May 30

1593 a small dimly lit room in depford

England four men sit at a table inside a

private lodging house the air is thick

with tension Christopher Marlo England's

most brilliant playright is among them

he's only 29 but he's already reshaped

the English stage his words razor sharp

his influence undeniable yet there's

something off tonight this isn't a

friendly Gathering just days before he

had been arrested accused of heresy and

Atheism crimes punishable by death he

was released under mysterious

circumstances but his days were numbered

he knew too much he had worked as an

intelligence agent a pawn in the

ruthless political games of the crown if

he talked he could expose secrets that

could shake the kingdom to its

core what happens next is supposedly a

matter of public record an argument

erupts over a bill an unpaid

tab voices rise chairs scrape against

wooden floors and then

violence a dagger is drawn there's a

struggle and then a single thrust the

blade plunges straight into Marlo's

right eye die he collapses dead his body

is rushed away buried in an unmarked

grave case closed at least that's what

the story they wanted everyone to

believe but here's the problem nothing

about that night adds up the coroner's

report is riddled with

inconsistencies the details of the fight

are vague conflicting almost

scripted and why was Marlo's body buried

so quickly without ceremony without

anyone verifying its

identity then there's the man who

supposedly killed him he was arrested

but released almost

immediately Not only was he pardoned but

he remained in Royal Service working

directly under the Queen's own advisor

but the most chilling part less than two

weeks after Marlo's so-called death

something strange happens a new literary

voice emerges one that sounds eerily

familiar a name appears on the cover of

Venus and Adonis a poetic work dripping

with the same linguistic Mastery the

same intricate word play the same

signature style that Marlo was known for

the name William

Shakespeare Marlo had vanished and in

his place Shakespeare had been born

[Music]

