Just So You Know: Shakespeare’s Rough Draughts

By Library Barry, Senior Archivist

The writer or writers who identified themselves as William Shakespeare were far from perfect, often needing many drafts to arrive at the finished product we all know and still recite from memory some 400 years later. Turns out, Lord / Lords and Ladies Shakespeare were also far from sober, as these recently-discovered first drafts of some of his / their most famous passages would attest:

Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thy knickers?

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow wilt thou SOOOO be leaving thy lunch about the courtyard!

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! Holdest ye up, yon Sheep may suffice...

Alas, poor Yorick… I blew him – fellatio. Ne’er again, accurséd Jaegermeister… ne’er again!

To pee or not to pee, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler to hold thy ale ‘til three pints quaffed, or cry “Bladder!” and let slip the dregs of beer…

To sleep, perchance to dream… by the Queen’s teats, wouldst I e’en settle for mine confounded bed to cease its infernal spinning!