Frontline: Much Ado About Something

This Frontline program does a better job than most documentaries in dealing with the question of Shakespearean authorship- this despite the lack of sufficient objectivity. Nonetheless, of all the candidates put forward over the years, Christopher Marlowe remains the best choice: a highly educated poet and playwright born in the same year (1564) as Shakespeare. It is good that the program focused on Marlowe, as opposed to numerous other contenders. But “how” can that be, we ask? There is solid documented evidence that Marlowe was murdered in the village of Depford in 1593 at the age of 29, just as Shakespeare’s career was beginning to blossom. How do we account for this? “Simple!” reply the anti-Shakespearians. “Here’s how it all went down. Heed ye...” Marlowe was in some degree of legal difficulty and needed to escape England, leading him to fake his own death. The body of a man killed the previous night (five miles away!) was substituted for the body of Marlowe. Marlowe then somehow (its never explained) boarded a ship to Italy.! The body of a man killed the previous night was placed in Marlowe’s presumed grave. Marlowe then somehow (its never explained) boarded. Why Italy? Well because several of. Well...because several of Shakespeare’s plays are set in Italy. inItalyShakespeare’s plays over the next few years (Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Two Grntlemen of Verona, etc, etc) take place in Italy. Therefore, Marlowe escaped to Italy!!! When Marlowe completed a play he then arranged to have the Ms. shipped across the Channel to London. Here the Ms. was retrieved by a servant of the Walsingham family, Marlowe’s sometimes patron, after which it was delivered in some fashion (most likely by Walsingham himself) to a certain William Shakespeare living somewhere in the vicinity of London. This William Shakespeare then signed his name as the play’s author, after which he then performed the play with his own acting company - all the while awaiting the arrival of numerous plays that would, essentially, travel the same route (Marlowe to Shakespeare) throughout the next 20 or so years. Got it!!! A piece of cake! Nothing to it, really! So let us therefore “hail” Marlowe - 400 years before FedEx!!! At this point I would very much like to go into a lengthy discussion regarding some of the more seemingly difficult question surrounding Shakespeare himself that are constantly raised by his critics - questions such as (1) How do we know he ever attended any sort of schooling? (2) How come it appears he could barely sign his name? (3) How come we have no evidence he ever traveled outside the area surrounding greater London? (4) Were his two daughters as seemingly illiterate as he appears to be? (5) Was he really nothing more than a semi-literate, greedy businessman whose specialty was acquiring goods and real estate? (6) Why does his final will and testament (in which he seemed to leave all his estate to his eldest daughter) make no reference to plays, manuscripts, books, or charitable donations? Good questions all...and I believe satisfying answers are available; however, this is a “dvd review” - not a full-length book. Answers to these presumedly troubling questions must await another venue. What reliable, historical evidence we do have strongly supports the view that William Shakespeare was the “primary” author of the poems and plays we now possess; that he spent the greater part of his adult life (1587-1612) in and around the vicinity of London; that his theatrical company enjoyed a preferred status with the Royal Court of both Queen Elizabeth and King James VI across a period of approximately 20 years; that he enjoyed the close company of some of London’s leading playwrights, poets, actors, stagehands, and government officials - including Ben Johnson, Michael Drayton, Richard Burbage and a vast host of others who NEVER ONCE expressed the slightest doubt that he possessed the natural gifts and talents of a truly brilliant creative poet and playwright. Surely if anyone was in a position to make these assessments it was those men and women from his own time and place who knew him intimately and socialized with him regularly. It is utterly beyond astonishing that we have no surviving evidence whatsoever that they even remotely suspected he was little more than a clever, semi-illiterate con man barely able to write his own name!!! The playwright Ben Johnson, who drank with him regularly, called him “The sweet swan of Avon” and concluded in his final tribute that Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time!” Add to all this the profound respect and admiration expressed by two of his company’s leading actors (John Hemings and Henry Connell) in the first published work of his plays (the 1623 First Folio) wherein they nearly weep at the overwhelming loss of such creative genius and greatness now gone forever. There is NO surviving evidence WHATSOEVER that individuals from his own time and place ever suspected for one brief moment that William Shakespeare was a “walking con- job” and “semi-illiterate bafoon” of the first order. On the contrary, the esteem and admiration for him (and his creative talents) is everywhere to be seen and apprehended- if one will but look!!! (The “available evidence” is by no means meager!). Sadly, we had to await later generations - individuals who NEVER spent five seconds in Elizabethan England...individuals who NEVER laid eyes on Ben Jonson, Richard Burbage, John Hemings, Henry Connell, Michael Drayton and a vast host of others...individuals who NEVER ONCE set foot inside London’s Globe Theater, or inhaled (for one brief moment) the cultural air of Elizabethan or Jacobean England -before we finally run into the “real con artists” and “know-it-all’s” of intellectual arrogance and overall cultural snobbery! Good luck to anyone trying to locate substantive evidence from Shakespeare’s own time and place of individuals who subscribed to such utterly infantile, unbelievably sloppy critical views. Time and time again we find that it’s always the know-it-all’s who come along later who seem to have everything all figured out, oftentimes academic snobs who never spent five seconds within the cultural age they now wish to upend, elitist trailblazers who never spent one microsecond conversing with ANYONE who lived in the age they will now transform into their own creative vision. It’s somewhat astonishing the degree to which these revisionists utterly slaughter the character of Shakespeare without the slightest twinge of discomfort! One final thought. At any given moment the works of Shakespeare are being performed in numerous places throughout the world - one has but to inquire where a current production might be found. As for the presumed brilliant plays of Marlowe? Good luck...and happy hunting!!! Hopefully...enough said.

