Christopher Marlowe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christopher Marlowe (c. 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist,
poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan ...
Early life - Literary career - The legend
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe - Cached - Similar

Where and when Christopher Marlowe met Miguel Cervantes is not
publicly known. A good guess is Lisbon, 1587, in early April, Marlowe
scouting for Drake, (1) who wanted to hit the Armada before it got under
sail, Cervantes in town working on spec for the Armada supply
commisioner, Antonio Guevara. Cervantes hoped to win from the
commissioner a contract requisitioning supplies out of Seville. (2)
Cervantes and Kit Marlowe both stammered; (3) that may have helped
cement their friendship, for they became lifelong comrades. Very poor,
Cervantes had joined Spanish secret service in his youth, (4) and had seen
military service—at Lepanto he lost the use of his left hand, so his nickname
became Manco, the name Marlowe uses for him in ciphers. (5) Drake
credited good intelligencers for his lucky strike on Spanish galleons at Cadiz
that April, (6) and it looks as if Marlowe 'turned' Cervantes, who'd have
been the only man in Lisbon who'd know where the warships were hiding.

Christopher Marlowe, Miguel Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Micaela Lujan

The most famous tribute to Marlowe was paid by Shakespeare in As You Like It, where he not only quotes a line from Hero and Leander (Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might, "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?") but also gives to the clown Touchstone the words "When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room." This appears to be a reference to Marlowe's murder which involved a fight over the "reckoning" – the bill.

Shakespeare was heavily influenced by Marlowe in his early work, as can be seen in the re-using of Marlovian themes in Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, Richard II, and Macbeth (Dido, Jew of Malta, Edward II and Dr Faustus respectively). In Hamlet, after meeting with the travelling actors, Hamlet requests the Player perform a speech about the Trojan War, which at 2.2.429-32 has an echo of Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage. Indeed, in Love's Labour's Lost, echoing Marlowe's The Massacre at Paris, Shakespeare brings on a character called Marcade (French for Mercury – a god who, in Hero and Leander, is responsible for advancing scholars from poor backgrounds and identified by Marlowe with his own humble origin[46] ) who arrives to interrupt the merriment with news of the King's death. This is a fitting tribute for one who delighted in destruction in his plays.

The death of Christopher Marlowe's natural father Roger Manwood
TALES OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE by Roberta Ballantine
Part Three: Mori Mihi Lucrum
Chapter 12 London and Kent, December, 1592

In his will Roger left money to provide work and wages for the
able-bodied poor of St. Stephen’s, and for the hospital there. These were
not ribbons-to-heaven bequests; all his life Roger had made useful gifts of
time and money. He’d seen an act through Parliament to provide for
perpetual upkeep of Rochester Bridge; he’d started and endowed the Roger
Manwood Grammar School in Sandwich; served as one of the original
governors of the Queen’s Grammar School at Lewisham, where his wife’s
cousin Coppinger was rector. He’d built a new House of Correction at
Westgate, Canterbury, and erected seven almshouses at St. Stephen’s, with
four pounds a year for each person who lived there, for bread, fuel and
extra.
Now in his will he left small annuities to his longtime servants, and
outside it he left standing various private trusts he would put in the hands of
his son-in-law executor Sir John Leveson and his lawyer-cousin John Boys.
After putting finishing touches on the document, Roger and Archdeacon
William shook hands and said goodbye. "Frescobaldi II is yours, as of this
hour," said Roger. "He’s in the stable behind Chambers, saddled and
bridled. But use him with care, sir, for he’s bright, and not
mild-mannered."

1585 Christopher Marlowe graduates BA from Corpus Christi College at Cambridge. From spring on, his spending jumps from pennies to lavish weekly sums., leading some to surmise this is when he was recruited into the Secret Service.

Between 1584 and 1587 Christopher Marlowe was believed to have been recruited as a spy into the network of Sir Thomas Walsingham.

Roberta Ballantine's unconvential biography
Marlowe Up Close