Christopher Marlo wasn't just a

playwright he was a force of nature his

words didn't dance they detonated his

plays Dr Fus tamberlin the Jew of Malta

weren't entertainment they were weapons

weapons against Authority against

religion against the very idea that a

man should stay in his place he wrote

like a man possessed because in many

ways he was Marlo wasn't just a writer

he was a scholar a linguist a

philosopher ER he spoke Latin Greek and

Italian fluently he was educated at

Cambridge but wasn't just some bookish

academic he had an edge a dangerous one

because Marlo wasn't just a playwright

he was a spy his connections ran deep

into the veins of Queen Elizabeth's

intelligence Network rubbing shoulders

with men whose loyalty was measured in

blood he fed information to the crown

down infiltrated Catholic circles and

danced with death more times than anyone

knew he was Reckless Untouchable until

suddenly he

wasn't May

1593 London was on fire not in the

literal sense but something worse

paranoia the city was drowning in fear

of Catholic conspiracies foreign spies

and Heretics lurking in the shadow

in at the center of it all a certain

piece of paper a heretical Manifesto had

surfaced a document mocking the church

dripping with

blasphemy a death sentence in ink and it

was signed tamberline the name of

Marlo's most infamous character that was

all the authorities needed Days Later

Marlo was arrested but not in Chains No

he was taken into protective custody a

private hearing no records no official

charges just a quiet conversation behind

closed doors and then he was

released that never happened no one

accused of atheism or heresy was

released you were either executed or you

were silenced but Marlo walked free for

a

moment 5 days later he was summoned to

depford a private meeting at a lodging

house three men were waiting for him

three men who knew how to make someone

disappear the air inside the room was

thick Pipe smoke sweat something

else Marlo sat across from the three men

they weren't his friends he knew that

Ingram frer a known car artist Nicholas

scares a moneya launderer Robert poy an

intelligence officer with a history of

cleaning things up it wasn't a friendly

Gathering Marlo poured himself a drink

but he barely touched it his fingers

tapped restlessly against the wooden

table they talked about money about

debts about the queen small talk but the

real conversation was happening in

glances in the shifting weight of bodies

in the tension humming beneath the

words then

movement a chair scraped a hand reached

for something beneath a coat and in a

Flash Marlo saw it the glint of a blade

the fight was brutal fast a blur of

fists bodies slamming into Furniture a

table overturned the dagger was out a

struggle then pain a sharp blinding pain

as steel punctured flesh but not in the

eye

that's the LIE history tells you the

fatal wound the dagger through the right

eye was a convenient detail neat too

neat because what happened next didn't

fit the

story the door burst open footsteps

voices shouting and then

silence the three men stood over Marlo's

body but he wasn't dead not yet an hour

later a body was buried in an unmarked

grave quickly quietly no family no

friends no formal

identification a rush job a

coverup because the men who had been

carried out of that room wasn't Marlo

you're telling me they pulled a full-on

medieval body swap like some 16th

century spy version of Weekend at

Bernie's that's insane but you know

what's crazier it worked you know how

hard it is to fake a death back then no

forensics no fingerprints no DNA tests

just slap a wig on some unlucky bastard

bash in his face a little and boom

instant corpse

impersonation who's going to fact check

it the guy selling rotten meat down by

the docks the plague doctor who thinks

rubbing a pigeon on your wounds is

medicine and let's talk about efficiency

this whole dead by 6 p.m. buried by

midnight thing that's not normal that's

not even suspicious that's we just

assassinated a guy and need to make sure

nobody asks questions level

suspicious nobody even checked if the

body was actually Marlo and why because

they weren't supposed to because this

wasn't a murder it was an

extraction and yet within days of that

night something else happened

a new literary voice emerged a name that

had never written a single play before a

name that sounded eerily familiar

William

Shakespeare Christopher Marlo was gone

and in his place the greatest writer in

history had just been born or was he

London

1593 the air is thick with unease the

city is on edge plague ravages the

streets religious tensions flare and

spies lurk in the

shadows Christopher Marlo has been dead

for mere weeks and the theater World

should be in mourning his talent was

unmatched his influence undeniable yet

no Grand tributes are made no poetic

laments from fellow

writers instead something else happens a

new voice emerges it starts quietly a

whisper among the

literary a new poem is making the rounds

Venus and Adonis the work is bold

elegant unmistakably marlovian in style

but the name on the cover a total

unknown William

Shakespeare this name had never been

attached to anything of literary

significance no history of writing no

record of schooling beyond the basic

education no formal training in poetry

or playwriting and yet suddenly he

appears out of nowhere wielding in an

impossibly refined grasp of language

myth and classical literature theaters

which should have been mourning the loss

of Marlo instead have a new sensation on

their hands The Works attributed to this

Shakespeare guy seem early

familiar the Cadence the Rhythm the

sheer force of the words it's as if

Marlo never left because maybe he

didn't Marlo wasn't just a rider he was

a problem he had enemies in high places

he was dangerous because he was

brilliant and he was Reckless because he

thought he was

Untouchable then in May 1593 the hammer

dropped a warrant was issued for his

arrests atheism blasphemy heresy crimes

that didn't just get you hanged they got

you erased his friend Thomas kaid had

already been Dragged In tortured forced

to give up names Marlo's own words his

philosophies his beliefs had become his

death sentence he had one option to

disappear but how a public execution

would be too risky the Queen's Court

couldn't be seen condemning a man so

closely tied to intelligence work there

had to be another way a staged murder a

quick burial a few forged documents then

silence and suddenly a new Rider emerges

one with no history no past no reason to

possess the exact literary genius of the

