William Shakespeare's works need no introduction, his plays are the most performed times ever, and Shakespeare is considered the most important writer in Western literature. Generations of book collectors and antique collectors have searched everywhere for materials related to this great man, some of which have become even more precious because they are very scarce.
If a new, unknown Shakespeare play could be discovered 400 years from now, it would be of great literary, academic and antique research value. So is there such an opportunity? The answer is yes, there are indeed two missing Shakespeare works, one called The Triumph of Love and the other called Cardanue.
These two lost works are mentioned in almost all shakespeare biographies, and they are officially recorded as "Shakespeare's Lost Plays". How were these two works lost? What evidence is there to prove their existence? Where could they possibly be hidden?
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > The First Folio</h1>
Seven years after Shakespeare's death, in 1623, someone compiled his works and published a collection of plays called the First Folio.
The First Folio
The First Folio, actually titled The Comedies, Historical Dramas and Tragedies of Mr. William Shakespeare, is printed in folios and includes 36 of Shakespeare's works. All the works included in this collection are regarded by posterity as Shakespeare's classics.
However, this is not all of Shakespeare's works, and there are some parts that are not included in the First Folio, such as "Prince of Thiel with Chris". The plays were published independently of the First Folio, usually in a cheap four-folio format.
Four folio forms
So to know what Shakespeare wrote, perhaps look up the four-folio and folio books and see which one has his name on it. However, it is not so simple.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > irregular publishing world</h1>
In the late Elizabethan era of British publishing was not very regulated, it was common for part-time writers to collaborate with other writers. And when Shakespeare first came to London to start writing in the 1580s and early 1580s and early 90s, he was probably just a part-time writer. Many of Shakespeare's plays that are not included in folios are considered shakespeare collaborations with others. In addition, at that time, even playwrights did not have the same identity as today's writers. So Much of Shakespeare's early works were probably anonymous.
Young Shakespeare
Later, when Shakespeare became a famous playwright, his works began to gain popularity. However, during his lifetime, there was no copyright law. This makes it easy for other publishers and theater companies to perform, plagiarize, or even copy his work outright without authorization. This also led to the fact that during Shakespeare's lifetime, his plays were rarely published.
At the same time, Shakespeare's success also stimulated unscrupulous writers and publishers who used other people's works to impersonate Shakespeare's works for profit. This problem continued into the 18th century, when counterfeit works appeared even when Shakespeare established his canonical status.
All of this makes it very difficult to find all of Shakespeare's works. Many clues may only exist in the publisher's catalog or some documentary records.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > two plays of legend</h1>
Francis Meles, a cleric and art lover during the Elizabethan period, published a book in 1598 entitled Paradis Tamia. There is a chapter in the book that compares classical and English writers, with a specific mention of Shakespeare, listing several of his plays, including one called The Triumph of Love. But he did not mention the source of the work, including the publisher and the specific date of its creation, the only thing known is that it was created by Shakespeare before 1598.
Paradis Tamia
This is not Meles's clerical error, as there is other evidence for the existence of Triumph of Love. In 1953, a list of works sold by a bookseller was found in the binding of a book dated 1603. Shakespeare's plays on this list include: The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of The Taming, The Futility of Love, and The Triumph of Love. This list proves that Triumph of Love was published in some form (possibly a four-folio) and could theoretically be found.
A list of works from 1603
However, this is not the only lost Shakespeare work, there is also a recognized lost play "Cardanue". According to documentary records, Shakespeare's King's Troupe performed the play called Cardaneau in 1613. And in September 1653, a London publisher had registered a theatrical version entitled "The History of Cardaneau, by Fletcher and Shakespeare".
Triumph of Love and Cardaneuux are two recognized lost Shakespeare plays that have not yet been found. So do we know what they all write?
The Futility of Love is one of Shakespeare's comedies, first published in 1598. At the end of the play, the possibility of a sequel is clearly left. After much misfortune and nonsense, the two couples are finally ready to get married, only the wedding is postponed for a year, and during this time the bride gives the groom some interesting tasks.
Stills from "The Futility of Love"
Many people think that the lost "Victory of Love" is a sequel to the show, it should have the same characters and a continuation of the plot. It was also in line with Shakespeare's habit of writing sequels that complemented the previous play with complementary or opposing themes.
Cardanus may be based on the story of Don Quixote of Cervantes. The story was translated into English at the time, and another author of the work, John Fletcher, was a fan of the story. The story is about a jealous husband who decides to test her virtue by convincing his best friend to seduce his wife. The result can be imagined, a tragic ending, and a little bloody. But this kind of ending was popular at the time.
The story of Don Quixote
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the original Cardanue manuscript that was burned</h1>
In Shakespeare's time, four-folio and folio were not always high-quality prints, especially cheap four-folio. And these scripts probably didn't receive much attention at the time. A script that is not popular may rarely be reprinted. Judging from the fact that these two lost works were not included in the first folio, it is likely that they were co-authored by Shakespeare or had copyright problems. These will affect their popularity, which in turn will affect the number of prints.
Stuart Kelly
As you can see from the list of booksellers found, some of each of these two works has been published. According to Stewart Kelly, author of The Lost Book, they all had at least 1,000 copies printed. So why are there no existing copies?
