The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0661 Wednesday, 3 October 2007
From: John W. Kennedy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Tuesday, 02 Oct 2007 13:45:09 -0400
Subject: 18.0656 Greenblatt on Cardenio
Comment: Re: SHK 18.0656 Greenblatt on Cardenio
My working opinion on the matter (mostly based on the judgments of
others) is that Theobald received "Cardenio" as a lost Shakespeare play,
and produced "Double Falshood" in the belief that the Tonson monopoly
was an obstacle to publishing the original; thus the famous copyright
page reproducing the entire text of the royal warrant. He acknowledges
in the Preface of the First Edition (written after the Drury Lane
production) that some had detected traces of Fletcher, and dismisses it
thus:
"Others again, to depreciate the Affair, as they thought, have been
pleased to urge, that tho' the Play may have some Resemblances of
/Shakespeare/, yet the /Colouring/, /Diction/,and /Characters/, come
nearer to the Style and Manner of FLETCHER. This,I think, is far from
deserving any Answer; I submit it to the Determination of better
Judgments; tho' my Partiality for /Shakespeare/ makes me wish, that
Every Thing which is good, or pleasing, in our Tongue, had been owing to
his Pen."
In the Second Edition, we have instead:
"Others again, to depreciate the Affair, as they thought, have been
pleased to urge, that tho' the Play may have some Resemblances of
/Shakespeare/, yet the /Colouring/, /Diction/,and /Characters/, come
nearer to the Style and Manner of FLETCHER. This, I think, is far from
deserving any Answer; I submit it to the Determination of better
Judgments; tho' my Partiality for /Shakespeare/ makes me wish, that
Every Thing which is good, or pleasing, in that other great poet, had
been owing to /his/ Pen. I had once design'd a /Dissertation/ to prove
this Play to be of /Shakespeare/'s Writing, from some of its remarkable
Peculiarities in the /Language/, and Nature of the /Thoughts/: but as I
could not be sure that the Play might be attack'd, I found it
adviseable, upon second Consideration, to reserve that part to my
/Defence/. That Danger, I think, is now over; so I must look out for a
better Occasion. I am honour'd with so many powerful Sollicitations,
pressing Me to the Prosecution of an Attempt, which I have begun with
some little Success, of /restoring/ SHAKESPEARE from the numerous
Corruptions of his Text: that I can neither in Gratitude, nor good
Manners, longer resist them. I therefore think it not amiss here to
promise, that, tho' /private/ /Property/ should so far stand in my Way,
as to prevent me from putting out an /Edition/ of /Shakespeare/, yet,
some Way or other, if I live, the Publick shall receive from my Hand his
/whole/ WORKS corrected, with my best Care and Ability. This may furnish
an Occasion for speaking more at large concerning the present /Play/:
For which Reason I shall now drop it for another Subject."
Note the alteration of "in our Tongue" to "in that other great poet", at
the cost of the sentence any longer making clear sense.
I suspect that, as Fletcher's fingerprints became more and more evident
to Theobald, he became disappointed with "Cardenio", not considering the
possibility of collaboration. (I know that some have suggested that he
had discovered the documentary evidence making it one, but I am not
aware of any positive evidence for this, and the hypothesis that he had
not done so makes for what seems to me to be a more psychologically
probable scenario.)
In any case Theobald did, of course, become the Tonson editor in 1733,
and never mentioned in his edition "Cardenio" or "Double Falshood" (or,
I gather, "The Two Noble Kinsmen", either). That edition, together with
his earlier attack on Pope's edition, "Shakespeare Restor'd", which
earned him the wrath of Pope and centuries of calumny, are now regarded
as the fons et origo of scientific textual criticism in modern
languages, which is none too bad a legacy.
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