Christopher Marlowe is one of the most fascinating—and mysterious—figures of Shakespeare’s lifetime. A university-educated playwright at a time when that alone set him apart, Marlowe rose quickly through London’s theater world, dazzling audiences with bold language, ambitious characters, and stories that pushed the boundaries of what the stage could do.
But Marlowe’s life wasn’t confined to poetry and playhouses. Evidence suggests he was also moving in far more dangerous circles—working as a government agent in the shadowy world of Elizabethan espionage, where loyalty, religion, and politics were matters of life and death.
And then, just as suddenly as he rose to fame, his life came to a violent end—killed in a Deptford lodging house under circumstances that remain deeply suspicious. Officially, it was a dispute over a bill. But for a man entangled in secrets, intrigue, and power, that explanation has never quite been wholly satisfying, nor completely accepted.
Today, we’re diving deep into the underworld to look inside the extraordinary life and abrupt death of Christopher Marlowe—from the university halls of Cambridge to the murky underworld of espionage, and onto the stages that helped shape the future of English drama.
Our guest is Stephen Greenblatt, author of Dark Renaissance a book that portrays Marlowe as the father of Renaissance theater and as innovative as he was intriguing. Stephen’s work brings together history, literature, and the hidden forces that shaped the Renaissance world Marlowe inhabited, and we’re delighted to have him be our guide this week as we step into the brilliant, dangerous, and ultimately tragic life of Christopher Marlowe.
About Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Greenblatt is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of sixteen books, including Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Christopher Marlowe and Will in the World, How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. He is General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and of The Norton Shakespeare, and he has edited seven collections of criticism, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. He was named the 2016 Holberg Prize Laureate. His honors include the MLA’s James Russell Lowell Prize, the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation.
What We Talk About
- Marlowe and the Dutch Libel
- Authorities going after Kyd first, and why
- What happened during Kyd’s interrogation to implicate Marlowe
- Allegations that Marlowe was both gay and an atheist
- Universities and being a spy
- Circumstances of Marlowe’s death
- ….and more!
Recommended Resources:
David Riggs, The World of Christopher Marlowe (2005)
Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (2002)
Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford (1993)
