Comment in response to Mr. Shermer's August 1, 2009 article

Dear Mr. Shermer,

I agree with the vast majority of what you say in the SciAm article, especially the assertion that, “a reigning theory is presumed provisionally true and continues to hold sway unless and until a challenging theory explains the current data as well and also accounts for anomalies that the prevailing one cannot.”

There are problems with the Shakespeare theory (to use the language of science), which are readily acknowledged by stand-out scholars like Stanley Wells. The Oxford alternative may account for some of these so-called anomalies, but it can never explain the current data, and therefore has no chance of displacing Shakespeare.

Oxford’s only extant work is a collection of mediocre poems which he, apparently, had no problem with people knowing were his. On his supposed ability to write dramatic verse of the quality required, there is no proof whatsoever.

I happen to think that Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare’s plays. At the moment the case is not provable, but it is the only alternative theory with a chance of being correct. In the 19th century it was a commonplace amongst the first rank of scholars to assign co-authorship of Titus Andronicus and the Henry VI trilogy – plays included in the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s Plays – to Marlowe, based on stylistic similarities to Marlowe’s plays(inexplicably, these claims vanished sometime in the 20th century).

And one cannot read any of the good biographies without being told how Shakespeare began his career “emulating” or “imitating” Marlowe. This conclusion may be the case, but it is not fact. The fact here is the close similarity of Shakespeare’s work to Marlowe’s. Speculation that Shakespeare either A: collaborated with Marlowe early in his career, B: revised Marlowe’s work and claimed the revised plays as his own, C: studied Marlowe’s style and copied it, are all theories that have been proposed to explain it. A fourth alternative, possibly a more satisfactory one, is that Marlowe actually wrote some, or all, of these plays which demonstrate his influence.

This idea is, at present, only an intriguing hypothesis, but there is a symmetry to this theory that I believe persons with your background would find elegant. Perhaps not compelling, but worthy of consideration.

Regards,

Daryl Pinksen
B.Sc,B.A,M.Ed

© DARYL PINKSEN 2009
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