An article from the NYT on an exhibit at the Folger.
Shakespearean fraud can be good material for comedy, and “Fakes, Forgeries and Facsimiles,” an exhibition that opens on Wednesday at the Folger Shakespeare Library here, shows it. A letter once said to be from Queen Elizabeth begins:
“Wee didde receive youre prettye Verses goode Masterre William through the hands of oure Lorde Chamberlayne ande wee doe complemente thee onne theyre greate excellence.” Sent to “Globe bye Thames,” it orders the playwright “withe thye beste Actorres” to “come toe usse bye Tuesdaye nexte” in “Hamptowne,” where she is expecting to be visited by “the lorde Leicesterre.”
There was just one catch, an exhibit label points out: Leicester died before the Globe was built.
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