Abstract
This book has been arguing for the exploration of heroines in seventeenth-and eighteenth-century adaptations of Shakespeare’s late plays—including a collaboration with Fletcher—as a way to investigate the dramaturgy and inform an understanding of the female characters in the original plays.1 I have used the texts of the original plays and those of the adaptations, as well as their relevant performance histories to develop the argument. In this chapter I make a divergent point, but also an extension of my argument. An early eighteenth-century play, Double Falsehood, is believed by many scholars to be an adaptation of a lost play by Fletcher and Shakespeare titled Cardenio or The History of Cardenio. Admittedly, this chapter enters the realm of speculation and conjecture, but the preceding chapters will be helpful in imagining what the heroine of this lost collaboration of Fletcher and Shakespeare might have been like. I will also employ the source for the Cardenio play, Thomas Shelton’s 1612 translation of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote and another adapted Fletcher and Shakespeare collaboration, The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613), as well as the conjectural date of 1612/13 for Cardenio to aid in the reconstruction of the early modern original play.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call