My birthday is in eleven days and I've almost finished my originally goal of reading all the plays by the age of 40. YAY! I'm currently in the middle of Edward III, which is one of those 'contested plays' (Was it written by Shakespeare, or just co-written? Does it even count?) so it feels like extra credit. Plus, I already finished Two Noble Kinsmen, another apocryphal play, so I feel pretty smug right about now.
Or at least I did until I read THIS list of Shakespeare's plays on PlayShakespeare.com:
Notice anything? Right below Cymbeline and above Edward III?
WHAT THE HELL IS DOUBLE FALSEHOOD?? I've never heard of that play! Is that by Shakespeare too? Do I have to read it now?? Is there even a copy AVAILABLE?
Turns out the answer is probably, yes, and sure thing! Play Shakespeare helpfully has the entire play available online, and according to this article on Independent.co.uk, there is mounting evidence that this is a version of Shakespeare's lost play about Don Quixote. Not only that, but the play had previously been considered a hoax for nearly 300 years before researchers in 2015 presented compelling evidence that it was at least partially written by William Shakespeare. So if I had finished this reading project two years ago like I'd planned, I could consider myself done and wouldn't have to worry about newly emerging apocryphal plays throwing off my stats.
You'd think that reading the complete works of someone who's been dead for 400 years wouldn't involve having to keep up with the latest posthumous release.
So now I've decided to add both Double Falsehood and Sir Thomas More (which was really only edited by Shakespeare, but The Riverside Edition includes it, so now I feel compelled to read it) to my list. But even with those additions, I'm still on track to finish by my birthday, especially if I sort of speed-read through those last couple of plays that, let's be honest, I don't take quite as seriously as the others anyway.
Oh, but in the meantime, GUESS WHAT? I READ ALL THE SONNETS AND POEMS THIS WEEK!! Yeah, I'm kind of killin' it. But more on that later. I have to get back to reading!
