page_title: Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship
section_title: The "Shakespeare" argument
hierarchical_section_title: Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship / Marlowe and Shakespeare / The "Shakespeare" argument
caption_attribution_description: English: Frontcover of The Poem "Venus and Adonis" . First printed work of William Shakespeare(1593) with a two line latin inscription, which is the 7th and 8th last line out of Ovids Elegy I-15 (Death of a Poet), which Christopher Marlowe fully translated into English years earlier.Reprint of 1594.
context_page_description: The Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship holds that the Elizabethan poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe was the main author of the poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare. Further, the theory says Marlowe did not die in Deptford on 30 May 1593, as the historical records state, but that his death was faked.
  Marlovians base their argument on supposed anomalies surrounding Marlowe's reported death and on the significant influence which, according to most scholars, Marlowe's works had on those of Shakespeare. They also point out the coincidence that, despite their having been born only two months apart, the first time the name William Shakespeare is known to have been connected with any literary work whatsoever was with the publication of Venus and Adonis just a week or two after the death of Marlowe.
  The argument against this is that Marlowe's death was accepted as genuine by sixteen jurors at an inquest held by the Queen's personal coroner, that everyone apparently thought that he was dead at the time, and that there is a complete lack of direct evidence supporting his survival beyond 1593.
context_section_description: The mainstream or Stratfordian view is that the author known as "Shakespeare" was the same William Shakespeare who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, moved to London and became an actor, and "sharer" (part-owner) of the acting company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, which owned the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars Theatre. In contrast, Marlovians argue that this William Shakespeare was only a "front" for the real author, and that any evidence supporting him as the true author can be just as easily explained by this version of events.
  A central plank in the Marlovian theory is that the first clear association of William Shakespeare with the works bearing his name was just 13 days after Marlowe's supposed death. Shakespeare's first published work, Venus and Adonis, was registered with the Stationers' Company on 18 April 1593, with no named author, and appears to have been on sale—now with his name included—by 12 June, when a copy is first known to have been bought.
  Their argument remains highly contentious and no mainstream scholar of Shakespeare's life and work currently accepts it. Stanley Wells summarizes the reasons why Shakespearean scholars in general utterly reject any such idea: "All of this [documentary evidence of his death] compounds the initial and inherent ludicrousness of the idea that he went on to write the works of William Shakespeare while leaving not the slightest sign of his continuing existence for at least twenty years. During this period he is alleged to have produced a string of masterpieces which must be added to those he had already written, which no one in the busy and gossipy world of the theatre knew to be his, and for which he was willing to allow his Stratford contemporary to receive all the credit and to reap all the rewards."
caption: Two Latin lines (arrow) from Ovid's Amores, which Marlowe had completely translated into English years earlier, on the title page of the first printed work of Shakespeare (1593), here reprinted in 1594
exif: {}