Clarke – Furness

Prologue to Dryden’s adaptation of Troilus and Cressida

John Dryden
London: Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judges-Head in Chancery-lane near Fleet-street, and Abel Swall, at the Unicorn at the Wes-end of S. Pauls, 1679

Acclaimed contemporary actor Thomas Betterton appears on-stage and delivers a prologue of 40-lines introducing himself as the “awfull ghost” of William Shakespeare. In the long prose preface to the adaptation, Dryden compares Shakespeare to Aeschylus for “noble boldness of expression,” “lofty and heroick,” “daring to extravagance.” He is a “more Masculine, a bolder and more fiery Genius” than Fletcher. Likewise, then, in the prologue, Shakespeare the Ghost introduces his play as “rough-drawn” but full of “Master-strokes,” “manly” and “bold.” He describes himself as “untaught,” “untutored,” creating theatre in England out of his own “abundance” in the midst of a “barbarous Age.” Like “fruitfull Britain,” he is “rich without supply,” i.e. without importing any “store” from abroad. He decries the feebleness of his successors in the present age and says that their “insipid stuff” would be more fitting to a “Judge or Alderman”: “dullness is decent in the Church and State.” —PG

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1600's Clarke - Furness Shakespeare's Spirit

The Eyre Affair

Jasper Fforde
New York: Penguin, 2001

In a world without chronological bounds where Time Police regularly investigate misalignments in history, an officer looking into the question of Shakespearean authorship discovers that the plays do not exist in 1610. He corrects the problem by travelling to 1592 and handing William Shakespeare a copy of the First Folio of 1623, asking him to produce and claim authorship of the plays according to a schedule he provides him. “Shakespeare was only an actor with a potentially embarrassing sideline as a purveyor of bagged commodities in Stratford.”

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2000's Clarke - Furness Greatness Thrust Upon Him

The Lost Chronicle of Edward de Vere

Lord Great Chamberlain, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, Poet and Playwright William Shakespeare
Andrew Field
London: Viking, 1990

Another candidate for the writer behind Shakespeare, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, here in a fictional biography of the great genius who wrote the works of William Shakespeare. At least since the mid-twentieth century, the Earl of Oxford theory has been the most popular alternative among the anti-Stratford theorists. The conceit of a lost manuscript by de Vere is the foundation for this version of the argument.

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1900's Clarke - Furness Greatness Thrust Upon Him

The Kingmaker

A Dr. Who audio play
Nev Fountain
London: Big Finish, 2006

Another Dr. Who encounter with Shakespeare (there are several), in which Shakespeare does a little time-travelling himself and plays a less than honorable role in trying to insure that Richard III does the wrong thing. The Doctor and Shakespeare argue about the lack of historical research Will does for his plays. When the Doctor goes back to 1483 to see what Richard III was really like, Will secretly hitches a ride. Shakespeare is a “bad guy” inasmuch as his goal is to make sure that Richard III remains the historical villain and that his beloved Tudors are not tainted with the deaths of the two princes. In a twist of plot (and time), Shakespeare limps into the Battle of Bosworth Field and Richard III takes up a new literary life in Elizabethan England. –TH

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2000's Breaking Bard Clarke - Furness

The Shakespeare Mask: A Novel

Newton Frohlich
Wellfleet, MA: Blue Bird Press, 2015

According to Edward de Vere, Will Shakespeare, is “cunning if uneducated,” selling his name to the Earl for sixty pounds, enough to buy the best house in Stratford or a coat of arms for his “Pa.” The scenes between the earl and the glover’s son communicate a social and educational chasm between them. De Vere’s character is unfailingly polite and patient, while Shakespeare is hesitant and bumptious (“Don’t have no call for kid gloves in Stratford”), which underlines Frohlich’s argument for de Vere as ‘real’ Shakespeare. According to reviews, fans of historical fiction enjoy The Shakespeare Mask as a taste of the sixteenth century, but complain that the work is didactic and the dialogue too modern. Followers of the authorship debate may be interested in how Frohlich, a former lawyer, turns the arguments in support of de Vere’s candidacy into narrative, much the way defense attorneys create narratives for juries in the attempt to create reasonable doubt. –CP

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2000's Clarke - Furness Greatness Thrust Upon Him

The Gloss of Youth

An Imaginary Episode in the Lives of William Shakespeare and John Fletcher
Horace Howard Furness Jr.
Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1920

Furness’s short play is a window into Shakespeare’s lodgings in London around 1613, with scenes that feel both intimate and authentic. First, Shakespeare despairs that the public only likes comedy, not the histories and tragedies he values, and his real-life collaborator John Fletcher cajoles him into continuing work. Next the landlord’s daughter and grand-daughter visit, bringing marchpane and asking for help from their long-time friend in settling a (historical) family dispute. Finally, two neighborhood youths Jack and Noll pay a call, and their admiration for the tragedies and histories restore Shakespeare’s hope. He encourages them in turn in their ambitions to be poet and king respectively. The authentic tone gives way and we learn the youths’ last names: Milton and Cromwell. However, this delightful Shakespeare is the kind of man who many would like for a collaborator, neighbor or mentor. -CP

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1900's Clarke - Furness Gentle Shakespeare