Sir Thomas More

Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works), 1564-16Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 124K words
Chapters: 13

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Sir Thomas More by ShakespeareAuthor: Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works), 1564-1616,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 1, 1998

Editor's review

Sir Thomas More belongs among the "doubtful works" attributed to Shakespeare. This manuscript play was long held in the British Library and has drawn intense attention because part of one hand has been identified by some scholars as Shakespeare's. The electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg lets readers confront the play as a collaborative work: multiple authors, visible revision, a complex textual state. Its value lies not in being "another Shakespeare play" but in displaying the collaborative methods and censorial conditions of Renaissance theatre writing—the figure of Sir Thomas More and the London riot scenes reflect the tensions of social order and religious politics of the time. For students of dramatic texts and readers interested in Shakespeare's reception history, this is rare primary material; general readers, however, should adjust their expectations and read it as a hybrid of historical document and literary text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Shakespeare's doubtful works and manuscript questions
Beginners studying collaborative practice in Renaissance English drama
Teachers and students who need public-domain English dramatic texts for classroom discussion
Readers who enjoy historical drama and can accept an incomplete text

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting a mature Shakespeare play and a complete dramatic experience
Beginners who need modern annotation and detailed introductions
Readers with little patience for multi-author texts and textual problems

Reading tips

Read introductory material on the manuscript background before the text itself, so you are not deterred by its disorder
Note stylistic differences between sections by different authors and mark them simply
Compare the riot scenes involving Sir Thomas More with similar scenes in Shakespeare's histories
Do not try to read it in one sitting; read act by act and discuss as you go

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Did Shakespeare really write this play?

Not the whole play. It is a collaborative work by several authors; part of one hand is thought by some scholars possibly to be Shakespeare's, but the attribution remains disputed. The catalogue therefore lists it as a "doubtful work," and it should be read as a collaborative text.

Does the incomplete text affect reading?

It does. The manuscript was censored and revised, its textual state is complex, and some scenes are incoherent. Learn the manuscript's transmission background first and treat the gaps as historical information rather than expecting a smooth stage script.

Is this book worth reading for general readers?

If you simply want Shakespeare's famous plays, this may not be the first choice. But if you are interested in Shakespeare's manuscripts, authenticity questions, or collaborative writing in Renaissance drama, it offers rare primary material and repays reading with a questioning mind.

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About the author

Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works), 1564-16 Author

Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works), 1564-16, is a designation for a special category of texts: plays traditionally attributed to Shakespeare but of doubtful or disputed authorship. Ten such works are held here, including King Edward III, A Yorkshire Tragedy, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Sir Thomas More, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, and The Life and Death of the Lord Cromwell. Their subjects range from English chronicle history to family tragedy and citizen comedy; many were written with other dramatists of the period or revised by later hands. Their style has points of contact with the accepted Shakespeare canon while bearing clear marks of their age. Scholarship on these plays has long advanced the debate over the Shakespeare canon and the history of early modern English drama. Given the limited public record, the author's life and the exact attribution of these works cannot be set out in detail.