William Shakespeare
(1564? - 1616?)

"What?", I can hear your cries now, "William Shakespeare?" Yes, I know -- that is not the face of the man who has been accepted as 'Shakespeare' for the last four hundred years. Surely that is the face of Christopher Marlowe? Yes it is supposed to be, but that was only a suggestion by Calvin Hoffman.

"But!", you may say, "Christopher Marlowe died on May 30th, 1593."

This is getting a bit awkward; the man who was stabbed in the right eye at Deptford didn't die -- he was in the process of faking his death to get out of trouble with the authorities. There was a fight and he was stabbed -- but he was just blinded in that eye. His name wasn't Marlowe or even Marley (the true name of the man from Canterbury); his name was Christopher MORLEY.

I could have said that 'William Shakespeare' died in 1611 and I would still have been correct. The actor known to the general public as 'William Shakespeare' was killed in the autumn of 1611.

Confused? You are meant to be; the whole conspiracy was set up in order to convince the world at large that both Christopher Morley and his friend, Christopher Marley, both died on the date that the history books tell us that they did -- combined as Christopher Marlowe. But they did not!

It has been suspected that the death was a sham, ever since Leslie Hotson discovered the coroner's report of the incident in 1925. But nobody has had any proof that the victim was alive after that date -- until now. Many learned people have commented on the influence that Marlowe had on the young Shakespeare. It was the same person! (But now I have found that both names were pseudonyms).

Let us go back to 1593. A hot-headed young man has been getting himself into trouble ever since leaving Cambridge University. He has been involved with a group of 'free-thinkers' who have now been branded as atheists. Atheism was a capital offence in those days; in effect an atheist was denying the divine right of the monarch to rule. It was treason -- punishable by torture and death. That was MARLEY of Corpus Christi College.

This young man had a friend with very good connections. Christopher MORLEY was a Fellow at Trinity College and he was a protege of the chancellor, who was also the most powerful man in the land. William Cecil, Lord Burghley, was Queen Elizabeth's first minister. You could not have a better placed man acting on your behalf.

Both Morley and Marley had been recruited into the Elizabethan Secret Service and they had done their duty to Queen and country whilst still at university. By 1593, Morley's talent as a poet and playwright had also been recognised; he was the leading writer of his day and had been commissioned by Burghley to write seventeen Sonnets to the Earl of Southampton, when Burghley was attempting to find a suitable husband for his grand-daughter. (Southampton was a Royal Ward of Court, under the guardianship of Burghley, but he was not ready to settle down just yet.)

Morley and Marley both had to disappear. As with spies in all the best stories, their death was faked. MORLEY was the one who was stabbed and MARLEY was the one who was buried. The latter was spirited away to the Continent, to start a new life under another name, and Morley found another nom-de-plume -- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Other people, thinking that Morley was a variant of the name Marley, and that the two were one -- MARLOWE -- have ended their version of the story with a guess that he could have gone abroad (Italy has been proposed) but nobody has actually shown that the author known as 'Marlowe' was still alive after May, 1593. I have my suspicions about Marley's future, which will have to wait for another time.

Morley appears to have lived with the Earl of Southampton for five years and then, in 1598, he moved in with the FAIR MAN and the DARK LADY. (The Fair Man was not the Earl of Southampton.) The Fair Man was the initial attraction for him, as he was a homosexual, but the situation soon changed. His wife grew jealous of the time that the two men were spending together and she seduced Morley -- ending up by giving birth to his daughter, her eighth illegitimate child. (The 'bastard shame' of the Sonnets!)

Morley's mistress died in 1601, shortly after presenting him with his daughter, and he entered what is now known as "Shakespeare's dark period". The daughter grew up to be a very attractive young lady; she was painted many times by Van Dyck and had poems written about her by Ben Jonson. Eventually, she married and had children of her own. Descendants of that union are alive to this day.

YES -- THERE ARE DESCENDANTS OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (i.e., MORLEY) STILL LIVING!

