Many scholars believe that had Christopher Marlowe lived longer, he might have become a greater dramatist than William Shakespeare. Marlowe was born only a few months before Shakespeare, on February 6, 1564, to John and Catherine Marlowe of Canterbury, where the senior Marlowe was a shoemaker. Marlowe received a bachelor of arts degree from Corpus Christi College at the University of Cambridge in 1584. He then continued his studies, using a clergyman's scholarship for funding. Scholars generally agree that Marlowe probably never had any intention of joining the clergy, but he was willing to say that he might enter the clergy in order to continue with his studies. When Marlowe was finally awarded his master of arts degree in 1587, after a great deal of controversy and amid charges that he was secretly planning on becoming a Catholic priest (Catholics could not receive degrees from Cambridge during this time, and...