Ex Post Facto Writing

In Peter Rainer’s review of Derek Jarman’s marvelous film version of Christopher Marlowe’s play, “Edward II” (“An Audacious Slant on ‘Edward II,’ ” April 10), there is a fascinating mistake that leads one to a quite startling conclusion.

Marlowe was murdered May 30, 1593, but, according to Rainer, the Elizabethan spy and playwright’s dramatic version of the 14th-Century homosexual King of England was written the very next year, leaving only one assumption: Someone else wrote the works of Marlowe! And, as historical controversy still swirls around the notion that someone other than William Shakespeare wrote the works of Shakespeare, may I be the first to offer this opinion: Shakespeare wrote the works of Marlowe, specifically “Edward II”! Naturally, I have written a screenplay that supports this proposition.

DALE REYNOLDS, Producer

Attitude! Films

Los Angeles

Editor’s note: While Marlowe died in 1593, the play was apparently not published until 1594, with the earliest surviving edition based on the Octavo of 1594. Only one copy of the Octavo is known to exist. It’s in Zurich, Switzerland.