Born the same year as his astonishingly-famous colleague and friendly rival, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was one of the exemplary minds of the Elizabethan age, a poet and playwright of surpassing excellence, who actually showed greater promise than did Shakespeare earlier in his career. Had Marlowe not been murdered in a tavern at the age of twenty-nine, it might be him would countless generations would have championed with festivals and cottage industries, rather than the Man from Stratford. Alas, we&#8217;ll never get to know that counterfactual, and luckily for posterity, Shakespeare did not disappoint.
A spy for Her Majesty&#8217;s government, and a poet of great talent in addition to his magnificient and groundbreaking work for the stage, Marlowe lives as a ghost in our literary consciousness: he&#8217;s difficult to pin down. He leaves us several undoubted masterworks, theatrical pieces which continue to be staged 450 years after his untimely death. These include Tamburlaine the Great, Doctor Faustus, Edward II, and The Jew of Malta. 
Born in London, Marlowe was educated in the highest circles available to him.