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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.2476  Monday, 30 December 2002

From:           Bill Arnold <barnold_pb@yahoo.com>
Date:           Sunday, 29 Dec 2002 09:03:12 -0800 (PST)
Subject:        Shakespeare and Marlowe

SHAKSPEReans might like to know that supposedly on an upcoming PBS
FRONTLINE show "Much Ado About Something" is to be broadcast next
Thursday evening, 2 January--in the Washington DC area, maybe
nationally.  According to the PBS website, according to my information
from another source, this show was also shown in November.  The
Frontline website describes, again, according to my source, who shall
remain anonymous, "Much Ado About Something" as follows:  "His name is
synonymous with great literature. Author of timeless masterpieces
including "Romeo and Juliet," "Othello" and "Hamlet," William
Shakespeare is widely considered to be the greatest writer who ever
lived -- or was he?  FRONTLINE explores anew the centuries-old
controversy over whether the literary masterpieces long attributed to
Shakespeare were actually written by his contemporary, Christopher
Marlowe.  Born in the same year as Shakespeare, Marlowe was at the
height of his literary career in 1593 when he was supposedly killed in
an argument over a tavern bill.  Marlowe's death, however, has been
clouded in mystery, with some "Marlovians" insisting the playwright
lived to write another day--but under the name of 'Shakespeare.'
FRONTLINE takes viewers inside this 16th-century detective story in an
attempt to unravel what some are calling the 'biggest cover-up in
literary history.'"

My own two cents in response to the thesis Christopher Marlowe was
Shakespeare is that there is the same evidence it was not the Earl of
Oxford.  Both died too young.  Some of Shakespeare's best plays were
written up until 1611, indeed, in collaboration, later. One wonders how
in the world Marlowe, dead in 1593, wrote plays in later years?  I guess
SHAKSPEReans cannot believe all they read online the Internet nor
onscreen the Television.

Bill Arnold
http://www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/scholars/arnold.htm

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