'Shakespeare' carried on writing until he had to stop in 1611. The actor who was known as 'Shakespeare' was killed whilst Morley was writing The Tempest and word was put around that 'Shakespeare' was now retired to Stratford. The real Shakespeare (Shackspere) then acted for the first time in his life -- he pretended to be the retired actor, 'William Shakespeare', until alcohol started loosening his tongue and he had to be killed as well! The reason that he had become rich was that he had been paid for the use of his name after he found out about it.

No longer 'plucking the pelf' as 'Shakespeare', Morley stayed in touch with the Fair Man until he died in 1632, at the age of sixty-nine, but Morley lived on for many, many, more years than originally thought.

'The Shakespeare Invention' was a trinity. 'Morley' had to disappear and he started using the name of an obscure grain merchant from Stratford, probably at the suggestion of his publisher, Richard Field. He was originally from Stratford and knew the real Shackspere, as both their fathers were in the leather trade. The actor 'Shakespeare' was a different man altogether. 'The Third Man' was the third son of a butcher -- WILLIAM SHAKESHAFT, who hailed from FISHWICK in Lancashire. This was a small village just outside Preston but the borough has since expanded and Fishwick is now part of the town.

Shakeshaft had gone up to London with an acting company known as LORD STRANGE'S MEN. Morley had connections with this troupe; he had known Lord Strange, Ferdinando Stanley, since they had been students together at Cambridge. He had written plays for the troupe patronised by Ferdinando's father, the Earl of Derby, and had been known to the family for many years. Shakeshaft volunteered to be the front man for the 'Shakespeare Invention' and the rest is history.

So, just before the Millenium, the story of one of the greatest mysteries that this country has ever known was published. Nobody has ever fathomed who the Sonnets were for and about. Unfortunately, because of Leslie Hotson's insistance that Christopher Morley and Christopher Marley were the same person, the belief has continued that Marley was 'Marlowe' and so the poems and plays of 'Marlowe' have been attributed to the cobbler's son from Canterbury. The official biography of the writer of the 'Marlowe' poems and plays is wrong -- just as the biography of the man who wrote the 'Shakespeare' poems and plays is wrong. The comings and goings of a Stratford grain merchant have no bearing on the writings of 'Our Poet'.

That makes the first section of my book, The Shakespeare Invention -- the story up to 1593 -- WRONG! I humbly apologise to all purchasers and/or readers of said book.

If you are willing to ignore the brief biography of the man from Canterbury and substitute the name 'Morley' for 'Marlowe', you will still be intrigued by

THE SHAKESPEARE INVENTION
by
PETER ZENNER

(ISBN 1 898941 31 9)

The book was published on October 9th, 1999, in hardback, at £19.99 (post free in the U.K.). There are 336 pages, 24.5 by 17 cm, and it is fully illustrated with many photographs

Please address all enquiries to:-

Country Books, Courtyard Cottage,

Little Longstone, Bakewell, Derbys., DE45 1NN

Telephone/fax (0)1629 640670

Click here to e-mail Country Books

For the first time:-

The Sonnets are explained and dated correctly

The Passionate Pilgrim is explained and dated correctly
(There was no 1599 edition!)

The Phoenix and Turtle (1601) is explained correctly (They are at the funeral of the Turtle's Queen in 1601)

Yes, 'Shakespeare' did write A Funeral Elegy in 1611. The full explanation of why and who it is about is part of the story

Yes, 'Shakespeare' did write Willobie: His Avisa. The details are all here

ONCE THE KEY WAS FOUND, ALL OF THOSE QUESTIONS ANSWERED THEMSELVES

Not only that -- during the course of the research, it also became apparent why the Earls of Oxford, Derby and Rutland have been suspected of being the author of 'The Works'. They were all involved with Morley/Marlowe during his years in exile.

The Dark Lady, alias the 'Turtle's Queen' (died 1601)

Click here to e-mail Peter Zenner

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