Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet and translator of

the Elizabethan era. Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his day.

Synopsis

Born in Canterbury, England, in 1564. While Christopher Marlowe's literary career lasted less than six
years, and his life only 29 years, his achievements, most notably the play The Tragicall History of
Doctor Faustus, ensured his lasting legacy.

Early Years

Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury around February 26, 1564 (this was the day on which he
was baptized). He went to King's School and was awarded a scholarship that enabled him to study at
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from late 1580 until 1587.

Marlowe earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1584, but in 1587 the university hesitated in granting
him his master's degree. Its doubts (perhaps arising from his frequent absences, or speculation that he
had converted to Roman Catholicism and would soon attend college elsewhere) were set to rest, or at
least dismissed, when the Privy Council sent a letter declaring that he was now working "on matters
touching the benefit of his country," and he was awarded his master's degree on schedule.

Marlowe as a Secret Agent?

The nature of Marlowe's service to England was not specified by the council, but the letter sent to
Cambridge has provoked abundant speculation, notably the theory that Marlowe had become a secret
agent working for Sir Francis Walsingham's intelligence service. No direct evidence supports this
theory, but the council's letter clearly suggests that Marlowe was serving the government in some
secret capacity.

Surviving Cambridge records from the period show that Marlowe had several lengthy absences from
the university, much longer than allowed by the school's regulations. And extant dining room accounts
indicate that he spent lavishly on food and drink while there, greater amounts than he could have
afforded on his known scholarship income. Both of these could point to a secondary source of income,
such as secret government work.

But with scant hard evidence and rampant speculation, the mystery surrounding Marlowe's service to
the queen is likely to remain active. Spy or not, after attaining his master's degree, Marlowe moved to
London and took up writing full-time.

Early Writing Career

After 1587, Christopher Marlowe was in London, writing for the theater and probably also engaging
himself occasionally in government service. What is thought to be his first play, Dido, Queen of
Carthage, was not published until 1594, but it is generally thought to have been written while he was
still a student at Cambridge. According to records, the play was performed by the Children of the
Chapel, a company of boy actors, between 1587 and 1593.

Marlowe's second play was the two-part Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587; published 1590). This was
Marlowe's first play to be performed on the regular stage in London and is among the first English
plays in blank verse. It is considered the beginning of the mature phase of the Elizabethan theater and
was the last of Marlowe's plays to be published before his untimely death.

There is disagreement among Marlowe scholars regarding the order in which the plays subsequent
to Tamburlaine were written.

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At first glance, not much. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" seems to be a pretty bland and
unimaginative description of what goes on in the poem, particularly when you contrast the
straightforwardness of the title to the poetic beauty of Marlowe's lyrics. But the contrast brings up an
important point—Marlowe didn't name the poem. And while it's tempting to think that this makes the
title less important, the Renaissance editor that slapped on the poem's conventional title has drastically
influenced the way it is read.
The rather boring title names "the passionate shepherd" as the speaker of the poem. The mention of
"shepherd" alerts readers from the get-go that this poem is going to be heavy on fluffy sheep, fields of
flowers, babbling brooks, and other tropes of pastoral poetry. The title also firms up the addressee of
the poem: the shepherd's love. So now the readers also know that country boy's got a crush and that he's
hoping this poem will work some magic for his cause.
But these are all things that you can get from reading the poem—right?
Wrong.
We've been occasionally referring to the speaker as a he for clarity's sake, but if you look again, you'll
notice there are no hims, hers, shes, hes, or any other gender-defining vocabulary words anywhere in
the poem. The conventional title is actually the only thing that explicitly designates the poem's speaker
as male (since he's not a shepherdess).
If this seems surprising to you, then Marlowe has done his job well. Writing gender ambiguity was
considered a great skill in the Renaissance, and Marlowe's ability to write a poem that seems like it
conforms to gender expectations without actually confirming them was thought to be pretty impressive
stuff.
But hey, dude was a spy. So if anyone can pull it off, it's crafty Christopher.
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Iambic Tetrameter
If "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" was one of the earlier poems you read in school, we're
betting your teacher chose it because it's a great example of regular rhyme and meter. In this case,
Marlowe writes in iambic tetrameter, which means he's got four iambs per line, making each line go
daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM. And he's got a pretty basic rhyme scheme: AABB.
Check this out:
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls,
Melodious birds sing madrigals. (5-8)
With the exception of line 6, with starts off with a trochee ("Seeing" goes DAdum, instead of daDUM),
this is pretty darn perfect iambic tetrameter. So perfect, in fact, it sounds more like a song than a poem.
The entire poem is composed of six four-line stanzas, or quatrains, just like the one above. Each
quatrain is made up of two rhyming couplets, the majority of which are written in perfect iambic
tetrameter and, if you use Renaissance-era pronunciation, rhyme perfectly.
Sure, most verses in tetrameter end up sounding a little sing-songy when read aloud, but Marlowe
avoids this effect by peppering his lines with poetic devices that sneakily shake things up and steer
clear of the nursery rhyme curse. Take a look at this couplet from the third stanza:
And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies (9-10)
A perfect line of iambic tetrameter should end in a stressed syllable, but in line 9 Marlowe forces an
extra unstressed syllable onto the end of the line (the -ses of "Roses"). You might think this would
muck up the meter, but if you read the line aloud (go ahead, we're sure the other people in the library
will find it inspirational), the extra syllable adds a little pizazz to the line without making it feel
awkward or jarring.
Marlowe's substitution of a trochee (DAdum) for an iamb in line 10 works in a similar way; the
changes create variety and texture within the meter, so the poem avoids sounding like Little Bo Peep,
but still colors within the lines, too. He creates a metrical musicality that mirrors the springiness of the
countryside in which the speaker wants his lover to live.

The Countryside
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" is a poem set in the
countryside, and not just any old countryside at that. This poem is a pastoral poem, which means the
version of the countryside it depicts is a little bit too good to be true in real life.
"The Passionate Shepherd" also focuses in on the countryside in springtime because, if you're already
planning on eliminating all the unpleasant aspects of living in the country, why not just go ahead and
present it in its best and prettiest time of year, too. Never mind that winter will come and kill off all
those flowers and the baby lambs that are so cute now will eventually be turned into some sort of stew.
But the springtime setting serves a double purpose; all the references to budding flowers, baby animals,
and the month of May not only set the scene, they also emphasize the new life and fertility associated
with the springtime, which is not a bad thing to mention if you're trying to convince someone it's a
good idea to take you as a lover and to move in with you.