Not Just the Tudors — Christopher Marlowe: A Dangerous Life

Host: Professor Suzannah Lipscomb
Guest: Professor Stephen Greenblatt
Date: January 5, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of Not Just the Tudors explores the extraordinary life, work, and enduring mystery of Christopher Marlowe — Elizabethan playwright, poet, provocateur, and alleged spy. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb welcomes acclaimed Harvard literary critic Stephen Greenblatt, author of Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival, Christopher Marlowe, to discuss Marlowe’s meteoric rise from humble beginnings, his subversive artistry, entanglements with espionage and danger, and his violent, early death. The conversation weaves through Marlowe’s personal history, the contradictions of Elizabethan society, the radical potential of the university world, Marlowe’s literary legacy, his sexuality, and the complex circumstances of his death.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Marlowe’s Humble Beginnings and Complicated Upbringing

• Family Background ([03:42]–[07:05]):
  • Marlowe was born to a cobbler and a peasant’s daughter in Canterbury. Records are sparse, but available ones hint at a tumultuous, litigious, working-class environment.
  • Greenblatt: “How did Kit Marlow, the only son of this family that was barely literate…gain admission to the King’s School in Canterbury, which was conducted in Latin and was accessible only by examination?...He crossed a bridge…that separated him…even more dramatically than it would now.” ([03:51])
• Education as Social Separation:
  • Marlowe’s acceptance to the King’s School and a subsequent university scholarship marked a decisive break with his family’s world, both linguistically and culturally.

The Hidden Curricula and Contradictions of Elizabethan Education

• Latin, Pagan Classics, and Christianity ([07:30]–[09:31]):
  • Greenblatt: “There’s a disconnect between what is actually being taught in the curriculum…and what everyone is told that they’re supposed to believe… The curriculum centered on pagan classics…full of transgressive sex, violence, crazy doubts about the gods…this hit Marlowe very hard.” ([07:30])
• Influence of Headmaster John Gressup ([09:31]–[11:12]):
  • Marlowe thrived intellectually, finding lifelong inspiration in classical poets like Virgil and Ovid, unlike most students who “just tried to get through the day with as few beatings as possible.”

University Life: Class Fluidity and Intellectual Ferment

• Social Levelling at Cambridge ([11:40]–[13:13]):
  • Universities, unlike the rest of Tudor society, temporarily levelled class distinctions. The “son of the earl and the son of the cobbler…sit on the same benches, take the same exams.”
• Translating Ovid — Daring and Innovation ([13:13]–[14:30]):
  • Marlowe’s undergraduate translation of Ovid’s Amores, never before rendered into English due to its explicitness, displays both literary brilliance and a penchant for transgression.
  • Greenblatt: “He decided to do this crazy thing…to translate these remarkable poems, poems on the edge.”

Faith, Doubt, and Radical Possibility at University

• Religious Tension and Experimentation ([15:06]–[17:56]):
  • University was “a world in which…it’s possible, at least imaginatively, to speculate about what you actually want in your life,” exacerbating religious and intellectual tensions already coursing through Elizabethan England.
• Recruitment into Espionage ([18:09]–[20:50]):
  • Marlowe’s service for the state is revealed through an unprecedented intervention by the Privy Council to secure his MA.
  • Greenblatt: “Her Majesty would be distressed if someone who has done the State such important service were not to be given his degree.” ([18:25])
  • The details of his recruitment and activities as a spy remain mysterious.

Marlowe and the Making of the English Stage

• Move to London & Tamburlaine’s Impact ([20:50]–[24:40]):
  • Tamburlaine revolutionized English theater; Marlowe’s innovative blank verse changed the sound and structure of English drama.
  • Greenblatt: “Marlowe’s use of blank verse in Tamburlaine is decisive. It’s more powerful than anyone had done before. …It’s as close to ordinary speech as possible, but turned up a notch, more powerful, more intense.”
• Elizabethan Theatre as ‘Mass-Entertainment’ Industry & Collaboration with Shakespeare ([25:14]–[27:25]):
  • Marlowe wrote as part of a stable of playwrights for competing troupes, meeting and collaborating with William Shakespeare, most notably on Henry VI (Parts 2 & 3).
  • Greenblatt: “It’s wildly unlikely that they didn’t know each other personally…there’s very considerable evidence that they both had their hands in the plays known as Henry VI, Parts 2 and 3.” ([25:37])

Entanglements, Danger, and Radical Ideas

• Murky Associations and Imprisonments ([28:33]–[30:20]):
  • Marlowe’s choice of friends (Tom Watson, Richard Baines) and involvement in violent and criminal incidents suggest a penchant for danger.
  • Greenblatt: “Marlowe had a taste for rather dangerous company…very little in the way of self-protection that would go with deciding who are the people you actually should feel comfortable hanging out with.” ([28:48])
• Espionage, Patronage, and The Jew of Malta ([30:20]–[36:44]):
  • Marlowe’s patron Lord Strange was a powerful nobleman under heavy state scrutiny; The Jew of Malta is interpreted as a warning to navigate power cautiously.
  • Repeated plays explore the fantasy of “coming from nothing…and then to actually have access to the most powerful people in your world.”

