Edward III (play)
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The Reign of King Edward III is an Elizabethan play often attributed to William Shakespeare. It was first printed anonymously in 1596. However, since the eighteenth century, the possibility that all or part of it is the work of Shakespeare has been debated.
Attributions
There are four principal arguments against Shakespeare's authorship:- It was published anonymously (although this was not uncommon in the 1590s).
- It is not mentioned in Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598), a work that lists most of Shakespeare's early plays.
- John Heminges and Henry Condell did not include the play when they compiled the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623.
- Many critics view the play as not worthy of Shakespeare's writing ability.
In recent years, professional Shakespeare scholars have increasingly reviewed the work with a new eye, and have concluded that some passages are as sophisticated as any of Shakespeare's early histories, especially King John and the Henry VI plays. In addition, passages in the play are direct quotes from Shakespeare's sonnets. Stylistic analysis has also produced evidence that at least some scenes were written by ShakespeareM.W.A. Smith, 'Edmund Ironside'. Notes and Queries 238 (June, 1993):204-5. In the Oxford Textual Companion to Shakespeare's plays, Gary Taylor states that "of all the non-canonical plays, [Edward III] has the strongest claim to inclusion in the Complete Works"Wells, Stanley and Gary Taylor, with John Jowett and William Montgomery, William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion (Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 136. The first major publishing house to produce an edition of the play as part of its Shakespeare series was Cambridge University Press. Since then, an edition of the Riverside Shakespeare has included the play, and plans are afoot for the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford Shakespeare series to publish editions.
Some fringe scholars, notably Eric SamsSams, Eric. Shakespeare's Edward III : An Early Play Restored to the Canon (Yale UP, 1996), have argued that the play is entirely by Shakespeare, but today, the scholarly consensus is that the play is an early collaborative work, in which Shakespeare wrote only a few scenes. The identities of the other collaborators are uncertain.
Synopsis
The plot of the play consists of two parts, the first is centered on the Countess of Salisbury (the wife of the Earl of Salisbury), beset by rampaging Scots, who is "rescued" by King Edward III, who vows to get her into his bed. The play makes many gibes at Scotland and the Scots, a view which has led some critics to believe that it is this work which caused George Nicolson, Queen Elizabeth's agent in Edinburgh, to write in 1598 to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, protesting the way Scots were being portrayed on the London stage. At the end of the first part, the Countess vows to take her own life if Edward will not relent in his pursuit, which he does.In the second part of the play, Edward joins his army in France, fighting a war to claim the French throne. Somewhat like Henry V, the play switches between the French and English camps, where the apparent hoplessness of the English campaign is contrasted with the arrogance of the French. Also like Henry, much of the action is focused on young Edward, the Black Prince, who broods on the morality of war before achieving victory against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Notes
External links
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