Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was one of the finest playwrights of the Elizabethan Age, and his life is probably the most interesting. While Shakespeare's biography consists mostly of land deeds and tax records, Marlowe's contains street brawls, murders, espionage, politics, scandal, and, of course, some of the finest poetry ever written.

John Bakeless's "Tragicall History of Christopher Marlowe" was published in 1942 in 2 volumes, and superseded Bakeless's earlier "Christopher Marlowe: The Man in His Time." Bakeless endeavored to write a complete --- and I mean complete --- biography of Marlowe, and he examines his work and life in all its details. The first 6 chapters documents Marlowe's life, from birth in Canterbury, education at Cambridge, playwriting in London, to his death in Deptford. Then in chapters 7-14 Bakeless discusses individually Marlowe's plays, his unfinished poem "Hero and Leander," and the shorter poems and translations. Bakeless dates them, discusses them from a literary p.o.v., documents their sources, and charts their influence to his present day. Next Bakeless gives a study of Marlowe's "mighty line," charts the artistic relationship between Marlowe and Shakespeare, and concludes his work by discussing the "Marlowe Apocrypha" - writings attributed to Marlowe through the ages, but which have not received general acceptance into the canon.

Now Bakeless wrote this in 1942, and of course some more information has been found since that time. Most important, documentation was found in 1975 that Marlowe was in the Netherlands in January 1592, arrested for coining with a goldsmith and Richard Baines (!), and deported back to England. Then the court records for an altercation Marlowe had with William Corkine in Canterbury in September 1592, also the the famous Marlowe portrait was discovered in Corpus Christi in 1953. It has also since been proven that a poem fragment Bakeless credits to Marlowe - the verses in England's Parnassus - was actually written by Jervis Markham. Despite these later additions to our knowledge of Marlowe, Bakeless's biography has never been superseded because so far no writer has yet attempted a fresh biography on the scope of Bakeless's.

To supplement Bakeless, I recommend William Urry's "Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury," Charles Nicholl's "The Reckoning," and Mark Eccles's "Christopher Marlowe in London." But Bakeless is still the bedrock of Marlowe biography.

"Dr. Faustus," the play by 16th century writer Christopher Marlowe, has been published as part of the Dover Thrift Edition series. The brief introduction to this version notes that the play was first published in 1604, and also discusses its relationship to a German text from 1587 known as the "Faustbuch." In his play Marlowe tells the story of the title character, a scholar who is "swollen with cunning." Faust dabbles in the dark arts of "magicians / And necromantic books," and literally makes a deal with the devil. These actions drive the tragedy forward.

This play is a curious mixture of Christian theology, tragedy, slapstick comedy, and colorful pageantry. It moves along fast, and contains some really beautiful and stately language.

"Dr. Faustus" is ultimately a cautionary tale about human pride and ambition. I must admit that in the end I find it less satisfying than some of the other great tragedies of the Elizabethan era, perhaps because this play relies less on universal human issues than on a culturally-bound theological contrivance. Still, it's a noteworthy play that, I believe, still holds relevance for contemporary audiences. ...

In the Faust legend, a man by the name of Faust or Faustus sells his soul to the devil for twenty-four years of worldly power. This legend has been told many times over by such writers as Goethe and Mann, but no doubt the most famous retelling, and probably the best, is the play, Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

The most prominent influence on Marlowe's version of the Faust legend was the social upheaval during the time period in which it was written. Doctor Faustus was probably first performed in 1594, a time of tremendous change in Europe. The Medieval times were over and the Renaissance was beginning, however, influences of both times can be found in the play. Doctor Faustus is a transitional play where beliefs from both time periods intermingle, sometimes with disastrous results.

Doctor Faustus, himself, is a man torn between two traditions. He is a man with medieval beliefs, but renaissance aspirations. When he first attempts to conjure Mephistopheles, Faustus believe that Mephistopheles was forced to come by his (Faustus's) words. In response, Mephistopheles says, "for when we hear one rack the name of God, abjure the Scriptures and his savior Christ, we fly in hope to get his glorious soul." Mephistopheles has, of course, come of his own accord, because he feels that there is a soul to be had. He states this blatantly, yet Faustus is clouded by his old beliefs and also by his desires.

