Marlowe, Christopher

Christopher (1564-1593), an English playwright. He is interesting chiefly as a forerunner of Shakespeare, to whom he was a not unworthy John the Baptist. He was educated at Cambridge. He was killed in a drunken brawl. Readers will do well to begin with his Jew of Malta. The Jew Barabbas is a far worse character than Shylock, and is without the latter's redeeming qualities. Faustus is a characteristic play. It suggests Goethe's Faust. In Tamburlaine the Great, a shepherd of Titanic disposition aspires to the throne of Persia and aims to ride into power over the bloody remains of his opponents.