man who had just died oh come on this is

textbook witness protection guy gets

into too deep knows too much and boom

he's dead the only thing missing is

Marlo getting a fake mustache and moving

to a remote Village to sell fish or some

crap and let's be real if the government

actually wanted Marlo dead they wouldn't

stab him in a bar fight that's a messy

public Amateur hour move no no no they

would have made him him disappear the

old-fashioned way locked in a dungeon

tortured until he confessed to whatever

they wanted and then whoopsie he dies of

a sudden illness in prison but that

didn't happen because Marlo wasn't

executed he was extracted but if Marlo

was alive where did he go and more

importantly if Marlo was alive who the

hell was

Shakespeare the ink on Venus and Adonis

was barely dry before something else

happened

a flood of new plays hit the London

stage Henry VI 6 Titus adronicus Richard

III plays filled with the kind of

linguistic Firepower that only one man

had ever mastered plays bursting with

Marlo

signatures his themes power ambition

fate but the name at the top of the page

William

Shakespeare within months of Marlo's

death his words didn't just survive they

took over because Christopher Marlo

didn't die in depford he was just

getting

started if Christopher Marlo had truly

died in that depford lodging house in

1593 then what happened next should have

been impossible

instead of Fading Into history as a

brilliant but doomed playwright

something far stranger occurred his

words refused to die a literary Phantom

began weaving itself into the fabric of

English theater as if Marlo's pen had

never stopped moving the same bold

themes the same masterful use of blank

verse the same audacity of Storytelling

but now under a different name William

Shake spe the marlovian theory suggests

that Marlo facing imminent execution was

smuggled out of England to where Italy

perhaps where many of Shakespeare's

plays just happen to be set a

coincidence or a breadcrumb

trail because here's the thing

Shakespeare the so-called Bard should

not have known what he knew before

Marlo's death William Shakespeare was a

nobody a commoner from Stratford with no

record of higher education no extensive

travels no formal legal or political

training and yet suddenly this man this

Glover's son was Penning plays dripping

with knowledge of the Italian

aristocracy Continental politics legal

doctrines and classical literature that

could only have come from someone

extensively trained in these subjects

Marlo had that training

Shakespeare nothing and yet from

1594 to 1597 the years immediately

following Marlo's

disappearance Shakespeare's Works

explode onto the London

stage and what do these play sound like

Marlo the same Cadence the same Rhythm

the same linguistic fingerprints even

stranger some of Shakespeare's phrases

appear lifted straight St from Marlo's

earlier works as if the same mind was

Recycling and refining old

ideas was this just influence or was it

something

more for those who know where to look

The Shakespearean plays containing Clues

tiny breadcrumbs Left Behind like a

ghost teasing at its presence in as you

like it the phrase dead Shepherd appears

an unusual phrase

except for one detail Marlo had long

been known as The Shepherd of poets a

morbid joke or a

signature in love's labors lost there is

a reference to navari one of the very

places Marlo was rumored to have fled

after his stage death and then there's

the first folio published in

1623 the collection of Shakespeare's

plays but this book isn't just a

literary masterpiece P it's a mess

spelling errors inconsistencies in

authorship stylistic shifts between

plays that make no sense for a single

writer Some Scholars argue this is

because the plays weren't written by one

person or worse they weren't supposed to

be published at all because maybe the

first folio wasn't a celebration of

Shakespeare maybe it was a cover up a

final attempt to seal Marlo's words

under the wrong name forever

oh great so now we've got a litery deep

fake from the

1600s classic hey guys let's slap a fake

name on these plays and hope nobody

notices for 400 years but let's be real

if this was just a case of some Rando

borrowing a few of Marlo's ideas fine

but we're talking about a guy with no

record of writing anything zero nada

zilch ly busting out the greatest works

of literature ever written I don't care

how much ale you drink that doesn't

happen overnight either Shakespeare was

a time traveler an alien or more likely

the greatest literary fraud in history

and if that's true then every play every

Sonet every word we've ever attributed

to Shakespeare belongs to a dead man

[Music]

now let's play a little game a challenge

if you will I'm going to show you a line

from one of the greatest works in the

English language and I want you to guess

who wrote it Marlo or

Shakespeare trust your gut because what

you're about to see might just change

the way you look at history forever

I am enamored of my own

Misfortune a brooding introspective

lament about fate and suffering sounds

like Shakespeare right that deep tragic

self-awareness well it's not this line

belongs to Marlo but don't worry that

was just a

warm-up there is no Darkness but

ignorance a sharp philosophical

statement clean Timeless pure

Shakespeare

right this one was Shakespeare but hold

on to that thought we're just getting

started a cursed be he that first

invented War a curse against violence

dripping with righteous Fury sounds like

something straight out of Shakespeare's

Henry V before battle doesn't it

but again it's Marlo almost as if

Shakespeare wasn't the only one writing

these kinds of

lines cry havoc and let slip the dogs of

war ah now this one you know the famous

call to chaos the fury before the storm

this has to be Shakespeare doesn't

it and it is but here's the thing

this doesn't exist in a vacuum just four

years earlier Marlo was writing the same

kind of battlecries the same Grand

poetic curses on war and no one blinked

when Shakespeare suddenly perfected

it thou art a soul in Bliss but I am

bound upon a wheel of

fire suffering the weight of Fate The

Eternal punishment of a man lost in his

own despair Shakespeare at his finest

right

now compare it to

this why this is Hell nor am I out of

it same Agony same existential torment

but this one written by a man who

supposedly died before King Lear was

even a

thought let's do just one

more was this the f face that launched a

thousand

ships you've heard this before one of

the most famous lines in all of English

literature surely this has to be

[Music]

