Marlowe collaborated with the Bard?
An international team of 23 academics have decided that Christopher Marlowe’s work on the plays of William Shakespeare was extensive enough that he deserves a credit in future editions.
The Elizabethan tragedian’s name will appear next to the Bard’s on the title N TIO FIC N- NO pages of Henry VI, Parts One, Two and Three when they are published under the New Oxford Shakespeare by Oxford University Press this month.
Shakespeare’s authorship has been an issue of constant debate among scholars, and while the theory that Marlowe actually was Shakespeare has been widely discredited, the new research, which Bob Dylan is one of the most important songwriters of our time, responsible for modern classics such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”
is a comprehensive and definitive collection of Dylan’s most recent writing as well as the early works that are such an essential part of the canon. Well known for changing the lyrics to even his best-loved songs. involved both traditional textual analysis and the use of computerised tools to examine texts, found that he contributed more to the plays than previously thought.
In fact, 17 plays are now believed t o have been worked on by others, more than double the amount in the previous New Oxford Shakespeare published 30 years prior.
The team of 23 academics, hailing from five countries, was led by Gary Taylor ( Florida State University) John Jowett ( Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham), Terri Bourus ( Indiana University) and Gabriel Egan (De Montfort University, Leicester).
“The orthodox view was that Shakespeare didn’t collaborate at all,” Taylor said. THE INDEPENDENT