0. no copies are known to have survived, scholars

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Last updated: October 28, 2019

0. IntroductionThis projectaddresses Shakespeare´s collaborations with other authors and some of his lostplays. With these themes our intention is to dive into the least known part ofShakespeare´s works.  Ourobjective is to focus on the plays and the not so well-known side ofShakespeare.

We wanted to do some research on how his personal life affectedhis work, how he made these collaborations, what relationship he had with thepeople he worked with and if whatever they added to the stories was decisive tocomplete the stories. When itcomes to the lost plays we want to analyze the reasons why they are missing,what stories they hide, what could have happened if they remained presentnowadays and if they could have been as famous as his other plays           1. Lost plays (Mario López Carnicero)A lost work,or in this case a lost play is a document produced some time in the past ofwhich no surviving copies are known to exist. These works may be lost tohistory because of the destruction of the original manuscript or because allthe copies got lost in time. Another reason why these pieces are lost could bebecause of bad people that were jealous of that author´s success. Many of thatplays survived because they were reused in other works, they were included inthat piece.

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Love´s Labour´s Won by Shakespeare is one of that lost plays.1.1 Love’s Labour’s WonLove´sLabour´s Won is a lost play attributed by contemporaries to William Shakespeare,written before 1598 and published in 1603. Although no copies are known to have survived, scholars argue whether itis a true lost work or not. Shakespeare´s Love´s Labour´s Lost could bea narrative and dramatic source for Love´s Labour´s Won. It is knownthat this Shakespeare’s work existed because of some evidences, for example itappears in the book list of Christopher Hunt: “Marchant of Vennis, Taming ofShrew, ….

Love´s Labour´s Lost, Love´s Labour´s Won”. Scholarshave several theories about the play, but the most well-known is the theory ofa “sequel to Love´s Labour´s Lost”. Love´s Labour´s Lost contains the adventures of the King ofNavarre and his three lords, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine, and how they getthe love of the Princess of France and her ladies. This theory could be falsebecause Elizabethan playwrights almost never wrote sequels to comedies. Thesekinds of plays were not that important as historical plays, for this reasonsequels were written for them and less commonly for tragedies. Anotherpossibility why this play existed could be the name as an alternative title foranother comedy. Much Ado About Nothing, that is believed to be writtenaround 1598. Henry Woudhuysen finds a lot of similarities between the twoplays.

LeslieHotson had the theory of Love´s Labour´s Won as the title of Troilusand Cressida that has been considered to be written around 1602. The lasttheory is the believed that Meres, the one that made the list of Shakespeare´sdramatic output to 1598, was wrong about writing the title of the play. Thiswas a strong theory until 1953, when a different author´s book was discoveredthat also mentioned “Love´s Labour´s Won” in his list of Shakespeare´splays.  It seemsthat Love´s Labour´s Won continues being a mystery for the scholars andthe world.

What the world have is a big number of theories that can be true orfalse, the imagination is almost the only source that scholars have to create asolid explanation to answer all the questions that this play creates. Unlesspeople discover some 400-year-old document that gives the world a concreteevidence, it is impossible to solve this mystery. 1.2 Cardenio (Victoria Prieto Rubio)Cardenio is the second WilliamShakespeare’s lost play that our society knows and there are differentsuppositions of what happened with it. When did it disappeared and how will betold in this section.1.

2.1 About theplay TheHistory of Cardenio is a Jacobean play that through the years hasbe assigned to William Shakespeare and his collaboration with John Fletcher. Itis dated in the 1613 and the history takes place in Spain. We know it has a biginfluence from Cervantes, who was a novelty in the century in which Cardenio was written. 1.2.

2 HistoricalframeworkIn May the 20th, 1613, the King’sMen (Shakespeare’s theatre company), was paid £20 for court performances ofsix plays, in which was included Cardenio.Thesame year in July the 9th, the company will receive a sum forrepresenting Cardenio before theambassador of the Duke of Savoy.Forty years later, it would appear in the list of soon-to-be publishedworks assigned to Shakespeare and Mr. Fletcher, but it would never appearprinted.There is notrecord that it was represented in any other time, what becomes an enormousmystery for the historians.

