Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0143.  Wednesday, 1 March 1995.
 
(1)     From:   Michael Field <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 28 Feb 1995 10:03:15 -0500 (EST)
        Subj:   The Lost Play
 
(2)     From:   Meg Dupuis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 28 Feb 1995 10:42:57 -0800 (PST)
        Subj:   Shakespeare in the Park
 
(3)     From:   Jim Helsinger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Tuesday, 28 Feb 1995 19:08:01 -0500
        Subj:   Pronunciation of Petruchio and Kate
 
 
(1)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Michael Field <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 28 Feb 1995 10:03:15 -0500 (EST)
Subject:        The Lost Play
 
I am currently doing some work with Love's Labor's Lost and would greatly
appreciate the help of fellow SHAKSPERians. I have heard, from time to time,
reference to Shakespeare's "Lost Play." This comes about, I believe, because of
a contemporaneous commentary (by Greene, perhaps?) listing the plays and
including among them both "Love's Labor's Lost" and "Love's Labors Won."
 
If you recall LLL, the idea of a sequel doesn't seem that unreasonable. In
fact, if WS had been writing for the movies I would say a sequel was all but
inevitable, what with the ending where love is promised after the men perform
certain tasks each lasting a year and a day.
 
My questions though, are many, and I would greatly appreciate your ideas and
suggestions either through the list or directly to me:
 
1) The quote mentioning Love's Labors Won -- who said it, and when?
2) Is the idea of a "Lost Play" taken particularly seriously? Is there, for
instance, any belief that some day it will turn up?
3) Are there other "Lost Plays?" by WS? Or is the cannon of 37 set in stone?
4)I have a slim volume by Henry David Gray (1918, Stanford University Press)
discounting "Shrew" and "As You Like It" as possible candidates for the lost
play. Professor Gray suggests instead of a name mix-up there really was a
"Love's Labors Won" and that at a later date Shakespeare hurriedly rewrote
large sections of it to present it at a twelfth night celebration. That play
became, of course, Twelfth Night--and the shade of death is successfully
renounced in favor of love (sort of). Comments, anyone?
5)Finally, for extra brownie points, there was an American-made
police/detective series from the 1970s (something like Colombo, Cannon,
etc...) that featured an episode devoted to the lost play. I vaguely
remember that a rich eccentric finds the play, hires a cast to perform it,
then kills the entire cast to prevent anyone from knowing about it. If this
rings a bell with anyone then you, as I, probably spent too much time
watching TV in your youth. Be that as it may, I'd be grateful if you can
bolster my fading memory in this matter: was it LLW that was conjectured?
Did they perform any of it? Any thoughts or recollections in this matter?
 
Thank you, in advance, for your help, and your patience with this over-long
posting.
 
Mike Field      This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
(2)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Meg Dupuis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 28 Feb 1995 10:42:57 -0800 (PST)
Subject:        Shakespeare in the Park
 
I plan to be in NYC at the end of July and wonder if anyone knows whether
Shakespeare in the Park continues since the death of Joseph Papp and, if so,
which plays are scheduled and when.  Any info. would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Meg Dupuis
University of Oregon
 
(3)----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Jim Helsinger <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Tuesday, 28 Feb 1995 19:08:01 -0500
Subject:        Pronunciation of Petruchio and Kate
 
I would like to open to discussion the pronunciation of Petruchio and Kate. A
specific note in the Dramatis Personae of the Arden edition states: * The name
Petruchio must be pronounced wtih the ch as in English much; never as
Petrukkio. *  I have done two productions pronounced this way, but I have been
in two other productions that used Petrukkio, as does the Burton movie, the
musical Kiss me Kate and others.   Can anyone illuminate me on which is correct
and why?
 
Also, in listening to the show recently, I have been wondering about the
pronunciation of the name Kate. Her name is first listed in the Folio as
Katerina, although Katherina is also used, and Katerine, Katherine, Kate, and
Kat. Now, it is easy to imagine the name nickname *Kat*, as in Cat, coming from
Katerine and Katerina. It also seems to me that the line: *I am he am born to
tame you, Kate, and bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate conformable as other
household Kates.* is an obvious pun on *cat* and would profit from being
pronounced so. There are other examples in the text as well, and the insistence
of Petruchio in calling her Kate, while she asks to be called Katherine, is
important in the text. Is it possible that in Shakespeare's time the name Kate
was pronounced like Cat? We have many examples of words that have changed
pronunciation, i.e, *kin and kind*. Could this be another? I would enjoy
feedback, particularly if anyone has seen a production pronounced this way.

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