Shakespeare and the idea of Apocrypha : negotiating the boundaries of the dramatic canon

272 Pages·2015·5.84 MB·English

by  Kirwan

SHAKESPEARE AND THE IDEA
OF APOCRYPHA
Inadditiontothethirty-sixplaysoftheFirstFolio,someeightyplays
have been attributed in whole or part to William Shakespeare, yet
mostarerarelyread,performedordiscussed.Thisbook,thefirstto
confronttheimplicationsofthe‘ShakespeareApocrypha’,askshow
andwhytheseplayshavehistoricallybeenexcludedfromthecanon.
Innovatively combining approaches from book history, theatre
history,attributionstudiesandcanontheory,PeterKirwanunveils
thehistoricalassumptionsandprinciplesthatshapedtheconstruc-
tion of the Shakespeare canon. Case studies treat plays such as Sir
ThomasMore,EdwardIII,ArdenofFaversham,Mucedorus,Double
Falsehood and A Yorkshire Tragedy, showing how the plays’ con-
tested ‘Shakespearean’ status has shaped their fortunes. Kirwan’s
book rethinks the impact of authorial canons on the treatment of
anonymousanddisputedplays.
peter kirwan is Assistant Professor of Shakespeare and Early
ModernDramaattheUniversityofNottingham.Heistheco-editor
of Shakespeare and the Digital World (with Christie Carson,
Cambridge, 2014) and Associate Editor of William Shakespeare and
Others: Collaborative Plays (2013). His work has appeared in
Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Bulletin, Literature Compass,
Philological Quarterly and many other journals and collections. He
sits on the editorial board of Early Theatre and reviews editions for
ShakespeareSurvey.

SHAKESPEARE AND THE
IDEA OF APOCRYPHA
Negotiating the Boundaries of the Dramatic Canon
PETER KIRWAN
UniversityofNottingham
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
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©PeterKirwan2015
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Firstpublished2015
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LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Kirwan,Peter.
ShakespeareandtheideaofApocrypha:negotiatingtheboundaries
ofthedramaticcanon/PeterKirwan.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-09617-2(hardback)
1. Shakespeare,William,1564–1616–Authorship. I. Title.
pr2937.k56 2015
822.3ʹ3–dc23
2015008272
isbn978-1-107-09617-2Hardback
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The leaning of sophists towards the bypaths of apocrypha
isaconstantquantity,JohnEglintondetected.The
highroadsaredrearybuttheyleadtothetown.
187
James Joyce, Ulysses, .

Contents
Listofillustrations pageix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction:theideaofApocrypha 1
Falsehoods 1
Newdirections 5
Thereturnoftheauthor 12
1 CanonisingtheApocrypha 15
The43-playcanon:1664–1734 18
Restoringreputations:1723–65 28
Biography,chronology,Bardolatry:1760–1844 36
CanonisingtheApocrypha:1780–1908 48
C.F.TuckerBrookeandthecanonising
oftheApocrypha 66
2 TheApocryphainrep 72
Prodigalhusbandsandpatientwives 75
Absentkingsandcommonvoices 89
Romanceandnostalgia 98
Ensemblecomedy 106
Conclusions 111
3 Defining‘Shakespeare’ 115
TheShakespeareancorpse:physicaltracesofShakespeare 119
Samplesize,the‘problem’ofrevisionandLocrine 127
Theory‘versus’history 138
Theintegrationofdisintegration:EdwardIIIandArdenof
Faversham 146
Conclusions 161
vii
viii Contents
4 Apocryphisingthecanon 164
The[Bibliographic]CompleteWorksofShakespeare 169
The[Authorial]WorksofWilliamShakespeare[andThomas
Middleton] 181
The[Performative]CompleteWorksofShakespeare 189
Conclusions 203
Epilogue:anapocryphalidentity 207
Appendix 215
Workscited 230
Index 253