Sherlock Holmes: Masters of Lies by Philip Purser-Hallard

Author:Philip Purser-Hallard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags:  
Publisher: Titan

THE MORNING CHRONICLE

20th June 1898

LOVE’S LABOUR’S WON NO LONGER LOST: SENSATIONAL DISCOVERY AT MANOR HOUSE

Scholars have announced the discovery of the legendary missing Shakespeare play Love’s Labour’s Won, at the private home where recently the manuscript of a hitherto unknown poem by the Bard was also found.

The previous discovery, a sonnet now on sale at Boothby’s Auction House, has attracted much attention from the academic world and from wealthy collectors. However, the fame of this more substantial work, a full five-act play, will undoubtedly eclipse that of the poem, which is a mere 14 lines long.

The manor house, whose name and location have been kept strictly private to spare the owner and his family from the depredations of amateur fortune-seekers, has been subject to a rigorous search by scholars of the most reputable probity, who finally discovered the unbound manuscript in a locked sea-chest in the attic. It is thought that an earlier owner of the house, a contemporary of Shakespeare, was presented with the manuscript by the Bard himself, perhaps in gratitude for some gift of money or other act of patronage.

Naturally there has been unkind speculation that this new find is a forgery. For instance, Dr Hadrian Permenter of Prince’s College, Camford, who has previously cast doubt on the authenticity of the sonnet, now asks why, if that poem is authentic and a part of this play, it was separated from the manuscript? Such trivialities are unlikely to trouble the serious Shakespearean enthusiast.

Professor Jonathan Rames of Ascension College told our reporter that the new manuscript is undoubtedly Shakespeare’s original manuscript of Love’s Labour’s Won, the sequel to his popular Love’s Labour’s Lost, and that it will be of incalculable value in casting light on the poet’s work and his career.

Dr Rames informs our reporter that he will treat the subject at length in a forthcoming monograph, to be published by Camford University Press, and that he expects to be exploring this new frontier in Shakespeare scholarship for a great many years to come.

“I trust that you have information of some exceptional significance to impart, Sherlock,” Mycroft Holmes admonished his brother from our best armchair. “You know that I do not care to have my routine interrupted.” He sipped lightly at a cup of Mrs Hudson’s best Darjeeling, and delicately helped himself to half the biscuits that she had provided for our gathering.

“Forgive me, brother,” said Sherlock Holmes, “but you will perhaps allow that, of all the establishments of its kind in London, the Diogenes Club is the least well suited to hosting conferences. I felt it best to hold a conclave between the four of us here in my rooms.”

For Stanley Hopkins was also in attendance, sitting upright in a straight-backed chair and gripping his cup of tea with unnecessary firmness. He was clearly ill at ease at finding himself in the presence of an official of Mycroft’s seniority, though not being of the older Holmes’ immediate circle he was ignorant of the full scope of his activities and authority.

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