The Shakespeare Notebooks Read online

  CONTENTS

  Preface to the First Edition

  THE SHAKESPEARE NOTEBOOKS

  Notes on a Play

  Exits and Entrances

  The True Tragedie of Macbeth

  Cymbeline

  Diary Extract

  The Dream

  A Prologue

  The True and Most Excellent Comedie of Romeo and Juliet

  The Tempest – A Work in Progress

  Exit, by Another Means

  The Winter’s Tale

  Antony and Cleopatra

  Troilus and Cressida

  Pericles

  Coriolanus

  Master Faustus

  The Sonnets

  As You Like It

  Double Falsehood

  Hamlet

  THE TIMELESS SHAKESPEARE

  Timon of Athens

  Hamlet’s Soliloquy

  Academic Notes

  Ye Unearthly Childe

  Appendix – The Last Will

  About the Authors

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  * * *

  Doctor Who? That is the question.

  * * *

  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

  Considering he is acknowledged as the world’s greatest playwright, surprisingly little is actually known about the life and times of William Shakespeare. We know the man almost entirely through his work, and the occasional accounts of others. It is possible that the most famous portrait of the man is not actually of Shakespeare at all. Despite the evidence of his genius, he remains a mystery.

  So it was with excitement, trepidation, and also a degree of scepticism within the academic world when the so-called Shakespeare Notebooks were discovered recently. Could they be genuine? And if so, what did they mean – not just for our understanding of the man’s life but also of his work? On the face of it, the Notebooks are a record kept by Shakespeare himself over several years. Not so much a journal as a scrapbook containing early drafts of key scenes and moments from his plays, as well as other observations, and previously unknown material, including several sonnets.

  In literary terms, the Notebooks are priceless. But for many it is the single page of explanation at the front of the Notebooks that is most intriguing and enigmatic. Is it indeed by Shakespeare himself? If so, to what events does it refer? We reproduce the text of that preface here for the first time in its entirety. Note that the ‘day book’ (or diary) to which Shakespeare refers at the start of the text has never been found, and so the references he describes remain an enigma.

  Following the strange and unsettling events of the first, and of necessity the only, staging of my play Love’s Labour’s Won, I, William Shakespeare, have recorded the incident in my day book. As I put down upon the page what happened, and recorded my thoughts of the mysterious stranger known as ‘the Doctor’, it occurred to me that this was not the first time we had met.

  ’Though his face and form seemed unfamiliar, freed from the baleful influence of the Carrionites, I have come to realise that several other mysterious strangers who have influenced my life and my work may all in point of fact be this one and the same person.

  And so, inspired by this revelation, I have traversed the history of my notes and journals. From these and other divers places have I compiled this book of scraps. A volume wherein I do draw together every incident and encounter that may perchance have involved or been influenced by the Doctor. It has been an enlightenment, and I have found the Doctor to have appeared not only in my life, but in my writings too. Can I have forgot so completely whereof my inspirations came, and thought them but the dew of imagination, the sweat upon the brow of diligence and labour?

  It is as if the Doctor has somehow traversed my life in retrospect, removing any references and allusions to himself and to the strange world of wonders and magick that is his habitation. And now, save for the sundry items I do gather here, these recollections do remain only in my most private thoughts and the fading tablet of my memory . . .

  Shakespeare seems to have become somewhat obsessed with the enigmatic ‘doctor’ to whom he refers. Within the Notebooks this figure seems to appear in various guises – as magician, physician, academic, colleague and friend, and in some extracts merely as ‘the Man’ or ‘He’. But who he might have been – assuming he even existed – is never fully explained. Perhaps the Notebooks themselves formed the basis for a possible epic work in which Shakespeare planned to present the adventures of this ‘doctor’.

  But whatever Shakespeare’s plans and aspirations, on his death, the Notebooks – the Bard’s final words on the subject of the enigmatic ‘doctor’ – were also lost. They remained hidden for four hundred years.

  Until now.

  Finally, we have obtained the rights to the original Notebooks put together by William Shakespeare in late 1599 and kept updated until his death – the scrapbook in which he documented the impact of the ‘doctor’ on his life and work. It is a strange collection of writings, snippets, and musings.

  Here for the first time we can see the original notes for Hamlet, including a very different appearance by the ghost. We can ponder on early versions of great lines from the Bard and wonder why they were changed. We can see how the faeries of A Midsummer Night’s Dream were originally imagined, and how the stage directions were later adjusted to remove references to a mysterious blue box and ‘the strangest sound akin to wheezing and groaning that ever did assail the ear’.

