Taming of the Shrew part 1

This week's strip was inspired by the news that a lost play by Shakespeare has been rediscovered. Actually, it isn't Shakespeare at all, but an early 18th century play called Double Falsehood; or, The Distrest Lovers by Lewis Theobald who claimed it was substantially based on a Shakespeare play called Cardenio.

What I find interesting about Theobald is that he claimed to have three original texts of the Shakespeare play. So instead of performing a lost Shakespeare play, he... um... rewrote it and produced it under his own name and... er... told people that it was, y'know, based on a lost Shakespeare that he had copies of, which he... uh... didn't bother to show people as proof. If you believe it's a lost Shakespeare play, drop me a line as I've got some snake oil you might be interested in.

But thinking of Shakespeare and the task I have at hand this week, which involves re-lettering a strip by C. L. Doughty, I remembered a superb adaptation of a real Shakespeare play by Doughty that hasn't been seen for over forty years. This appeared in the magazine Tell Me Why in 1969 and, even if you're not a big fan of Shakespeare, you can still sit back and admire Doughty's talent as an artist.

(* Artwork © Look and Learn Ltd. Reprinted by permission.)