Shakespeare’s Ghost William Shakespeare CHRONOLOGY [W]e will both our judgments join In censure of his seeming —Hamlet (3.2.85–86) 1564 April 25: William Shakespeare christened in Stratford 1582 John Whitgift, Bishop of Worchester, waives the marriage banns for Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway 1585 Shakespeare’s twins christened 1585-94 Shakespeare’s Lost Years 1593 June 1-10: Spy Robert Poley, on official business for the queen, disappears for ten days, possibly assisting Marlowe to flee June 12: Venus and Adonis appears under Shakespeare’s name ?1593-98 Marlowe in exile in Italy writing comedies 1594 The Rape of Lucrece published under Shakespeare’s name Dr. Lopez, Elizabeth’s Jewish physician, executed as a spy The Comedy of Errors performed at Grays Inn in London First mention of Shakespeare as a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men 1595-97 Several Shakespearean plays published anonymously, including Titus Andronicus, Richard II, and Richard III 1598 Love’s Labor’s Lost, first play published under Shakespeare’s name George Carey succeeds as patron to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men 1599 Marlowe’s works are revived and he possibly returns from Italy Archbishop Whitgift orders Marlowe’s books burned The Globe Theatre opens and As You Like It debuts with a tribute to Marlowe and his “death” in Deptford 1600 Several plays registered under Shakespeare’s name 1601 Richard II and the Globe actors implicated in the Essex Rebellion Shakespeare’s troupe temporarily banished from court 1603 Queen Elizabeth dies and is succeeded by James I Lord Chamberlain’s Men become the King’s Men First Quarto of Hamlet published 1604 Archbishop Whitgift dies Second Quarto of Hamlet published 1609 May 20: Sonnets registered on anniversary of Marlowe’s arrest 1616 Shakespeare dies and leaves “second best bed” to his wife 1623 First Folio published 114 WILL SHAKESPEARE ABSENTS HIMSELF FROM FELICITY AWHILE TO TELL MARLOWE’S STORY O God, Horatio, what a wounded name Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me? If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain To tell my story. —Hamlet (5.2.340–345) The Shakespeare Compact So likewise we will through the world be rung, And with my name shall thine be always sung. —Ovid’s Elegies (translated by Marlowe) (1.3.25–26) he Shakespeare authorship controversy features not one, but two major specters. Besides the enigma sur- rounding Marlowe’s meeting in Deptford and the question whether he was made a ghost or survived as a ghostwriter, Shakespeare’s origin and development are s h r ouded in mystery. Shakespeare sightings before 1593 are almost as rare as Marlowe sightings after that date. Aside from notices of family christenings, a marriage record, and scat- tered property and legal transactions, there is no documentary evidence about William of Stratford’s literary career, including his education, early 115 116 Hamlet acting or writing experience, and arrival in the capital. A half-dozen plays later attributed to him in the First Folio were performed on the London stage before he is mentioned in connection with a theater company. The story that he got his start on the stage by holding the reins of a horse for a playgoer is probably as apocryphal as the tale that he left Stratford after poaching a nobleman’s deer. Like a stream of electrons in a vacuum tube or the contrails of a supersonic plane, Shakespeare’s physical existence between 1585 and 1594 (like Marlowe’s after 1593) can be inferred but not seen. Whatever Will’s antecedents, in The Shakespeare Company 1594–1642, Andrew Gurr presents an elegant solution to some of the vexing questions surrounding the realignment of the English theater during the year after Marlowe’s “death” and the sudden appearance of the first works under Shakespeare’s name. Gurr, an authority on the Elizabethan stage, suggests that Henry Carey, the lord chamberlain (also known as Lord Hunsdon), and his son-in-law Charles Howard, the lord admiral and patron of the Admiral’s Men, concluded a deal to divide the London theater between their respec- tive companies. As Gurr explains: A single company had been established eleven years before as the Queen’s Men, but it had lost its hegemony. Setting up two companies was a sounder policy than having just one, since it gave better insurance against any future loss of the capac- ity to entertain royalty. London’s two leading actors, Edward Alleyn and Richard Burbage, were each allocated a company of fellow-players and a playhouse belonging to someone in their family, and each company was given a set of already famous plays. One secured Marlowe’s, the other Shakespeare’s.1 The Admiral’s Men would continue to play in the Rose theater south of