Why Marlowe would choose to use so many aliases,
why not just stick with 'William Shakespeare' ?
An attempt to give a short answer to a significant question, most often asked....
There are compelling reasons to assume that long before Marlowes alleged death in 1593 , from probably the very early beginnings of his writings, he must have been accustomed and was thus early prepared to write under false names, i.e. anonymously, pseudonymously, or with unidentifiable initials, under a state of disguised identity-.
He must have wished ( and was forced) to remain and write anonymously for various reason, not the least because of his (too) liberal or radical or progressive thoughts in matters of religion, social issues, ethics as well as because of his critics on public figures , opinions , books etc. ...
He was light years ahead of his time...
To Marlowes early pseudo- or pennames, prior to his official death (1593), one can safely count
George Wither (e.g. An ABC for Laymen 1585/ 1588) ,
Nicholas Breton,
William Gager (Meleager),
William Basse ,
George Puttenham ("The Arte of Poesie" ) and others. -
Otherwise, it is literally impossible to explain why not a single literary work of Marlowe / Shakespeare was printed prior to his demise/or Shakespeare's rise in 1593, in Marlowes /Shakespeares 30th year of life (one exception: anonymous Tamburlaine 1590).
It is unthinkable and can literally be ruled out, that Marlowe/Shakespeare (of the same age!) between 1573 and 1593 have not spoken literally in many ways in their early most creative phase of life. -
Consider that average life expectancy was not even 50 at that time., ......it seems virtually impossible that the literary prolific creativity of the true Shakespeare genius within his first 30 years of life was zero , and consisted of no diversity of printed literary genres at all (.See YouTube contribution - ref
Probably most people have not the slightest ideas of the dimensions, the earliness and immensity of Marlowes/ Shakespeares knowledge, of his power of comprehension, of his memory capacities, of his unimaginable speed of writing and thinking , his productivity, his dialogic language abilities or his elocutionary language skills, etc. , i.e. his overwhelmig creativity....
.....similar to a Musical Genius like Mozart, who wrote his first Piano Concert at the Age of 12. - KV37 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xFmod_Aazf0 and composed the Great symphony 36 (kv425) on transit within a prolonged weekend 1783 in the austrian City of Linz, when he and his wife had to interrupt their traveling between Salzburg and Vienna because of bad wether... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t7dWkI9H9fw
My own experience with such types of Genius is the pianist Kit Armstrong whom I learnt to know, years ago who speaks 8 languages fluently, who wrote his mathematical dissertation at the age of 14 who is a fine composer and high ranking world pianist . I asked him in a conversation if he was familiar with a fugue composed by Chopin.. Since he was not, I showed him the score on an iPad , he memorized the page for a minute and went to the piano and played the piece by heart at Concert Level. ...unimaginable...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KIwpJPPzs
------------
At the Elisabethan age crimes that threatened the social order were considered extremely dangerous offenses. They included not only heresy, but also treason, ( "Marlowes Dutch Libels.) which challenged the legitimate government and crown.. Those convicted of these crimes (or threatened such as Marlowe...he was advised and supported by Cecil to disappear by feigning his death) since by the law they had to expect the harshest punishment. Execution methods for the most serious crimes were designed to be as gruesome as possible....
Anonymity was necessary in those times, but not easy to achieve and often fraught with. It required "unlinkability", such that an attacker's examination of the pseudonym holder's message provided no information about the holder's true name or location.
It was by no means primarily the literary anonymity of Marlowe as a poet, under which he suffered from, (he very early on was accustomed to it) but from his total banishment from society, from court and nobility ( since June 1593) and from his permanent and complete loss of reputation and identity, from his social isolation, his living in obscurity ....His formal extinction meant that he could never hope for a pardon under an earlier identity.
To Marlowes early pseudo- or pennames, prior to his official death (1593), one can safely count
George Wither (e.g. An ABC for Laymen 1585/ 1588) ,
Nicholas Breton,
William Gager (Meleager),
William Basse ,
George Puttenham ("The Arte of Poesie" ) and others. -
Otherwise, it is literally impossible to explain why not a single literary work of Marlowe / Shakespeare was printed prior to his demise/or Shakespeare's rise in 1593, in Marlowes /Shakespeares 30th year of life (one exception: anonymous Tamburlaine 1590).
