Christopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe: What did he contribute to English literature and how does his writing reflect the style of the times?Christopher Marlowe contributed greatly to English literature. He developed a new meter that became one of the most popular in the history of English literature and revitalized a dying form of English drama. His short life was apparently violent and the man himself had a volatile temperament, yet he managed to write some of the most delicate and beautiful works on record. His writing is representative of the spirit of Elizabethan literature in its attitude towards religion, in his choice of writing style and in the meter he used. Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564, the son of a Canterbury shoemaker and was an exact contemporary of Shakespeare. He studied at King's School, Canterbury and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He obtained a BA in 1584 and an MA in 1587. He appears to have been of a violent nature and was often in trouble with the law. He made many trips to the continent during his short life and it has been suggested that these visits were related to espionage. In 1589 he was involved in a street fight which resulted in the death of a man. Three years later a Shoreditch constable's injunction was made against him in relation to that death. In 1592 he was deported from the Netherlands after attempting to issue counterfeit gold coins. On 30 May 1593 he was killed by Ingram Frizer in a Deptford tavern after a dispute over the bill. He was only 29 years old. During the Middle Ages, culture and government were greatly influenced by the Church of Rome. The Reformation of Henry VIII (1529-39) and the severing of ties with that church meant that the monarch was now supreme governor. This altered the entire balance of political and religious life and, consequently, the balance between literature, art and thought. The literature of Elizabethan England was based on the crown. This literary period (1558-1625) is notable for its range of interests and vitality of language. Drama was the major form of Elizabethan art because there was an influx of writers trying to emulate speech in their writing and because of the suddenly expanded vocabulary that writers were using (most of these new words came from foreign languages ). Marlowe's works include Tragedy. of Dido, Queen of Carthage (possibly with some collaboration by Nashe), Tamburlaine parts one and two, The Jew of Malta, Edward II, Dr.