Christopher Marlowe biography

 Christopher Marlowe  1564-1593

LIFE

Born at Canterbury, the son of a shoemaker; killed in a tavern brawl at

Deptford whilst out of London avoiding the Plague and evading an arrest

warrant.

After King's School, Canterbury, he attended Corpus Christi College,

Cambridge (BA in 1584; MA in 1587).

He was possibly abroad on Government service between 1584 and 1586. From

1586 he lived in London, writing his verse and plays (Tamburlaine was

performed in 1587/88), and generally earning his spurs as one of the

"University Wits".

Suggestions of intrigue, a wild life-style, and a reputation as a 

dangerous thinker - probably an atheist - make him a compelling figure.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

No accurate dates can be given for the writing or performance of his 

plays, or for the composition of his poems. However, a fairly accurate

sequence may safely be advanced.

Plays:

Tamburlaine

Tamburlaine, Part II

Doctor Faustus

The Jew of Malta

Edward II

Dido (with Thomas Nashe)

The Massacre of Paris (only a garbled version survives)

Poetry:

Hero and Leander

Ovid's Elegies

The First Book of Lucan

THE POEM

THE PASSIONATE SHEEPHEARD TO HIS LOUE

This is the generally preferred version of the four known to us, from 

the popular anthology entitled England's Helicon (1600).

It was probably written before Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, in which

(Act IV) we find either its parody or its conception being uttered by 

the character Ithimer to the Courtizan:

            Thou in those Groves, by Dis aboue,

            Shalt liue with me and be my loue.   (lines 1815 & 1816)

And The Jew of Malta was written between about 1589 and 1591.