  This special edition of The Shakespeare Notebooks presents material not only from the Notebooks themselves, but also from a variety of other contemporary and more modern sources. For the first time, we bring together other material that would seem to have a direct bearing on the mysterious ‘doctor’. The editors have organised the book into the following sections:

  The Shakespeare Notebooks

  This section contains the material gathered together by Shakespeare himself in the Notebooks. Most of it he had written himself, although some may be drawn from other sources. Here you will find early drafts of his work which predate the versions we are so familiar with today. This section also includes material pertaining to Shakespeare’s work in performance, or in what he considered to be ‘final form’, together with some contemporary Elizabethan and Jacobean material relevant to the plays.

  The Timeless Shakespeare

  This section presents material generally taken from later years, right up to the present day, that would seem to elaborate on Shakespeare’s apparent contention that the strange ‘doctor’ was somehow unbounded by the limitations of time. It includes post-Shakespearean material such as reviews of performances, critical reception, and academic analysis of the work.

  Interspersed with the main extracts, we have included some of the single-line ‘drafts’ that occur in the margins throughout the Notebooks. There are, as you can imagine, many of these, so we have tended towards the lines that are well known in their final form.

  Note that, so far as possible, the original inconsistent layout and presentation of the source material has been preserved. That said, each of the main extracts is prefaced with explanatory text. But in the final analysis is it up to you, the reader, to determine whether you believe the Shakespeare Notebooks are indeed genuine, or an elaborate hoax.

  * * *

  I am but mad north-north-west.

  When the time wind’s southerly,

  I know a Dalek from a Cyberman.

  * * *

  * * *

  THE SHAKESPEARE NOTEBOOKS

  This section contains the material gathered together by Shakespeare himself in the Notebooks. Most of it he had written himself,
although some may be drawn from other sources. Here you will find early drafts of his work which predate the versions we are so familiar with today. This section also includes material pertaining to Shakespeare’s work in performance, or in what he considered to be ‘final form’, together with some contemporary Elizabethan and Jacobean material relevant to the plays.

  * * *

  NOTES ON A PLAY

  These handwritten notes on a single sheet within the Notebooks seem to be Shakespeare’s first thoughts on the early scenes of Hamlet. Note that the ghost of Hamlet’s father was to take on a rather different aspect originally.

  Elsinore – is that in Denmark? ‘Hamlet, Prince of Finland’ doesn’t have quite the same gravitas.

  King – dead, killed by brother who marries mother and takes the throne. Laws of succession are quite odd in Denmark (not sure about Finland).

  Hamlet – son of dead king (hence ‘Prince of Denmark’) discovers his uncle murdered his father and married his mother to steal the throne. Probably drives him mad. Well, it would, wouldn’t it?!

  How’s he find out? Possibilities:

  -Hidden papers – never very satisfactory

  -His mother confesses – except she wouldn’t know, would she?

  -His uncle confesses – why? That’s asking for trouble!

  -He guesses – hmmm.

  -A magician tells him – ah, most plausible. Such things are common in the theatre.

  The magician appears in a strange blue box announced by all the sounds of hell itself. Yes, that could work. Magician wears exotic apparel – a knotted bow of ribbon at his neck, for instance. Perhaps like this:

  A blue box doth appear and Magician enters from box

  HAMLET

  Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

  Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn’d,

  Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,

  Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

  Thou com’st in such a questionable shape

  That I will speak to thee.

  MAGICIAN

  What country, sir, is this?

  HAMLET

  Why, ’tis Denmark, sire. Or mayhap Finland. What manner of man art thou?

  MAGICIAN

  I am Magician. Do you not know me, for we have met before, Lord Hamlet.

  HAMLET

  Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak! I’ll go no further.

  MAGICIAN

  Mark me.

  HAMLET

  I will.

  MAGICIAN

  My hour is almost come,

  When I to Vortex and tormenting Time

  Must render up myself.

  HAMLET

  Alas, poor friend!

  MAGICIAN

  Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

  To what I shall unfold.

  HAMLET

  Speak. I am bound to hear.

  MAGICIAN

  So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

  HAMLET

  What?

  MAGICIAN

  I am a Lord of Time,

  Doom’d for all eternity to walk,

  And for the day confin’d to my blue box,

  Till the foul crimes done in the War of Time

  Are burnt and purg’d away. But that I am forbid

  To tell the secrets of my home world,

  I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

  Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

  Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,

  Thy knotted and combined bow tie to part,

  And each particular hair to stand on end

  Like quills upon Koquillion.

  But this eternal blazon must not be

  To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!

  If thou didst ever thy dear father love –

  HAMLET

  O God!

  MAGICIAN

  Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther.

  Needs a bit of work still, obviously. Also – note to self – check spelling of ‘murther’.

  EXITS AND ENTRANCES

  An early draft of one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches, this draft from As You Like It appears without explanation within the Notebooks. It was probably revised as many of the allusions seem rather obscure.

