PLEASE NOTE. Since writing this, I have learned exactly who Monsieur Le Doux was, and it certainly was not Christopher Marlowe. I have left this chapter in place, however, partly for historical interest, and partly as an excellent example of confirmation bias in action!

SHAKESPEARE'S NEW COLLABORATOR?

The poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare demonstrate a powerful intellect, backed up by extraordinary learning and a wide exposure to what goes on at the very top of political, scientific, philosophical and artistic society. There is, however, no evidence at all of the man from Stratford having had any such ability, contacts or experience. We know nothing of his schooling, nothing of any source for his reading, and we know that he did not go to University. We have no evidence at all of any familiarity with the aristocracy, with high level statesmen, or with the top thinkers, artists, scientists, explorers, poets or musicians of the time. With Marlowe we certainly do, in every case.

There is no actual evidence of Shakespeare having written anything at all before his thirtieth year when, immediately following Marlowe's death, brilliant poetry and some two or three plays a year started flowing from his pen. What was he doing before that? And how is it that the Sonnets reflect nothing of what we know about the Stratford Shakespeare? Saying that they were not intended to be autobiographical must surely be a reaction to this strange gap, rather than a genuine response to the poems themselves.

On the other hand, there is no need to assume because of this that William Shakespeare of Stratford was incapable of writing plays. There appears to have been no doubt expressed at the time that he was a playwright, and this is apparentlyly backed up by the evidence of the First Folio and the Stratford monument. It seems most probable that he presented himself as the sole author of them at the time, and was sufficiently educated, and familiar with their content, to convince others that this was the case.

However, it is generally accepted that he collaborated with another writer both at the start and at the end of his career, so why not for the rest of the time?

Most commentators acknowledge the enormous debt owed by Shakespeare to Christopher Marlowe. As I mentioned earlier, Jonathan Bate's latest book, The Genius of Shakespeare, has a whole Chapter devoted to this fact. In this, he shows how Shakespeare first tended to imitate Marlowe, then parody him, and finally to improve upon his approach. This, I suggest, would have been all the more probable had they been working together on the plays. Now, with the evidence of Marlowe's survival, we can see that this would indeed have been possible.

The huge question this begs, of course, is the nature of that collaboration. How much of the result was Marlowe, and how much Shakespeare?

THE BOOKLIST

Let us see whether Le Doux's relatively short booklist supports the idea that Marlowe had an input to those plays that we think of as Shakespeare's.

It certainly does. Two thirds of Shakespeare's plays have had books from this list cited as being among their sources.

• Hecatommithi, by Cinthio, a collection of Italian stories which includes Disdemona and the Moor (Othello of course (1)) and I and Epitia (Measure for Measure(2)).

• Tasso's Conquest of Jerusalem and Jerusalem Delivered (a source for Cymbeline (3)), for each of which there are two copies - one in Italian, one French.

• The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) by Castiglione, a major influence for Much Ado About Nothing, and source of the play's two main characters, Beatrice and Benedick. (4) Le Doux has versions of this in three different languages.

• Montaigne's Essays, mentioned in connection with The Tempest (5), King Lear (6), The Winter's Tale (7) and Hamlet (8).

• La Semaine by du Bartas, contributing to Venus and Adonis (9), Romeo and Juliet (10) and The Winter's Tale (11). This version is in the original French, which would not be translated into English for another two years, although the first two of these Shakespeare works were already written.

• It has been suggested (12) that the Familiar Epistles of Antonio de Guevara provided the name Titus Andronicus.

• The works of Tacitus are cited as a source for Henry V and for Julius Cæsar. (13)

• The Aethiopica by Heliodorus is mentioned in connection with Twelfth Night (V.1.115-7), and Cymbeline . (14)

Two enormous influences on the work of William Shakespeare were the Roman dramatists Terence and Plautus. Sure enough, we find them in Le Doux's collection too.

• Terence in Latin, Italian and French. He has been mentioned particularly in connection with Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, (15) All's Well that Ends Well , (16) The Comedy of Errors (17) and The Taming of the Shrew . (18)

• Comedie di Plauto (comedies by Plautus), sources for The Comedy of Errors (19), The Merchant of Venice (20) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (21). Plautus is also credited with having a particular influence on: The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labours Lost, Romeo and Juliet , Henry IV (parts 1 & 2), Henry V, As You Like It , Twelfth Night, Measure For Measure, All's Well that Ends Well, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale and Cymbeline. (22)

There are also several books which, although not specifically named as sources, may well have also had a significant contribution to make.

• Wecker's Medicinæ. In his Shakespeare and Medicine, picking out more than 450 'major' medical references in Shakespeare, Simpson says that Shakespeare "shows not only an astute knowledge of medical affairs, but also a keen sense of the correct use of that knowledge". (23) Wecker's huge tome is precisely the sort of work to have provided such learning.

