‘A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels’ by George North: A Newly Uncovered Manuscript Source for Shakespeare's Plays. By Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter

Abstract

One surprising consequence of the digital revolution has been the expansion of early modern manuscript studies. As so many printed works in the English vernaculars have been made available through such resources as Early English Books Online, enterprising scholars of various sorts have sought to distinguish themselves by drawing attention to materials that cannot readily be read and/or word-searched by the common herd. The title under review, the most substantial portion of which comprises a facsimile and modernized transcription of George north's ‘A brief discourse of rebellion and Rebells’ (British Library Add. MS 70520), seems at first blush to be a case in point. However, to read the nearly 100 pages of introductory matter is quickly to disabuse oneself of this impression. The authors/editors are Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter. McCarthy is an independent scholar who in 2011 self-published North of Shakespeare: The True Story of the Secret Genius who Wrote the World's Greatest Body of Literature. Here he proposes that Sir Thomas North, the famous translator of Plutarch, was responsible for writing much of what we now think of as Shakespeare's corpus. Schlueter is a retired professor of English Literature who has published widely on twentieth-century drama and who has also produced a richly illustrated study of alba amicorum in ‘Shakespeare's London’.