From a medieval point of view, Doctor Faustus can be looked upon as a morality play; a play about one man who aspires beyond his God-given place in the world. On the other hand, from a renaissance perspective, this play is a tragedy. The Renaissance was a time of individuality unlike the Middle Ages where a man was trapped in whatever social class into which he was born. Faustus is "an essentially good man" by Renaissance ideals who believes he has reached the end of human knowledge and is thus justified is using the black arts to further his knowledge. As in most classical tragedies, his downfall is complete and is due to his pride.

After Faustus makes his deal with Lucifer, the question must be asked: Is there any way back for him? Faustus believes he is damned at the moment that he signs his name in blood, although he has many chances to repent during the course of the play. The first chance comes after his first conjuring. He says, "O something soundeth in mine ear, 'Abjure this magic, turn to God.' Aye, and Faustus will turn to God again. To God? He loves thee not." Something is pleading for Faustus to repent, but Faustus remains firm in believing God has already condemned him. Each time the Good Angel appears is yet another chance for Faustus to repent, but the Evil Angel continues to threaten him if he even thinks about repenting. If it were not possible for Faustus to save his soul, then the Evil Angel and his demons would have simply left Faustus alone to cry out in anguish to God.

The final indicator that Faustus could have been saved at any point over his twenty-four year bargain is given by Mephistopheles, himself, as Faustus's fate is sealed beyond irrevocability.

Christopher Marlowe's brilliant retelling of the Faust legend springs not only from his own creativity, but from the times in which he lived. Marlowe's life and times allowed him to create the greatest retelling of one of Western cultures more timeless stories. When put to words, the legend seems so simple, yet its possibilities and implications, as Marlowe proves, can be nothing less than monumental.

The story of the infamous Dr. Faustus shows depth on many levels. Marlowe explores the developing morality play genre while calling upon aspects of classic tragedy. The main character, Faustus, finds himself too intelligent for the sciences of mortal man, and pursues a god-like existence in exchange for his soul. Prodded and guided by Mephostiphiles, servant to Lucifer, Faustus explores aspects of nature and society that the common man only dreams about. The conflict within Faustus is the central focus of the play, and Marlowe challenges the reader to consider whether it is more worthwhile to pursue mortal prestige or eternal salvation

The notes did greatly help AFTER I read the Christopher Marlowe novel, in the capacity that I was able to choose a wonderful topic for a research paper from the further suggestions offered by the book. As with other Cliff Notes that I have purchased over the years, this one aided me in making heads and tails out of much of the language and historical content. I recommed this guide be used hand in hand along with the Novel itself, for both are an easy and enjoyable read.

Eva Fitzwater's Cliffs Notes for Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" begins with a short biography of the playwright and a look at the Faust Legend as it existed in the 16th-century. A brief synopsis and list of characters precedes the main section of the volume devoted to Summaries and Commentaries; one of the strengths of Fitzwater's notes is that she presents significantly more commentary than summary for each scene of the play. The collection of short analytical essays at the end of hte volume look at Faustus as a Medieval/Renaissance hero and dramatic character, the character of Mephistophilis and the concept of Hell, and the servant-master relationship in the play. After considering the motifs of the fall and the appetites, Fitzwater develops Marlowe's style. The final sections deal with the Renaissance theater of Marlowe's day and stage performances of "Doctor Faustus" (covering some of the concerns and people covered in the film "Shakespeare in Love"), and looks at the textual problems that have resulted from the lack of an authoritative text of the play. The strength of this particular little yellow book with the black stripes is on the analytical commentary of the play scene-by-scene and its historical background, more so than the analysis of the play as a whole. Some treatment of how the Faust legend changed after Marlowe's day, specifically in terms of Goerte's "Faust," would have been nice, but that's just a final nit-pick. This is an excellent study aid for those who have read Marlowe's play.

