Colleagues -
I'm engaged on a project motivated to prove that William Shaksper of
Stratford was born on Wednesday 19th April 1564. Could SKS who has
access to the printed works of David Garrick (preferably the first
edition of 1756 or 1758) please check for me the following passage:
"Florizel and Perdita", section II, Autolicus [sic] reading ballad;
corresponds to "The Winter's Tale" act IV sc.IV line 268):
"Here's another ballad of a fish, that appear'd upon the coast on
Wednesday the FORESCORE of April, forty thousand fathom above
water,...".
This word 'forescore' is not in any dictionary, to my knowledge; though
Shakespeare invented many other words suffixed 'fore-'(forgone,
foredoomed, foretell, etc.). In the folios of "The Winter's Tale" it is
spelt FOURSCORE, i.e. 80th April (= 19th June?) and supposed by
annotators to be burlesque nonsense in imitation of contemporary
exaggerated broadsheets. But, if the down-load I have of Garrick's
version is to be trusted, Garrick was not so easily fooled as to the
true intention.
Not that it really matters, but the birthdate of the world's most
famous author is here (for those who accept the Stratfordian theory)
dependant on a single letter - 'u', since there are no written records
of it
(O cursed spite, that ever I was born, to put it right!) and being as I
am and as some will have surmised in a state of considerable boredom -
who will be the first to supply this literary link to burst a great
discovery upon an astonished world?
John Barton