Two Tragedies (Tamburlaine the Great; the Tragical History of Doctor Faustus)

As is the case with so many authors, the refinement of Marlowe's poetics was matched only by the recklessness of his lifestyle. The playwright died, stabbed to death in a quarrel over a tavern bill, before he turned 30. For the plays he wrote in the six years before his death, however, he is renowned as a master of English tragedy in blank verse. His confirmed works, the tragedies Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta, and Edward II, portray men struggling for beauty, power, or knowledge beyond sustainable limitations.