MANY PLAYS HAVE BEEN CLAIMED as the work of William Shakespeare, and there are more works which could be included in the Shakespeare Apocrypha than in the recognised Canon. Although there are online editions of quite a few of these apocryphal works, there doesn't seem to be a single repository on the web which lists them all, so here's my contribution, with links where possible, and notes where I can find anything out.
Where I have come across a reference to a modern (print) edition, I've included it, but I haven't researched to check availability of these editions.
Online editions may be in a variety of formats; the LETRS and SETIS texts I can't access to check - these are taken from their reference list of all texts in the database. Please let me know if any of the links to online editions are broken; they are live as of 22nd May, 2003.
Contributions to this page are welcome; I'm no academic or researcher, so my sources are few. I've only included dramatic works here - I have no inclination to get involved in the arguments about attribution of purely poetic works.
| Albumazar |
An adaptation, by Thomas Tompkis, of the comedy L'Astrologo by della Porta. Performed at Cambridge University for King James on 9th March 1615. Attribution to Shakespeare: by Simpson in Transactions, New Shakspere Society, 1875-6. Modern edition: Hugh G. Dick, Albumazar: A Comedy (University of California Publications in English 13, Berkeley - Los Angeles, 1944). Online edition: LION (Literature Online) database (Password required) Trivia: Includes a 35-letter word, necropurogeohydrocheirocoscinomancy. This is 9 letters more than Shakespeare's longest word. Information |
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| Arden of Feversham |
Entered in the Stationers' Register April 3rd, 1592, and reprinted 1599 and 1633, all anonymously. Marlowe, Kyd, or an imitator of Kyd, have been suggested as the author. Swinburne supported the attribution to Shakespeare. Attribution to Shakespeare: by Edward Jacob in 1770, based on similarity of phrases to some canonical works. Modern edition: Martin White, (New Mermaids, W. W. Norton, 1984), 0393952363 Online edition: EnglishDigit Project Trivia: The title character, a real person murdered in 1551, was related to Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden. Information |
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| Arraignment of Paris, The |
Published anonymously in 1584. Now attributed to George Peele - Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels, wrote 'by Ge: Peele, as I reme{m}ber' on the title page of a copy of the 1584 quarto edition. Attribution to Shakespeare: Kirkman, Winstanley and others, 1656-70. Basis unknown. Modern edition: The Malone Society edition (1988), 0404630197 Online edition: LION (Literature Online) database (Password required) Information |
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| Birth of Merlin, The |
Published in a quarto edition in 1662, but assigned in date from the early 1620s. The title page gives the authors as Shakespeare and William Rowley, but the consensus is that Shakespeare had nothing to do with it, and Rowley probably shares authorship with Dekker or Middleton. Attribution to Shakespeare: By publishers Francis Kirman and Henry Marsh, on title page. Modern edition: None Online edition: Here! Information |
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| Cardenio |
More properly a lost play than an apocryphal one, Cardenio was entered in the Stationers' Register in 1653, as being by Shakespeare and Fletcher. Contemporary documents indicate that there was such a play, and it existed around the time when Shakespeare was writing, and indeed collaborating with Fletcher. In the 18th century, Theobald claimed to have revised and adapted the play as Double Falsehood, but there is no way of telling if he indeed had a manuscript of Cardenio. Charles Hamilton claimed in 1994 that another play, The Second Maiden's Tragedy, was the lost Cardenio. It is thought by most to be by Thomas Middleton, and the fact that it is entered separately in Stationers' Register at the same time as Cardenio argues against the identification. Attribution to Shakespeare: Entry in Stationers' Register and contemporary accounts. Modern edition: None Online edition: None Trivia: Cardenio is a character in Don Quixote; the author of which, Cervantes, died on the same day as Shakespeare. |
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| Death of Stucley, The |
