31 Facts About Christopher Marlowe

1.

Christopher Marlowe, known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era.

2.

Christopher Marlowe was the first to achieve critical reputation for his use of blank verse, which became the standard for the era.

3.

Christopher Marlowe, the second of nine children, and oldest child after the death of his sister Mary in 1568, was born to Canterbury shoemaker John Marlowe and his wife Katherine, daughter of William Arthur of Dover.

4.

Christopher Marlowe mastered Latin during his schooling, reading and translating the works of Ovid.

5.

The nature of Christopher Marlowe's service was not specified by the council, but its letter to the Cambridge authorities has provoked much speculation by modern scholars, notably the theory that Christopher Marlowe was operating as a secret agent for Privy Council member Sir Francis Walsingham.

6.

Park Honan and Charles Nicholl speculate that this was the case and suggest that Christopher Marlowe's recruitment took place when he was at Cambridge.

7.

Christopher Marlowe had been party to a fatal quarrel involving his neighbours and the poet Thomas Watson in Norton Folgate and was held in Newgate Prison for a fortnight.

8.

In 1592 Christopher Marlowe was arrested in the English garrison town of Flushing in the Netherlands, for alleged involvement in the counterfeiting of coins, presumably related to the activities of seditious Catholics.

9.

Christopher Marlowe was sent to the Lord Treasurer, but no charge or imprisonment resulted.

10.

Christopher Marlowe was to infiltrate the followers of the active Catholic plotter William Stanley and report back to Burghley.

11.

Christopher Marlowe was reputed to be an atheist, which held the dangerous implication of being an enemy of God and the state, by association.

12.

Similar examples of Christopher Marlowe's statements were given by Thomas Kyd after his imprisonment and possible torture ; Kyd and Baines connect Christopher Marlowe with mathematician Thomas Harriot's and Sir Walter Raleigh's circle.

13.

Some critics believe that Christopher Marlowe sought to disseminate these views in his work and that he identified with his rebellious and iconoclastic protagonists.

14.

One of these, the "Dutch church libel", written in rhymed iambic pentameter, contained allusions to several of Christopher Marlowe's plays and was signed, "Tamburlaine".

15.

Various accounts of Christopher Marlowe's death were current over the next few years.

16.

In 1917, in the Dictionary of National Biography, Sir Sidney Lee wrote, on slender evidence, that Christopher Marlowe was killed in a drunken fight.

17.

Christopher Marlowe's claim was not much at variance with the official account, which came to light only in 1925, when the scholar Leslie Hotson discovered the coroner's report of the inquest on Marlowe's death, held two days later on Friday 1 June 1593, by the Coroner of the Queen's Household, William Danby.

18.

Christopher Marlowe had spent all day in a house in Deptford, owned by the widow Eleanor Bull, with three men: Ingram Frizer, Nicholas Skeres and Robert Poley.

19.

Christopher Marlowe snatched Frizer's dagger and wounded him on the head.

20.

Thomas Nashe wrote warmly of his friend, "poor deceased Kit Christopher Marlowe," as did the publisher Edward Blount in his dedication of Hero and Leander to Sir Thomas Walsingham.

21.

An argument has arisen about the notion that Christopher Marlowe faked his death and then continued to write under the assumed name of William Shakespeare.

22.

Publication and responses to the poetry and translations credited to Christopher Marlowe primarily occurred posthumously, including:.

23.

Christopher Marlowe's plays were enormously successful, possibly because of the imposing stage presence of his lead actor, Edward Alleyn.

24.

Christopher Marlowe's plays were the foundation of the repertoire of Alleyn's company, the Admiral's Men, throughout the 1590s.

25.

Significance This play is believed by many scholars to be the first play by Christopher Marlowe to be performed.

26.

Attribution of this work by scholars to Christopher Marlowe is based upon comparison to his other verified works.

27.

Christopher Marlowe deviates from earlier versions of "The Devil's Pact" significantly: Christopher Marlowe's protagonist is unable to "burn his books" or repent to a merciful God to have his contract annulled at the end of the play; he is carried off by demons; and, in the 1616 quarto, his mangled corpse is found by the scholar characters.

28.

The 1594 editions of Edward II and of Dido are the first published plays with Christopher Marlowe's name appearing as the author.

29.

Attribution A 1593 loose manuscript sheet of the play, called a foul sheet, is alleged to be by Christopher Marlowe and has been claimed by some scholars as the only extant play manuscript by the author.

30.

In July 2002, a memorial window to Christopher Marlowe was unveiled by the Christopher Marlowe Society at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

31.

Christopher Marlowe has been used as a character in books, theatre, film, television, games and radio.