Perhaps you saw the headline about an episode of Antiques Roadshow where someone brought in a small notepad of handwritten notes about Shakespeare’s work. And, like many of us, you may have noted the story went around on April 1 and thought, “I’m not going to get my hopes up if this is an April Fool’s Joke.”

Well the episode has aired, and if it’s a joke it’s a very anti-climactic one because they’re playing it straight. It’s quite possible that this is indeed a new discovery, which would be fascinating indeed.  The cover sheet says “The Comedyes & Tragedyes” as if it’s a deliberate collection. So is the person reading them, and copying out notes and quotes? Or is it notes on various performances the owner attended?

My first thought was, isn’t that the modern spelling of Shakespeare’s name? Is that clue to a fake? But apparently even though that was not the most common way that Shakespeare spelled his name, it is the most commonly used variant at the time.

Then I thought, oh god why are you touching it with your fingers? Put some gloves on, man!

Then, if you’re with me, you’ll pause on every close up of the text and see if you can spot some quotes.  I found what looked like “enough to make all fellowships,” which is Vincentio in Measure for Measure:

There is scarce
truth enough alive to make societies secure; but
security enough to make fellowships accurst:

How cool is that? I could do that all day.  I’m not worried at all about them saying it’s illegible – there are scholars trained in how to read that hand.

Showing this to my coworker I spotted another one. “Doesn’t that look like it says “heap on your head a packet of sorrows?” I asked him, then flipped to my Open Source Shakespeare:

Than, by concealing it, heap on your head
A pack of sorrows which would press you down,
Being unprevented, to your timeless grave.

(Reading up on what people smarter than me are saying I guess it’s not all *that* rare, we do have plenty of examples of commonplace books from the time period.  So this is not a “never before seen” type of situation. But still, everybody seems in general agreement that it’s a big deal because it’s a new thing, with new information, and everybody wants to see what’s in it.  Me too!)

I know it’s going to happen. One of these days I’m going to get contacted with a press release for a new Shakespeare book that’s burning up the New York Times Best-seller list, written by Alexi Sargeant.

If you’re a long-time reader of the blog you might recognize that name, because we’ve known Alexi for at least seven years – here he is helping write some Shakespeare sequels in August, 2010.

Among his many other endeavours, he’s also designed a Shakespeare board game that we’ll all be getting each other for Christmas next year called No Holds Bard.  I thought it was still in stealth mode, but heck if he’s going to write about it on his own site, I’m going to help him get the word out:

I’ve been working on-and-off for a few years on a Shakespeare mashup fighting game called “No Holds Bard.” Players battle each other as characters like Hamlet, Macbeth, Beatrice, and Cleopatra—and even the Bear from The Winter’s Tale. It’s meant to be geeky, exciting, and educational.

I can’t wait to see the finished product, Alexi!  Remember us when you’re famous!

I am no Marlowe scholar. I had never heard of the Baines note.  I asked Bardfilm about it, as I do with all these things, and he replied, “Long written about, seldom seen.”

Until now, because the British Library is making the Baines note public.

The note is reportedly a conversation between Marlowe and police informant / part-time spy Richard Baines, compiled by Baines.  In it, “Marlowe casts doubt on the existence of God, claims that the New Testament was so “filthily written” that he himself could do a better job, and makes the eyebrow-raising assertion that the Christian communion would be more satisfying if it were smoked “in a tobacco pipe”. Not to mention the whole “gay christ” thing.

Baines then adds a personal note that, “All men in Christianity ought to endeavour that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped.”

A few days later, Marlowe is stabbed to death. (“A great reckoning in a little room.”)

Apparently there’s question about the authenticity of the story, and that it was created specifically to get Marlowe is trouble with the authorities.

I love learning new things.  Have we got any Marlowe scholars in the audience?  Tell us more!

I found a link where you can read the transcript of the Baines note, too, if anybody’s interested.  I can’t make out a blessed word.