1564-1593

Provides analysis of the most frequently studied poems in literature courses. Contains author biography (if attributed), poem text, poem summary, themes, style, historical context, critical overview, and criticism.

Features analysis of the plays most frequently studied in literature classes. Entries include: introduction providing overview of play; brief biography of playwright; plot summary; discussion of play's principal themes; essays on play's construction; and excerpted critical commentary.

Provides critical overviews of the most-studied plays of all time periods, nations, and cultures. Includes discussions of themes, characters, critical reception, dramatic devices and traditions as well as cultural and historical context.

Features analysis of the plays most frequently studied in literature classes. Entries include: introduction providing overview of play; brief biography of playwright; plot summary; discussion of play's principal themes; essays on play's construction; and excerpted critical commentary.

Features analysis of the plays most frequently studied in literature classes. Entries include: introduction providing overview of play; brief biography of playwright; plot summary; discussion of play's principal themes; essays on play's construction; and excerpted critical commentary.

Explores the controversy over whether literary masterpieces attributed to Shakespeare were written by his contemporary, Christopher Marlowe, reportedly killed in a brawl in 1593.

Provides in-depth analysis of the life, works, career, and critical importance of Christopher Marlowe.

Provides in-depth analysis of the literary work Doctor Faustus, as well as its importance and critical reception. Includes a chronology of the life and works of the author.

"In 1583, the nineteen-year-old Christopher Marlowe---with a reputation as a brawler, a womanizer, a genius, and a social upstart at Cambridge University---is visited by a man representing Marlowe's benefactors. There are rumors of a growing plot against her majesty Queen Elizabeth I, and the Queen's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, has charged young Marlowe with tracking down the truth. The path to that truth seems to run through an enigmatic prisoner held in complete seclusion in a heavily guarded dungeon in Malta. Marlowe must use every bit of his wits, his skills, and his daring to unravel one of the greatest mysteries in history and help uncover and unravel scheme of assassination and invasion, one involving the government of Spain, high ranking English nobles, and even Pope himself. Christopher Marlowe---Elizabethan playwright, poet, and spy---is one of the most enigmatic figures in Renaissance England. The son of a shoemaker from Canterbury, he attended Cambridge University on scholarship and, while frequently in trouble, was bailed out through the intercession of Queen Elizabeth I's Privy Council. Long rumored to have been an agent on behalf of the Queen's spymaster, Edgar Award winner Phillip DePoy's new series brings Marlowe and his times to life"--.

Argues that, at the age of twenty-nine, Christopher Marlowe staged his own death, fled to Europe and went on to write the works attributed to William Shakespeare.