe’s “most modern play”; Tamburlaine is said to be the first example of blank verse used in the dramatic literature of the early modern English theatre; The Jew of Malta was his most popular play at the time; and The Massacre of Paris is said to be Marlowe’s most dangerous play, as agitators in London seized on its themes to advocate the murders of refugees from the low countries of the Spanish Netherlands.

KS: And last but not least, the play he is most well known for today: Doctor Faustus. Doctor Faustus, or The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, is based on the German story Faustbuch, which can be traced back to a fourth-century tale known as “The Devil’s Pact”. This was the first dramatized version of the Faust legend and was highly edited and censored due to the shifting theatre laws regarding religious words onstage. The powerful effect of the early productions has been recorded by William Prynne who wrote that the actual devil once appeared on-stage during a performance “to the great amazement of both the actors and spectators” and some were allegedly driven mad “distracted with that fearful sight.” They must have used killer stage effects.

ES: Whether or not Marlowe wrote other plays is unknown. Like we said, scholars continue to search for Marlowe as a collaborator with other playwrights of the time. While most scholars accept the circumstances of his life and career, we do want to briefly mention maybe the most bizarre conspiracy around MarlowES: the notion that Marlowe faked his death and continued to write under the assumed name of William Shakespeare. Academic consensus (as well as this podcast) reject the question of authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. But Marlovians, as they are called, hold this belief.

KS: Since Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare, not Shakespeare himself, what was their relationship like? As tempting as it is to believe that Marlowe and Shakespeare were buddies hanging out at the theatres and pubs of London, we actually don’t know much about their relationship. Katherine Duncan-Jones, Senior Research Fellow in the English Faculty of Oxford surmises Marlowe and Shakespeare probably knew each other to some capacity. They both lived and worked in London at the same time. Marlowe was a scholar and a playwright. Shakespeare was an actor and a playwright. There’s a good chance Marlowe knew Shakespeare, even as an actor. And there is one place where both men are yoked -- they were both attacked in the same pamphlet Greenes, Groats-worth of Witte. ShakespearES: as an upstart actor and writer who thought he could do anything. MarlowES: for being an atheist and a Machiavelle. Each responded by writing -- ShakespearES: Venus and Adonis; MarlowES: Hero and Leander.

ES: While their personal lives are not clearly linked, we do know that each playwright inspired the other. Shakespeare alludes to Marlowe’s Hero and Leander in As You Like It when Rosalind dressed as Ganymede says, “Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might:/ Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” And, according to Emma Smith, Lecturer in English at Oxford, Marlowe’s Edward II draws on Shakespeare’s Henry VI; and Edward II subsequently influences Shakespeare’s Richard II. She argues that we shouldn’t look at one playwright as the guide of the other. Rather, there is an interplay between the two playwrights when you look at their themes and writing over the years.

KS: However, Jonathan Bate, Professor of English Literature at the University of Warwick does credit Marlowe for cultivating the five beat blank verse, as well as soliloquies. Shakespeare’s soliloquy development can be seen starting in Marlowe’s work. Bate specifically points to villains of the tragedies. In Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, the protagonist Barabas and his slave Ithamore delight in their scheming. One of Aron’s speeches in Titus Andronicus is a rewriting of a speech from that play. Richard III, Iago in Othello and Edmund in Lear are also charismatic villains who speak dazzling verse. Shakespeare owes Marlowe for charismatic villains and, some might say, tragedy in general. The question is whether or not Marlowe, had he lived longer, been able to develop comedy like Shakespeare? Marlowe wasn’t a comedy writer.

ES: So, who was Christopher Marlowe? The truth is, the world may never fully know. And, to be fair, we don’t know much about William Shakespeare either. But thanks to their interplay, however great or small, they gave us compelling and moving tragedies.

KS: And that’s Christopher Marlowe!

ES: Thank you for listening to this episode.

Quote of the Episode: 

ES: From Much Ado About Nothing, act two, scene one, said by Don John,” Who, the most exquisite Claudio?”

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

Note: When this episode was recorded, Kourtney Smith was "Korey Leigh Smith".

Episode written and researched by Kourtney Smith.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod for updates or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com

Works referenced:

“Christopher Marlowe”. Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, 26 September 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe. Accessed 24 September 2021.

“Marlowe” In Our Time: Science, performance by Melvyn Bragg, et al., season 7, episode 40, BBC 4 Radio, 7 July. 2005.  Accessed 26 September 2021.