Shakespeare (1564-1616), a respected Elizabethan playwright and poet, was a contemporary of Christopher Marlowe.  Scholars believe Marlowe and Shakespeare likely knew each other because the worked in same field and their plays were produced around the same time.  Was Marlowe a spy and assinated at the request of the Crown? Some scholars believe that Marlowe's death was faked and that he went into hiding and, under the patronage of Thomas Walsingham. wrote plays attributed to Shakespeare. This wild theory is called the Marlovian Consipiracy.