Overview

Shakespeare Discoveries III offers textual analysis of The Two Gentlemen of Verona interlaced with a complete and perfectly transcribed edition of the first printing of the play in the 1623 Shakespeare Catalogue. The commentary elucidates difficult and at times mysterious passages, shows where the play is burdened by patriarchal and prejudicial tendencies, and highlights the poetic mastery and frequent inclination toward sonnet structure in the principal characters' speeches. Dated to the early 1580s, the play is shown to be based on the experience of the court playwright who devised it, with significant contributions to the text by the players who first enacted it, especially the comedians who created the roles of Launce and Speed. Textual analysis along with historical evidence point to Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the court playwright, the acclaimed comedian Richard Tarlton as the creator of the Launce interludes, and the William Shakespeare as the young player who contributed the antics of Speed.

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William S. Niederkorn reported Shakespeare news in The New York Times from 2002 to 2009, critiqued Shakespeare scholarship in The Brooklyn Rail from 2009 to 2013, and has since been writing and researching independently. Like 18th century editors, he focuses on interpreting the texts of the Catalogue of plays of 1623 and the Pamphlets of poems and plays printed earlier. Shakespeare Discoveries I and II, on Venus and Adonis and The Tempest, are also in print, and he has substantially completed studies of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure, and The Comedy of Errors. A lifetime member of the Dramatists Guild, he is also a playwright, performer, poet, artist and composer of jazz, underground rock and classical music.

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