• Cæsar's Commentaries, in Latin and French, in fact mentioned by name in Henry VI (part 2), (24) and books by the Roman historian Sallust, in both Latin and Italian. Sallust was particularly good on political personalities, corruption and party rivalries. (25) There are also 'lives' of Julius Cæsar and histories of the Roman Empire.

• The Bible, both complete versions and extracts, referred to by Shakespeare in virtually every scene. (26)

• At least eight 'language' books helping to boost his phenomenal vocabulary.

• The Adventures of Antonio Perez. An autobiography of Bacon's friend, using the name Raphael Peregrino, who is listed as one of Le Doux's correspondents, and who has been said to be the original model for Don Armado in Love's Labours Lost. (27)

NOTES AND REFERENCES (SECTION 4)

1 M. R. Ridley, ed. Othello, Moor of Venice (1958) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.xv. and E.A.J. Honigmann, ed. Othello (1997) The Arden Shakespeare, Thomas Nelson, p.2. Honigmann shows very clearly how the versions used by Shakespeare certainly included one in Italian, as this one is.

2 J. W. Lever, ed. Measure for Measure (1965) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.xxxv.

3 A Shakespeare Encyclopædia (1966) Methuen. p.852.

4 A. R. Humphreys, ed. Much Ado About Nothing (1981) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.15. He says that Beatrice and Benedick are based on Lady Emilia Pia and Pallavicino in this work, and (p.16) that it was the "seminal inspiration" for the play as a whole.

5 Frank Kermode, ed. The Tempest (1954) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.xliv.

6 Kenneth Muir, ed. King Lear (1952) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.249. and R.A. Foakes, ed. King Lear (1997) The Arden Shakespeare, Thomas Nelson & sons. pp.104-5.

7 J. H. P. Pafford, ed. The Winter's Tale (1963) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.xxxvi.

8 Harold Jenkins, ed. Hamlet (1982) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.108.

9 Sir George Greenwood, The Shakespeare Problem Restated (1908) London. p.123.

10 Brian Gibbons, ed. Romeo and Juliet (1980) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.185n.

11 Greenwood, op. cit. p.433.

12 Jonathan Bate, ed. Titus Andronicus (1997), The Arden Shakespeare, Thomas Nelson. pp.93-4. Titus and Andronicus were the main characters in one of Guevara's stories. This might also explain Philip Henslowe's calling it titus & ondronicus in his diary.

13 G. Blakemore Evans, ed. The Riverside Shakespeare (1974), Houghton Mifflin, Boston. p.83.

14 J. M. Nosworthy, ed. Cymbeline (1974), (1955) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.189. Nosworthy suggests that it was Underdowne's translation used by Shakespeare, but the stronger of the four connections could certainly be from the (Spanish) translation possessed by Le Doux, whereas the remaining two - related to Underdowne - are very weak indeed.

15 Murray Hartman, in A Shakespeare Encyclopædia, op. cit., p.864, said that both Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream had part of their plot from Terence's Andria.

16 G. K. Hunter, ed. All's Well that Ends Well (1959) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen.

17 R. A. Foakes, ed. The Comedy of Errors (1962) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.xxxiii note.

18 Brian Morris, ed. The Taming of the Shrew (1981) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.79.

19 R. A. Foakes, op. cit. pp.xxiv & xxvii.

20 Murray Hartman, op. cit. p.635.

21 H. J. Oliver, ed. The Merry Wives of Windsor (1971) The Arden Shakespeare, Methuen. p.lix.

22 Murray Hartman, op. cit., p.635, also said that "The plays of Shakespeare show Plautine evidence down to the very end of his literary activity." We should perhaps mention the Commedia Erudata, which was popular in Italy at this time. This was the performance, usually by non-professionals, of plays (either in Latin or Italian) based upon classical writers, such as Plautus or Terence. Le Doux possessed copies of the comedies of Plautus in Italian, and those of Terence in both Italian and Latin. Perhaps he had attended, or even performed in, such events?

23 R. R. Simpson, Shakespeare and Medicine (1959), Livingstone, London, p.113. Simpson also demolishes the theory that Shakespeare must have picked up his knowledge from his son-in-law John Hall. "Romeo and Juliet alone shows us quite clearly that Shakespeare had no need of any help from John Hall, either in the knowledge of drugs or the pharmacology of them, as it was understood in his day." (p.118). The play was written at least 5 years before Hall's arrival in Stratford, and 12 years before his marriage to William's daughter, Susanna.

24 2 Henry VI, IV.vii.59-60.

25 Ibid.

26 Robert C. Fox, in The Shakespeare Encyclopædia, op. cit. p.70.

27 A. L. Rowse, Shakespeare's Characters (1984) Methuen p.12. Rowse puts it with typical vehemence: "This incontestable identification was made by Martin Hume, historian of Spain, at the beginning of the century, but has hardly even yet entered the closed minds of literary Shakespeareans".