Arden of Faversham is a literary mystery. It got its title as a result of a real-life murder, that of Thomas Arden (of Faversham in Kent) by his wife Alice, and her lover Mosby, on February 15, 1551. The story was first written up by Holinshed, then published as an anonymous play in 1592, with the title The Lamentable and True Tragedie of M. Arden of Feversham in Kent. Who was most wickedlye murdered, by the means of his disloyall and wanton wyfe, who for the love she bare to one Mosbie, hyred two desperat ruffins Blackwill and Shakbag, to kill him. Wherin is shewed the great malice and dissimulation of a wicked woman, the unsatiable desire of filthie lust, and the shamefull end of all murderers. To this day the authorship of the play is uncertain, and some have claimed it for William Shakespeare. This is regarded by most mainstream Shakespeare scholars as at best a stretch, but there are some intriguing links. Despite its not appearing in the quarto or folio Shakespeares, it seems to have received an early attribution as a work of Shakespeare in Edward Archer’s play-catalogue of 1656, and it was later championed as an authentic Shakespeare play by critics including Swinburne and J A Symonds. 21st-century computer analysis has also provided support for authorship or part-authorship by Shakespeare. But the title may be the final pointer. Shakespeare’s mother’s maiden name was Arden, and he later set As You Like It in the Forest of Arden. Did he revisit the story of the murdered man as a familial joke?Consulted:
Wine, ML, ed.: Arden of Faversham (1973)
I definitely think this requires an intervention of the brilliant Thursday Next, from LittSpecs, in Jasper Fforde's hilarious novels!
ReplyDeleteI've just been browsing his website because I had only vaguely heard of him. But this is funny stuff - I liked his single-handed attempt to rescue Swindon from the tomb of sub-mediocrity. I'm going to buy one of 'em.
ReplyDeleteI love him! He's both brilliant and incredibly funny... The Jane Eyre Affair is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to be English to understand exactly what Swindon signifies, - in terms of the most soul-destroying post-war urban mediocrity - or at least what it did before he came along with concepts such as Bob and dave's Genetically re-engineered Species Emporium, for which, thank you for introducing me! Maybe it takes a Vancouverian. Maybe I'll start with the Eyre affair since I loved the look of that car covered with Escher lizards.
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