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400^th Anniversary of Hamlet

New Evidence Points to Shakespeare and Marlowe as Co-Authors of Hamlet

A special 400th anniversary edition of Hamlet to be published this spring celebrates Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare as co-authors of the world’s most famous play.

There is a new wrinkle to the mystery of Hamlet.

New historical and literary evidence suggests that Marlowe—the leading playwright on the London stage and a secret agent for Queen Elizabeth’s government, staged his death in the midst of a heresy investigation and went on to pen the immortal plays and poems with his dramatic collaborator, William Shakespeare.

“Recognizing that Shakespeare and Marlowe collaborated immeasurably enriches the enjoyment of the play for the reader or theater-goer,” says Alex Jack, compiler of the new edition and author or editor of 25 books on history, literature, and the healing arts, including the best-selling The Mozart Effect (with Don Campbell). “There are puns, references, and allusions in Hamlet to Marlowe and Shakespeare that add new dimensions to our appreciation of the play, whether we are a high school student, a Shakespearean actor, or a lover of literary and historical mysteries.”

According to the history books, Kit Marlowe was fatally stabbed above the eye and died in a tavern brawl in 1593 at the age of twenty-nine. However, historians and biographers now generally hold that Marlowe was murdered because of his espionage ties. “From conceding that his death was shrouded in intrigue and politically inspired, the next step is to investigate whether it may have been faked and whether Marlowe assumed a new literary identity as well as an intelligence cover,” says Alex Jack, compiler of the new edition and author or editor of 25 books on history, literature, and the healing arts, including the best-selling The Mozart Effect (with Don Campbell).

In a detailed study of the events surrounding Marlowe’s fate, Jack presents evidence that Mrs. Bull’s establishment in Deptford, London’s port, where the altercation took place, housed offices associated with the Muscovy Company, a powerful trade venture managed by Anthony Marlowe, his kinsmen, and directed by leading members of the Queen’s Privy Council for whom Marlowe worked as a government agent. He singles out Lord Burghley, Elizabeth’s principal councilor, the head of the secret service, and a defender of religious dissenters, as Marlowe’s main protector.

Just 10 days before the Deptford encounter, Marlowe had been arrested following a wave of religious persecution by the archbishop in which several Protestant reformers were executed. And just two weeks after Marlowe reportedly died, Shakespeare’s first work, Venus and Adonis, suddenly appeared. Jack thinks that after going into the equivalent of the Elizabethan secret service’s witness protection program, Marlowe probably lived in exile in Italy, where many of the subsequent Shakespearean comedies were set. Unlike anti-Stratfordians who favor an aristocrat like the Earl of Oxford as author because of Will’s lowly background, Jack believes that Shakespeare was an indispensable part of the arrangement, handling the dramatic side of the partnership while Marlowe provided the scripts, and as a marriage of true minds they both deserve to be recognized as co-authors.

In the last several years, the case that Marlowe survived has drawn mounting support. London’s Westminster Abbey dedicated a new stain glass window to Marlowe with a question mark before the date of his death in the Poets’ Corner, England’s literary shrine. The new Globe theatre has inaugurated a forum on the authorship controversy and welcomed examination of other candidates, including Marlowe.

Several key dates associated with Hamlet also point to Marlowe’s role in the authorship. May 30, the date in 1593 on which he reputedly died, was the annual festival day of Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of magic and illusion, who appears in Marlowe’s early works, in Hamlet, and in many of the Shakespearean plays. As pioneer Marlovian researcher John Baker has pointed out, the play was registered on July 26, 1602, the anniversary of St. Christopher’s day, Marlowe’s namesake and the saint who providently spirits people away from harm, and in 1609, Shakespeare’s Sonnets were registered on May 20, the anniversary of Marlowe’s arrest.

In the text of Hamlet, Jack finds several puns and allusions to Marlowe’s struggle with the archbishop and suggests historical parallels with some of the characters, including Claudius and Gertrude, Ophelia, Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the Gravediggers. For example, in revealing his murder to Hamlet, the Ghost puns on Archbishop Whitgift, who prevailed upon Queen Elizabeth to sanction the persecution of religious dissenters, including Catholic poets, the Pilgrim forebears, and freethinkers such as Marlowe: “O wicked wit, and gifts that have the power / So to seduce; won to his shameful lust / The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen.”

