“There is a lust for power in his writings, a hunger and thirst for justice, a ardor of the imagination, sanctified by anything but his own energies . His thoughts burn within him like a furnace with quarrelsome flames, or emitting black smoke and mists, which hide the dawn of genius, or like a poisonous mineral, corrode the heart” (O'Neill 17). William Hazlitt writes this critique of Christopher Marlowe as a playwright in his Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth and honestly couldn't have said it better. Christopher Marlowe was a brilliant man who excelled in school. He was a gifted individual and with the help of the school he became a famous playwright in the 16th century. He was approximately two months older than William Shakespeare and has been identified as the most important of Shakespeare's predecessors. Christopher Marlowe was known by several names throughout his records. The names ranged from Marlow to Merling and, interestingly enough, there is no record of his name written as "Christopher Marlowe". After much searching, researchers were able to find only one signature of his, which reads Cristofer Marley. Christopher was baptized on 26 February 1564 in Canterbury and was born to John and Catherine Marlowe. He had one sister and three brothers who died at a young age, but he had four sisters who lived to grow up. Their names were Margaret, Joan, An and Daretye ​​[Dorothy]. All these girls married young Canterbury traders. “His family rank was humble, a fact which was occasionally thrown in his face by envious rivals in the days of his theatrical success in London a few years later; but the home life of a master craftsman, though unpretentious, was not uncomfortable” (Bakeless… means of paper… that intelligence, not just money, can take you where you want in life. And although the His life ended well before his time, he wrote four highly successful plays and many poems that brought him wealth and popularity. Works Cited Bakeless, John the Man in His Time New York: Washington Square, 1964, Frederick S. Christopher Marlowe. : a biographical and critical study.Oxford: Clarendon, 1966. Print.Hotson, Leslie The Death of Christopher Marlowe New York: Haskell House, 1965. Print.Kocher, Paul Harold: A Study of His Thought.New York : Russell & Russell, 1962. Print.Marlowe, Christopher The Tragic Story of Doctor Faustus. Ed. Frederick S. Boas: Gordian, 1966. Print.