| One of the most significant
discoveries in Shakespeare studies was made by Alan Keen on June 22,
1940. On that date, Keen came across a copy of Hall’s Chronicle
(1548) containing numerous handwritten annotations which correspond closely
to the early history play The
Famous Victories Of Henry The Fifth,
as demonstrated by Keen in 1954 in The Annotator, and by Seymour
Pitcher in 1961 in The Case For Shakespeare’s Authorship Of The
Famous Victories.
Surviving copies of Oxford’s correspondence are in an italic hand. However, features of the secretary hand in Hall’s Chronicle strongly resemble Oxford’s italic hand, and it seems likely that a comparison of the two hands by handwriting experts would demonstrate that Oxford wrote the annotations in Keen’s copy of Hall’s Chronicle. Alan Keen placed his copy of Hall’s Chronicle on loan with the British Library, where it is catalogued in the Manuscripts Reading Room as Loan 61. A microfilm copy is available (Micro. 146176). A discussion of the provenance of Alan Keen’s copy of Hall’s Chronicle, together with a modern spelling edition of the annotations, is available in issues 32-34, 39 and 56 of the Edward De Vere Newsletter. Click here for a copy of the will of Sir Richard Newport and other documents related to the annotated copy of Hall's Chronicle. |
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