Talk:Arden of Faversham

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[edit] University of Massachusetts and computer analysis

Firstly, the article double cites this, I have deleted the paragraph with less information in it, but changed the links as the one with less information links to the actual U of M website article.

Secondly, the article claims Shakespeare authorship based on "slender evidence", but this is perhaps misleading, for there is evidence both in favour for and against Shakespeare's authorship of the play, but one can argue that "the only reason for ascribing the play to Shakespeare is its merit" (quoted in Max Bluestone, 'The Imagery of Tragic Melodrama in Arden of Faversham). The U of M research may provide convincing evidence either way, but as yet there is no cited peer review of the research, and as per their website they may not necessarily have released the data yet (they're writing a book about it first). It seems hardly scholarly to cite such an article, especially when there are obvious problems such as no standardized text, rather edited amalgamations from the three Quartos. Thus it may well be a case of research showing what the researchers want to show. Will incorperate this into article and perhaps create a new section

[edit] Marlowe and Authorship

The actual murder of Arden had occurred a couple miles from the village of Ospringe, where, at the time of the murder, Christopher Marlowe’s father was growing up. There is a possible reference to Ospringe in Hamlet: Laertes (after being stabbed by his own poisoned sword):

  "...as a woodcock to mine own springe..."

Woodcock was the name of the printer who published Marlowe's "Hero and Leander" after his death.

The author of "Arden of Feversham" (Marlowe?) changed the name of one of the actual murderers from "Loosebag" to "Shakebag." This might have been a gibe at Shakespeare. "Shakespeare" was subject to phallic puns (one of his biographers mentioned a contemporary with that name who changed his name to avoid the ribald puns - could someone please supply the reference for this?). Shakespeare might have been replying to the Arden author's "Shakebag" when in King John he had King John tell the Bastard to "shake the bags of hoarding abbots" (again there is a possible pun on bags/scrotum). The Shakepeare/Shakebag connection is reinforced by the name of Shakebag's accomplice, "Black Will" (which was the unchanged name of one of the actual murderers) and by the fact that the victim (Arden) was a distant relative of Shakespeare.

Arden (in history and in the play) was murdered while "playing at tables" (backgammon). Christopher Marlowe was killed allegedly in self-defence after allegedly attacking two men (known to historians as low-life spies) while they were playing backgammon. Marlowe allegedly grabbed the dagger of one of the men and tried to stab him with it, but his dagger hand was forced back, fatally stabbing him in the eye. This has some similarity to the way Laertes was killed by his own sword ("as a woodcock to mine own springe"). Also, Claudius had said to Laertes:

It shall as level to your judgment pierce
As day does to your eye.

In "As You Like It," Touchstone says,

When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a
man's good wit seconded with the forward child
Understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a
great reckoning in a little room. 

Marlowe's death allegedly followed an argument over a tavern bill (a reckoning) and occurred in a small private room of the tavern. This also echoes Marlowe’s "infinite riches in a little room" in "The Jew of Malta" and is echoed by Laertes' "As for my means, they shall go far with little" in Hamlet. Also, poetry has been praised as the art of expressing great meaning with few words, although I don't know if that idea had been published by the time of Marlowe and Shakespeare.

It seemed to me that Shakebag had a personality similar to that of Falstaff (another phallic pun). Both were amoral, incompetent, buffoonish highwaymen. Falstaff died with a tavern reckoning in his pocket.

A useful reference is Nicholl's "The Reckoning," about Marlowe's death. Although he doesn't explicitly connect Marlowe's death with "Arden of Faversham" or with Shakespeare, he supplies many of the relevant facts. For instance, the fact that, in the Catholic underground, Lord Strange (possibly Shakespeare's first patron) was considered as a replacement for Queen Elizabeth and was code-named "the baker" (Ophelia: "They say the owl was a baker's daughter"). --Ray Eston Smith Jr 20:48, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

The author of Arden of Feversham didn't change the name of the killer from Loosebag to Shakebag. George Shakebag is the name that's used in Holinshed's Chronicles, the source the playwright was using. If we're going to say that Loosebag was the historical killer's name we probably ought to get a reference for that. Eupolis 17:32, 6 November 2006 (UTC)