The Mysterious Death of Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was one of the most talented writers of the Elizabethan era, but his career was cut short when he was stabbed to death at the age of 29. In this episode, Deblina and Sarah take a closer look at the mystery surrounding Marlowe's death.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sair Dowdy and I'm Delaine and rucolate Boarding, and
today we are going to be talking about the poet
and playwright Christopher Marlowe. And marlow is just about the

(00:24):
double of William Shakespeare. They were born the same year,
only a few months apart. They're both sons of kind
of you know, decent earning tradesmen, and they showed remarkable
promise as boys, read voraciously and then moved to London
and started very successful careers in the theater, but their past.

(00:50):
While Shakespeare went on too great fame and security, he
ended up retiring in his hometown in his late forties.
Marlowe died with a stab wound to I at age
twenty nine. Sounds like a really bad way to go, definitely,
and we don't even know that entirely for sure that
he died with this stab wound to the eye, but

(01:11):
it's what we think. Everything about Marlowe is really really sketchy.
Even his last name. It's variously Marlowe, Marl, Marley, Morley, Marlin, Marlin,
and Marling. How does that work. So, I mean, the
Elizabethans are notoriously bad spellers, but come on, that's a
lot of majors. So if we're gonna assume it's one

(01:34):
guy though, Christopher Marlowe, what do we know about him? Well,
he was the son of a shoemaker, as we mentioned,
kind of a tradesman. Low beginning, lowish beginning. He was
born in Canterbury and baptized around February fifteen sixty four. Yeah,
so we can assume it was probably born a few
days before that. When he was in his early teens.

(01:56):
He entered King's School, Canterbury on tuition, so he must
have shown some kind of promise as a young boy
to earn this scholarship. But being a scholarship student is
not an easy job at all. I mean, it's an
enormous privilege for him, but it's also a lot of work,

(02:17):
long days. Yeah, he apparently had like eighteen hour work days,
so getting up at the craft of dawn and working
until late at night, mostly doing Greek and Latin memorizations translations,
so not anything, not exactly very exciting. And also, you know,
he had to show that he was humble and that

(02:37):
he was appreciative of this gift he was receiving, where
dark wool clothes keep his hair cut short. Um, yeah
it's not. I mean it's it's lucky for him, I guess,
but not super fun sounding yep. But a year after
that he was off to Cambridge in Corpus Christi College,
where he earn does b A in fifteen four U.

(03:00):
Until that point, the paper trail, as we mentioned, shows
pretty promising youth for for Marlowe. Looks like things might
might go pretty good for this kid. Yeah, he's been studying, well,
probably been studying a little bit of the Bible, some
Reformation theology, philosophy, history. But then there's a bit of

(03:20):
a blip. Yeah, and that comes from seven and Marlowe
is just about to earn his master's degree and suddenly
the school hesitates about granting it to him. Um, the
problem is he's been absent, Like he's been absent quite
a bit, way more than your average students should be,

(03:43):
and they don't know what he's been up to, what
he's been doing. Then the officials here from the Privy Council,
which the Privy Council is Queen Elizabeth's own body of
advisor so that's a pretty serious call to make. That's
very official, and they pretty much encouraged the school to
grant him a degree. Yeah, so lucky guy. They say

(04:06):
that his absences are totally excusable. In fact, they were
due to his quote working on matters touching the benefit
of his country, which I don't know. What is this
college student doing for his country that's so secret? Spying? Spying,
and that's what most historians think. It's not well documented

(04:30):
for obvious reasons. And of course a lot from the
Elizabethan era isn't well documented in the first place. But
obviously spy documents are going to be not easy to
get your hands on, I would hope, so I would
hope that those spy documents are well well hidden. But
from what we know or what we can guess, it

(04:50):
seems like Marlowe was recruited while he was still a
student by elizabeth spy master Sir Francis Walshingham. And you
might remember that name pop up in the Mary Stuart episode.
And if you haven't listened to those there from about
a year ago, I would definitely recommend maybe after this one,
going back going over them. They'll explain a lot about

(05:12):
the Catholic Protestant trouble going on at the time. In
Elizabeth deep fear of plots that really runs through this
whole episode. So what we think happened at that time
is that he was sent to Ream where he would
have spied on English Catholic expats. Yah'd be listening for
trouble essentially. Yeah, threats, possible invasions, that sort of thing. Yeah,

