The Winter’s Tale and Cardenio: Evaluating and Attributing Shakespeare's "Lost" Play Anonymous College

When a transcript of Cardenio emerged and was soon labeled one of Shakespeare’s “lost plays,” several critics and scholars nodded their heads in a unified disagreement while others became instantly interested in analyzing its contents. Throughout the years just as many agree that is in fact one of Shakespeare’s lost plays as those who dismiss it as someone who was trying to duplicate Shakespeare and thus capitalize on this respected and well-liked style. Whatever the case, specific attention must be given to the erroneous ways in which Cardenio deals with setting in the context of Shakespeare’s later works, language and style, characters and stage direction, which when examined weaken any claim that Cardenio was indeed written by the world’s most famous playwright himself.

Shakespeare’s later plays, which include Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest, are all notable for distinguishing characteristics common in varying degrees to them all. They all, with the exception of The Tempest which stays in one setting, have scenes in many places and countries, and their events take place over a lengthy period of time. The Winter’s Tale, for instance goes from Sicily to the Bohemian coast then back to Sicily then to...