Q 01/05

In which English city was Christopher Marlowe born in 1564?

A) Canterbury

B) Stratford-upon-Avon

C) London

D) Cambridge

Answer · why

A) Canterbury

His father John was a shoemaker, and he was baptised at St George's Church on 26 February 1564.

Q 02/05

What was Marlowe's father's trade?

A) Glover

B) Shoemaker

C) Brewer

D) Weaver

Answer · why

B) Shoemaker

Shakespeare, baptised two months later in Stratford, was the son of a glover.

Q 03/05

Marlowe was baptised in the same year as which other playwright?

A) Ben Jonson

B) Thomas Kyd

C) William Shakespeare

D) John Webster

Answer · why

C) William Shakespeare

Marlowe was probably about two months older, and Shakespeare succeeded him as the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright.

Q 04/05

At which Cambridge college did Marlowe study on a scholarship?

A) Trinity Hall

B) Peterhouse

C) Corpus Christi

D) St John's

Answer · why

C) Corpus Christi

The scholarship expected him to become an Anglican clergyman; he took his BA in 1584 instead.

Q 05/05

Why did Cambridge hesitate to award Marlowe his MA in 1587?

A) He had failed his Latin examinations

B) He owed money to the college buttery

C) He had been arrested for brawling

D) A rumour he planned to join a Catholic seminary at Rheims

Answer · why

D) A rumour he planned to join a Catholic seminary at Rheims

The Privy Council intervened, praising his "good service" to the Queen, which fuels the theory that he was a government spy.