I decided to watch this several months ago because of my increasing interest in Marlowe.I first read Dr Faustus immediately after reading Hamlet, and was immediately struck by the curious parallels between the opening soliloquy of Faust, and Hamlet's famous meditation on life and death.Faust philosophises about life and death,..'and live and die in Aristotle's works'..'bid On Kai me On farewell (bid being and non being farewell)..Que Sera Sera.. what will be, will be.If you're like me, the more you read Marlowe, the more parallels you find between him and the Shakespeare canon. Marlowe is credited with revolutionising and popularising the use of blank verse (unrhymed) on the Elizabethan stage, a style repeated throughout Shakespeare.Unfortunately, with serious Atheism charges pending against Marlowe, (who also was a spy), he was supposedly killed in a tavern knife fight in May 1593. Two of the three people at the scene were spies, the third, the accused killer Frizer (who stabbed Marlowe through the eye is self defense), an employee of his patron Walsingham, a cousin of the former head of Intelligence, Francis Walsingham.Frizer was pardoned, and continued to work for the patron for many years.Twelve days before Marlowe died Venus and Adonis was registered anonymously with the Stationer's Office.Twelve days after, with the printing of Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare's name appears in print as a published writer for the first time.The documentary itself, is very balanced, with contributions from Marlovian Scholars such as Dolly Wraight, who has written several good books on the subject. I particularly enjoyed the segments with Calvin Hoffman, who was probably the premier investigator of Marlowe within the Shakespeare canon.There is also a segment with Charles Nicholl, who wrote The Reckoning, another essential read. I was particularly impressed with his research and use of primary sources, and his attention to detail.Their commentary is balanced by contributions by Stanley Wells, who has written numerous books about Shakespeare, and is the editor of the Oxford Shakespeare.The documentary is very well done, and I have now read Hoffman's Murder of the Man who was Shakespeare. He uncovered numerous clues, such as the scorning of the uneducated William in the woods of Arden, in As You Like et. Why would Shakespeare create a character named William whom he would then attack for his lack of learning in a play? A reversal of the name Sir Oliver Mar-Text yields Is Marlos veri text. This play registered in 1600 was stayed from publication, making its first appearance in the First Folio of 1623.Whatever your interest in Marlowe is, at some point this is a must see. Even if you believe that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare, it's interesting to see two actors quoting exact lines that appear in both Shakespeare and Marlowe plays, to see how profoundly one influenced the other.I also recommend  The Life & Complete Works Of Christopher Marlowe  as an inexpensive yet factually comprehensive way to jump into Marlowe's world. If you're like me, it's a rich rewarding experience.I think you will enjoy it, and I hope this was helpful.

1. Very convincing in arguing that the glove maker's son and commodities dealer from Stratford didn't write the plays attributed to him.2. Very convincing in arguing that Marlowe faked his own death and fled to the Continent.3. Unconvincing in arguing that Marlowe wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare.I used to make an annual pilgrimage to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where I would attend seven plays in five days. I have always heard people comment about Shakespeare's wonderful use of language. Because of my dyslexia, I tend to be 'tone deaf' to many of the subtleties of language (both spoken and written), but I always enjoyed the plots and the interesting characters, especially as they were brought to life by the wonderful actors in Ashland, Oregon.One year the festival presented one of Marlowe's most popular plays. In spite of the excellent staging and fine acting, the play didn't particularly grab me. The next night I saw Shakespeare's 'Richard III' and, for the first time in my life, I finally heard how Shakespeare's language indeed did soar (in stark contrast to the Marlowe play that I had seen the night before). I could never believe that the person that wrote that Marlowe play could possibly be the author of 'Richard III.'I wish that the Frontline program 'The Shakespeare Mystery,' which presents a very convincing case for Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, were also available on DVD. 'The Shakespeare Conspiracy' (which also presents the case for the Earl of Oxford) fortunately is available. Most of the scholars interviewed are German(!), but that merely suggests to me that the footage with the German scholars might have been borrowed from a German documentary on the subject.

Another interesting item on Shakespeare. You don't have to agree with its conclusions to enjoy this documentary.