This is a thorough critical study of Marlowe's entire output - plays, translations and poems - prefaced by a biographical chapter. It is an attempt to provide the 'life and works' study for the general reader. Mr Steane takes the poetry as the centre of his interest; offering a literary judgement on Marlowe's art rather than further discussion of sources and background. He provides a balanced account of a great poetic dramatist, a writer of exceptional power whose poetry also reveals profound human flaws.