It is unthinkable and can literally be ruled out, that Marlowe/Shakespeare (of the same age!) between 1573 and 1593 have not spoken literally in many ways in their early most creative phase of life. -
Consider that average life expectancy was not even 50 at that time., ......it seems virtually impossible that the literary prolific creativity of the true Shakespeare genius within his first 30 years of life was zero , and consisted of no diversity of printed literary genres at all (.See YouTube contribution - ref
Probably most people have not the slightest ideas of the dimensions, the earliness and immensity of Marlowes/ Shakespeares knowledge, of his power of comprehension, of his memory capacities, of his unimaginable speed of writing and thinking , his productivity, his dialogic language abilities or his elocutionary language skills, etc. , i.e. his overwhelmig creativity....
.....similar to a Musical Genius like Mozart, who wrote his first Piano Concert at the Age of 12. - KV37 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xFmod_Aazf0 and composed the Great symphony 36 (kv425) on transit within a prolonged weekend 1783 in the austrian City of Linz, when he and his wife had to interrupt their traveling between Salzburg and Vienna because of bad wether... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t7dWkI9H9fw
My own experience with such types of Genius is the pianist Kit Armstrong whom I learnt to know, years ago who speaks 8 languages fluently, who wrote his mathematical dissertation at the age of 14 who is a fine composer and high ranking world pianist . I asked him in a conversation if he was familiar with a fugue composed by Chopin.. Since he was not, I showed him the score on an iPad , he memorized the page for a minute and went to the piano and played the piece by heart at Concert Level. ...unimaginable...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KIwpJPPzs
------------
At the Elisabethan age crimes that threatened the social order were considered extremely dangerous offenses. They included not only heresy, but also treason, ( "Marlowes Dutch Libels.) which challenged the legitimate government and crown.. Those convicted of these crimes (or threatened such as Marlowe...he was advised and supported by Cecil to disappear by feigning his death) since by the law they had to expect the harshest punishment. Execution methods for the most serious crimes were designed to be as gruesome as possible....
Anonymity was necessary in those times, but not easy to achieve and often fraught with. It required "unlinkability", such that an attacker's examination of the pseudonym holder's message provided no information about the holder's true name or location.
It was by no means primarily the literary anonymity of Marlowe as a poet, under which he suffered from, (he very early on was accustomed to it) but from his total banishment from society, from court and nobility ( since June 1593) and from his permanent and complete loss of reputation and identity, from his social isolation, his living in obscurity ....His formal extinction meant that he could never hope for a pardon under an earlier identity.
He felt bound by his oath to William Cecil (See Hamlet Ghost Scene) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cWWyZaUKPmw
His "crime" (treason , rebellion , sedition ) was atoned for by his formal death .... It was rather his reputation murder.....the absolute necessity to exist and remain incognito in seclusion....he was never to be recognized under any circumstances,
There is virtually no evidence that anyone during his lifetime knew of a poet Shakspere (Stratford), or of the fact that the Stratford person was the poet of Hamlet, Romeo & Julia, or King Lear ...The idea of a fusion ( conflation?) of Shakspere and Shakespeare was explicitly invented or created for posterity, a construction of (for) his poetic aftermath ...
The ingenious trick of hiding behind the name of a single living (paid) person (such as Shakspere/Stratford) or deceased persons or invented names (e.g. John Overbury...Michael Drayton George Chap,manetc.) would have had the consequence,( as soon as somebody started looking for a singular person) of detecting the living person sooner or later....this could only or best be prevented by a multiplicity of pseudonyms, but also by various other ( also ingenious) tricks of multi-pseudonymities, e.g. by double names ( Sir John Davies, or , John Davies of Hereford --- or John Fletcher or Phineas Fletcher), by double authors Beaumont&Fletcher...and so on....
Consider, that half of Shakespeares plays (18) were printed only after his death, and not known before... of the other half 50% were printed anonymously thus only a quarter known under Shakepeare / Shake-speare....
This fact alone indicates the necessity that
His "crime" (treason , rebellion , sedition ) was atoned for by his formal death .... It was rather his reputation murder.....the absolute necessity to exist and remain incognito in seclusion....he was never to be recognized under any circumstances,
There is virtually no evidence that anyone during his lifetime knew of a poet Shakspere (Stratford), or of the fact that the Stratford person was the poet of Hamlet, Romeo & Julia, or King Lear ...The idea of a fusion ( conflation?) of Shakspere and Shakespeare was explicitly invented or created for posterity, a construction of (for) his poetic aftermath ...
