For those who doubt that the actor from Stratford, William Shakspere, wrote the works of Shakespeare, the brilliant poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe has always been the professional candidate. In this book, which argues that a chronological approach is essential, Donna N. Murphy employs a variety of tools to document a Marlowe-Shakespeare continuum (with her proposed dates of first-version authorship) in The Taming of the Shrew, c. 1590; II and III Henry VI, c. 1590; Edward III c. 1590–1; Titus Andronicus c. 1591–3; Thomas of Woodstock c. 1593; Romeo and Juliet c. 1595–6; and I Henry IV, c. 1596–7. Her research firmly supports the theory that Christopher Marlowe, living on after he supposedly died, was the main hand behind the works of Shakespeare.

Instead of asserting any alleged rivalry between Marlowe and Shakespeare, Sawyer examines the literary reception of the two when the writers are placed in tandem during critical discourse or artistic production. Focusing on specific examples from the last 400 years, the study begins with Robert Greene’s comments in 1592 and ends with the post-9/11 and 7/7 era. The study not only looks at literary critics and their assessments, but also at playwrights such as Aphra Behn, novelists such as Anthony Burgess, and late twentieth-century movie and theatre directors. The work concludes by showing how the most recent outbreak of Marlowe as Shakespeare’s ghostwriter accelerates due to a climate of conspiracy, including “belief echoes,” which presently permeate our cultural and critical discourse.