Sir John Oldcastle

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

2.8

Word count: 134K words
Chapters: 14

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 John Oldcastle by ShakespeareAuthor: Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works), 1564-1616,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 1, 1999

Editor's review

Sir John Oldcastle occupies a peculiar place in the Shakespeare canon: it is classified among the “spurious and doubtful works” rather than among the plays accepted by scholars as authentically Shakespearean. For the general reader, its value lies not in offering another classic on the order of Hamlet but in presenting a textual case for observation—how historical playwriting, collaborative authorship, and attribution intersected on the English stage in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The Project Gutenberg e-edition preserves the accessibility of the public-domain text; it is in English and is suitable as supplementary material for textual scholarship, Shakespearean attribution studies, or research on early modern English drama. It is best read with the question “Did Shakespeare write this?” in mind, rather than in expectation of a thoroughly satisfying dramatic experience. It is better consulted in a library, classroom, or research-note context than treated as bedside reading. If you are tracing the evolution of the Falstaff figure from Henry IV to The Merry Wives of Windsor and on to the Oldcastle-related texts, this little volume will be a useful piece of corroborating evidence.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature students studying Shakespearean spurious and doubtful works
Readers interested in early modern English history plays and attribution questions
Researchers who need public-domain English dramatic texts for textual comparison
Shakespeare enthusiasts who want to understand the textual evolution surrounding the Falstaff figure

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting a typical Shakespearean classic
Beginners with limited English reading ability who need Chinese annotations
Casual readers who want light entertainment and prefer not to deal with questions of textual authenticity

Reading tips

Read an introduction on the authorship controversy before entering the text, to avoid mistaking it for authentic Shakespeare.
Read it alongside the Falstaff passages in Henry IV to observe how the character shifts and is rewritten.
Prepare a character chart; history plays have dense names, and noting them as you read lowers the barrier to understanding.
After finishing, review scholarly criteria for defining “spurious” works, treating the text as an exercise in methodology rather than an aesthetic object.

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

Is this book really by Shakespeare?

The available information labels the author as “Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works),” classifying it among spurious and doubtful works rather than among plays accepted by scholars as authentically Shakespearean. It should be read as a text of doubtful authorship, not as a confirmed Shakespeare play.

What English proficiency is needed to read this book?

The original is in early modern English, with spelling and syntax that differ from contemporary English. A good command of English is advisable, or use annotated editions and introductory materials, otherwise you may be blocked at the language level.

Is it related to the Falstaff in Henry IV?

The play concerns the historical figure Sir John Oldcastle, who is connected to the question of the prototype for the Falstaff figure in Shakespeare's history plays. Readers may treat it as corroborating material for observing the evolution of the character, but should not read it directly as the story of the same character.

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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.