The Murder of Christopher Marlowe

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This month on Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb investigates four of history’s most notorious murders and brutal crimes.

In this first episode she’s joined by Charles Nicholl to dig deeper into the mystery of the 1593 murder of the brilliant and controversial playwright Christopher Marlowe, who was stabbed to death in a house in Deptford. The official account stated it was a violent quarrel over the bill.

But as Charles Nicholl explains, critical evidence about that fatal day points to Marlowe's shadowy political and intelligence dealings.

This episode was edited and produced by Rob Weinberg

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On the 30th of May 1593, in Depford, then outside of London, the 29-year-old poet and
0:08.8	playwright Christopher Marlow was killed by a dagger pushed into his skull.
0:15.3	The writer of Tambolaine, Dr. Faustus, and Edward II, among others, Christopher Marlow
0:20.5	was one of the greatest dramatists of the Elizabethan age.
0:24.1	The details of his death and the questions surrounding it are both complex and startling.
0:30.7	Often described as a tavern dispute or a fight over a bill, it's believed by many to
0:36.5	be a case of murder.
0:39.0	Perhaps even one sanctioned by the crown or those close to it.
0:43.2	Here to discuss Marlow's death and his life is Charles Nichol, literary historian and author
0:49.0	of books on Thomas Nash, Aterran Bull, Leonardo da Vinci and William Shakespeare.
0:54.6	His book The Reckoning, The Murder of Christopher Marlow, challenges many assumptions made about
0:59.6	the nature and reason behind Marlow's death.
1:03.4	And you've heard him on this podcast before, talking to me about true crime and the Elizabethan
1:07.9	stage.
1:10.2	Charles, welcome back to Not Just The Tudors.
1:18.8	It's a great treat to have you on again and also to talk about this absolutely fascinating
1:23.5	subject in your wonderful book.
1:25.4	It's a great pleasure to be back here, Susanna and for middle-year terrain, for me to cover
1:29.8	once more, but it's always an exciting one.
1:32.6	And sometimes seems to have that aspect that the Kern brothers mentioned in one of their
1:36.7	film Noise, the hard you look, the less you know.
1:40.8	So like keep on revisiting the story and find more and more questions rather than answers.
	...

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