Edward II

Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury to shoemaker John Marlowe and his wife Catherine. His exact date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 26 February 1564. And with this, Christopher Marlowe, one of the supreme English literary talents, made his entrance into the world. Little is really known of his life except that from an early age, even at University, he was perhaps working as a spy. His short life was filled with writing great works of exceptional quality. From the Jew of Malta to Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great Parts I & II his pen was the tool by which this great mind bequeathed great works to the world. Add to this so many other stories of what Marlowe was or might have been: a spy, a brawler, a heretic, a "magician", "duellist", "tobacco-user", "counterfeiter", “atheist”, and "rakehell". But certainly add to this; playwright and poet. An original. Christopher Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Deptford on June 1st, 1593. Had his life not been so curtailed it seems that the Elizabethan Age may well have had two giants of equal standing: Shakespeare and Marlowe.