Shakespeare Oxfordians - the Academic Creationists?

I'm doing some research for a novel I'm writing in my free time - actually, in my work time - and I'm finding out a lot about the Shakespeare authorship controversy. Of particular interest are the proponents of the position that the "true" author of the works attributed to Shakespeare is the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere.The problem is that there's significant holes in the theory, not the least of which is that about half of Shakspeare's plays came out after Edward de Vere died. Nonetheless Oxfordians persist in trying to discredit the Bard of Avon. I find that many of the techniques they employ are reminiscent of creationists, which I guess is the point of my post.I'll try and post some examples, if anyone's really interested. I was just thinkin' about it, is all.

That is an interesting idea. Totally bogus, though.

Yeah, that's essentially it. Acedemic elitism, basically. Prostratfordians counter with the fact that an Elizebethan "grammar school" education was like a modern liberal arts degree in the classics, practically. Plus Shakespeare was apparently close friends with bookseller Richard Field, who would have doubtless provided ample opportunity to view a vast variety of books.

The only reason that Marlowe, who was the celebrated toast of the Southwark theatre community and easily a celebrity in his day, would have faked his death would have been because he feared the charges of atheism that had been brought against him by the Star Chamber.But there's no reason he should have been. In addition to being a noted playwright he was an anti-Catholic agent provocateur in service to Queen Elizabeth, and enjoyed the protections of a number of major figures of her Privy Council.It'd be like Karl Rove fearing a parking ticket. He works for the President. That has advantages.Marlowe was a recognized actor and playright. Will Shakespeare was also a noted actor at the time, in a very popular theatre group. There's no way that Marlowe could have been Shakespeare in disguise, because he would have been recognized onstage by everybody. It'd be like Harrison Ford trying to disguise himself by pretending to be Ethan Hawke. Nobody would have been fooled for a minute.Anyway it's not like the body disappeared, or something. Kit Marlowe died of being stabbed in the eye. That's something that's hard to fake, especially when the Queen's own coroner is looking into your death.[This message has been edited by crashfrog, 11-06-2003]

Yes, but it's not like they're saying Marlowe moved to France or something. If he became Will, he was acting in the same theatres in front of the same people, including almost all of the people who were trying to run him up on atheism charges. If the Queen's in on it, you don't have to fake anything. Again, Marlowe was a pretty notorious character, and as a public figure it's reasonable to assume that his face would have been known. And he was a central figure in a pretty pervasive ring of spies. News of his demise would have traveled pretty quickly to London, especially since Deptford wasn't exactly that far.

Not exactly government agents. More like personal spies of folks like Sir Thomas Walsingham. There wasn't really any unified, cohesive "government agency" that would have had all the spies working for the same end. The spies would have been against each other, not working as part of a big conspiracy.Anyway, they may have been spies, but they were also ne'er-do-wells and con men, and it's likely they were at the lodging-house not to effect Marlowe's escape but to enlist his help to con a young lord out of some money. That just doesn't make any sense. Marlowe wrote plays under his own name before he died, and had his poems published, too. Shakespeare published Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece before Marlowe's death. Why would he publish under two names? If he wanted to live in Italy, why not just do so as Marlowe? He would have been well out of the reaches of the Star Chamber then.

But yet, his style remains Shakespeare. It's not like he suddenly turns into Marlowe. They have radically different styles. You're right, Shakspeare gets a lot better right when Marlowe dies, like he's following Marlowe's lead - because that's exactly what happens. Shakespeare has come to London and joined the Lord Chaimberlain's Men right around that time, so it's likely he was suddenly exposed to Marlowe's writing, if not the man himself.But look how much goofiness we have to propose to make the Marlowe conspiracy work. Isn't it just easier to believe that the Swan of Avon wrote all those works they say he did? What's the reason to believe otherwise, aside from somebody's unwillingness to belive that the son of a glovemaker could write so well?

My favorite is the one about how all the Detroit carmakers have super-secret anti-gravity cars, but the tiremakers won't let them sell them. (Or like the 100-mile-a-gallon carburator.

Yes, very good indeed. (Largely the inspiration for my novel, which could be described as "Shakespeare in Trouble".) Although as I research I realize that the screenwriters take considerable liberties with chronology, but that's their right, really. (I'm trying to stay a little closer to the actual history, but that's just me, I guess.)

The Shakspeare-Marlowe relationship is rather to central to the movie, I thought. For instance when he auditions people for Romeo, they all perform that line from Marlowe's Dr. Faustus: "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships / and burned the topless towers of Illium?" (I thought that was really funny.)Then they have Rupert Everett in an uncredited role as Marlowe, which I came to realize was a nice touch, as Marlowe was supposedly gay.Also the "Lord Wessex" is an apparently fictional title, as the baronage of Wessex did not exist past Anglo-Saxon times. In 1999 Queen Elizabeth II did, however, create an Earlship of Wessex for Prince Edward, based on not the historical existence of Wessex, but the setting for Thomas Hardy's novels. Life imitates art, I guess.I don't know why any of this is relevant to the topic, but I thought you all might like to know.