Thomas of Woodstock (play) facts for kids

Thomas of Woodstock and Richard the Second Part One are two names for an old, unfinished play. No one knows who wrote it. This play is from the Elizabethan era, a time when famous writers like William Shakespeare were creating plays. It tells a story about events during the reign of King Richard II.

Most experts agree that Shakespeare probably didn't write this play. It's also not usually included in collections of plays sometimes thought to be by Shakespeare. For a long time, people thought this play might have influenced Shakespeare's own plays, like Richard II and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. However, new information about when the play was written makes that idea less certain.

Main Characters in the Play

This play features many important people from history. Here are some of the main characters you would meet:

• Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester – He is the King's uncle and a powerful leader.
• John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster – Another uncle to the King.
• Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York – The King's third uncle.
• King Richard II of England – The young ruler of England.
• Sir Henry Greene, Sir Edward Bagot, Sir William Bushy, Sir Thomas Scroop – These are some of King Richard's close friends and advisors.
• Robert Tresilian – A lawyer who later became a very important judge.
• Queen Anne O'Beame – The Queen of England.
• Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester – Thomas of Woodstock's wife.
• Philippa de Coucy, Duchess of Ireland – The widow of a former friend of the King.
• There are also many other characters like soldiers, servants, and townspeople.

How the Play Was Found

This play only exists as an old, handwritten document. It doesn't have a title or a known author, and it's not complete. It's part of a collection of fifteen plays kept in the British Library. This collection was discovered by a researcher named James Halliwell-Phillipps. Another play, Edmund Ironside, which some scholars also think Shakespeare might have written, was found in the same collection.

The collection was put together by an actor named William Cartwright in the 1600s. He later became a bookseller and collected plays during the English Civil War. We don't have records of this play being performed when Shakespeare was alive. However, the old manuscript looks very worn, and it has notes about actors and even suggestions for censorship. This shows that the play was used a lot, even many years after it was written. We don't know which acting group owned or performed it.

The play's text has been published several times by different scholars, making it available for people to read and study.

What the Play is About

The play focuses on the events leading up to the murder of King Richard II's uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. This happened in the year 1397.

Since the original manuscript has no title, people call it different things. Most scholars and theater groups call it Thomas of Woodstock or simply Woodstock. But some call it Richard II, Part One. They do this because the play describes events that happened right before Shakespeare's play Richard II. It helps explain why some characters in Shakespeare's play act the way they do.

However, some people think calling it Richard II, Part One is going too far. They say it makes the connection to Shakespeare's play seem too strong when it's just a guess. Also, some events shown in Woodstock are also mentioned in Shakespeare's Richard II. This means Woodstock can't be a direct sequel. A scholar named A.P. Rossiter preferred the title Woodstock because Thomas of Woodstock is the main character, not King Richard.

Some experts believe Shakespeare knew this play and was inspired by it. They think he might have expected his audiences to know the story from Woodstock when they watched his Richard II.

Who Wrote the Play?

Because Thomas of Woodstock is about the same historical period as Shakespeare's Richard II, some people have wondered if Shakespeare wrote it. However, most early editors of the play didn't think so. One editor said there was "not the smallest chance that he was Shakespeare," because the writing wasn't as exciting. But they did admit that the play showed some similarities to Shakespeare's style.

Other writers have been suggested as the author. In 2001, a scholar named MacDonald P. Jackson used a method called stylistic analysis to suggest Samuel Rowley might have written it.

Scholars Peter Corbin and Douglas Sedge believe the play was written by a "considerable" and "competent" author. But they say it's "highly speculative" to say Shakespeare or anyone else wrote it for sure. Still, they point out some "Shakespearian" qualities in the play:

• It handles historical events in a clever way.
• It cleverly compares scenes of everyday life with scenes of court life.
• England itself feels like an important "character" in the play.
• The play starts in an engaging way, showing good dramatic skill.
• It has well-developed female characters, especially Queen Anne O'Beame.
• One character, Nimble, uses words incorrectly in a funny way, similar to characters in Shakespeare's plays.
• The writer is able to make the audience feel different ways about King Richard and see Woodstock as a person with a strong conscience, much like Shakespeare did with other characters.

In 2006, Michael Egan argued that Shakespeare did write the play. He said he found thousands of similar phrases and words between Woodstock and Shakespeare's known works. However, other scholars have challenged his findings, saying the links were often weak. A panel of three Shakespeare experts looked at Egan's evidence in 2011 and concluded that he had not proven Shakespeare wrote the play.

One argument against Shakespeare's authorship is that a character named Sir Henry Green dies in Thomas of Woodstock, but he is alive at the beginning of Shakespeare's Richard II. Shakespeare usually doesn't have characters die twice in his plays. However, Shakespeare's plays do have some small inconsistencies.

When Was the Play Written?

Most scholars believe Thomas of Woodstock was written between 1591 and 1595. Some researchers think it might have been written even earlier, around 1582, possibly by Christopher Marlowe.

Corbin and Sedge, while careful about dating plays based on influences, suggest that Woodstock was likely written and perhaps performed before 1595. Michael Egan dates the play to 1592–1593.

However, MacDonald P. Jackson argues that the play's language and style suggest it was written in the early 1600s. If this is true, then Woodstock would have been written after Shakespeare's Richard II, making it a "prequel" rather than a source that influenced Shakespeare. Another scholar, Eric Sams, guessed it was written around 1590.

Modern Performances

Even though it's an old and incomplete play, Thomas of Woodstock has been performed in modern times:

• In 1999, the Hampshire Shakespeare Company in Massachusetts put on the first known American production. A local writer added an ending to complete the missing parts of the manuscript.
• From 2001 to 2004, the Pacific Repertory Theatre included Thomas of Woodstock in a series of Shakespeare's history plays. They suggested Shakespeare wrote it.
• In 2010, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., included a large part of Thomas of Woodstock at the beginning of their production of Richard II.
• On December 20, 2013, the Royal Shakespeare Company did a special reading of the play in London. They cut some parts to highlight its connection to Richard II.
• In 2020, the Beyond Shakespeare Company released an online reading and discussion of Thomas of Woodstock on YouTube.