No, Bruce, Marlowe wasn't killed in a tavern brawl. He was likely assassinated under extremely suspicious circumstances by other spies in a lady's house (rented for the day), in Deptford. There is a recent elegant and scholarly discussion of the whole topic in a book called The Reckoning. The author notes, while canvassing various alternative theories of Marlowe's death, that some have suggested that Marlow didn't really die, but was spirited away and wrote all of Shakespeare's plays. He delicately remarks that this doesn't even constitute an alternative. On the other hand, there have been some reasonable arguments that Marlowe might have had a hand in one of the Henry VI plays (both he and Shakespeare worked for Lord Strange at the time). But the Henry VI plays are the TV trash of their day -- anyone could have had a hand in those scripts.

Yours, Peter T.