Double Falsehood, or Distressed Lovers, is actually written by Shakespeare and his regular collaborator John Fletcher, and was originally produced under the name, The History of Cardenio, performed in 1613, Prof. Brean Hammond of the University of Nottingham revealed on Tuesday. He said he had spent the past 10 years researching the origins of the play.
The play, called Double Faleshood till now, has been regarded as a literary hoax by 18th century scholar Lewis Theobald, who had claimed it was a reworking of an original play by Shakespeare. Theobald had also claimed that he had three original Shakespeare manuscripts of the play, which are now lost.
“Ever since Wednesday 13 December 1727, when Lewis Theobald mounted at Drury Lane Theatre a play entitled Double Falshood; Or, the Distressed Lovers, claiming it to be his version of a lost original by William Shakespeare, there has been scepticism about the play’s status. The early consensus, however, was that Theobald had either forged it or passed it off as written by Shakespeare when it clearly was not Shakespeare’s work,” Prof. Hammond said.
The play, which was published on Monday by the acclaimed Shakespeare publishers, Arden, is now available for the first time in 250 years in a fully annotated text. The introduction by Prof. Hammond has all the latest evidence, both historical research and textual investigations, to link it to Shakespeare. Prof. Hammond believes he has found credible evidence that links Theobald’s play to Shakespeare’s “lost play.”
“As the 20th century progressed, however, a gradual trickle of belief — not in the idea that the play as it stands is Shakespeare, or even Shakespeare edited by Theobald — but in a much more complex story, developed into an irresistible flood,” Prof. Hammond explained.
“Here is a true Shakespeare mystery for an age addicted to fictional mysteries attached to him,” Arden’s general editor, Prof. Richard Proudfoot, said. “The Arden Shakespeare Third Series has chosen to include collaborative plays from outside the 1623 canon and the inclusion of Double Falsehood is our most controversial decision,” he added.
Double Falsehood, in true Shakespeare tradition, is about two contrasting beautiful female protagonists — one lowborn and one of higher birth but not aristocratic; and two contrasting leading men, one of modest birth, full of honour and probity, and the other an aristocratic villain.
Age Correspondent