‘Dark Renaissance’ historian on how Christopher Marlowe paved the way for Shakespeare

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe is known as Shakespeare’s greatest rival. But in his new book Dark Renaissance, historian Stephen Greenblatt makes the case that Marlowe paved the way for Shakespeare. In today’s episode, Greenblatt joins NPR’s Ari Shapiro for a conversation about what made Marlowe a “lost soul,” how the playwright navigated a world of intense censorship, and evidence that points to his role as a spy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. In 1500s, England, criticizing the government
0:08.9	could get you killed. But art finds a way, right? The playwright Christopher Marlowe sure did.
0:16.1	Today's book is Dark Renaissance. It's a biography of Marlowe by the historian Stephen Greenblatt. And if you don't
0:22.3	know anything about Christopher Marlowe other than he was Shakespeare's rival, this interview with
0:26.9	Empire's R. Shapiro is a great place to start because rival might not even be the best choice
0:32.9	of words here. As Greenblatt points out, Marlow's work actually paved the way for Shakespeare to thrive.
0:39.7	There's more up ahead. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience,
0:47.4	chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories, stories about policing,
0:53.2	or politics, country music, hockey, sex,
0:56.9	of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous
1:02.2	curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully make you see the world anew. Radio Lab,
1:06.9	Adventures on the Edge of what we think We Know. Wherever you get your podcast.
1:11.9	The new book, Dark Renaissance, is a true story of spies, counterfeiters, betrayal, and murder.
1:18.4	It's about the short life of the playwright Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's greatest rival.
1:24.4	And the world of this book has some uncanny parallels with the present day. The author is
1:29.8	Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Stephen Greenblatt. Welcome to All Things Considered. Thank you, Ari.
1:35.0	You've been obsessed with Marlowe for decades. You tried to convince the people who wrote the
1:39.2	movie Shakespeare in love to make a film about Marlowe instead of about Shakespeare. Why does he
1:43.4	fascinate you so much?
1:44.8	He had a strange, disturbing, powerful life, and he was a great creator. He actually paved the way for
1:54.5	Shakespeare and for much that we actually care about in the culture of our language and our civilization. But he was a
2:04.5	strange person and lost, a lost soul died at the age of 29. So it's a fugitive life, a life hard to
	...

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