Marlovian theory
fringe theory that Cristopher Marlowe was the real author of William Shakespeare's works / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Marlovian theory is an idea about who wrote Shakespeare's plays. The Marlovian theory says that Christopher Marlowe wrote most of those poems and plays.[1] The theory also says Marlowe did not die in Deptford on 30 May 1593. It says his death was faked. Like William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe was an Elizabethan poet and playwright. They were both born in 1564.[2]
Marlovian theory began in the 1800s.[3] The idea is that the Church wanted to punish Marlowe for being an atheist, so Queen Elizabeth's government helped him fake his death, leave the country and continue writing plays by pretending those plays were Shakespeare's.[2]
One piece of the puzzle is that the play Lust's Dominion was attributed to Marlowe when it was published in 1657. The play borrows from a pamphlet published in 1599, about the death of King Philip II of Spain in 1598. Marlowe died in 1593. The attribution has been recognized as spurious (wrong) by critics and scholars for nearly two centuries.[4]