Actors, film directors, and other drama critics have hailed the new edition. “Before this book, nobody has so solidly situated Marlowe in his artistic and political milieu,” says Mike Rubbo, director of the prize-winning Frontline documentary Much Ado About Something on PBS. “And no one else so gently leads one to the conclusion that Marlowe was the hidden hand behind Shakespeare. To call his argument persuasive is too weak. The reader just arrives at a new place in understanding as if the journey was inevitable.” Mark Rylance, star of Hamlet on stage and artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe in London, has invited Jack to present his new book at the theater this summer.

The publisher, Amberwaves, an independent press located in the Berkshires devoted to planetary arts and culture, distributes material by Vandana Shiva, Mae-Wan Ho, Paul Hawken, and other environmentalists and visionaries. Copies may be ordered online at: www.shakespeareandmarlowe.com or from the publisher: Amberwaves, Box 487, Becket, MA 01223, 413-623-0012. Vol. 1 (including the text of the play and a brief historical summary) is available for $15.95 and vol. 2 (including a comprehensive historical and literary analysis) lists for $24.95.

For a review copy, to interview Alex Jack, or for further information, please call toll-free (866) 623-0012 or send an email at http://www.shakespeareandmarlowe.com/contact.html

News and Feature Ideas

The following topics may be of interest to readers as part of a news or feature story on the new edition of Marlowe’s and Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

1. The text of Hamlet includes several puns and allusions to Marlowe’s epic struggle with John Whitgift, the archbishop of Canterbury. For example, in revealing his murder to Hamlet, the Ghost puns on Archbishop Whitgift, who prevailed upon Queen Elizabeth to sanction the persecution of religious dissenters, including Catholic poets, the Pilgrim forebears, and freethinkers such as Marlowe: “O wicked wit, and gifts that have the power / So to seduce; won to his shameful lust / The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen”(Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 49-51).

2. According to the history books, Marlowe was killed in a knife fight in a tavern brawl. In a detailed study of the events surrounding Marlowe’s fate, Alex Jack presents evidence that Mrs. Bull’s establishment in Deptford, London’s port, where the altercation took place, housed offices associated with the Muscovy Company, a powerful trade venture managed by Anthony Marlowe, his kinsmen, and directed by leading members of the Queen’s Privy Council for whom Marlowe worked as a government agent, including Lord Burghley, his superior in the secret service. The venue turns out not to be a seedy bar, but a private establishment connected with Marlowe’s family and a possible government “safe house.”

3. Hamlet’s universal appeal transcends its era and historical context. However, there are autobiographical resonances that enhance our enjoyment of the play. In his analysis, Alex Jack shows that Hamlet, the witty, philosophical prince who stages the play-within-the-play bears a strong affinity with Marlowe himself; Horatio, the loyal friend and associate who “tells [Hamlet’s] story” and commands that his body [of works] be placed “High on a stage” has affinities with Shakespeare; Claudius the usurping monarch and Gertrude, his queen, reprise Whitgift and Gertrude; and there are also direct ties with Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, the Gravedigger, and other familiar characters.

4. Several key dates associated with Hamlet also point to Marlowe’s principal role in the authorship. May 30, the date in 1593 on which he reputedly died, was the annual festival day of Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of magic and illusion, who appears in Marlowe’s early works and in many of the Shakespearean plays. In Hamlet, Hecate is invoked by Prince Hamlet in the play-within-the-play designed to catch the conscience of the king. As pioneer Marlovian researcher John Baker has pointed out, Hamlet was registered on July 26, 1602, the anniversary of St. Christopher’s day, Marlowe’s namesake and the saint who providently spirits people away from harm, and in 1609, Shakespeare’s Sonnets were registered on May 20, the anniversary of Marlowe’s arrest.

5. There are numerous echoes between Hamlet and Marlowe’s earlier works. The new edition presents dozens of striking parallels and allusions drawn from Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta, Dr. Faustus, and other plays and poems. For example, “the undiscovered country from whose bourn / No traveler returns” (3.1.85–86) in Hamlet mirrors “Weep not for Mortimer, / That scorns the world, and as a traveler / Goes to discover countries yet unknown” in Marlowe’s Edward II (5.6.63–65).