The Strange Deaths of Christopher Marlowe

The Elizabethan playwright, Christopher Marlowe, is nowadays more famous for the manner in which he died. But there are a fair few versions of his death.

Version One: He was stabbed to death by a love rival in a drunken fight at a pub.

Version Two: He was stabbed to death by a jealous husband in a street brawl.

Version Three: Christopher Marlowe was gay and his death was the result of a homophobic attack.

Version Four: His death was a punishment for heresy. He was said to have authored documents which denied the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Version Five: An argument over a bill during a game of backgammon at a house in Deptford turned into a fight. Marlowe attacked one of the men who accidentally and mortally stabbed him above the right eye in self-defence. The man was pardoned.

Version Six: Marlowe was a government spy. The three men he’d spent his last day with (supposedly playing backgammon) were also spies. They assassinated him.

Version Seven: He wasn’t murdered at all. His death was faked after which he wrote several plays under the name “William Shakespeare”.


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