Books: Whodunit?

THE MURDER OF THE MAN WHO WAS "SHAKESPEARE" (232 pp.)—Calvin Hoffman—Julian Messner ($3.95).

Did William Shakespeare write the works of William Shakespeare? Charles Dickens was positively jumpy about the problem: "The life of William Shakespeare is a fine mystery," he wrote, "and I tremble every day lest something should turn up." Among those who have gone further and insisted that William Shakespeare was a mere pen name are men as different as Mark Twain (a whole-hog Baconian), Sigmund Freud (he rooted for the Earl of Oxford), Bismarck, Walt Whitman, Oliver Wendell Holmes. In 1931, Britain's Gilbert Slater caused a flutter by declaring that Shakespeare was a seven-man syndicate consisting of Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, Lady Pembroke, Christopher Marlowe and the Earls of Oxford, Derby, Rutland.

Most plausible pretender to the throne of Shakespeare, on grounds of genius and style, is Marlowe. His claims have not been pressed, except in regard to Shakespeare's earliest work, for the reason that he died before most of Shakespeare's plays were written. Anti-Shakespearean students are prepared to believe almost anything, but none of them has ever suggested that Marlowe went on writing after he was dead. Heaven only knows why. Calvin Hoffman, a reporter, drama critic, Shakespearean scholar, is the first man to try to grasp this nettle firmly.

Could He Read? Author Hoffman, who spent 19 years digging up "evidence," believes that Christopher Marlowe fired every single shot in what is called "The Shakespeare Canon." The dedicated tenor of his writing indicates that he would far rather be burned at the stake than give up his stake in Marlowe.

Like all anti-Shakespeareans, Author Hoffman begins by arguing that William Shakespeare was too much of a booby to have written as well as he did. There was a flourishing grammar school at Stratford in Shakespeare's youth, but there is no record of Shakespeare's having attended it. Nor is there positive evidence that he went to Oxford or Cambridge (England's only two universities at that time). But could Shakespeare not have educated himself? Author Hoffman scoffs at the idea. "There were no public libraries ... no dictionaries ... no grammars."

Even if there were, Shakespeare was too "poverty-stricken" to chase around after them. What is more, church records show that by the age of 21, William Shakespeare was a married man with three children. His life, says Author Hoffman (who often writes as if Shakespeare had had many an off-the-record chat with him) was too "full of responsibility" to permit "the hours of solitude necessary for 'self-education.' "

Could Shakespeare read? The ability to read, after all, is about the only equipment, apart from being able to write, an author needs. Author Hoffman skips over this question, but he agrees that the records show that Shakespeare, in 1594, was listed "as an actor in the Lord Chamberlain's Company of Players." This suggests : (though not to Author Hoffman) that Shakespeare had at least learned to read well enough to master his parts.