Christopher Marlowe Exposed In 'Hero And Leander'

INTRODUCTION

Christopher Marlowe an English playwright, poet and translator who lived during the Elizabethan era ‒ the era when literature developed well. He was born in Canterbury, England and merely lived for 29 years (1564-1593), then he died under mysterious circumstances. Marlowe was the most famous Elizabethan tragedian in his year. He influenced William Shakespeare greatly, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and he became the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright after the death of Marlowe. In the year of 1584 he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, after that in 1587 he started writing for the theater and occasionally working in government service. Scholars consider Dido, Queen of Carthage as his first work and it was not published until 1594, however

According to records, the play was performed by the Children of the Chapel, a company of boy actors, between 1587 and 1593 (source: http://www.biography.com/people/christopher-marlowe-9399572).During his life, many literary works were produced by him such as Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, Translation of Ovid 's Elegies, Hero and Leander, etc.

Hero and Leander is one of his most famous narrative poems that was published in 1598, however because of Marlowe’s mysterious early death, it was unfinished until George Chapman continued the poem and finally finished. Hero and Leander was one of his best works in the nineteenth century which became his best discovery of love genre and change his life from an unknown and unread poet to an exalted position as a precursor or near equal of Shakespeare (William, 1969). This love included a romantic poem which