Conferences

Double Falshood and Cardenio: Theobald, Fletcher, Shakespeare, Cervantes

Date/Time
Friday, January 31, 2014–Saturday, February 1, 2014
All Day

Location
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
2520 Cimarron Street

—a conference organized by A. R. Braunmuller, University of California, Los Angeles, and Robert Folkenflik, University of California, Irvine

falshood13Lewis Theobald claimed his play Double Falshood, based on the “Cardenio” episode in Don Quixote, was “revised and adapted” from Shakespeare. Records exist of a play by Fletcher and Shakespeare entitled The History of Cardenio. The reassertion of this claim made world headlines in 2010 and provides the opportunity for a focused examination of the play. This conference brings together scholars interested in English drama, theatrical staging, Spanish Golden Age literature, stylometry, history of scholarship, adaptations, editions, attributions, and hoaxes. The program includes a staged reading of Double Falshood, directed by Paul Wagar and performed by students from the Department of Theater in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

Session 1: Beginnings
Chair: Albert R. Braunmuller, University of California, Los Angeles

Robert Folkenflik, University of California, Irvine
“Theobald’s Problem Play”

Roland Greene, Stanford University
“Cervantes in Shakespeare in Theobald: Three Stages of Literary History in One Artifact”

Emily Hodgson Anderson, University of Southern California
“The Memory of Cardenio: Forging a Shakespearean Canon”

Session 2: Drama
Chair: Jayne Lewis, University of California, Irvine

Diana Solomon, Simon Fraser University
“Rape, Seduction, and Eighteenth-Century Theater: The Epilogue to Double Falshood

Jean I. Marsden, University of Connecticut
“Ghostwriting: Theobald’s Double Falshood as Adaptation

Deborah C. Payne, American University
“Textual Skirmishes and Dramatic Frays: Theobald’s Double Falshood and the Editorial and Theatrical Wars of the 1720s”

Friday evening

A staged reading of Double Falshood, directed by Paul Wagar and performed by students from the Department of Theater in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

Session 3: Evidence
Chair: Kristine Louise Haugen, California Institute of Technology

Robert D. Hume, The Pennsylvania State University
“Believers versus Skeptics: An Assessment of the Cardenio/Double Falshood Problem

James W. Pennebaker, University of Texas at Austin
Double Falshood: Using Computerized Text Analysis to Identify Authors

Brean Hammond, University of Nottingham
Double Falshood: The Forgery Hypothesis, the “Charles Dickson” Enigma, and a “Stern” Rejoinder