Shakespeare was not the first playwright to come to London seeking fame and fortune. By the time he arrived in 1587, Christopher Marlowe had left his studies at Cambridge and was living in London and had already written Tamburlaine the Great, a two-part play that was performed the same year and published in 1590. It was this play, filled with gorgeous imagery and powered by a driving character, that won him acclaim from theatergoers as well as accolades from other emerging playwrights.