Part 6-- The Murder of the Poet Christopher Marlowe

In this post, I am going to take a little break from solving and posting messages.  I am going to backtrack a little and discuss some of the implications of my most recent posts about messages in the play As You Like It alluding to the murder of the poet Christopher Marlowe.

If my hypothesis is correct and the play As You Like It actually does contain hidden messages about the murder of the poet Christopher Marlowe, does that conclusion actually make sense in the context of other parts of the play?  I believe it does.

Here is an example.  In Act II, scene vii, the old Duke is looking for Jaques and this dialogue appears:

Scena Septima.

972

Enter Duke Sen. & Lord, like Out-lawes.

973   Du.Sen. I thinke he be transform'd into a beast,

974For I can no where finde him, like a man.

975   1.Lord. My Lord, he is but euen now gone hence,

976Heere was he merry, hearing of a Song.

977   Du.Sen. If he compact of iarres, grow Musicall,

978We shall haue shortly discord in the Spheares:

979Go seeke him, tell him I would speake with him.

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/AYL/F1/scene/2.7 (underlining added.)

The first statement of the old Duke is consistent with the puzzle and solution I have shown in my previous posts.  The puzzle clues in those posts sent us to the brook in Act II, scene i, where the characters describe Jaques’ reaction to the plight of a wounded stag that had come to hide near a brook in the forest.  We manipulated the page to make the fool Jaques metaphorically look into the brook.  So what would you expect him to see reflected in the brook?  He would see:

A reflection of himself (i.e., his own figure);

Because he is a fool, he would also see a fool;

Because he is a fool, he would see a “cipher”; an unimportant person;

He would see the reflection of the stag—called the “hairy fool” (which a fool could easily confuse with his own reflection);

He would see “Marlowe” (i.e., Christopher Marlowe);

And, possibly, he could be said to see an allegory or “figure” of Marlowe’s death.

(By the way, by "looking" into the puzzle of the brook, I suppose the decipherer (i.e., me) is made into a fool too.)  

Based on the above, it can be concluded that Christopher Marlowe is being equated with a fool (or a “hairy fool”) and the mortally wounded stag.  Thus, the stag is interchangeable with Jaques the fool and Marlowe the fool.

Therefore, it is fitting that the old Duke states “I thinke he be transform'd into a beast,

For I can no where finde him, like a man.”  In the puzzle, but not the plain text of the play, it can be said that Jaques was, in his foolish perception, transformed into an animal—the stag.  It can also be said that Marlowe was transformed into the stag as well, and that he cannot be found in Act II, scene I, “like a man.”

The scene in Act II, scene vii, continues with Jaques’ entrance.  Here is the text, followed by my observations about its meaning.

980                                 Enter Iaques.

981     1.Lord. He saues my labor by his owne approach.

982     Du.Sen. Why how now Monsieur, what a life is this

983That your poore friends must woe your companie,

984What, you looke merrily.

985     Iaq. A Foole, a foole: I met a foole i'th Forrest,

986A motley Foole (a miserable world:)

987As I do liue by foode, I met a foole,

988Who laid him downe, and bask'd him in the Sun,

989And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good termes,

990In good set termes, and yet a motley foole.

991Good morrow foole (quoth I:) no Sir, quoth he,

992Call me not foole, till heauen hath sent me fortune,

993And then he drew a diall from his poake,

994And looking on it, with lacke-lustre eye,

995Sayes, very wisely, it is ten a clocke:

996Thus we may see (quoth he) how the world wagges:

997'Tis but an houre agoe, since it was nine,

998And after one houre more, 'twill be eleuen,

999And so from houre to houre, we ripe, and ripe,

1000And then from houre to houre, we rot, and rot,

1001And thereby hangs a tale. When I did heare

1002The motley Foole, thus morall on the time,

1003My Lungs began to crow like Chanticleere,

1004That Fooles should be so deepe contemplatiue:

1005And I did laugh, sans intermission

1006An houre by his diall. Oh noble foole,

1007A worthy foole: Motley's the onely weare.

1008    Du.Sen. What foole is this?

1009    Iaq. O worthie Foole: One that hath bin a Courtier

1010And sayes, if Ladies be but yong, and faire,

1011They haue the gift to know it: and in his braiue,

1012Which is as drie as the remainder bisket

1013After a voyage: He hath strange places cram'd

1014With obseruation, the which he vents

1015In mangled formes. O that I were a foole,

1016I am ambitious for a motley coat.

1017    Du.Sen. Thou shalt haue one.

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/AYL/F1/scene/2.7

What is Jaques’ first line?  He says: “A Foole, a foole: I met a foole i'th Forrest[!]…”  Who is Jaques talking about?  Is he referring to Touchstone the fool or Marlowe the fool?  Touchstone’s name is never mentioned.  There is no previous scene to this showing Jaques meeting Touchstone.  How does Jaques describe the fool he met?  Jaques says that the fool “laid him downe, and bask’d him in the Sun.”  This is consistent with Marlowe waiting in the Sun in a forrest for someone or something.  It might also allude to him being attacked and murdered, or “laid down.”  The fool is described as having a “lacke-luster eye.”  Marlowe was killed by a dagger strike through his eye.  Jaques says the fool talked about people getting ripe and rotting, which is what happens to a dead body—a murder victim.  The fool is a courtier.  His brain (misspelled braiue) is “as drie as the remainder bisket After a voyage.”  (I do not want to be too graphic, but Marlowe did suffer a horrendous fatal wound through the eye to the brain.)  The fool is also described as “venting” his thoughts “In mangled forms.”  Again, he suffered a horrendous wound to the head, so an allusion to that is consistent. Also, Marlowe was about to appear before the Privy Council and his fate was uncertain, so he would have been in a highly agitated mental state.

I suspect the rest of Jaques description may be a clue to another puzzle, which I have not had the time to work on.

In conclusion, the scene discussed above is consistent with a hidden message about Marlowe’s murder and the puzzle I solved in Act II, scene I, about Jaques and the stag.