Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, (1564-93). English dramatist. The son of a shoemaker, he was educated at Cambridge and from then until his death was employed as a government spy. By 1589 he was acting and writing plays in London. Tamburlaine (1590) was the first English play to be written in blank verse. His later works include Edward II (1594) and Dr Faustus (1604), the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil. In 1593 a warrant was issued for his arrest for atheism and immorality. Twelve days later he was killed during a tavern brawl in circumstances that remain mysterious.