Faustus, the Spy’s Pact, and Self-Betrayal

• Life as Faustian Drama ([36:44]–[39:15]):
  • Doctor Faustus is likened to the spiritual and personal risks Marlowe undertook in serving the state.
  • Greenblatt: “It’s almost impossible for me to imagine that without thinking that Marlowe must have gone down into himself and drawn upon what he had done with himself. …You realize how terrifying it actually was…Insofar as Marlowe is involved…we have to think that the consequences are horrific.” ([36:53])

Queerness and Sexuality in Marlowe’s Work

• Hints, Evidence & Attitudes ([40:10]–[45:34]):
  • Marlowe’s works, especially Edward II and Hero and Leander, are read for their expressions of queerness and sexual fluidity.
  • Elizabethan law made sodomy a capital offense, but enforcement was rare—society operated on "don’t ask, don’t tell."
  • Greenblatt: "In Marlowe’s case, there's considerable evidence that this was his principal form of sexual pleasure…in Hero and Leander…there is a sign that he had found a way to be much more playfully accepting of his sexuality." ([40:59])
  • Marlowe’s alleged blasphemous remarks—such as Jesus and John being lovers—may indicate not just provocation but self-identification and radical transgression.

Murder in Deptford: Theories and Resonances

• State Execution or Fatal Flare-up? ([45:34]–[50:01]):
  • Multiple explanations exist for Marlowe’s death—officially, a fight over a bill; more plausibly, a targeted killing given the presence of three men with ties to the secret service.
  • Greenblatt: “Given the whole shape of Marlowe’s life…for me [it’s] more plausible that it’s the consequence of years of skating at the edge with dangerous people, with a dangerous life, with a fascination with…the most radical and disturbing thoughts that this whole period could generate.” ([46:23])
  • Shakespeare is thought to have alluded to Marlowe’s death as “a great reckoning in a little room.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Marlowe’s Educational Breakthrough
  “He crossed a bridge…that separated him…even more dramatically than it would now.” — Stephen Greenblatt ([03:51])

• On the Contradictions of Elizabethan Schooling
  “There’s a disconnect between what is actually being taught…and what everyone is told that they’re supposed to believe.” — Stephen Greenblatt ([07:30])

• On the Impact of Tamburlaine’s Verse
  “Marlowe’s use of blank verse in Tamburlaine is decisive…it’s as close to ordinary speech as possible, but turned up a notch, more powerful, more intense.” — Stephen Greenblatt ([21:23])

• On Espionage and Service to the State
  “Her Majesty would be distressed if someone who has done the State such important service were not to be given his degree.” — Privy Council, as quoted by Stephen Greenblatt ([18:25])

• On the Queerness in Hero and Leander
  “The sexiest gay lines in the Elizabethan theatre. …There is a sign that he had found a way to be much more playfully accepting of his sexuality.” — Stephen Greenblatt ([40:59])

• On Marlowe’s Death
  “Given the whole shape of Marlowe’s life…for me [it’s] more plausible that it’s the consequence of years of skating at the edge with dangerous people, with a dangerous life…” — Stephen Greenblatt ([46:23])

Important Timestamps

• [03:42] – Marlowe’s family background and childhood
• [07:05] – The secret at the heart of Elizabethan education
• [09:54] – Marlowe’s experience of schooling and the influence of his headmaster
• [11:40] – Social leveling at Cambridge and Marlowe’s translation of Ovid
• [15:06] – The culture of religious and intellectual experimentation at university
• [18:25] – Marlowe’s recruitment as a spy
• [21:23] – Tamburlaine and its transformative effect on English theatre
• [25:37] – Marlowe’s collaboration and interaction with Shakespeare
• [28:48] – Marlowe’s dangerous friendships and criminal incidents
• [36:53] – Doctor Faustus as a metaphor for Marlowe’s own pact with the state
• [40:59] – Discussion of Marlowe’s sexuality and queerness in his works
• [46:23] – Competing theories and Greenblatt’s conclusion about Marlowe’s murder

Tone & Language

The discussion is intellectually rich but accessible, with Greenblatt offering thoughtful, at times speculative reconstructions of Marlowe’s life, careful to balance evidence and imagination. Suzannah Lipscomb’s questions are lively and incisive, probing Marlowe’s motivations and searching for connections between the man and his work. Their tone is one of admiration, curiosity, and—especially regarding Marlowe’s death—a sense of ongoing mystery.

Summary Takeaway

Through Professor Greenblatt’s expertise, Marlowe emerges as a figure of immense talent, social mobility, and profound risk—a man whose art and life continually tested the boundaries of his society. His legacy is not just that of Shakespeare’s rival, but of a dangerous genius whose combusting star changed English culture forever, and whose death remains one of literary history’s most tantalizing puzzles.