Double Falsehood: Third Series

Description

On December 1727 an intriguing play called Double Falshood; Or, The Distrest Lovers was presented for production by Lewis Theobald, who had it published in January 1728 after a successful run at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. The title page to the published version claims that the play was 'Written Originally by W.SHAKESPEARE'. Double Falsehood's plot is a version of the story of Cardenio found in Cervantes's Don Quixote (1605) as translated by Thomas Shelton, published in 1612 though in circulation earlier. Documentary records testify to the existence of a play, certainly performed in 1613, by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, probably entitled The History of Cardenio and presumed to have been lost. The audience in 1727 would certainly have recognised stage situations and dramatic structures and patterns reminiscent of those in Shakespeare's canonical plays as well as many linguistic echoes. This intriguing complex textual and performance history is thoroughly explored and debated in this fully annotated edition, including the views of other major Shakespeare scholars. The illustrated introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the debates and opinions surrounding the play and the text is fully annotated with detailed commentary notes as in any Arden edition.

Brean Hammond is Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Nottingham

'The publication of Theobald's adaptation in the Arden Shakespeare series is to be welcomed.' * Jonathan Bate, Daily Telegraph * 'For most of the three centuries since its debut, Double Falsehood; or, the Distrest Lovers has been ridiculed as a hoax or just disregarded. Yesterday that changed when The Arden Shakespeare, one of the best regarded scholarly editions of Shakespeare's plays, published Double Falsehood, endorsing its credentials and making it available for the first time in 250 years.' * The Times * 'The play's 'bardic provenance' has been given fresh credibility by publishers Arden, who have included it in a new series of Shakespeare's work. The publication of the play, which is bound to spark heated scholarly discussion, comes after a ten year mission to crack a literary mystery by Professor Brean Hammond, of Nottingham University.' * Daily Mail * 'Professor Brean Hammond will publish compelling new evidence next week that the play is.. substantially based on a real Shakespeare play called Cardenio. Hammond has been backed in his assertion by the Shakespeare published Arden...' * The Guardian * 'This week, British publishers Arden Shakespeare published the play for the first time in 250 years with evidence Hammond has gathered over the past decade that shows Shakespeare's hand in the work, which was co-written by John Fletcher.' * CNN.com * 'Play, possibly reworked from Shakespeare, is added to a literary collection:: A play from the 1700s contains reworked material of Shakespeare's has gained a qualified endorsement from the Arden Shakespeare, a scholarly anthology of that playwright's work.' * New York Times * '...a thorough and judicious account of the relevant scholarship....Brean Hammond's excellent edition is indispensable.' * Times Literary Supplement (May 2010) * 'The play was recently published by the Arden Shakespeare, for the first time in 250 years, with evidence Prof Hammond has gathered over the past decade that shows Shakespeare's hand in the work.' * Birmingham Post (July 2010) * 'It is brilliant and unusual; the Bard's style and influence seemed irrefutable...even though there is a darker twist to the dialogue and plot than one might expect from him immediately.' * The Observer (January 2011) *