The Death of Christopher Marlowe

1593 was ushered in again with the Plague raging in London. Indeed by the end of that year over 10,500 people would have died. Many would say it was the worst plague in living memory. As was often the case, the theatres were closed down and Shakespeare’s company left London and went on the road. They were given a special licence to perform anywhere outside of a seven mile boundary from the city of London

With the play actors gone the writers turned their attention to other endeavours with both Marlowe and Shakespeare devoting their skills to their poetry. The two men’s lives, however, would be subject to very different fates in that tumultuous year.

In May 1593, Marlowe had begun work on what was to be his last piece - Hero and Leander. Marlowe had moved out of the City and had gone down to Chislehurst in Kent where he continued writing.

Meanwhile, in London, Pamphlets were being circulated that contained obscene libels against the decent Flemish protestant immigrants. Determined to root out the writers responsible, the authorities began to interrogate the London literati. They knocked upon the door of Thomas Kidd - famed author of the Spanish Tragedy - whom they arrested, jailed and tortured.

A subsequent search of his house turned up papers of a blasphemous nature. They denied Christ's divinity, sneered at his miracles and argued the cause of atheism. Kidd said that Marlowe had written them, and so Marlowe was summoned back to London to give account of himself.

On May 30th he was invited to a dinner at a Tavern kept by a widow named Elizabeth Bull. He dined with three men, Ingram Frizer, Nick Skears and Robert Poley.

Only four people know for certain what truly happened on that distant May night and three of them had a vested interest in proving themselves innocent of any wrong doing. As far as can be ascertained, sometime after Supper there was an argument. Some said it was over who should pay the bill others said it was over the honour of a woman. Whatever it was Marlowe leapt to his feet and grabbed Frizer's dagger and in the ensuing struggle Marlowe was stabbed above the eye. He died screaming in agony. Some said, true to character he died blaspheming.

Shakespeare would later pay tribute to Marlowe in As you Like It with the lines; "Dead Shepherd, now I find thy sould of might, who e'er loved but loved not at first sight." The tribute is a personal one, Marlowe after all had written The Passionate Shepherd to his Love. And yet it could be said, that with Marlowe gone, the way was now open for Shakespeare to assume the mantle.