The ingenious trick of hiding behind the name of a single living (paid) person (such as Shakspere/Stratford) or deceased persons or invented names (e.g. John Overbury...Michael Drayton George Chap,manetc.) would have had the consequence,( as soon as somebody started looking for a singular person) of detecting the living person sooner or later....this could only or best be prevented by a multiplicity of pseudonyms, but also by various other ( also ingenious) tricks of multi-pseudonymities, e.g. by double names ( Sir John Davies, or , John Davies of Hereford --- or John Fletcher or Phineas Fletcher), by double authors Beaumont&Fletcher...and so on....
Consider, that half of Shakespeares plays (18) were printed only after his death, and not known before... of the other half 50% were printed anonymously thus only a quarter known under Shakepeare / Shake-speare....
This fact alone indicates the necessity that
the recognizability of his person was prevented and had to be prevented by all circumstances!
If all 36 pieces of the First Folio and many more ( attributed to other fictious poets) had been printed under the name of William Shakespeare, there could or would soon have been a growing interest in getting a hunt for this person .... Under no circumstances could that happen ....It would have revealed the plot, the real conspiracy,....( Stay aware: its not a conspiratory theory...)
Marlowe was considered to be dead, extinguished, and precisely at the time of his death (1593) a dramatist mockup Shakspere was created as a new poetical implemention....
There are several impressive literary sources, that later on Marlowe/Shakespeare, after his "Invention" to create a "living pseudonym Shake-speare", was very dissatisfied with that invention ( e.g.Typographie s.argument 24, Drayton
https://youtu.be/57LKIFQTkFo?t=8295
And there is another quite different chain of (backward) reasoning or argumentation to answer the variations of the basic question....
1 Why Marlowe would choose to use so many aliases?
2 Why not just stick with 'William Shakespeare' ?
(The sheer number of alleged aliases is unlikely -)
3 Why this huge quantity of pseudonyms ?
4 Was that really necessary for Marlowe?
We only get in the situation to answer the sheer scale of unresolved questions, uninterpretable literary texts (See John Ford as an example. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zYRdNU6GJc4)
and inconsistencies of so many contemporary authors ( such as Shakespeare, Basse, Wither, Drayton Chapman, Heywood, Barnfield, Taylor etc.) regarding the true poetical genius, if we presuppose the assumption of a multple pseudonymity, which alone can resolve the Shakespeare authorship controversy.
More and more Shakespeare experts are now absurdly assuming that Shakespeare wrote in a team with co-authors.https://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/shakespeares-plays/shakespeares-collaborations/
Otherwise, we drown into a swamp of „unscientificness", or myth and stagnation....why a global collective intelligence up to now (>400 years) was not able to reach some progress to resolve a clearly existent authorship problem?
If all 36 pieces of the First Folio and many more ( attributed to other fictious poets) had been printed under the name of William Shakespeare, there could or would soon have been a growing interest in getting a hunt for this person .... Under no circumstances could that happen ....It would have revealed the plot, the real conspiracy,....( Stay aware: its not a conspiratory theory...)
Marlowe was considered to be dead, extinguished, and precisely at the time of his death (1593) a dramatist mockup Shakspere was created as a new poetical implemention....
There are several impressive literary sources, that later on Marlowe/Shakespeare, after his "Invention" to create a "living pseudonym Shake-speare", was very dissatisfied with that invention ( e.g.Typographie s.argument 24, Drayton
https://youtu.be/57LKIFQTkFo?t=8295
And there is another quite different chain of (backward) reasoning or argumentation to answer the variations of the basic question....
1 Why Marlowe would choose to use so many aliases?
2 Why not just stick with 'William Shakespeare' ?
(The sheer number of alleged aliases is unlikely -)
3 Why this huge quantity of pseudonyms ?
4 Was that really necessary for Marlowe?
We only get in the situation to answer the sheer scale of unresolved questions, uninterpretable literary texts (See John Ford as an example. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zYRdNU6GJc4)
and inconsistencies of so many contemporary authors ( such as Shakespeare, Basse, Wither, Drayton Chapman, Heywood, Barnfield, Taylor etc.) regarding the true poetical genius, if we presuppose the assumption of a multple pseudonymity, which alone can resolve the Shakespeare authorship controversy.
More and more Shakespeare experts are now absurdly assuming that Shakespeare wrote in a team with co-authors.https://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/shakespeares-plays/shakespeares-collaborations/
Otherwise, we drown into a swamp of „unscientificness", or myth and stagnation....why a global collective intelligence up to now (>400 years) was not able to reach some progress to resolve a clearly existent authorship problem?
If somebody has better explanation or a more plausible solution to this nightmare of inconsistencies of a factual problem , we should be delighted to listen to it....
