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]