(05:36):
and we should know too. This is only two years
after the Babington plot was uncovered, and again that pops
up in one of those Mary Stewart episodes. But it
was the plot to restore her to the throne. She's
in prison, she's the Catholic queen and Catholics kind of
held her as as their hope to supplant Elizabeth. And

(05:57):
it's also the plot that led to Elizabeth having to
execute her finally in February seven. So Elizabeth is in
a high state of paranoia, but she has ably definitely.
But Marlowe he's not worried at all. He's not. He's
a little troublemaker. After graduating, he moved to London, where

(06:20):
his degree should have put him on a path to
becoming a gentleman. Which would have been a step up
from his beginnings, his tradesmen father beginnings. But he's successful
in his own right. Yeah, he is successful. He's definitely
not on the path but becoming a gentleman. Now he's
working in the theater and his writing, his playwriting, does

(06:42):
set new standards. He writes Tamberlaine The Great, which was
in two parts performed in seven and it is just
a huge hit. The s Lewis later called it the
story of Giant the jack Killer, so that gives you
a good idea of um, kind of the gist of
the plot if you've never read it or seen it yourself.

(07:03):
But it's a really violent and passionate play. And it
goes to print only a couple of years after its debut,
which was a really good sign of how popular something was.
Because at this point, playwrights didn't publish their work right away.
They were owned by the company, and the company kind
of kept them close because if the other company got
ahold of all their plays, then they could stage them

(07:25):
and not have to pay for it. Um. It was
only if the public absolutely demanded to have a copy
of the play that it would be published. So this
was a big deal. Definitely. It was a big deal,
and I think it was the only thing published during
Marlowe's lifetime, So this also had an impression on other
writers of the time as well. The history format clearly

(07:46):
influenced Shakespeare, who at this point was making his living
as a player, not a playwright. Shortly after that he
started his own history project, The Henry the Sixth Place,
which are so like the work of Marlowe that scholars
once thought they were some kind of joint venture together. Yeah,
and it was kind of one up in the way too.
It was it was a history play, but it was

(08:07):
going to be an English history play, which was going
to require a lot of delicacy to make sure, you know,
he didn't say anything he shouldn't say. Um, but Marlowe,
we we mentioned he was definitely not on the path
to becoming a gentleman, and this is why he's living unconventionally.
To say the least, he supposedly would make heretical comments.

(08:31):
He was possibly even into the occult. He's supposed to
have said that Jesus's mother was quote dishonest, plus a
whole lot of other stuff that would get you killed
pretty quickly. At the time, he would. Yep, he was
also said to be homosexual. He one of the things
he was supposed to have said was that all they
that love not tobacco and boys are fools. And probably

(08:54):
most famously, he's known for his brawling. He's even involved
in the death of a man. There's this fight with
an innkeeper's son, William Bradley, and Marlow's friend Thomas Watson,
who was another member of this poet Bad Boys, that intervenes.
At the end of it all, Bradley, the innkeeper's son,
ends up with Watson's sword stuck six inches deep in

(09:18):
his chest, and both Marlowe and Watson were arrested on
suspicion of murder, obviously, and they end up being released
because of you know, it seems like it's self defense.
But this is the kind of trouble that marlow gets into,
some serious trouble, and he's It's interesting that you mentioned

(09:39):
his friends, because he was involved in kind of a crowd,
a group of men called the University Wits, that's what
they called themselves, and they were bound by their allegiances
to Cambridge and Oxford. But it didn't really matter if
they were rich or poor. They were just a group
of c They were an interesting group. Some of them
would be from very high families and others would be

(10:00):
Marlow himself, you know, tradesman son who had gotten noticed
for his intelligence and worked his way up. Um. But
they really, they really insisted on that university education to
be a member of their group. And they would have
they would have considered Shakespeare lacking because of his lack

(10:21):
of university education. Yeah, he would have seemed like kind
of a country boy to them in a way. Definitely. Um,
but some of these university withs are scary guys. I mean,
Watson was one of them, as we mentioned. Um. Yet
you think maybe thugs and poets don't go hand in hand,
but in this case they did. Yeah, they did, and

(10:43):
they still managed to write a lot of very learned material,
and Marlow, especially in his six year career. He followed
up his first big hit with The Jew of Malta,
Dr Faustus, the Massacre at Paris and Edward the Second,
which was likely a response to Shakespeare's success with Henry
the Sex. Yeah, and if you remember Edward the Second,

