Home A Note to Teachers
		Pre-Viewing Lesson Plans Pre-Viewing Discussion Questions Preparation for Viewing
		Post-Viewing Lesson Plans Debriefing Discussion Help with Reading Poetry Which Text Should We Read? Parodies of Shakespeare Further Activities with Language
		Internet Resources
		Student Assignment Sheets Shakespeare's Language (with answers) Viewing Worksheet How to Read a Poem Some Sonnets by Shakespeare To Be or Not To Be -- Three Versions

Some people and ideas you will confront in the documentary:

Calvin Hoffman's book challenging Shakespeare's authorship was the inspiration for filmmaker Michael Rubbo's interest in the authorship controversy. Hoffman believed that Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare's contemporary, was the author of the plays.

• How does Hoffman explain Marlowe's apparent death in a tavern in Deptford in 1593?
  
• What political forces would have made Marlowe fake his own death? (If you have time, look up the "free thinkers" and the Privy Council of Renaissance England.)
  
• Where does Hoffman (and Rubbo) believe Marlowe ended up?
  

. . . . .

John Baker from Centralia, Wash. (near Seattle) is a Marlovian.

• What are some of the points he makes, especially regarding the literacy of Shakespeare and Shakespeare's daughters?
  
• What is the point Baker makes about Shakespeare's lack of education and library?
  

. . . . .

Dolly Walker-Wraight from England is the "grande-dame" of the Marlovians.

• What does Walker-Wraight say about the lack of notice and praise when Shakespeare died?
  
• Why does she think this is important?
  

. . . . .

Professor Jonathan Bate is a Stratfordian, or supporter of Shakespeare as the author.

• How does he respond to Walker-Wraight's point about Shakespeare's death going unremarked?
  
• How does he respond to Rubbo in general?
  

. . . . .

Charles Nicholl is the author of The Reckoning, and is an anti-Marlovian.

• What does he report about Marlowe's heresies?
  

. . . . .

BIG QUESTIONS to think about after viewing the documentary:

• What do you think about Rubbo's theory? Could the voices in the plays be a collaboration, with the high, learned ones coming from Marlowe and the lower ones, representing "the heart and soul of merry England," coming from Shakespeare?
  
  
• Was Shakespeare then the "hidden partner" as Rubbo suggests?
  
  
• Why does this 400-year old mystery still evoke such passionate responses?
  
  

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