 In the 18th Century, the famous scholar Lewis Theobald willpublish a comedy named Double Falsehood.Theobald insisted on that the play was inspired by The History of Cardenio. He related he had come up with threeincomplete manuscripts of the original play and he had used them to create asuccessful play. The comedy became very famous and it was represented forseventy years.The theory is that, after Theobald died, Warburton acquired hislibrary and historians believed that the original manuscript was there.Warburton’s cook was used to light the fire with old sheets in the house andthey believe Cardenio was burntthere.

Anothertheory is that the manuscript Theobald found was deposited in London’s CoventGarden Playhouse, which burned down in 1808. In the last twenty years, a professor of English at Florida StateUniversity called Taylor has been doing a research to extract Shakespeare’s Cardenio from a surviving edition of Double Falsehood (using computersprograms and old documents from those centuries).The IUPUI(Indiana University and Purdue University-Indianapolis) considers that Cardenio has been resurrected by Taylor.1.2.3 Inspiration of the playIt is well-known that Shakespeare and Fletcher were inspired byCervantes’ Don Quixote.

Theinspiration for them was based upon the Cardenio episode appearing in the firstpart of the novel. It was available in English in 1605, that is why it became abig influence for the British society.When William Shakespeare read this book, he was impressed by the plotand he suddenly wanted to write something similar.

He would call it Cardenio, as the character by the samename in Cervantes’ work.In the collaborations section of this project (2.4.1 Cardenio),the plot will be described, where it is possible to see the similitude betweenShakespeare’s and Cervantes’ works. 1.2.

4 GenreSome sources define Cardenioas a comedy, others define it as a sentimental romantic tragicomedy. Theoriginal fragment is framed as a parodic romance, but it is known thatShakespeare retained the elements of the parody.1.2.5 ConclusionThe real history of what happened with Cardenio will be intriguing even if alot of researches are made. It is amazing how much people is still doingresearches to figure out what really happened with the original manuscript andwhat wanted Shakespeare to transmit with this play.                                    2. Shakespeare’s collaborations2.

1 Early works (Nerea Ibáñez Sánchez)2.1.1Edward III: It is a play written towards1596. The authorship of this work has been enquired for more than 400 years andit is still in consideration. This attitude may be generated by dint of thePublisher, Cuthbert Burby, who could not determinate the name of the author inthat period. Another possibility is the Great Fire, which took place in London,in 1666 when an assemblage of works was burned. Scholars have foundsimilarities between Shakespeare texts and this one, such as the way it hasbeen written (iambic pentameter). Moreover, there are direct quotations fromhis works, concretely his sonnets.

In 1990 publishers recognized him as itsauthor and enclosed the play in new editions. Plot: The story is set in England. Edward, the King, isinformed that he is the heir of the last King of France and he wants to go toFrance to get his rights. Before that, he has to deal with a problem in acastle in North England. That castle is being assaulted by people and when hearrives there with his army everyone goes away. The King will fall in love withthe woman of that castle and will do whatever she wants, even kill his wife.But the lady rejects him.

Later on, he goes to France to get the throne andgets a victory for England. 2.1.2Henry VI: It is a work written in 1591and it is contemplated as a Shakespeare’s creation despite the fact it was alsowritten by Marlowe and Thomas Nase. It is asserted that Shakespeare wrote lessthan the 20% of the text.

This work is connected with the instant when KingHenry VI had the power. Shakespeare never published his own works when he wasalive and that explains why it has no authorship but has been associated withhim in view of its characteristics. Plot: With thedeath of Henry V, his son becomes the King of England. Henry VI then has a manwho serves for him and gives him advice. There is a war between England andFrance and a new one starts between the house of York and the house ofLancaster. The King restores the order in those lands and goes to Paris to becrowned as a role model for the English people. His army captures two prisonersand Henry VI will marry one of them, the Lady Margaret of Anjou.

2.1.3Titus Andronicus: Scholars see it as acollaboration with George Peele or at least an emendation of this work. It wasfirstly published under the name of Shakespeare in 1623 but the fact that hewas a collaborator with George has been discussed. It was probably written between1588 and 1593.

George was a man in the Renaissance world. He was a translatoras well as a poet and a dramatist. His most important work is the collaborationwith Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus.

Plot: Titus Andronicus, afterobtaining a victory against the Goths and capturing the Queen Thamora, returnsto Rome. Tito sacrifices a prisoner in order to celebrate this victory and theone chosen is the son of Thamora. This lady becomes the queen of this landthanks to a Titu’s son.

