Monday, February 22, 2021

Shakespeare Apocrypha - Double Falsehood

I've just finished reading Double Falsehood. This is a play from 1727 by the writer Lewis Theobald. However, he claimed it was based upon a work originally penned by William Shakespeare.


It was a really enjoyable and quick read. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. The style of the writing wasn't like Shakespeare, but the general structure of the play fits the mould. Theobald claimed to have "revised and adapted" it, supposedly from three different manuscripts, so it would make sense that the text would be smoothed over and modernised a bit. Especially with it being performed on stage.

It's quite a bold claim though, and you'd have thought someone would have preserved the originals. If anything just to prove the claim, which was contested at the time. So doubt is probably the most sensible course of action.

Either way it now means I've read all these apocrypha works. I can now move on to the remaining works that were actually by Shakespeare. I've managed to keep this post short too for a change :)

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