Linguistic testing aside — although it’s a pretty big one because the Bard does have a distinct use of language, after all — there is other evidence suggesting that Shakespeare was behind the first true crime adaptation. For one, the crime story of Arden was written in Holinshed’s Chronicles, the same work of historical records that Shakespeare used as research for his plays, Richard III and Macbeth. And the one that’ll surely raise an eyebrow or two is the fact that whoever wrote the play not only turned the two killers-for-hire into comical, fumbling fools straight out of a Coen Brothers movie, but the writer also renamed them “Black Will and Shakebag.”
Sure, this could simply have been Shakespeare’s pals sticking their tongues out at him through a play about a real-life murder, but here’s the final kicker: The play contains an eerily familiar scene, and possibly a try-out for things to come, about a woman in distress over a dastardly damn bloodstain.
Macbeth would only be published in 1606 — 14 years later.
Zanandi is on Twitter and wrote a comic for Trailer Park Boys that you can order here.
Top Image: Daderot/Wikimedia Commons
Related: 7 Filthy Jokes You Didn’t Notice in Shakespeare
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