Christopher Marlowe Biography
(Playwright, Poet)
Birthday: February 26, 1564 (Pisces)
Born In: Canterbury, Kent, England
Christopher Marlowe was an English playwright, poet, and translator, who lived and worked in the Elizabethan era. He was born to a father who was a shoemaker. Christopher was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, who attributed him to be a great influence on him but became a more successful playwright. Christopher’s master’s degree was mired in controversy, as the ‘Privy Council’ had pushed the university management to award him a degree on behalf of his “services” to the Queen. This led people to believe that he was a secret government spy. He went on forging a career as a playwright. Two of his initial plays were ‘Dido, Queen of Carthage’ and ‘Tamburlaine the Great.’ However, he mostly wrote plays on controversial themes. Several of his plays, such as ‘The Jew of Malta’ and ‘The Massacre at Paris,’ dealt with themes that were not looked upon very kindly by society. In May 1593, he was arrested and was put on trial. He was stabbed to death by a British businessman named Ingram Frizer a few days later.