  The cosmos is a stage,

  And all, from thou to Fenric, merely players:

  We have our exits and our entrances;

  But Time Lords are required to play the greater part,

  My acts being seven ages. At first the ancient,

  Pondering caveman’s eggshell skull.

  And then the stovepiped clown in pixie boots,

  Tripping twixt pools of noisome mercury

  Heedlessly on Vulcan. And then the gent,

  Sighing at circuits, with a woeful ballad

  Made over lifeless switches. Then the scarf

  Inside which lives a man of Left Bank tastes:

  A wand’rer in the fourth dimension,

  Given to sudden thunder. Then the youth,

  A sporting chap with linseed on his cuffs

  Who keeps to time much like a broken clock

  (Which has authority but twice a day.)

  And so he plays his part. The sixth age slips

  Into some mustard-coloured pantaloons.

  A man who shouts upon the mountain top

  Throws quotes at slugs and wrings the necks of friends,

  And woe betide the guard who fights with him

  Beside a tank of aqua regia,

  With quip as epitaph. Last scene of all,

  That ends this strophe of mine own history,

  Seems stranger still as I survey this board,

  And play for thee, and me, and everything.

  THE TRUE TRAGEDIE OF MACBETH

  It is well known that Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, leading many critics to speculate that the text first printed in the Folio was a heavily edited version of what was originally a play of similar length to Othello and King Lear. Certainly there is evidence that the text contains interpolations drawn from the work of Thomas Middleton and that some scenes may have been heavily cut (see Wilson, 1947).

  The Shakespeare Notebooks do not contain a complete version of the play, but give us some tantalising glimpses of what it may have contained, as it features alternative versions of several scenes along with some omitted material. It seems that Shakespeare originally intended for the play (then entitled The True Tragedie of Macbeth) to contain an additional subplot and three extra characters. It seems likely they were omitted from the finished play for reasons of staging, of dramatic unity, and of plausibility. What is interesting, though, is that Shakespeare seems to have been working from a source for the play in addition to Holinshed’s Chronicles . . .

  ACT I, SCENE III – A HEATH

  Thick fog. Trumpet, wheezing, groaning.

  DOCTOR, JAMIE and ZOE appear.

  JAMIE

  Och, Doctor. What’ve you gone and done now?

  DOCTOR

  I’m not sure, Jamie. Some small malfunction

  Of Tardis circuits I expect.

  JAMIE

  ‘Some small’? One minute we’re in the control room, the next we’re on some blasted heath.

  ZOE

  Where do you think we are then, Doctor, pray?

  DOCTOR

  Afraid I don’t know, Zoe. ’Tis too foul

  To navigate by stars. On Earth, I guess.

  JAMIE

  Aye, it always is!

  ZOE

  And ’tis the mid of night. And raineth hard.

  Thunder.

  JAMIE

  We’ll freeze to death out here. We should find shelter.

  DOCTOR

  I do not think that would be very wise.

  JAMIE

  Why not?

  DOCTOR

  For at some point the fault will mend itself

  An
d we to Tardis shall be swift return’d.

  ZOE

  So long as we stand fast upon this spot?

  DOCTOR

  Indeed, my dear.

  JAMIE

  You’re saying that if we do move, we might not get back?

  DOCTOR

  Besides, who knows what hazards this fog veils?

  ZOE

  Yes. I can’t see more than an arm’s length hence –

  Zoe trips.

  JAMIE

  Zoe? Are you all right?

  ZOE

  I think so. I just tripp’d over this bush.

  JAMIE

  Hey, Doctor! It’s heather.

  DOCTOR

  So?

  JAMIE

  So we might be in Scotland!

  ZOE

  Forsooth, ’tis wet enough it must be said. [Sound of approaching soldiers]

  DOCTOR

  Hush! Hark! I hear approaches through the dark

  Quick, Zoe, Jamie, get down out of sight!

  JAMIE

  Och no, in the mud?

  They fall in the mud.

  ZOE

  Too late, by them I think we have been glimps’d!

  Enter MACBETH and BANQUO.

  MACBETH

  So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

  BANQUO

  How far is’t to Forres? [Sees the DOCTOR, JAMIE and ZOE]

  What are these,

  So muddied and so wild in their attire,

  That look not like th’inhabitants o’th’earth,

  And yet are on’t?

  JAMIE

  Hey, are you talking about us?

  BANQUO

  My lord Macbeth, they speak!

  The DOCTOR, JAMIE and ZOE get up, covered in mud.

  ZOE

  Macbeth? Did I just hear you say Macbeth?

  JAMIE

  Hey, I’ve heard of him! He was the Thane of Glamis back in olden times. And the Thane of Cawdor.

  DOCTOR

  Hush! Jamie, hush!