Christopher Marlowe was the first son of a shoemaker. He was born at Canterbury on the 6th of February 1564. His education started at King's school at Canterbury and later on he went to Cambridge as a part of the Archbishop's Scholars. Further on in his career he left Cambridge and went on to London.

In London, Marlowe joined Lord Admiral's Company Of Players and started writing plays for the stage. Marlowe was as popular for his work as he was popular for his strong and sometimes agnostic beliefs. His opinions were more often than not considered immoral by the people of his times.

Christopher Marlowe had many friends and kept company with eminent scholars. Some of them shared his views and some were against it. It is said that the Privy Council had terminated Marlowe's career due to some evidences that they had concurred from one of Marlowe's acquaintances.

Marlowe died a violent death due to being stabbed ten days after his trial and whether the murder was related to his trial or not has never been established.

Marlowe's short life span is littered with some of his greatest works that are clear example of his genius. His first written dram was Dido, queen of Carthage. The first play of Marlowe's that found its place on the stage was Tamburlaine. This play was about the subjugator Timur and his rise from an innocent shepherd to a fearsome warrior. This was one of the first plays written in blank verse.

It was a roaring success and was followed by Tamburlaine II. He also wrote The Jew Of Malta which had as its main protagonist a Machiavellian character.

Edward the Second is a historical play about the assassination of the King by his Queen and the Barons. He portrayed the Saint Bartholomew's day massacre in his very vivid work which was named The Massacre at Paris.

However, his most dangerous play is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. This play was based on the German character Faustbuch. Here Marlowe deals with the Faust legend of the devil's pact.

Dr. Faustus is characterised by his intellect and greed for more knowledge which leads him to make a pact with the devil to sell his soul for a certain period of unparalleled glory and fame. He gets his wish but ends up regretting it and wanting to change it but in the end he is dragged screaming off to hell.

This and many of Marlowe's later works are a challenge for the scholars because they were rewritten after Marlowe's death. Maybe in his age Marlowe was considered God's enemy but it can never be denied that he was a source of great influence to his contemporaries(like Shakespeare) and to this day he continues to influence the literary minds.

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