Books

Kit Marlowe DID Write Some Of Shakespeare's Plays

by Emma Oulton

Hey, guess what? The Oxford University Press have just confirmed the biggest conspiracy theory since that time B.o.B declared that the Earth is flat: Christopher Marlowe wrote some of Shakespeare's plays. Since as early as the 18th century, people have been suggesting that Kit Marlowe and Will Shakespeare might have been the same person, and that Kit Marlowe's apparent death in 1593 may have been faked so that Shakes could go back to using his real name. Others think they may have worked secretly together; and some even think that Shakespeare may have been nothing more than a front man for Marlowe's work. Perhaps the great Shakespeare, who is today credited with creating over 1700 commonly used words, never actually picked up a pen.

The world has been lowkey obsessed with these conspiracies since we first watched the (very historically inaccurate) movie Shakespeare in Love — in which Kit Marlowe, played by the charming Rupert Everett, gives Shakespeare the whole idea for Romeo and Juliet. For a long time, Shakespearean scholars dismissed them, sticking firmly to the story that our man Will wrote every last word. But it's now official: Christopher Marlowe was Shakespeare's co-writer, and he's finally getting the credit he deserves.

In the new editions coming out this month, Christopher Marlowe will be credited alongside Shakespeare as the writer of Henry VI, Parts One, Two and Three. And that's not all: scholars think that a whopping 17 of Shakespeare's plays may have had multiple authors. Did Shakespeare even write "To be or not to be?" Only Christopher Marlowe knows...

Image: Giphy; Movieclips Trailer Vault/YouTube