Shakespeare Conspiracy Theory

It is often a subject of debate amongst literary scholars and to this day it is a great mystery to the world. This question has many possible answers. Among the most likely are Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and, of course, William Shakespeare. There are a few other mentioned possibilities, but there is so little evidence for them that they do not appear worthy of mention. Each of the proposed authors have different traits and their own pieces of evidence suggesting that they are the true authors of Shakespeare, but only one theory can be true, or can they? Is it possible that there is more than one author of Shakespeare's work? These lead to the biggest question, however. Who really wrote the famous works of Shakespeare?

According to Jumana Farouky of Time Magazine, the Shakespeare authorship question is nothing

more than “a conspiracy theory that refuses to die”, but there does seem to be a lot of evidence to the contrary.

With the question being examined by so many literary scholars, information has come to light which points to people other than William Shakespeare as being the author. One of these people offered up as the supposedly true author of Shakespeare is a man by the name of Christopher Marlowe. However, Marlowe was claimed to have died before many of Shakespeare's works were written, so the question becomes, how could he have written Shakespeare? One claim is that Marlowe faked his death, which is theoretically possible. There are aspects of Marlowe's life that seem to indicate that he most definitely had the ability to fake his own death. First of all, the 3 witnesses to his death were all professional liars. According to The Shakespearean Authorship Trust, two of the witnesses were con men and two worked as spies like Marlowe (one being both a spy and a conman). This indicates that he could easily have faked his own death and had his so called witnesses claim he was dead. Suspicion is also

raised if one looks at the events after his supposed death. His killer, a servant to Marlowe’s friend, sir Thomas Walsingham, was pardoned for the crime with incredible swiftness, but that isn’t the only thing suspicious about the supposed murder. The Shakespearean Authorship Trust also adds that “the killing was deemed to have occurred within 'the Verge,’ the inquest was conducted by the Queen’s Coroner, William Danby. The county coroner should also have been present, but Danby conducted the inquest alone, making the inquest legally void. Danby was a long-time friend of Lord Treasurer Burghley, Marlowe’s employer.” This means that the investigation into Marlowe’s death was corrupted and therefore the information gathered from it extremely unreliable.

While Jumana Farouky of Time Magazine claims that Shakespeare wrote the work attributed to him, even she admits that “for a man who was so prolific with his pen, Shakespeare didn't leave much evidence of his life behind.” and goes on to state “ there's the apparent disconnect between the life that William Shakespeare lived and the ones he wrote about” highlighting the fact that Shakespeare’s life lacked the overall influence that was evident in his writings. Although, Marlowe’s life was packed with the events and circumstances that could have inspired such writing. His life was wrought with love, riches, and suffering, all of which are contained within the works attributed to Shakespeare.

Through exile, death, resurrection, and love we see Christopher Marlowe, a man who has experienced it all. His known works are grand plays, yet not as well known as his works that live under another name. It is clear through evidence, thought, and consideration that Marlowe is indeed the true author of the plays and poems attributed to a man with little actual background for such work, William Shakespeare.