Cardaneau was performed by the King's Theatre, which performed at the Globe Theatre. However, in 1613, there was a fire at the Globe Theatre, and it is likely that the original Cardanue manuscript was burned. Unlike Cardanue, the whereabouts of Triumph of Love are much more complicated.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > where Is The Triumph of Love</h1>
There is a saying that goes like this. At that time, the four-folio version launched by the bookstore was of poor quality, equivalent to an Elizabethan pirated book, with confusing or even incorrect expressions. And this mistake may also include the title of the book: it uses a very long name, "The Futility of Love, the Triumph of Love." It's a name, not a representation of two plays. Eventually, after revising and renaming it, The Futility of Love was published. So the so-called Triumph of Love doesn't exist.
"The Futility of Love"
Another way of saying that "The Triumph of Love" may be some script that is already known. Depending on the time it appears on the bookseller list, the script is supposed to have been a comedy written before September 1598, and its themes or characters are likely to be related to The Futility of Love, though not necessarily a direct sequel. Scholars of Shakespeare carefully analyzed possible candidate repertoire based on these constraints.
The Taming of the Taming
First of all, both Taming and A Midsummer Night's Dream seem to be excluded, as they both appear on the list at the same time as Triumph of Love. "Finally Becoming a Family" is a candidate, and it has many similarities with "The Futility of Love". However, the script may have been completed as early as 1600.
"Everyone is Happy"
The title of "Everybody Rejoices" is likely to be the original subtitle of "The Triumph of Love", just as the full title of "Twelfth Night" is "Twelfth Night, or what you are going to do". The problem, however, is that Everybody Rejoices was completed in 1602.
Professor Leslie Hodson, a scholar of Shakespeare, believes that the apostrophe in Love's Labour's Lost in the Futility of Love may point us in the right direction. He considers the apostrophe after Labour to be an abbreviation for "is". In this way, the title can be understood as the toil of the characters in the play who are "winning" love, that is, they are suffering from love. So "The Triumph of Love" is likely to be another of Shakespeare's works, Troy Ross and Kressida, a tragedy that contrasts sharply with The Futility of Love.
Professor Leslie Hodson
"Windsor's Merry Woman" is also a candidate. Some believe it is the result of a rewrite of Triumph of Love. Based on this theory, Shakespeare adapted an unsuccessful play, The Triumph of Love. Considering that Queen Elizabeth was very fond of the role of Farstaff, he retained the role and also changed the title.
"Nothing Happens"
Most likely, nothing happens. The comedy may have been written in late 1598, which led to its failure to include the First Folio. In terms of plot, "Nothing Happens" is also in line with the requirements. It has a similar model to the romantic comedy of Triumph of Love, which tells the story of two couples who begin to date and break up. And the characters in it seem to have quite a bit of backstory, but there's no explanation. Maybe they're the characters in Triumph of Love, but with a different name.
However, it is not easy to prove that these works are lost" in "The Triumph of Love". It could even be said that unless a version of "The Triumph of Love" appears, there can be no conclusion.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the adapted Cardaneau</h1>
Unlike Triumph of Love, Cardanue exists as a stand-alone script. Since its appearance in a publisher's register in 1653, the play reappeared in history in 1728.
Louis Theobald
Louis Theobald, the famous Shakespeare editor of the time, claimed to own three manuscripts of the play, from which he wrote a play called Double Sin. The play's script still exists to this day, so if Theobald's claim is true, it is at least possible to partially reconstruct the plot of Cardaneau.
Double Sin
However, the veracity of Theobald's claims has sparked heated debate. First of all, if he really owns Shakespeare's original work, why doesn't he publish it directly, but rewrite it into a work of his own? As an editor of Shakespeare's works, carefully rearranging the best versions of Shakespeare's plays was his life's work. However, his approach contradicts this work. One guess is that Theobald wasn't sure who the authors of the manuscripts were, and he didn't want to "tarnish" Shakespeare with a shoddy play.
John Warburton
However, like the original Cardanue, the three manuscripts that Theobald claimed to possess no longer exist. These manuscripts were inherited by John Warburton after his death. Warburton is a contemporary scholar of Shakespeare, but some of his treasured manuscripts were accidentally burned. Separately, Professor Brian Hammond of the University of Nottingham cites a 1770 newspaper report that a copy of Cardanue, along with other manuscripts, was "treasured" at the Covent Garden Theatre Museum, but that the museum burned down in 1808.
The only clue about this story, then, is Theobald's adaptation of Double Evil. The Claremont Shakespeare Clinic used an unusual approach to a series of tests on the text of Double Evil, which showed that it was more than one in a million probability of Shakespeare's work.
The Tragedy of the Second Maiden
Double Evil isn't the only drama suspected of being adapted from Cardaneau, there's also a play called The Tragedy of the Second Maiden. The name stems from the fact that it had no name at first, but was described as the second edition of The Tragedy of the Maiden, from a manuscript from 1611. Traditionally considered to be a masterpiece by Thomas Middleton. But in 1990, handwriting expert Charles Hamilton claimed in one of his books that the handwriting on the manuscript came from Shakespeare himself, and that the entire script was essentially Cardaneau, with the name changed. Since then, several companies have renamed The Tragedy of the Second Maiden Cardaneau and written by Shakespeare to attract audiences.
Handwriting on the manuscript
Yet the Shakespeare research community scoffed at Hamilton's claims. They considered the way in which The Tragedy of the Second Maiden was written in a fairly common style, quite different from Shakespeare's work. And that handwriting is only a few signatures on the legal document, and has nothing to do with the work.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > hidden masterpiece in the corner</h1>
For Shakespeare's researchers and fans, finding two lost works is their dream. However, after centuries of searching, it seems that there is no result.
Titus Antlonix
Perhaps some shakespearean plays are hidden somewhere in the world, perhaps in a dusty attic, or behind the shelves of an ancient library, silently waiting for people to find it.