In the Preface to C. F. Tucker Brooke's The Shakespeare Apocrypha, this play is mentioned as being included in a projected, but never realised, book of Apocrypha to be published by the New Shakspere Society. I assume that the Stucley of the title is Thomas Stucley. It could be identical with The Battle of Alcazar, now thought to be by Peele, which has the subtitle with the Death of Captain Stukely, and from around 1592, or The Famous History of the Life and Death of Captain Thomas Stukeley which was acted in 1596 according to Henslowe. Attribution to Shakespeare: Unknown Modern edition: None currently (one of The Battle of Alcazar due in 2007!) Online edition: LION (Literature Online) database (Password required) has scripts for both candidates mentioned above. Trivia: Information |
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| Double Falsehood |
See Cardenio, above, for information on this play, by Lewis Theobald, but probably/possibly/improbably (depending on who you believe) out of Shakespeare. Attribution to Shakespeare: Never attributed directly to Shakespeare, but claimed by Theobald to be adapted from a Shakespearean manuscript. Modern edition: None Online edition: |
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| Duke Humphrey |
Entered in the Stationers' Register on June 29th, 1660, by Humphrey Moseley. No other information survives, but Tucker Brooke considers it to have possibly been Henry VI, Part 2, in which Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester is a leading character. Attribution to Shakespeare: By the publisher Moseley. Modern edition: None Online edition: None |
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| Edmund Ironside |
Attribution to Shakespeare: Modern edition: Online edition: Trivia: Information |
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| Edward III |
Attribution to Shakespeare: Modern edition: Online edition: Trivia: Information |
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| Edward IV |
Published in 1600, and attributed to WS in an 'early' (no date given) bookseller's catalogue, according to the Introduction to Tucker Brooke's The Shakespeare Apocrypha. Heywood is recorded as having written a play (in fact, two parts) with this title in 1600, - I assume it's the same one. Attribution to Shakespeare: Booksellers' catalogue, details and basis unknown. Modern edition: None Online edition: LION (Literature Online) database (Password required) Information |
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| Fair Em |
A volume from Charles II's library, which bore the legend 'Shakespeare Vol. I' contined this play along with Mucedorus and The Merry Devil of Edmonton. Although Bartleby dates it to 1587, the first quarto version of this claims it to have been acted by Lord Strange's Men, which dates it to 1589-1593. In 1675, Edward Phillips assigned the play to Greene, but the latter makes a slighting reference to Fair Em in Farewell to Folly, so that seems improbable. Attribution to Shakespeare: Based on the cover notes as discovered by Francis Kirkman. Modern edition: None Online edition: Information |
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| Fifth of November; or the Gunpowder Plot |
Mentioned in the introduction to Tucker Brooke's The Shakespeare Apocrypha as a 'transparent and confessed forgery' by George Ambrose Rhodes, from 1830. Other than that, I have found out nothing about it. Attribution to Shakespeare: By George Ambrose Rhdoes, the actual author. Modern edition: None Online edition: None |
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| First Part of the Contention between the Two Famouse Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, The |
Published in Quarto form in 1594, this stands in close relation to Henry VI, Part 2, as published in the First Folio, and a third longer than the Q, but there is disagreement as to the exact nature of the relationship. The theories are as follows: a) It is a play by another author (Marlowe, some claim), used as a source by Shakespeare; b) it is a memorial reconstruction of a performance of 2H6; c) it is an early version by Shakespeare, which he later amended. Attribution to Shakespeare: BY publishers of the quarto editions of 1594, 1600 and 1619. Modern edition: Online edition: University of Victoria Information |
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| George A Greene |
Attributed to Shakespeare by Tieck in 1831, but now accepted as being by Robert Greene. Modern edition: Online edition: LION (Literature Online) database (Password required) Information |
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| Hardicanute | ||
| Henry I | ||
| Henry II | ||
| Henry II | ||
| History of King Stephen, The | ||
| Iphis and Iantha | ||
| King Leir and His Daughters | ||
| Knack to Know a Knave, A | ||
| London Prodigal, The | ||
| Love's Labour Won | ||
| Satiro-Mastix | ||
| Second Maiden's Tragedy, The | ||
| Siege of Antwerp, The | ||
| Thomas of Woodstock | ||
| Troublesome Reign of King John, The | ||
| True Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York, The | ||
| Vortigern | ||
| Warning for Fair Women, A | ||
| Wily Beguiled | ||
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