# Movies: Why Shakespeare and not Marlowe?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-why-shakespeare-and-not-marlowe/257584>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 30, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-why-shakespeare-and-not-marlowe/257584 "2004-07-30T13:24:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-why-shakespeare-and-not-marlowe/257584/21 "2004-07-31T20:22:39Z")

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Yet another thing to consider:

[www.ibdb.com](http://www.ibdb.com) lists most (if not all) shows that have reached Broadway.

They list 11 productions of Shakespeare (or of musicals based on his works) since 1992 alone.

In contrast, there are only 4 productions of Marlowe, and none since 1975. Jonson has 9 listings, one of which having nothing to do with his plays (in fact, I’m not sure it’s the right Jonson), and none being in his own words since 1966. Beaumont and Fletcher, it appears, have never been produced on Broadway

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**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-why-shakespeare-and-not-marlowe/257584/22 "2004-07-31T21:38:09Z")

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Maybe we don’t see ‘plays by Marlowe’ because Marlowe WAS Shakespeare. He might have faked his own death after being exposed as a spy, then created works under the actor Shakespeare’s name. According to this article for example, [Queen Elizabeth declared that Marlowe wrote Richard II](http://www2.localaccess.com/marlowe/pamphlet/pamphlet.htm).

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-why-shakespeare-and-not-marlowe/257584/23 "2004-07-31T21:46:00Z")

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> [@capacitor](#):
>
> Maybe we don’t see ‘plays by Marlowe’ because Marlowe WAS Shakespeare. He might have faked his own death after being exposed as a spy, then created works under the actor Shakespeare’s name. According to this article for example, [Queen Elizabeth declared that Marlowe wrote Richard II](http://www2.localaccess.com/marlowe/pamphlet/pamphlet.htm).

Even if that’s true, which I doubt, it doesn’t really explain why there aren’t more filmed adaptations of his work.

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