CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

A collection of academic essays proposes that key Shakespearean works were written by Christopher Marlowe.

Twenty-seven essays and summaries are presented here, 20 of which were written by Morgan herself, the remainder by Marlowe scholars. In her introduction, the editor comments on how academia is mainly composed of “traditionalists resistant to the idea someone other than the Stratford Shakespeare wrote the works.” Morgan suggests that the pieces presented here offer “a broader look at Marlowe than is currently taught in the universities.” The opening essay by Morgan, “The Sonnets of Exile,” provides a close reading of specific Shakespearean sonnets to argue for Marlowe’s penmanship. Elsewhere, the respected author A.D. Wraight’s essay, published posthumously, challenges the authorship of Shakespeare’s King Henry VI. Other essays include Alex Jack’s proposal that messages about Marlowe can be found in Hamlet and Isabel Gortazar’s piece that suggests that a minor character in The Taming of the Shrew may offer an overlooked clue for the authorship debate. Morgan delivers an absorbing close analysis of Shakespeare’s works throughout. One detailed rereading of the sonnets claims: “Sonnet 74 gives the reason” Marlowe’s “death had to be feigned (that fell arrest without all bail shall carry me away), and reveals how he ‘died’ (The coward conquest of a wretch’s knife).” The academic style used throughout is suitably formal but rarely technically confounding, its natural clarity rendering it accessible to a wide audience. Even those unfamiliar with the authorship theory will appreciate the concise summaries of landmark theses, such as Wraight’s observations on Marlowe and the play Edward III by Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd. This material provides a vital entry point into the subject. But Gortazar’s essay steals the show with its audacious code-breaking. The author cunningly unravels “the riddle of SLY” associated with the inebriated tinker Christopher Sly in The Taming of the Shrew—with Sly’s adventures purportedly mirroring the fate of Marlowe himself: “Sly is not dead, the corpse described by these lines must be somebody else’s.” Readers may be disappointed that this collection does not include a broader range of critics, as Morgan delivers most of the commentary. Still, the essays here are sufficiently convincing and well researched to perpetuate and bolster the Marlowe scholars’ response to the Shakespeare authorship question.

A delightfully provocative set of essays about Christopher Marlowe.