The rectangular, blue plaque is on the tower of what used
to be St George's church. The church was destroyed by enemy action in 1942 and
the repaired tower is now all that remains. Records indicate that there has been
a church on this site since before 1100AD.
The plaque reads:
"Christopher Marlowe
Dramatist
Baptised in this Church
26th February 1564
Died at Deptford
30th May 1593".
The Marlowe Society website (visit
link) tells us that:
"Baptism at St. George the Martyr
Christopher Marlowe was baptised at the church of St. George the Martyr,
Canterbury, on Saturday 26 February, 1564. His exact date of birth is not
recorded, but Elizabethan children were commonly baptised very shortly after
birth to ensure entry into heaven in the event of an early death - not uncommon,
given the infant mortality rates of the time. Indeed, Christopher may have been
lucky to survive himself, for Canterbury experienced high rates of mortality due
to a concerted outbreak of plague between 1563 and 15651.
Canterbury was a small city at the time of Marlowe's birth, dominated as it is
today by the cathedral. A survey in 1563 recorded 700 households, whilst a
similar exercise five years later extrapolates to approximately 900 households
and a population of 2,341 people above adolescent age2. St. George's church was
situated near to St. George's Gate (or Newingate) on the east side of the walled
city. The church housed the great waking bell for the whole city, which was rung
at 4am each morning. By 1569, the parish of St. George contained 208
communicants3.
Opposite the church on the other side of St. George's Street, the house that was
located on the corner of St. George's Lane is thought to be that inhabited by
the Marlowe family when Christopher was born. Marlowe's father, John, was a
shoemaker by trade and his shop was also located in the parish. The house was
unfortunately destroyed by Luftwaffe bombs during the Second World War, and the
site is now occupied by Fenwick's department store. The Marlowe Society is
currently trying to organise some kind of memorial to mark the site, and is in
discussion with Fenwick's owners.
St. George's Church fared only a little better against the German air
bombardment, and was largely destroyed by fire during the same air-raid on 01
June 1942. The clock stopped at 02:18 am4, and the bells (dating from the 17th
century, and at least one that had survived from Marlowe's time) fell to the
ground and subsequently 'disappeared'. Much of the church building was
demolished, but although the spire had been lost, the surviving church tower was
protected with scaffolding and eventually restored after the war."
The InfoBritain website (visit
link) tells us about the man:
"Christopher Marlowe was born in the same year as Shakespeare, 1564. The
tower of St George the Martyr, where he was christened on 26th February 1564,
still survives in St George's Street, Canterbury, Kent. His father was a cobbler
with a quick temper, and young Christopher seemed to inherit the fiery Marlowe
disposition. Family life appears to have been turbulent. But Christopher was
bright, and attended King's School in Canterbury, which still survives just
behind Canterbury Cathedral. He then went on to Corpus Christie College,
Cambridge. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, had established a
scholarship which paid for students of King's to attend Corpus Christie College,
a tradition that continues today. The fact that a Matthew Parker scholarship
funded Marlowe's years at Cambridge suggests expectations for a church career.
But Marlowe was not destined to take an expected path in life. He graduated in
1584, with the university threatening to withhold his degree because of poor
attendance during term time. There were also suspicions that Marlowe had
converted to Catholicism after a stay at the English college in Rheims. Then the
Queen's Council stepped in with information that Marlowe had been on Her
Majesty's business, both in Rheims, and during his absences from college. These
intriguing facts suggest that Marlowe may have been on Her Majesty's Secret
Service, conducting espionage work amongst the Jesuits of Rheims. All this has
provided much for writers to speculate about.
Whatever Marlowe may have been up to for the government, the main focus of his
short working life was to be theatre. Abandoning a Church career, 1587 saw
Marlowe becoming a playwright in London. His plays were performed at the Rose
Theatre, where he worked with Edward Alleyn and his company, the Admiral's Men.
Part of the original Rose Theatre has been excavated, and in summer months these
excavations can sometimes be viewed as part of the Globe Theatre tour on
Bankside in London. The Rose was built in a similar design to the Globe, and the
present reconstructed Globe gives a very clear picture of what the Rose would
have looked like. In fact the foundations of the Rose, accidentally found during
excavations for an office building, provided guidance for designers of the
reconstructed Globe.
The chronology of plays performed at the Rose is not clear. Dido, Queen of
Carthage, may have been an early play, perhaps written at Cambridge. But some
commentators put this play in the middle or end of Marlowe's career. Doctor
Faustus may come after Tamburlaine, a play it seems to answer; or it may have
been written in 1592, after Edward II . There were also translations of Ovid,
and collections of poetry, with Hero and Leander being the best known.
Not much is known of Marlowe's life in London. There is a record of an arrest in
1589, following a street fight. In 1592 Marlowe was bound over to keep the
peace. A week before his death in 1593 he was summoned to report to the Queen's
Council. A "heretical tract" had been found among the papers of playwright
Thomas Kyd, and possibly under torture, Kyd had claimed this tract belonged to
Marlowe. A week later, on 30th May, Marlowe was at the Deptford house of Thomas
Walsingham, brother of Francis Walsingham head of Elizabeth I's secret service.
He was with three other men, who all had secret service links. The official
story was that these four men were simply having a day out in Deptford together.
They were seen in deep discussion all afternoon, "in quiet sort" as the
coroner's report put it. The coroner's report then claims that after supper a
fight broke out during which Marlowe grabbed Ingam Frizer's dagger and started
attacking him with it. In the struggle that followed Marlowe was accidentally
stabbed and killed instantly. The true facts of Marlowe's death have never been
finally established. It seems strange that three tough secret service men and a
playwright with an anger management problem should take a pleasure trip to
Deptford. It seems strange that Marlowe should be killed only a week after his
arrest for possible heresy. Two days later a document written by Richard Baines
was handed into the authorities claiming that Marlowe was a militant and
dangerous atheist. The document includes this ominous line: "I think all men in
Christianity ought to endeavour that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be
stopped."
Senior figures in government were close to Marlowe and would not have wanted to
be pulled into a scandal with a prominent atheist. On the other hand, his death
could well have been the accidental result of a fight, as the coroner's report
claimed. Hanging around in a house in Deptford all afternoon is a strange way to
assassinate someone, and Marlowe did have a vicious temper.
Whatever happened in Deptford, Marlowe was definitely working on the outer edges
of acceptability, in his daily behaviour and in his fascinating writing. He was
a man who had trained for the Church, with a scholarship from the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and ended up having people suggest his "mouth should be stopped" for
his atheistic views. His play Tamburlaine celebrates an enemy of Christianity,
but does not deny spirituality in its widest sense. Dr Faustus appears to be a
Christian morality play, graphically demonstrating what happens to someone who
sells their soul to the devil. It is not difficult to see parallels between
Marlowe and Faustus, a character born to humble parents, who attends university
and studies theology, and then rejects the Church. Rather than take up a
position as a clergyman, Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer, in return for twenty
four years of limitless power on earth. Reading Dr Faustus there is a feeling of
great energy taking a person along their path in life, and a puzzle about where
it all leads. There seems to be no ending, no final point where effort pays off
and where everything is clear. The doctor of theology ends up turning his back
on his course and selling his soul to Lucifer. Lucifer himself was once one of
God's most loved angels. But at what pitch of perfection - beyond which there is
nothing more to achieve - does the good angel start to move in the opposite
direction? Faustus himself is fascinated by the circular nature of the universe.
He is described at the beginning of Act 3 as viewing clouds, planets and stars,
the Primum Mobile itself: "whirling round with this circumference, within the
concave compass of the pole." (3.1.10 - 11)."