She takes advantage of her position and makes Titosuffer by killing two of his own sons. Later on, she makes his other sons rapeanother daughter and Thamora cuts her tongue and hands in order not to be ableto tell her dad who had raped her. Titus becomes angry, kills Thamora’s daughtersand serves them at dinner. He also kills Thamora as a revenge and his owndaughter to release her from her pain. At the same moment Lucio, another son ofTitus, starts a riot against his brother, the emperor, and in that fight, Titusand the emperor die.

Lucio becomes the emperor and condemns Thamora’s slave todie,  responsible for all that hashappened. 2.1.4 Sir Thomas More: It is an Elizabethan playwritten by Anthony Munday and others in the Renaissance period. Anthony was apoet, a dramatist and also an actor.

He spent his life abroad and went back toLondon where he got an arguable situation with the Jesuits. He wrote in proseand verse and he is considered as one of the predecessors of Shakespeare.The play itself does notremain completely, there is only one manuscript written by “hand D”, which hasbeen considered from Shakespeare owing to the language, handwriting,vocabulary, and imagery. Plot: The story is about Sir Thomas More and how hestops the riots in London streets. Thanks to this he gets the title of LordCanciller. But he refuses to sign some documents about the divorce betweenHenry VIII and his first wife. He gets caught and goes to prison and never goesout of it. 2.

1.5The Spanish Tragedy: It is an Elizabethan tragedywritten by Thomas Kyd, a Renaissance man who is mainly known by virtue of thiswork. He was the most important figure of that period in the development of thedrama. His birth date is not known but he was baptized at church in 1585. Hedid not go to university, but he had a good education in the fields oflanguages, music, and drama.

There are 325 lines in thisplay which have been deliberated over centuries about the possibility of theaffinity with Shakespeare. These lines are under the name of “Additionalpassages” and they have finally been associated with him by virtue of thehandwriting and more technics used. Plot: The story starts with a man after the war ofPortugal, Horacio (whose father is a Spanish mayor). He is assassinated athands of Lorenzo for the reason that he wanted Baltasar to marry a beautifullady called Bel-Imperia. She lost his lover in the war and she was in love withHoracio. Hieronimo, Horacio’s father, does not find any help from the King andthat guides him to take revenge in name of his son.

 2.2 Collaboration with George Wilkins(Paloma Martín Rodríguez)Born in1576, George Wilkins was an English dramatist known mainly for hiscollaboration with William Shakespeare and the play Pericles, Prince of Tyre.He also created some pamphlets and he was possibly related with some criminalactivities. He died in 1618. The play isone of the best comedy plays written by Shakespeare. In the play, Pericles asksfor the hand of Antiochus’ daughter, king of Antioch. The man that guessescorrectly a riddle is the one who will marry her, the ones that fail will beexecuted.  Pericles finds out that theking and his daughter maintain an incestuous relationship, due to this, Antiochuswants to kill him.

Pericles goes back to Tyre, but he is being followed by amurderer sent by Antiochus.Scared thatAntiochus may want revenge and attack his kingdom, Pericles goes away for sometime. On his way, he stops in Tarsus, where he saves the king and queen.Pericles gets a letter from Helicanus, therefore, he decides to return to Tyre.On his wayback, in the middle of a storm in Pentapolis. Here, he wins a tournament wherethe prize is marrying Thaisa. Later, Pericles and Thaisa return to Tyre, butshe dies on the way while giving birth to their daughter.

Pericles leaves hisdaughter, Marina, with Cleon, the governor of Tarsus and his wife. When Marinagrows up, Cleon’s wife gets jealous and orders a servant to kill her, but sheis captured by pirates. Cleon’s wife him Marina is dead, and he makes amonument for her.  WhenPericles visits Tarsus he sees the monument, and falls into misery.

MeanwhileMarina is sold in Mitylene. Pericles runs into her, but he doesn’t recognizeher. Sometime later they go to Ephesus and the family is reunited. 2.3 Collaborations with Thomas Middleton(Sara Tena Rodriguez)2.3.

