Edmund Ironside (play)
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Edmund Ironside is an anonymous Elizabethan play that depicts the life of Edmund II of England; however, at least two critics have suggested it is an early work by Shakespeare.
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[edit] Authorship
E.B. Everitt and Eric Sams have argued that this play is perhaps Shakespeare's first drama. According to Sams, Edmund Ironside "contains some 260 words or usages which on the evidence of the Oxford English Dictionary were first used by Shakespeare himself.... Further, it exhibits 635 instances of Shakespeare's rare words including some 300 of the rarest."[1] However, this argument has failed to convince the majority of Shakespearian scholars.
[edit] Plot
King Canutus (Canute the Great) faces an insurgency of the native English population led by Edmund II. Unbeknownst to them, they face a mutual enemy, a traitorous noble named Edricus, who hopes to take the crown for himself.
[edit] References
- Sams, Eric. (1986). Shakespeare's "Edmund Ironside": The Lost Play. Wildwood Ho. ISBN 0-7045-0547-9
[edit] External links
- Anonymous Plays: "Edmund Ironside" complete text at Elizabethan Authors
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