The Massacre at Paris is a historical play by the celebrated Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, also the author of the masterpiece Dr. Faustus. It displays the events of the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre that took place in the French capital in 1572. The gory massacre, which lasted for several weeks, was of a religious aspect. In addition to Parisian Calvinist Protestants, thousands of their coreligionists poured into the city to celebrate at the wedding of one of their leaders when they were violently attacked and exterminated by mobs.