Shakespeare but it's not this line so

embedded in our cultural memory isn't

Shakespeare at all it belongs to a man

who according to history was already

dead so if Marlo was already writing l

fit for Shakespeare's Legacy why would

the world need Shakespeare at

all the marlovian theory has been

dismissed as nothing more than a

literary conspiracy a game for eccentric

academics in overzealous

researchers critics scoff wave their

hands and say there's no proof Marlo

survived and that's the argument not

that Shakespeare was undeniably the

rider not that Marlo couldn't have

pulled it off just that there's no hard

proof but let's look at their so-called

evidence they claim Shakespeare's name

is on the place well no kidding if the

deception was planned at the highest

levels do you really think they leave

Marlo's name on them

that's like expecting a spy to sign his

real name on a forged passport they

argue that Shakespeare's writing evolved

Beyond Marlo's influence okay fine but

what if the real reason for that

Evolution was just time Marlo wasn't a

stagnant writer if he was alive writing

in secret of course his style would

shift of course it would deepen he

wasn't coping Marlo he was

Marlo and the biggest one the dagger

they always reach for is that there are

no official records of Marlo after

1593 but let's think about that for a

second if the entire point was to erase

him why would there

be let's set aside theories for a moment

and just focus on cold hard facts fact

before

1593 Shakespeare was nobody no

documented literary experience no formal

education Beyond grammar school no

evidence that he had ever left England

or studied foreign courts yet his Works

were drenched in legal philosophical and

cultural expertise fact the very year

Marlo dies Shakespeare bursts onto the

scene fully formed already a master of

the craft fact the earliest Shakespeare

works are practically indistinguishable

from

Marlo's in fact Marlo had every reason

to disappear he was a Target he was

dangerous he was too valuable to kill

outright yet the Skeptics look at all

this and say nope just a

coincidence oh right of course the guy

just woke up one day had a divine

revelation and started writing like the

greatest literary mind in history no

training no record no evidence of study

just straight up downloaded Marlo's

entire skill set like some Elizabethan

Matrix nonsense I bet he also invented

calculus in his spare time and

discovered a cure for the plague give me

a

break Ian the most damning part even

after all the arguments all the

so-called debunking there's one thing

the critics can't explain not a single

letter not a single manuscript not a

single person document from

Shakespeare's own hand proving he ever

wrote

anything Christopher Marlo the playright

vanished William Shakespeare the

playright appeared and the world never

questioned it until

now for for over 400 years William

Shakespeare has been celebrated as the

greatest writer in the English language

The Bard of Avon the genius the

unparalleled master of

Storytelling his works are taught in

every major university performed in

every major theater and quoted by people

who have no idea they're quoting

Shakespeare his plays Hamlet McBeth King

Lear are revered as the p of dramatic

writing his sonnets are held up as the

gold standard of poetic expression

entire academic Fields exist solely to

analyze his works and yet the very

things that made him great the explosive

use of blank verse the political

Intrigue the philosophical depth just

happened to mirror the exact qualities

of Christopher Marlo's writing his

linguis IC fingerprints are all over

Shakespeare's works his themes his

obsessions his very Soul somehow carried

on under a different name and for

centuries no one questioned it instead

Scholars built libraries in

Shakespeare's honor monuments were

erected his birthplace in Stratford

became a shrine meanwhile Christopher

Marlo the man whose words may have

actually shaped history was buried in an

unmarked grave

forgotten and people say I have an ego

problem this guy allegedly stole the

greatest body of work in literary

history and got knighted as the greatest

writer of all time that's like stealing

the Mona Lisa and getting hired by the

Lou to paint more

unreal and the greatest irony if Marlo

truly was the man behind the curtain

then the most famous name in literature

belongs to a dead man

by now I think you know where I stand

but my goal here isn't to convince you

it never was my goal is to tell the

story to lay out the facts as I see them

and let you decide for yourself because

in the end that's what history is not

just a collection of names and dates but

a puzzle one where the missing pieces

are often more revealing than the ones

we're given so ask yourself if

everything we know about the greatest

literary figure in history was built on

a deception what else have we blindly

accepted for centuries entire

institutions have been built on the

works of a man who may have never

written a single word academic careers

literary movements the very Foundation

of English literature itself anchored to

a name that may have been nothing more

than a

mask meanwhile Christopher Marlo perhaps

the true mind behind it all was erased

reduced to a footnote a tragic Prodigy

cut down too soon his Brilliance

Stripped Away his legacy handed to

another this isn't just about

Shakespeare this is about history itself

how easy it is to rewrite how simple it

is to bury a man and replace him with an

illusion and how quickly we

forget but if Marlo truly was the Mind

behind the curtain if he was forced to

watch his words claimed by another while

he lived in Exile unrecognized and

unheard perhaps we owe him something not

Justice because history rarely offers

that but

recognition so for the man who may have

given us the greatest words ever written

words that the world would never truly

know were his perhaps it's only fitting

to give him the last oh Hollow name thou

thief of voice and verse DST wear my

words like stolen blood wrought gold yet

time that leprous Rogue shall lift the

curse and Truth unshroud the bones long

left

Untold though Kings May kneel to ghosts

that wear my face the quill shall

whisper whom the world bet bet

tray the irony if Marlo was the true

writer behind Shakespeare's works then

even this verse belongs to him and if

that's true then William Shakespeare

never existed not as a playwright not as

a poet not as a legend just a name a lie

a shadow cast by a man the world was

never supposed to remember

all right folks you made it to the end

I'm Ralph that's wendo who by the way is

still salty about Humanity in general

and this has been another crazy ride on

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[Music]

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[Music]