1.Did Shakespeare And Middleton Write Together?After studying All’sWell That Ends Well, Professor Laurie Maguire and Dr Emma Smith havesaid to discover unusual stage directions, vocabulary and rhymingpatterns. All of this has led them to believe that Shakespeare could have hadhelp from a co-author.”We are not saying that Middleton and Shakespearedefinitely worked together on All’s Well,” said Dr Smith to the onlinenewspaper, The Huffing Post, “butMiddleton’s involvement would certainly explain many of the comedy’s stylistic,textual and narrative quirks.”There is a scene in particular, where Middleton’sevident influence appears clearly. It’s the word “ruttish” (Act 4, Scene3), something that can only be seen in Middleton’s The Phoenix.Furthermore, and after a collection of his works waspublished early in 2007, new discoveries using massive computer databaseconfirmed the suspicions and claimed that Middleton collaborated withShakespeare not only on All’s Well ThatEnds Well but he was also involved in Timonof Athens, and adapted both Macbethand Measure for Measure.

Even though there are many evidences that lead us tothink Middleton worked together with Shakespeare, we can never be totally sure.However, analyses of both, the author and his works will continue below inorder to know more about what these supposed collaborations were like. WasMiddleton’s influence a big impact in Shakespeare’s literature? Let’s find out.2.3.2. About the authorThomas Middleton (1580-1627) was a late-Elizabethandramatist and a popular playwright. By collaborating with John Webster orThomas Dekker, Middleton learned how to write plays.

 He did not have a good early life. He grew up in adysfunctional family and surrounded by the plague, which led to, not only manydeaths, but also poverty, famine and riots. However, the difficulties he had togo through might be one of the reasons why he focused his time on writing. “Hiscareer was driven by the economics of need, and structured by the economics ofdemand” said Gary Taylor for TheGuardian.  In fact, the first time his name appeared inprint was when he turned 17 thanks to TheWisdom of Solomon Paraphrased, which he must have written when he was only16.He wrote many different genres and was never afraid ofbacklash for his critics, and that is why many people believe he was not asfamous or well-known as other authors.

  Nevertheless, Middleton and Shakespeare will becompared frequently, specially after the pair wrote multiple masterpieces inboth comedy and tragedy, being the two only English playwrights to do so.Furthermore, Middleton will be the one chosen by Shakespeare’s company to adapthis plays (Measure for Measure, Macbeth) after he died.2.

3.3 Collaborations2.3.3.1 Macbeth.As mentioned in the life of the author,Thomas Middleton may have revised the tragedy since Shakespeare’s company chosehim to adapt some of his plays. Macbethappears in the First Folio in 1615,and many believe Middleton incorporated extra musical sequences.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606) is about a King Duncan’s general named Macbeth.Along with Banquo, he meets three witches that tell him he will become King ofEngland, while the other general is promised to have descendants, who will alsobecome kings. Not long before that, Macbeth receives a new title andimmediately starts to believe in the prophecy. Both his wife and him will doanything to achieve the reign and after many murders, they will become King andQueen of England.

However, the prophecy will become true until the end and theywill die defeated by a child of a caesarean birth.2.3.3.2 Measurefor Measure.

Measurefor Measure was written between 1603 and 1604 and as Macbeth, it appears in the First Folio. It is believed thatMiddleton might have done a revision of the play after its original compositionand due to its shift mood, it is seen as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays.The play happens in a decadent Vienna. TheDuke leaves the city and puts his deputy, Angelo, in charge, who will make manychanges, like sentencing to death unmarried people who have gotten someonepregnant. This happens to Claudio and the girl he intended to marry, Juliet.After many problems, his sister Isabella and the Duke disguised as a friar,will save Claudio’s life.2.3.

3.3 Timon ofAthens.Timonof Athens was written around 1607 and 1608 and itis one of the most peculiar Shakespeare’s plays. It is this fact that led manyto believe he did not write this work alone, but was helped and had aco-author.

As the Royal Shakespeare Company introduces: “Timon of Athens is a play that offers a central character withoutfamily or partner, the story of a rich and liberal Athenian whose generosity isexploited until he learns the full extent of man’s greed”. This play may be the result of acollaboration between Shakespeare and Middleton, which could explain itsuniqueness like the unusual cynical tone and story.It is a tragic tale based on the abuse ofthe generosity of a man, Timon, who after using up all his money, will ask forhis friends’ help, but won’t get any. He starts living outside of Athens as arecluse, disillusioned in mankind. Nevertheless, he will find gold one day,which he will give away to different people.

