I’m over at My Paranormal Book Reviews talking about Lizzy and Shakespeare and research and we wound up touching upon an issue that quite a few people have asked me about. What if Shakespeare wasn’t Shakespeare?
I love the concept of Lizzy and Dmitri being descendants of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Did this concept require a lot of research on your part?
It did actually. When I first decided that I wanted to write about the descendant of Shakespeare I went out and picked up a couple bios on him. I mean, I had read Shakespeare before – he’s one of my favorites – but I knew I was going to need a lot more information. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt was the most useful. It was a fantastic look at a man for whom there is not a ton of biographical information on. When I decided that my bad guy would be descended from Marlowe I read the World of Christopher Marlowe by David Riggs which was also a fantastic bio. I wanted to avoid the “conspiracy theorists” who like to say that they were the same person – which in my opinion is pure nonsense.
Okay so seriously, these people really exist. There are Oxfordians who believe that Shakespeare was the Earl of Oxford. Seen the movie Anonymous anyone? I hear that is the bunk it’s pedaling. I’m far too much of a Stratfordian to watch it.
And then even worse are the Marlovians. They are the people who believe that Kit Marlowe faked his own death and then re-imagined himself as Shakespeare.
They claim his pseudonym comes from the following lines in Tamburlaine: “Thy words are swords. Shaking their swords, their spear.”
Get it? Shake? Speare?
Yeah…..and just for the record the Earl of Oxford died in 1604. The Tempest, Shakespeare’s last play included a famous shipwreck which took place in 1609 and in 1610 pamphlets were written outlining what happened which he probably used for source material. So I guess the Earl was writing from beyond the grave.
Cause you know that makes way more sense than Shakespeare having just EXISTED.
All the same, thanks to the lovely Shar at My Paranormal Book Reviews for taking the time to talk with me. She gets some Starburst.
Ally Malinenko 