1564-1593. English poet and dramatist. His
work includes the blank-verse plays
Tamburlaine the Great about 1587, The Jew of
Malta about 1589, Edward II and Dr Faustus,
both about 1592, the poem Hero and Leander
1598, and a translation of Ovid's Amores.
Born in Canterbury, Marlowe was educated at
Cambridge, where he is thought to have become
a government agent. His life was turbulent,
with a brief imprisonment in connection with
a man's death in a brawl (of which he was
cleared), and a charge of atheism (following
statements by the playwright Thomas Kyd under
torture). He was murdered in a Deptford
tavern, allegedly in a dispute over the bill,
but it may have been a political killing.