False friends who abandoned himbefore will return after hearing of his new wealth, but he won’t give in thistime. At the end, Alcibiades wins against the Athenian senators, but Timon isalready dead.2.3.3.

4  All’s Well That Ends Well.All’sWell That Ends Well was published between1604 and 1605. It was also appeared in the FistFolio in 1623 and as mentioned before, thanks to a research made by EmmaSmith and Laurie Maguire from Oxford University, it is another work byShakespeare believed to have some kind of co-authorship with Thomas Middleton. All’sWell That Ends Well is a story about a woman,Helen, who wants to marry Bertram, the man she loves. However, he will refuseher proposal, since she belongs to lower rank. Through the play, Helen will tryto win his acceptance and meet his conditions. She will only achieve this atthe end of the work, when she saves Bertram and being pregnant, he finallyacknowledges her.  2.

4 Collaborations with John Fletcher (Paloma Martín Rodríguez)Born inSussex, 1579, John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright, he wrote his own playsand some collaborations. He worked with writers such as Beaumont, PhilipMassinger, Ben Jonson, Nathan Field and William Shakespeare. Along withShakespeare he wrote Cardenio, Henry VIII and The Two NobleKinsmen. He died in 1625.2.

4.1 CardenioThe Tyranthas supplanted King Govianus and tries to seduce  Helvetius, Govianus’ love. However, she staysfaithful to Govianus.

Even under the pressure from her father to accept theTyrant, she stays faithful to Govianus. The Tyrant holds them hostage. She wont’t give in so she begs Govianus to kill her, he cannot doit because he loves her, thus she commits suicide. The Tyrant, removes her bodyfrom her tomb to reign as his queen.Meanwhile,Anselmus,  asks his friend, Votarius, toseduce his wife to test her fidelity. But when he tries to tempt her, they fallin love. Concerned that his friend will discover their affair, they compose aplan.

While Anselmus is close, she will pretend to reject Votarius. She evenhas a sword to hurt him when the time comes. A servant poisons the sword, whenshe stabs Votarius, he dies.Govianussees the ghost of The Lady, who informs him of The Tyrant’s obsession with herand Govianus starts to plan revenge. He is released from prison and starts hisplan. He applies poison to the dead body´s lips, he also puts on her somemake-up, that way she looks alive. When The Tyrant sees her, he kisses her andhe dies. The aristocratics name Govianus the king.

2.4.2 Henry VIIIThis play isconsidered one of the best dramas by Shakespeare. Queen Katherine of Aragon ismarried to King Henry VIII. Henry asks Rome for a divorce to marry Anne Boleyn.

Cardinal Wolsey, the Powerful Lord Chancellor of England, attempts to shapeRome to the king’s wishes of the divorce of Katharine so he can marry AnneBoleyn. When he is almost dead he apologizes for his request. Katherine isdivorced and sent to Kimbolton Castle and Anne marries King Henry VIII tobecome his queen. 2.4.

3 The Two Noble KinsmenThe duke ofAthens, Theseus, is marrying the queen of the Amazons Hippolyta. After thewedding, three widowed queens arrive begging Theseus to go to war with Creon,so their husbands can receive a funeral.Palamon sees Arcite in Theseus’ hunting-party, and reveals himself. Theseussentences them to death, but Hippolyta, her sister Emilia, and Pirithous begfor their freedom.

Emiliacannot choose between them, so Theseus orders them to return in a month withknights, and take on a combat. Palamon and Arcite return to fight for Emilia,and all three make prayers to their gods, asking for help.Arcite is brought in, and yields Emilia to Palamon before he dies, affirmingPalamon’s original claim to her.Theseusaccepts Palamon’s request to marry Emilia, and announces a time of mourning forArcite after the wedding.3. ConclusionShakespeare had help, either from learning how to write new plays at thestart of his career, or by collaborating and sharing different ideas andmethods with several co-authors.

However, it does not matter how he wrote theseplays because later, some of them resulted to be the best pieces of playwrightsnot only of the United Kingdom but of the world. There are various lost plays that will never see the light, but someinformation about them has been discovered. It will remain a mystery if those plays could have been Shakespeare’sbest-sellers or as famous as the ones most commonly known, such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and so on. 

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