What was the connection between Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare?

Answer 1

They were friends, they were contemporaries and those "conspiracy theories" are ridiculous.

Answer 2

Marlowe and Shakespeare were born in 1564 , were both important English playwrights, and Marlowe is widely discussed as being the true author of Shakespeare's plays. However, Marlowe died in 1593 at the age of 29, which makes it impossible for him to have written masterpieces like "Macbeth" and "Much Ado about Nothing" which were products of the early 1600's. Shakespeare clearly read Marlowe's work and was strongly influenced by it, even stealing some of his lines, which wasn't uncommon before plagary laws were invoked.
But Shakespeare's plays are so different in tone, more natural in dialogue (for the time) that he's clearly not Marlowe in disguise.

Answer 3

Some people in the past put forth the idea that Marlowe really wrote all Shakespeare's plays. Not true.

Answer 4

Some historians believe that Marlowe and Shakespeare were the same person. Marlowe supposivly died but there are no records, and right after he died Shakespeare started to be in the public eye and much of their writings are very similar.

Answer 5

In "As You Like It", Shakespeare quotes approvingly Marlowe's line about love at first sight:
Dead shepherd, now I feel thy saw of might:
'Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?'
He could also be referring to the circumstances of M's death in the lines 'a great reckoning in a little room', and denying that his death was on account of a lovers' quarrel in 'men have died, and worms have eaten them, but not for love'.
The player's speech in Hamlet seems to be a parody of Marlowe.