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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.
Marlowe was also, from what I understand, heavy in gambling debts. (Althought that's from conversation I've had with people on the subject, not an actual source. So it may be unreliable.)
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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.
However, you're working under the assumption that the appearances of Marlowe and Shakespeare would have been common knowledge. Let's not forget that there was no TV, movies, or even photography back then.
A person could be a celebrity without a lot of people knowing what he looked like.
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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.
Unless the Queen's in on it.
It wouldn't actually be that difficult. Find some poor sap who got killed in a bar fight, start spreading the rumor that Kit Marlowe is dead, lay low. Information travelled pretty slowly in those days, and if his appearance isn't common knowledge, all people are gonna know is that Marlowe sure hasn't written anything for a while...
Mind you I don't think it's true. I just think it's fun.
[This message has been edited by Dan Carroll, 11-06-2003]
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