Marlowe was recruited by the State to carry out secret operations in hot spots. Greenblatt finds evidence in the contacts that facilitated his entry and exit from university life. His entry and exit from artistic life.

Marlowe was a spy. “At the end of his sixth year of study at Cambridge, he applied for his degree. The University authorities denied it to him. He had not met the residency requirements. He had been absent for long periods of time. They suspected he had gone to France, where exiled Catholics were preparing to attack the throne. Since he did not receive the degree, at the end of the month, a letter signed by all the important men of the Elizabethan Government arrived at the University explaining the Queen’s displeasure at such an important person not receiving the degree. There are no such letters for a nobody. This intervention greatly influenced what happened later with his work. For example, it influences The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, who makes a pact with the devil.”

“He had very uncommon talents. And he had no limits. He always walked very close to them. That’s why he lived a very short life”

There was another passage in his biography that excites Greenblatt. “For some reason, a year before his assassination, Marlowe was in Flanders”. The English were fighting the Spanish there. Marlowe tried his luck in counterfeiting coins with a couple of underworld friends. They weren’t very smart either: someone discovered the fake shilling they used to test the business. “They suspected he was counterfeiting because he was going to defect to the Catholic side and help the Spanish. Anyone else would have been hanged. However, the military governor wrote a message to London with the recommendation of two of the most important nobles in the country. Marlowe was returned with his guard. It’s amazing. These two very important characters in England at that time offered protection to the son of a cobbler who was counterfeiting money. And they released him. It’s amazing,” the author repeats. “He was involved in something clandestine and complicated.”

https://www.mundoamerica.com/news/2025/11/11/69131163fc6c8300738b459d.html