  |
|
|
|
The Shakespeare Conspiracy
There is very little certain, well-documented information about Shakespeare's life. In fact there are significant discrepancies in the record, as if Shakespeare led two lives: one in Stratford as a dramatist and one in London as a grain merchant. In Stratford he was pursued by tax collectors for a debt of 5 shillings, while in London he bought the 2nd largest house in town. In Stratford there was a restraining order against him because he threatened the life of William Wayte, but in London he was described as a "generous gentleman". In addition, there is no evidence that people in Stratford knew Shakespeare wrote plays or people in London knew he had ties to Stratford. Even the statue of the Bard holding a quill pen that stands by his tomb was placed there in the eighteenth century to replace the previous statue, which showed him holding a grain sack. There is, however, evidence that the men from Stratford and London were the same person, including the similarities between their signatures. Shakespeare was likely working with a theatre group called Lord Strange's Men around 1590, where he would have known Christopher Marlowe. Sir Walter Raleigh led a group of seditious atheists, which Shakespeare became involved in through Strange and Marlowe. This group became known as the School of Night, thanks to a reference to it in Love's Labour's Lost. After Marlowe's death, Shakespeare replaced him as the most important means of passing the School's beliefs along to the general public. This explains why the Bard rarely associated himself with the performance of his plays and why he didn't advertise himself as a playwright in Stratford: he needed to protect his family. It turns out that Christopher Marlowe and several other members of the School were actually working for the Elizabethan Secret Service. It is possible that Shakespeare also began working as a double agent and, after the death of Strange and the destruction of the School of Night in 1594, continued working for the government as a courier, under the name of William Hall. In 1603, Sir Walter Raleigh was arrested and convicted of plotting the murder of King James I. William Shakespeare's career ended abruptly when the Globe theatre burned down in 1613. He died suddenly in 1616, in a manner that would suggest poisoning. If Shakespeare was murdered, Raleigh, who was released from prison six days earlier, may have done it.
The copyright of the article Richard the Third in Shakespeare's Plays is owned by Chris Allen. Permission to republish Richard the Third in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
