THE MYSTERY OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE Generations of students have been regaled with the literary magnificence of Christopher Marlowe. Some have gone so far as to suggest that Marlowe was the forerunner of William Shakespeare, even his mentor. Others have claimed that it was Marlowe who actually wrote, from beyond the grave, those works we know today as being from the pen of William Shakespeare. Celebrity writers have queued to eulogise Marlowe, claiming that he was the greatest tragedian of his age. We are told that he walked as an equal among the nobility and iconic figures of the Elizabethan age. None of this is even remotely true His supposed body of work is small, fragmentary and stylistically confused. There is no evidence that he wrote anything of significance for himself. The works that have his name attached are a compilation from the collaborative works of a coterie of cash-strapped contemporary writers, of which William Shakespeare was one. The reason for the confusion that surrounds his murder in 1593 was that there were two Christopher Marlowe's; one who lived and died an indifferent scholar and incompetent spy, the other reborn as a fictional construct, the made-up product of the Elizabethan players and their entrepreneurial sponsors.