#B3: A Cornucopia of Titles; a Bumper Crop of Madness

The Second Maiden's Tragedy, OR, The Maiden's Tragedy, OR, Cardenio, OR, The Lady's Tragedy, OR, The Tyrant (depending on which scholar you ask)

Okay, in my defense, when I grabbed this off my shelf, I didn't actually realize that THIS play had never been printed EITHER. So that's the second new play of three that doesn't actually count towards my total, but you know what, I am okay with that, because this play is a wild fuckin ride.

So the history of this play is...fraught, to say the least. There's this manuscript, a fair copy, probably a prompt-book, and it's labeled This second maiden's tragedy (for it hath no name inscribed). No author. No real title. But it's a full play, and there is record of a performance in 1611 by the King's Men, the playing company with which Shakespeare was associated. Sometime in the 17th century, someone labeled the play as being written by Thomas Goffe (a Jacobean playwright so obscure I've never heard of him), then someone else crossed out his name and put William Shakespeare, and then someone ELSE crossed out HIS name and put George Chapman. These days, most scholars attribute the text to Thomas Middleton due to stylistic similarities and the fact that he wrote for the King's Men, too.