Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 and was the son of

• a successful wine merchant

• a shoemaker in Canterbury

• a lawyer

• a ship's captain

Christopher Marlowe attended Corpus Christi College in Cambridge on a scholarship for six years, the maximum time allowed, with the supposed intention to become

• a teacher

• a poet

• an ordained member of the church clergy

• a playwright

It is very likely that Christopher Marlowe was employed by the government of Queen Elizabeth as a

• merchant for the international spice trade

• courtier

• royal court jester

• a spy against English Catholics conspiring to overthrow Queen Elizabeth's Protestant rule

Which are plays by Marlowe?

• Tamburlaine - story of the adventures of 14th century Mongol warrior who seeks the power of rule and is ultimately struck down for burning the Muslim Qur'an

• Edward II, which follows the tragic fate of a homosexual king

• The Jew of Malta, a monstrous anti-Semitic caricature in which the main character seeks the power of money yet, in the end, turns out to be less ruthless and hypocritical than his Christian counterparts

• Doctor Faustus, a character who seeks the power of forbidden knowledge and is struck down for his rebellion against God and the moral order

Marlowe's major dramas depict heroes who all seek

• power

• redemption

• glory

• riches

Doctor Faustus seeks the power of

• money

• rule

• forbidden knowledge

• love

The great period of Elizabethan drama was launched by this invention of Christopher Marlowe's

• sonnet

• elegy

• rhymed iambic pentameter

• blank verse

Poems written by Christopher Marlowe include

• The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, a pastoral poem

• Hero and Leander, mythological poem about two ill-fated lovers

• The Flea

• The Merchant of Venice

Marlowe's play, Doctor Faustus, reflects the debate of Renaissance theologians over what opposing ideas?

• Love vs. war

• kindness vs. cruelty

• catholicism vs. protestantism

• fate vs. free will

Marlowe was accused of

• atheism

• sedition

• homosexuality

• being a Catholic