The Book of Plays (full title in original spelling The Bocke of Plaies and Notes therof p formans for Common Pollicie) is a section of a manuscript by the London astrologer

Simon Forman Simon Forman (31 December 1552 – 5 or 12 September 1611) was an Elizabethan astrologer, occultist and herbalist active in London during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England. His reputation, however, was severely tarnishe ...

that records his descriptions of four plays he attended in 1610-11 and the morals he drew from them. It is now in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

catalogued as MS Ashmole 208. The document is noteworthy for being the only preserved eyewitness accounts of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

’s plays on the professional stage during his lifetime: ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' at the

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...

on 20 April 1610; ''

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...

'' at the Globe on 15 May 1611; and ''

Cymbeline ''Cymbeline'' , also known as ''The Tragedie of Cymbeline'' or ''Cymbeline, King of Britain'', is a play by William Shakespeare set in British Iron Age, Ancient Britain () and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerni ...

,'' date and theatre not specified. The fourth play described by Forman is a ''Richard II'' acted at the Globe on 30 April 1611; but from its description it covered the king’s earlier reign, and so was not Shakespeare's ''

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...

'', first published 14 years earlier. The notes were discovered in Forman’s extensive papers in or before 1832 by

Philip Bliss Philip Paul Bliss (9 July 1838 – 29 December 1876) was an American composer, conductor, writer of hymns and a bass-baritone Gospel singer. He wrote many well-known hymns, including "Hold the Fort" (1870), "Almost Persuaded" (1871); "Hallelujah, ...

or William H. Black. Joseph Hunter mentioned that Bliss had drawn his attention to them in the summer of 1832, and Black noted them on a proof-sheet of his catalogue of the Ashmole manuscripts.

Suspicions of forgery

The description of ''MacBeth'' mentions characters "Ridinge", a detail that critics with a knowledge of Jacobean dramaturgy and stagecraft had found startling, although subsequent scholars, commenting on a horse evidently present on stage in another play, have opined that it is within the realm of possibility. Also the idea that Forman, a worldly-wise and canny operator, would spend his time drawing sententious morals from the stage plays he saw struck some modern critics as psychologically false, and in the 20th century suspicion emerged that the ''Book of Plays'' was one of

John Payne Collier John Payne Collier (11 January 1789, London – 17 September 1883, Maidenhead) was an English Shakespearean critic and forger. Reporter and solicitor His father, John Dyer Collier (1762–1825), was a successful journalist, and his connection wi ...

's forgeries, although Collier, who announced his discovery of the document in 1836, claimed to have used a transcription made for him by an unnamed "gentleman" (identified in 1841 by James Halliwell as William H. Black, who catalogued the Ashmolean Collection). In 1933

Samuel A. Tannenbaum Samuel Aaron Tannenbaum (1874–1948) was a literary scholar, bibliographer, and palaeographer, best known for his work on William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Life and career Tannenbaum was born in Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungaria ...

published an elaborate case arguing that the section was a forgery. Much of Tannenbaum's case centered on

palaeographic Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...

arguments about the manuscript's handwriting. An earlier examiner of the manuscript had transcribed the section title as "A Book of Places", and Tannenbaum theorised that the section originally contained descriptions of places in England that Forman had visited and that Collier had altered the title and either inserted forged leaves or had chemically removed the ink for his forgeries. However, subsequent scholars examined the leaves under ultraviolet light and found no trace of forgery or rebinding. In 1945,

W. W. Greg Sir Walter Wilson Greg (9 July 1875 – 4 March 1959), known professionally as W. W. Greg, was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare scholars of the 20th century. Family and education Greg was born at Wimbledon Common in 1875. H ...

criticised Tannenbaum's scholarship and

J. Dover Wilson John Dover Wilson CH (13 July 1881 – 15 January 1969) was a professor and scholar of Renaissance drama, focusing particularly on the work of William Shakespeare. Born at Mortlake (then in Surrey, now in Greater London), he attended Lancing ...

and R. W. Hunt both examined the manuscript without finding any evidence of tampering. It was also learned that Tannenbaum, who had not examined the manuscript but relied instead on photostats, had compared the section with writing Forman had done ten years earlier instead of using a control from the same period. Finally, the record Halliwell had found identifying Black as the librarian that had made a transcript of the Forman manuscript for Collier in 1832 was rediscovered, confirming that Collier never had access to the manuscript. Most modern scholars accept the section as authentic, but some still suspect it might be a forgery. Katherine Duncan-Jones, for example, did not use it as a source for her biography of Shakespeare, finding it "strangely suspicious that Forman, who nowhere else in his copious papers reveals any interest in the theatre, should suddenly have taken to playgoing in the last year of his life", apparently unaware that Forman does reveal an interest in theatre elsewhere in the manuscripts.Riggs, David. Review in ''Shakespeare Quarterly'' 53 (Winter 2002), 550-3; 551.

References

{{Reflist Early Modern English literature English drama Bodleian Library collection