What art thou Faustus, but a man condemned to die?

Christopher Marlowe

I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I visit a place that has a history of more than one writer.  When I researched Canterbury, I discovered that this incredible cathedral city had a lot more to it than I originally thought.  My discovery was kind of like a coup for me. Of course I needed to do a little more work for this entry, but the rest was much closer to home. 

His name is everywhere in Canterbury

The popular playwright Christopher Marlowe was baptised on the 26^th of February 1564. His birthdate was not recorded but he was like to have been born just a few days before hand. He attended the prestigious King’s School in Canterbury and then on to Corpus Christi in Cambridge. Marlowe never married, but did spend a lot of time in getting into fights. Perhaps if he’d found himself a wife, he might have been around a bit longer.

Several plays were written by Marlowe, but the most well-known would probably be The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. This was the first dramatised version of a faustian pact. Faustus made a deal with the devil for knowledge and power.

The Marlowe Theatre above and the Marlow Statue below

If you compare the popularity of Christopher Marlowe and Justin Bieber, they’d probably be about equal - in their respective times of course.  But none the less, I couldn’t imagine Bieber getting into a pub brawl which is what Marlowe did on the night that he died.  Stabbed in a pub in Deptford after a drunken evening, or was he?

Conspiracy theory

Whilst enjoying a relaxing boat ride on the river Stour, the oarsman and tour guide Tom, told us of the conspiracy theory relating to the death of Christopher Marlowe.  It is thought that Marlowe staged his death because he was under suspicion for spying for the French.  He may have fled the country and lived in Europe for some time after. There are those who think he continued to write and send his plays to his good friend William Shakespeare. When you consider what Shakespeare has written, one might wonder how someone who never travelled out of England could write of places he had never seen. Then you might wonder also how Bram Stoker could conjure up one of the most popular gothic tales in history when he never visited the Carpathians. I guess when it comes to the Marlowe conspiracy; you either believe it or you don’t. I would never discredit Shakespeare so that kind of makes me a nonbeliever. However, it does make me wonder.

To add fuel to the fire, in St Nicholas’ churchyard in Deptford there is a plaque on the wall which signifies that Marlowe’s remains are buried close by.  It’s an ordinary looking piece of marble which has been etched carefully to state the above.  It seems strange that someone who was so popular didn’t have his gravesite marked which kind of enhances the conspiracy theory, but I’m still not fully convinced.

The plaque in St Nicholas' Churchyard

According to history, Christopher Marlowe was killed in a pub brawl in Deptford in 1593 at the age of 29. He was stabbed by Ingram Frizer, who was known in those times as a swindler. For those of us who weren’t there, I guess we have to make up our own minds of which story we believe and although this one leaves up questioning, I am certain that Once upon a time in England, there lived a talented author who had a flair for storytelling, but whether he died on that fateful night in 1593 will for some remain a mystery.