1. EARLY WRITING CAREER
   1. his first play, Dido, Queen of Carthage, was not published until 1594
      1. it is generally thought to have been written while he was still a student at Cambridge
      2. the play was performed by the Children of the Chapel, a company of boy actors, between 1587 and 1593
   2. second play was the two-part Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587; published 1590)
      1. this was Marlowe's first play to be performed on the regular stage in London
      2. this is among the first English plays in blank verse
2. BIRTH DATE
   1. born in Canterbury around February 26, 1564
      1. this was the day on which he was baptized
3. ARREST AND DEATH
   1. The constant rumors of Marlowe's atheism finally caught up with him on Sunday May 20, 1593, and he was arrested for just that "crime."
   2. On May 30, 1953, Marlowe was killed by Ingram Frizer
      1. after spending the day together with Marlowe in a lodging house, a fight broke out between Marlowe and Frizer over the bill, and Marlowe was stabbed in the forehead and killed
4. EDUCATION
   1. He went to King's School
      1. study at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from late 1580 until 1587
         1. earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1584
5. PLAYS
   1. The Jew of Malta (fully The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta)
      1. The play is also considered the first (successful) Black comedy, or tragicomedy
      2. The play swirls with religious conflict, intrigue and revenge
      3. It is considered to have been a major influence on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
      4. It is about the Jew Barabas, the richest man on all the island of Malta. His wealth is seized, however, and he fights the government to regain it until his death at the hands of Maltese soldiers
   2. Edward the Second (fully The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer)
      1. The historical play is about the deposition of England's King Edward II by his barons and the queen, all of whom resent the undue influence the king's men have over his policies
      2. It is a tragedy and it paved the way for Shakespeare's more mature histories, such as Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V
   3. The Massacre at Paris
      1. It is a short and lurid work
      2. It comprises mostly bloody action with little depth of characterization or quality verse
      3. It portrays the events of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, in which French royalty and Catholic nobles instigated the murder and execution of thousands of protestant Huguenots
   4. The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus
      1. The first dramatized version of the Faust legend, in which a man sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power