Christopher Marlowe was an influential English dramatist, poet and translator during the Elizabethan era. He was born in Canterbury around 1564 and was baptized on February 26, 1564, making him just two months older than William Shakespeare. As one of the foremost Elizabethan tragedians, Marlowe is known for his plays in blank verse like Tamburlaine the Great and Doctor Faustus, as well as for his mysterious death at a young age.