Christopher Marlowe
Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine — the mighty line
Shakespeare's exact contemporary and only rival — murdered at 29 in a Deptford tavern. He invented English blank verse as a dramatic instrument: Tamburlaine's rhetoric, Faustus's despair, and Edward II's fall gave Shakespeare the template for tragic grandeur.
Key works
- Doctor Faustus~1592— The scholar who sold his soul — 'Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?'
- Tamburlaine the Great1587— Blank verse unleashed — the mighty line
- Edward II~1592— The first great English history play