I just had a brief comment. I don't consider myself an expert on Elizabethan era literature, but I've read a fair amount of Shakespeare and a number of the other authors of the period, and I have to say I was quite impressed with Marlowe. He certainly deserves to be better appreciated than he is. One of the lines from Richard III has stuck with me. I think I have it more or less correct, and it was this: "...and as for the multitude, they are like sparks--caught up in the embers of their poverty." You have to like an author who can write like that, but unfortunately he's been so overshadowed by the great Will that he doesn't get as much attention as he should. Anyway, by way of doing what I can, however, modest, to increase Marlowe's popularity, I'd like to say he's a damn good playwright, and that I have no qualms about throwing my own not inconsiderable bulk behind his reputation.

The Complete Plays includes all of Marlowe's plays (well, obviously.) As a bonus it includes the rather fragmentory Massacre at Paris (which many critics theorize is a corupt, unfinished, or damaged text) in a scene division only format and both editions of Doctor Faustus.

Marlowe's plays, while not on the same level as Shakespeare's best, are far and away superior to any other Renaisance era dramatist (See also, Thomas Kyd, Ben Johnson, or Richard Wharfinger--if you can find him hehe.)

The best thing about Marlowe's plays is the level of respect for the audience. Judgement of the characters is (for the most part) left to the reader. Tamburlaine can be viewed as hero and/or villian.

And, it being Renaisance drama, there are some spectacular death scenes--Edward II's anal cruxifiction, Brabas's boiling alive, Faustus's dismemberment, and the Admiral's hanging/shooting to name a few.

One complaint, and this is really more of a preference, but the textual notes are in endnote format, rather than footnote format, and they're not numbered notes--all of which makes finding latin translations a little more time consuming.
But, for fans of the genre, this is the way to go.

This is a generally good and easily available, inexpensive edition of Marlowe's plays. My only reservation about it is Steane's edition of Dr. Faustus. He makes the worst of both major texts, taking the general outline from the 1616 text but throwing in a lot of corrupt scraps from the 1604 edition for the clown scenes. I would advise anyone who wants to read Dr. Faustus to look elsewhere. I'm convinced that the 1604 version is on the whole a corrupt and truncated version of the play, but if you prefer it you might look into the Folger Library edition. If on the other hand you would rather read the play more or less as I think Marlowe wrote it, try the Signet edition edited by Sylvan Barnet.

The other plays present no major textual problems (except for The Massacre at Paris, which is pretty hopeless) and this is a fine place to meet them.

Our book group comprised of many retired teachers read this book recently; some members balked at its difficulty, but those who persevered felt that reading the book was a very rich experience. How else could you really sense the danger, the intrigue, the raw energy, and the vitality of the times. Burgess brings the period alive brilliantly through his inventive language and ironic humor. The book gets easier as it goes along, so stick with it; you'll be rewarded.

Marlowe is presented in full here. You can feel him touching the pages as you read them. You can taste the food he eats, drink what he drinks. This is a visceral book. Burgess was a linguist, so, of course, the dialect might prove a challenge to some, but, in the same way that the invented slang of Clockwork Orange made the experience of that book more vivid and real, the Elizabethanisms of Dead Man only give it more depth and color. The "Elizabethanisms" of this book are, in any case, less challenging than those served up in Burgess' earlier, more difficult but also astonishingly rewarding Shakespeare book "Nothing Like The Sun". Disregard those few on here who warn you off this book, particularly if you revel in language that comes rich and thick and genuine.

While some have said this is a difficult book (and I must admit I felt that way at first) if you relax and stick with it you'll find that it will begin to flow very smoothly.
Burgess takes us into the mind of Marlowe; his images are vivid. There were many passages that I had to reread, not because they were difficult, but because they were so beautiful. Sir Walter Raleigh introducing Kit to tobacco is marvelous.
I have to agree with those who found that following the characters was a bit confusing. I had the good fortune to have read Charles Nichol's book 'The Reckoning" first, a true story about the death of Marlowe. That work is a great introduction to most of the players in Burgess's book.
Please, don't be intimidated by "Dead Man", it is a pleasing and enlightening work.

