Christopher Marlowe, the author of many wonderful poems and plays, was born on February 6, 1564, the same year that the infamous William Shakespeare was born. Marlowe was raised in Canterbury, England and attended King’s School in Canterbury in 1579 and 1580 after which he received a scholarship to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge and was expected to take a post in the Anglican Church. Marlowe received his bachelor of arts degree in 1584 and his masters in 1587.
The college did not want to grant him his masters degree because they believed that he was going to be ordained a Catholic priest upon graduation. The college believed this because Marlowe visited a Catholic seminary. However, Queen Elizabeth explained to the college that Marlowe had been sent to this seminary on matters relating to national security. Due to the Queen’s intervention the Cambridge officials granted Marlowe his masters degree. From this incident many people believe that Marlowe was a spy for the government and that he continued to work for the Queen after he obtained his degree.
After Marlowe obtained his masters degree he went to London to work on his new profession as an author. He began getting into a lot of trouble with the law and having enemies around every corner. On May 18, 1593 a warrant was issued for Marlowe due to heretical documents found in his room. Marlowe’s roommate, Thomas Kyd, was arrested and charged with atheism claimed that these documents did not belong to him but instead Reynolds 2 to Marlowe. However, before Marlowe went to trial he was murdered on May 30, 1953 at Eleanor Bull’s tavern in Deptford.
No one was ever charged with the murder because the owner of the murder weapon, a knife, pleaded self-defense and the coroner’s jury accepted this. However, the facts in the case are few and far between and do not adequately explain what happened. Suspiciously Shakespeare began his own career in the early 1950’s in London. Some believe that Shakespeare had something to do with the murder of Marlowe. Shakespeare may have felt threatened by Marlowe’s success with the English language (Marlowe created many of the English language’s phrases and figures of speech).
Shakespeare also refers to many of Marlowe’s works, including Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” in “Merry Wives of Windsor” Act III Sc. I. Some English critics believe that Shakespeare may have stolen some of Marlowe’s plays and poems that had not yet been published. Marlowe’s life was cut short so that Shakespeare could be come a god of English literature. Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is one of his most famous love poems that was not discovered until 6 years after his death. This poem is the words of a man proposing to a woman.
It tells of the simple pleasures of life and is told in a dreamlike state of mind. This poem is considered a Pastoral Poem (a poem about simple life of country folk with idealized terms). This poems rhythm scheme is a-a, b-b, c-c, … shows the overpowering love that this man has for this woman. This man is trying to impress his love by telling her of the things he will do for her and the places that he will take her. Reynolds 3 The line of the poem in which the man is asking the woman to marry him is repeated three times. “Come live with me and be my love,” (1, 20).
The third time this line is repeated the word “Come” is changed to “Then” (24). The significance of the “Then” is the man is saying that if the woman wants all these things that he is offering, then she should marry him. The man’s words are similar to a lawyer’s final speech in a trial. The poem or words are convincing and only one sided. The man does not tell of his bad qualities to the woman. This pastoral love poem is a very convincing argument that would melt a woman’s heart and in the man’s case, hopefully win her hand in marriage.
Since no one knows when this poem was written and Marlowe was never married and never had a significant girlfriend, it is impossible to relate any woman in Marlowe’s life to this poem. The woman in the poem was most likely a woman that he barely knew, he would have loved to be with her, but never would be able to. Marlowe was a wonderful writer, whose life and profession were cut short so that Shakespeare could shine in the light alone. No one will ever know if Marlowe would have shadowed Shakespeare instead of Shakespeare shadowing Marlowe if Marlowe had not been murdered at such a young age.