And now for the details about the murder of Christopher/Kit Marlowe. The version published about this murder at the time claimed that Marlowe was stabbed to death during a drunken brawl and argument about paying the bill - the reckoning (see last paragraph below) in a Deptford pub/brothel. The three guys with him, Ingram, Skeeres and Friser, were all shady members of the criminal underground and may also have been used by the authorities to spy out on Catholics who were thought to be ready to rise up and usurp the Elizabethan regime.
An official inquest into the murder was held soon after where it was established that the popular playwright - the man who had written Doctor Faustus - had been stabbed in the eye and died immediately afterwards. The guilty men were charged but received only short terms of imprisonment. This last point is often taken to prove that the government which had become increasingly fed up with Marlowe's unconventional (and atheistic) behaviour had decided to get rid of him. This was the conventional description of this brilliant writer's unexpected and early demise. The official record of the inquest was uncovered in 1925 by Dr. J. Leslie Hotson at the Public record Office in London.
But this story isn't true claimed an American lawyer, Wilbur Ziegler in 1895. In the preface to his novel, It was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries, he claimed that Marlowe wasn't killed and went on, together with Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Rutland to write Shakespeare's plays.
Now we fast forward sixty years. In 1955, New York publicist, Calvin Hoffman published his book, The Murder of the Man who was Shakespeare. He stated that he was sure that Marlowe was not murdered in May 1593 and that he, Hoffman, wanted to open the Walsingham family vault in the hope of finding some Marlowe/Shakespeare manuscripts. (Walsingham was Marlowe's friend.) In 1956 he did so, only to find some sand and several coffins. Unfortunately for Hoffman, he was not allowed to open them.
In his chapter on Marlowe in Who Wrote Shakespeare? John Michell writes that it was possible for Marlowe to survive this attempt on his life then go abroad and later return in disguise to continue writing in disguise as Shakespeare. This ties up with the Marlovians' theory that a noise was made about Marlowe's (alleged) death so that the government could officially get rid of him as a spy, and then quietly re-use him as an undercover man to continue unearthing anti-Protestant government plots being cooked by Catholics.
Technically this may have been possible, however, I think this theory is unlikely. The idea that Marlowe continued writing Shakespeare from 1593 until 1613, i.e. remaining hidden from the limelight that he so loved for twenty years seems 'mission impossible.' I am prepared to agree that Marlowe could have agreed to write Shakespeare (the proven name of a known actor) for maybe five years, but twenty years???
Finally, the following quotation from Shakespeare's As You Like It (Act III. sc.iii) is said to be proof by some that Marlowe was indeed dead in or about 1599 when the Bard wrote:
"When a man's verses cannot be understood , nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child understanding,it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room."
Next time I want to take a break from seeing who wrote Shakespeare and instead write about the well-known portraits we have of the Bard and see if they were really depicting our hero.
For comments etc, please write to: wsdavidyoung@gmail.com
Thank you.
An official inquest into the murder was held soon after where it was established that the popular playwright - the man who had written Doctor Faustus - had been stabbed in the eye and died immediately afterwards. The guilty men were charged but received only short terms of imprisonment. This last point is often taken to prove that the government which had become increasingly fed up with Marlowe's unconventional (and atheistic) behaviour had decided to get rid of him. This was the conventional description of this brilliant writer's unexpected and early demise. The official record of the inquest was uncovered in 1925 by Dr. J. Leslie Hotson at the Public record Office in London.
But this story isn't true claimed an American lawyer, Wilbur Ziegler in 1895. In the preface to his novel, It was Marlowe: A Story of the Secret of Three Centuries, he claimed that Marlowe wasn't killed and went on, together with Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Rutland to write Shakespeare's plays.
Now we fast forward sixty years. In 1955, New York publicist, Calvin Hoffman published his book, The Murder of the Man who was Shakespeare. He stated that he was sure that Marlowe was not murdered in May 1593 and that he, Hoffman, wanted to open the Walsingham family vault in the hope of finding some Marlowe/Shakespeare manuscripts. (Walsingham was Marlowe's friend.) In 1956 he did so, only to find some sand and several coffins. Unfortunately for Hoffman, he was not allowed to open them.
In his chapter on Marlowe in Who Wrote Shakespeare? John Michell writes that it was possible for Marlowe to survive this attempt on his life then go abroad and later return in disguise to continue writing in disguise as Shakespeare. This ties up with the Marlovians' theory that a noise was made about Marlowe's (alleged) death so that the government could officially get rid of him as a spy, and then quietly re-use him as an undercover man to continue unearthing anti-Protestant government plots being cooked by Catholics.
Technically this may have been possible, however, I think this theory is unlikely. The idea that Marlowe continued writing Shakespeare from 1593 until 1613, i.e. remaining hidden from the limelight that he so loved for twenty years seems 'mission impossible.' I am prepared to agree that Marlowe could have agreed to write Shakespeare (the proven name of a known actor) for maybe five years, but twenty years???
Finally, the following quotation from Shakespeare's As You Like It (Act III. sc.iii) is said to be proof by some that Marlowe was indeed dead in or about 1599 when the Bard wrote:
"When a man's verses cannot be understood , nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child understanding,it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room."
Next time I want to take a break from seeing who wrote Shakespeare and instead write about the well-known portraits we have of the Bard and see if they were really depicting our hero.
For comments etc, please write to: wsdavidyoung@gmail.com
Thank you.
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