Dood, he's been dead for like a thousand years, who cares how he died? It's not like they can arrest his murderers or nething.

Nicholl uses exhaustive research into the very deadly crosscurrents of Elizabethan spycraft to point the reader to a plausible, nay, probable explanation for the death of Kit Marlowe.
It's a long read, and the list of players can be tedious,
but you will gain insights into an age that spawned great writers, as well as lethal consequences for some of them.

Contrary to what one reviewer (if we can use that word, since he or she obviously didn't read the book) says, the mystery of Marlowe's death has not ceased to be fascinating. There are several reasons for this, as Nicholl makes abundantly clear: first, the debt owed to any human being whose death has not been clarified; second, the light this murder throws on the workings of the Elizabethan espionage system, and Marlowe's relation to it; third, the fact that he wasn't just anyone - he was a gifted writer, and we all lost something by his dying so young.

Nicholl's work leaves nothing to be desired: it is at the same time scholarly and awfully entertaining. The man obviously knows his subject. The Marlowe that emerges is not the brilliant if somewhat rebellious youth that we used to think of, but a less likeable, more unsavoury character. But, as Nicholl says somewhere in the book, can we really burden him with the weight of our own expectations? He was a man of his time, and, although we might regret having to put the spy side by side with the playwright, he may not have seen it that way: it was a question of going or not going hungry. I would say that I altogether prefer the fuller picture, even if it's not the most pleasant one.

"The Reckoning" is abundantly researched and very well written, and is one of the few books I have lately read, which I did not want to finish.

The title of this book suggests that there is to be presented in these pages some new "evidence" to the argument that someone other than WS wrote the Shakespeare plays. But there is so little that holds water here that it is quite literally laughable. From misquoating some passages, to misinterpreting meanings of words and/or wording, and only quoating a small fraction of a famous open letter and then shading the meanings to suit her evidence, the author makes her research seem sullied. Her anti-Stratfordian bias runs rampant. If one would believe her, a glovers son couldn't write the greatest plays in history, but the son of an illiterate shoemaker could. As interesting as this book is, it leaves one with a feeling that there is no reason for this sort of hero-worshipping claptrap. Mr. Sam's or Mr Schoenbaum's Shakespeare books are much better.

I had to hunt this down after catching her speak in the incredible PBS/Frontline documentary that left not a doubt in my mind as to Shakespeare's non-authorship. Unbelievable omissions: no public mourning of WS, no mention of "playwright" in his death register. All we know is he left Stratford fuctionally illiterate two years before Marlowe's "death," and returned a few decades later filthy rich. Marlowe, by the way, was "killed" by his patron's servant (convenient) only days before he was scheduled to be executed by the Church in very nasty ways. There are records of him living in Italy to the ripe old age of 63.

This makes a very convincing case that WH was not the author of the plays and Marlowe was. Wraight very skilfully guides the reader through the new evidence.

This book is an interesting literary mystery. However it does go into the more shadowy aspects of human character. Some parts (but not many) of the book are very boring though. If you like mysteries, you should read this book.

I loved this book, although there were some slow points that lowered the rate, and it was just a wee bit too moral for me (also known as Christina Faust, also known as High Priestess of The Elder Gods). But I loved it, anyway. Faust is just so cool. This story makes soul-dealing really fashionable (which probably wasn't what Mr Marlowe meant in the first place). In fact, if I hadn't read it at the impressionable age of eleven, I would surely just be another bored small-town student today, instead of having infinite power over all shattered souls in this insane swirl of chaos that is Azathoths realm.

Marlowe's gifts as a dramatist are easily matched by his poetic accomplishments in other genres. While some may find his declamatory style and tendency toward bombast wearying in the plays, it is perfectly suited to the frieze-like beauties of HERO AND LEANDER, and particularly to the rhetorical excesses of Lucan, whose first book Marlowe translated "line for line." And few translations of Ovid AMORES capture his eroticism and wit as well as Marlowe's. A must-have selection of poems, convenient and affordable, although the apparatus and notes are not as helpful as those in the Penguin edition (now sadly out of print) edited by Stephen Orgel.