To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio, BBC Future investigates a mysterious vanishing – a play that hasn't been seen for centuries.
In 1953, Solomon Pottesman held what appeared to be an ordinary, albeit very old, manuscript in his hands. As he carefully undid the wrappings on"Certaine sermons", which was published in 1637, two leaves of tattered parchment fell out.were scribbled from edge to edge with florid, archaic handwriting – rows of book titles, with crossings out and lines drawn across whole sections, as though the writer were making an informal list.
Love's Labour's Won has been missing since it was mentioned in 1603 . Though it explained that he was"in perfect health & memorie, god be praysed", he was making his last will. Among a number of oddly specific bequests – including that his wife Anne Hathaway should have their"Two of these friends would later prove central to the preservation of Shakespeare's legacy: John Heminge and Henry Condell, his colleagues at the acting company The King's Men.
Even plays that had been published as quartos before the First Folio have been preserved by it – each version could vary by hundreds of lines Seventy-four years on, in 1727, and there's a new play premiering at the Covent Garden Playhouse in London. It has an original name, but according to printed editions,"Double Falsehood" was revised and adapted from a play by Shakespeare. There's even a neat story to explain how this happened: the author managed to acquire three early manuscripts of The History of Cardenio, which were reportedly stored at the theatre where it was performed.
Though Love's Labour's Won has only gained traction as a possible lost play since the 1950s, the title was first mentioned many centuries earlier. In 1598, a clergyman and schoolmaster – who was born just a year before Shakespeare – included it on his list of recommended comedies.
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