(11:05):
we actually did a podcast on him. It was who
is the Greatest Trader? So another another one to check,
another one to check again. Um. And he also wrote
poetry to his unfinished poem here on Leander was called
the finest Elizabethan poem after those of Edmund Spencer. So
I mean he's a he's a talented writer despite all

(11:29):
that's going on. I just want to make that point
before we move on to the We don't want to
just point out how his thug qualities. We also want
to point out his poetry, his prowess in the poetry realm.
But life starts to catch up with him. Yep, he's
arrested in Flushing, supposedly there on business, I guess one

(11:50):
would think, but who knows an assumption. He's arrested there
for forgery and for being pro Catholic. And then more seriously,
in Free somebody nails up this xenophobic placard on the
Dutch church in London. And as we mentioned, there's a
lot of paranoia going on. There's a lot of fears

(12:12):
of Catholic plots, but also radical Puritans. So anything that's
trying to stir up religious unrest is going to be
frowned upon by the authorities, to say the least. And
so they start to try to hunt down the author,
and rumor has it the author it was Marlowe himself,

(12:33):
and that's because this placard was written in blank verse
and it was signed Tamberlaine. What a clue. Yeah, So,
I mean it seems like maybe this well known troublemaker
might have something to do with this. So the authorities
go to Marlowe's place. They learn he's been living with

(12:55):
another dramatist named Thomas kidd In. They search this place
and there's no marlow there, but there are plenty of
heretical papers around. So they questioned his roommate Kid, and
they torture him, and they torture him. Yes, and under
under duress, Kid says it is all marlow stuff. Yeah.
So then marlow is summoned before the Privy Council and

(13:18):
they let him go, but they tell him report that
to us every single day until you get further orders.
So at this point anything could happen. Yeah, he's definitely
in trouble. It's serious situation. But he is let go
out into the world, but then only a couple of

(13:39):
weeks later he's dead. All right, So this is where
we get down to the mystery. The old story has
Marlow dying in a drunken brawl at a tavern, which
sounds like a completely plausible story. Crazy Marlow getting drunk,
getting into a Friday with the boys, getting in over
his head. And this is what people thought for years

(14:02):
and years and that ended or the story changed dramatically
in nineteen, yes, like nineteen so recently, And that's when
historian John Leslie Hodson uncovered the Corners Report in London's
Public Records Office. He was looking for something else entirely,

(14:25):
but found this very crucial document and published it in
his nineteen book. And suddenly this drunken brawl or you know,
the story of the drunken Brawl featured three very unsavory
characters from the London underworld who all had ties to

(14:46):
the Spine at Work. What a coincidence. And there's another
coincidence too. Yes, the tavern also turned out to be
a lodging house that had connections to the network as well. Yeah,
kind of a safe house of sorts. Right. So here's
what's supposedly happened. According to this theory, May Marlow goes

(15:07):
to Deptford, outside of London and goes to the widow
eleanor Bull's lodging house, which is this house that we
just mentioned with connections connections to the network. There he
meets Ingram Freezer, who is a blackmailer and also in
the employee of his old boss, Washingham. He also meets
Nicholas Skiers, who's a thug working with Freezer, and Robin

(15:31):
Poy who is likely a deep cover agent provocateur. He's
operated out of Brussels, Antwerp and Flushing, where Marlow also was,
and at the time he was working on the Queen's
business in London, but still somehow able to take the
day off to hang out with Marlow and his pals.
And that's exactly what they do. They apparently spend the

(15:52):
day eating, smoking, walking around the courtyard, just kind of
hanging out. It all seems like it's going fine, and
then after dinner an argument breaks out, supposedly over an
unpaid bill. Um. We have the Corner Report by William Danby,
and I just have to say I had to cut
this in a weird place because the Corners Report is

(16:15):
essentially a run on sentence that goes on for probably
about three or four hundred words, but lots of as Yeah,
it just and and I and I'm gonna just read
a part of it. Christopher Morley, on a sudden end
of his malice towards the said Ingram a forethought, then
and there maliciously drew the dagger of the said Ingram,

(16:36):
which was at his back. And with the same dagger,
the said Christopher Morley then and there maliciously gave the
aforesaid Ingram two wounds on his head of the length
of two inches and of the depth of a quarter
of an inch. Okay, so it sounds like Marlowe has
grabbed the knife of Ingram Freezer and tried to attack

(16:57):
him with it. At this point, Freeze are wrestles with
Marlowe and somehow regained his weapon and then stabbed marlow
over his right eye. And this wound is described as
being two inches deep one inch wide and killing marlow instantly.
So that's kind of a different story from the drunken brawl.

