Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) was a contemporary of Shake-speare's (born two months before him). He was the son of a shoemaker and received a scholarship to attend Cambridge, where he was granted a degree only after some controversy over his plan to go to Reims, the center of Catholic opposition to Queen Elizabeth and the Church of England. While at Cambridge, he wrote the famous play Tamburlaine, which dramatizes the adventures of a fourteenth-century Mongol chieftain and conqueror of much of the known world. He introduced to the English theater the use of blank verse, which was well-suited to projection from the stage.

Marlowe's life was a turbulent one. Only six years after his early success with Tamburlaine, he was killed by a dagger thrust in a brawl over a tavern bill. During the six years before his death, he wrote five more plays, including a sequel to Tamburlaine, two major tragedies, and a chronicle history play.