Christopher Marlowe

1564-1593. Christopher Marlowe, a shoemaker's son, was educated at Cambridge. In 1587 he went to London and become an actor and playwright for the Lord Admiral's Company, writing such works as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta. Many theories and historians believe that Marlowe was a government agent, a spy, and that these activities directly influenced his death by stabbing in a brawl in 1593.

Marlowe's work was highly influential and well-regarded, even by Shakespeare—perhaps the only English playwright better regarded—who's only reference to a contemporary writer is to Marlowe's long poem, Hero and Leander, in As You Like It: "Dear Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, / 'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'."

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