Cardenio Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Cardenio is a lost play, known to have been performed by the King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. It is believed to have been written by William Shakespeare, probably in collaboration with John Fletcher. The play may have been lost with the burning of the Globe Theatre in 1613.The content of the play is not known, and only one song survives. However, it is likely based on incidents in Don Quixote, of which the 1612 translation by John Shelton would have been available to the authors. Fletcher is known to have enjoyed Cervantes's work.
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2 Charles Hamilton and The Second Maiden's Tragedy 3 Significance |
In 1727, Lewis Theobald claimed to have Restoration manuscripts of an unnamed play by Shakespeare, which he edited, "improved", and released under the name Double Falshood. Present scholarly opinion is that he did indeed use Cardenio as his original. The fate of Theobald's manuscripts is unknown; they may have passed to John Warburton and perished at the hands of his infamous cook.
In 1990, Charles Hamilton, a handwriting expert, after seeing a 1611 manuscript known as The Second Maiden's Tragedy, usually attributed to Thomas Middleton, identified it as the missing Cardenio with names changed. This attribution is not generally accepted by Shakespearian experts.
Capitalizing on Hamilton's attribution, The Second Maiden's Tragedy has been performed and published as Shakespeare's Cardenio, usually ignoring its disputed status. For instance, a recent performance in Oxford's Burton Taylor Theatre in March 2004 claimed to have been the first performance of the play in England since its recovery.Lewis Theobald and Double Falshood
Charles Hamilton and The Second Maiden's Tragedy