(17:21):
And the other men corroborate this story. There's an inquest,
and the inquest concludes um with this corner's report, and
then one month later the Queen pardons Freezer up, saying well,
self defense defense sounds like kind of Marlowe's story. Way back.
But yeah, this seems to be a typical defense for

(17:43):
these guys. You know, you can get away with murder perhaps,
but um, yeah, it definitely changes the entire perception of
Marlow's death when you consider the company he was with
and the place he was and what had just recently
happened to him, which was getting into some serious trouble. Yeah,

(18:05):
it raises a lot of questions, but it doesn't end there.
I mean that that raises plenty of questions, just as is.
If we accept the Corners report at face value. Um,
the fight over the bill starts to look a lot
more like an assassination, especially since it followed so soon
after the arrest. Yeah, exactly. But some people don't think

(18:28):
that Marlowe died in at all, and this is especially
coming from the International marlow Shakespeare Society. They think the
inquest was entirely faked, and as you said, it was
the other three men who were at the inquest, So yeah,
I guess the theory could be plausible. So they're they're
saying that the only men who could have identified Marlowe

(18:53):
at his inquest where his body was present, were these
three sketchy characters. Um. Essentially, They think that marlow was
in really deep trouble after this arrest, and he was worried,
and none of his high ranked protectors like watching him
or William Cecil, Lord Burley, who we've mentioned in an

(19:14):
earlier podcast, none of them could do anything for him themselves.
But maybe these other guys but could do something. Yeah,
maybe they're kind of low life employees, could do something
for him, like bake his death for instance. Except oh,
there would have to be a body. Yeah, that's what

(19:35):
disturbs me maybe the most about this theory. Who is
the body with the stab wound to the eye? Um,
I don't know. Maybe we'll just end that there. But
the Marla Shakespeare people take this theory a step further.
They suggest that Marlowe actually lived on as Shakespeare and

(19:55):
writing all of those works works. So make of that
what you will, U. I think a lot of English
departments would have to be sand blasted if that were
the case. Definitely, But that didn't die. Theory such as
it is, is interesting enough on its own. Um, yeah,
without the whole Marlowe lives on a Shakespeare addition, right,

(20:19):
and Marlow's much belated window in Westminster Abbey's poets corner
has a question mark about a date of death. Yeah,
so I guess we're going to close out this episode
with Marlo's own motto. It's always nice to close in
the words of a writer. His motto was what nourishes
me destroys me, and it certainly fits the man. Apparently

(20:42):
also fits Angelina Jolie, and I hope I didn't infect
my computer by searching Angelina Jolie tattoo. But um she
has a Latin translation of this quote. So there you go.
And I think that talk of tattoos brings us to
Listener Mail. This edition of Listener Mail is real male

(21:05):
and it is from Sarah, who is a history teacher
living in the Netherlands. And I picked this specifically because
Marlowe name would he shows my name? Um? Well? Marlowe
operated out of Flushing, and hopefully Sarah is having a
better time in the Netherlands than marlow did. But she

(21:26):
wrote to us, I love your podcast and I've listened
to them all since I discovered them. I hate having
to wait for them now. The town I live in
is Lyden. It is home to Lyon University, established by
William the first Orange in fifty oldest Netherlands university, the
birthplace of Rembrandt, and the home of the Pilgrims before

(21:46):
they sailed to the New World, which I think that
is something we mentioned in the first Thanksgiving episode. I'm
just like plugging every old episode today. I can't help it. Um.
But yeah, I think some Netherlands history would be fun,
and especially since Therasa, you'd make my day if you
read my letter during listener meal. She sent us pictures

(22:08):
of tulips, which definitely encouraged my resolution to read it
as part of listener meal. They're very right, colorful and
perfect for brightening up a death in the winter. Um.
But anyways that if you have any comments or requests
or I don't know favorite Marlowe theories you want to

(22:29):
send our way, you can find us at History Podcast
at how stuff works dot com. We're also on Twitter
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(22:52):
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