the city, using works written by Marlowe prior to his reported slaying as its chief repertoire, while the newly formed Lord Chamberlain’s Men would perform at the Theatre north of the city, featuring the works posterity has attributed to Shakespeare. The recent deaths of Lord Strange and the Earl of Sussex added to the urgency of consolidation. Hunsdon’s new troupe was formed in May 1594 from remnants of Lord Strange’s Men, Lord Pembroke’s Men, and other companies. Overall, the London theater had fallen on hard times after the plague had closed the stage for most of the previous year and a half. Except for brief spells, such as the debut of Kit’s The Massacre at Paris in January 1593 and occasional tours in the provinces, most players were out of work between June 1592 and April 1594. The friendly rivalry between the two companies continued over the next decade, as the Chamberlain’s Men moved into their new playhouse, the Globe, south of the city, in 1598, creating what Gurr calls “the only effec- tive democracy of its time in totalitarian England.”2 In counterpoint, the Shakespeare’s Ghost 117 Admiral’s Men left the decaying Rose and moved to the newly built Fortune to the north. The two impresarios, James Burbage and Philip Henslowe, ran their respective theaters with a sympathetic but deft hand. Burbage’s son Richard, the star of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, performed many of the leading Shakespearean roles, including Hamlet, which appear to have been composed with him in mind. At the Rose and later the Fortune, Edward Alleyn, the consummate tragedian of his time and Henslowe’s son-in-law, continued to pack the house with revivals of Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, and The Jew of Malta. Although Gurr doesn’t mention it, before the Lord Chamberlain’s Men moved into the Theatre in the winter of 1594–95, Henslowe produced Titus Andronicus, The Taming of a Shrew, and Hamlet, suggesting he already had access to the early versions of the Shakespearean plays and the Ur-Hamlet of Kyd and/or Marlowe. Up and coming Ben Jonson, who would succeed as the dominant playwright in the following decade, started to write for both companies. Following Elizabeth’s death in 1603, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (which probably first staged Shakespeare’s Hamlet) became the King’s Men under James I’s patronage, while the Admiral’s became Prince Henry’s Men, under the crown prince. Overall, the new arrangement provided London with the most sublime theatrical experience since ancient Athens. Yet financial security and eco- nomic stability may not have been the only motives for the consolidation. The two patrons, the Lord Admiral and Lord Hunsdon, were supporting actors, if not direct participants, in Marlowe’s rescue. This web of corre- spondences suggests that the two patrons (with the approval and encour- agement of the Cecils) deliberately entered into the new arrangement in order to provide a secure venue for Kit’s new works. In all likelihood, but- tressed by marriage alliances among three sets of families, Carey and Howard enthusiastically entered into the new arrangement not only for the material advantages it conferred but also out of shared inner convictions. Similarly, in the interest of secrecy, Marlowe himself appears to have willingly surrendered all credit for his subsequent works to William of Stratford. As privy councilors, both Carey and Howard had a history of sympa- thizing with religious reform and moderating the excesses of the archbish- op and the churchmen. Many of Marlowe’s early plays were performed for the admiral’s company, and he may have served as an intelligencer for the naval commander during the Armada campaign. Howard had served as lord chamberlain in 1583–1585 and evidently arranged for his cousin, Edmund Tilney, to serve as Master of the Revels and oversee performances at court and on the London stage. Hunsdon succeeded Howard in this post and both men naturally would have resented John Whitgift’s heavy-handed move to seize control over the registration and censorship of plays. Huns- 118 Hamlet don’s son, Sir George Carey, was the knight marshall with authority over the verge—the sovereign zone around the queen’s person—that played a pivotal role in Marlowe’s murder investigation. Both Hunsdon and the admiral had been accused of atheism in the dossier prepared against Marlowe and knew how trumped up charges could assume a life of their own. In addition to the orthodox theologians on the right, they had to navigate around the Puritans and city commissioners on the left who would close down the theater alto- gether. “The Lord Mayor was appeased by a ban on players using city inns,” Gurr observes, explaining the compromise arrived at.