Christopher Marlowe

1564-1593

 

Christopher Marlowe is buried in an unmarked grave in St. Nicholas's Church, Deptford, London, England. There is a memorial plaque to him on the wall of the churchyard.
 

Memorial Plaque to Marlowe

On the 30th May 1593 Marlowe was killed  by Ingram Frizer in a private meeting room in a house in Deptford. However, there is considerable conjecture regarding the circumstances of Marlowe's death.

Some believe his death occurred accidentally as a result of a fight over an unpaid bill. Others believe he was murdered by Frizer due to his involvement in espionage. Some have even suggested his murder was faked and that Marlowe fled to France where he subsequently wrote all the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.

(Anthony Burgess's final novel A Dead Man in Deptford is based on these events.)

Marlowe's poetic works include: translations of Ovid's elegies, Hero and Leander - a long poem adapted from The Grammarian by Musaeus - and Lucan's First Book. Many of his poems are sexual  in nature and, in the case of Hero and Leander, homo-erotic.

One of his final poems - On the Death of Sir Roger Manwood - was written in Latin and addressed to the judge who dealt leniently with him when he appeared at the Old Bailey in 1589 charged with murder.

Despite his skill as a poet, Marlowe is chiefly remembered for his dramatic works such as Tamburlaine, Dr Faustus and The Jew of Malta.

See also hyperbole.

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountains yields.
 
There we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

From The Passionate Shepherd to His Love (complete poem)

The Marlowe Society

 

 


 

 

 
 
 
 

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