In 1593 Christopher Marlowe was killed in a fight in a pub. He was 29 years old and had been acting as a spy for Queen Elizabeth I. But he had already written some of the finest verse drama in the English Language - plays like Edward II and Dr. Faustus.
Shakespeare was also 29. His greatest play were yet to be written. Ben Jonson the great comic dramatist was 21. He wrote The Alchemist and Volpone, and Shakespeare acted in some of his early plays.
London was the capital of a rich and powerfull nation, and the men of letters were also men of action.
John Donne fought in a naval battle against the King of Spain in 1596. He wrote vigorous love poetry:
'Dear love for nothing less than thee
Would I have broke this happy dream.'
'For God's sake hold your tongue and let me love'
In later life he became Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, and sometimes lay on his tomb in a shroud, meditating upon death. His religious poetry has the same vigour:
'Death, be not proud, though some have called thee,
Might and dreadful, for, thou art not so.'
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