udacious and more successful playwright. In fact, "a series of second-rate imitations like Robert Greene's Alphonsus of Arragon followed Tamburlaine, but Marlowe had meanwhile moved ahead" (Gassner, 1940, 207). Marlowe displayed prolific talent in his 29 years, consistently outdistancing his contemporaries, with the exception of Shakespeare, who was only 23, and already an accomplished poet when he saw one of the early performances of Tamburlaine (Burdick, 1974, 63).
Marlowe's next work was probably The Jew of Malta. This play, which unquestionably influenced Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, is the story of a wealthy Jewish merchant whose daughter deserts him for a Christian, whose wealth is lost, and whose iniquitous designs are foiled at last.
Perhaps Marlowe's greatest work, Doctor Faustus, tells the story of the real Dr. Johannes Faustus, who took his degree at Heidelberg in 1509, and who, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil. Goethe, whose Faust treats the same themes, greatly admired his Elizabethan predecessor's tragedy. The tragic hero of Doctor Faustus sealed a pact with the devil "in exchange for supernatural powers and pleasures, thus becoming a symbol of the tragedy of intellectual aspiration. In Doctor Faustus he created a man of learning and daring who is consumed by a passion for power that can only be attained with the aid of extraordinary agencies. The mind is its own enemy, and Faustus is assailed by his conscience which takes the shape of a good angel" (Gassner, 1940, 207).
"Doctor Faustus marks the flood tide of Marlowe's genius. Whether he lived to write more, or died in his twenties, the light of glory would lie upon the pages of his work forever . . . by the end of 1590, no other writer's work could compare with his for vision and splendor of diction. He had created a masterpiece, the lot of few makers" (Norman, 1960, 125).
Marlowe was killed in a tavern duel near London, in 1593. ...