The Tragedy of Arthur is a 2011 novel by the American author Arthur Phillips. The narrative concerns the publication of a recently discovered Arthurian play attributed to William Shakespeare, which the main narrator, "Arthur Phillips", believes to be a forgery produced by his father. It was published by Random House.
The book takes the form of an edition of the play The Tragedy of Arthur, along with an extensive introduction and footnotes by Phillips, and additional notes by the publishers who argue for the play's authenticity. The introduction also serves as a memoir of the protagonist as he tells the story of his family and their connection to the apocryphal text.
Critics have reviewed the book positively. It was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award."IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist announced", December 4, 2012
Synopsis and text Preface The book opens with a Preface by the editors of Random House, introducing the text as the "first modern edition of The Tragedy of Arthur by William Shakespeare." It provides a brief summary of the Shakespearean canon and Apocrypha, claiming that The Tragedy of Arthur is "the first certain addition to Shakespeare's canon since the seventeenth century."Arthur Phillips, The Tragedy of Arthur. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 2011. They also thank Professor Roland Verre for his research confirming the play's authenticity, as well as Peter Bryce, David Crystal, Tom Clayton, and Ward Elliott for their efforts. Finally, the Preface thanks Arthur Phillips for writing an Introduction, as well as for editing and annotating the text of the play. However, Random House strongly recommends that readers read the play before the introduction, "allowing Shakespeare to speak for himself, at least at first", before perusing Phillips' "very personal Introduction" or "the many other commentaries sure to be available soon".
Introduction The Introduction is written by Arthur Phillips, a fictionalized version of Arthur Phillips, who opens the Introduction by admitting that he "never much liked Shakespeare."The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 1 Phillips qualifies his lack of interest in the Bard, and notes that The Tragedy of Arthur could plausibly be the work of Shakespeare, as it is "as good as most of his stuff, or as bad." Even though Phillips admits that he is not a memoirist, and his reputation may be damaged by this story, he insists that: "to understand this play, its history, and how it came to be here, a certain quantity of [his] autobiography is unavoidable."
From there, the rest of the Introduction serves as a memoir of the fictional Arthur Phillips, his twin sister, Dana, and their father, A.E.H. Phillips, a con artist and Shakespeare enthusiast who was in and out of prison for their entire childhood. The twins are raised in Minneapolis, and from an early age, their father tries to get them interested in Shakespeare – Arthur remains ambivalent, while Dana is immediately hooked. Arthur narrates their childhood, regularly interrupting himself to apologize for any lapses in memory or "falling prey to the distortions of memoir writing.".The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 35 A.E.H. Phillips continues to be in and out of jail amidst various schemes, from petty coupon scams to forging signatures on fake Rembrandt paintings. Arthur and Dana's parents ultimately divorce, and their mother marries a man named Silvius diLorenzo, with whom she had had a brief relationship in college.
The Introduction is more about Arthur's father than anything else - A.E.H. Phillips "continually shoves his way to the foreground, wherever [Arthur turns] memory's camera."The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 36 Arthur's relationship to his father is strained – he points out that his father, through Shakespeare, "took [his] best friend, Dana, away from" him.The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 32 Arthur spends much of the Introduction trying to describe his father despite his limited presence in his son's life, both through tropes – "the Anglophilic, artsy, bohemian Jew" despite not being "interested in himself as a Jew at all, but by no means interested in anonymity"The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 10 – as well as through personal anecdotes. He claims that his father was interested in the proliferation of mystery and "wonder", rather than cold hard facts, as he sought to redeem "the world's vanishing faith in wonder".The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 17
Arthur and Dana first become aware of The Tragedy of Arthur at age eleven, when their father gives them a red hardcover edition of the play, dated 1904, with inscriptions to Arthur Donald "Don" Phillips (Arthur's grandfather) dated 1915, and to A.E.H. Phillips, dated 1942. Upon sharing it with his children, A.E.H. Phillips tells them that its status within the Shakespeare canon is disputed, and insists that they read the play and make up their own minds about the play's veracity. Dana is much more interested in the text than Arthur – it is the only Shakespeare play she hadn't read – and is allowed to borrow it and talk about it, but not make copies or lend it to anyone. A.E.H Phillips ultimately gives the 1904 hardcover to her – "April 22, 1977 For my Dana on her 13th birthday" – in addition to an advertisement for a 1930s London stage production of Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Arthur starring Errol Flynn as Arthur and Nigel Bruce as Gloucester.The Tragedy of Arthur, pp. 32-33 ("Don't rush to Google that one," Arthur Phillips notes in his narration.)
Over the years, Dana and A.E.H. Phillips speculate about the origin of the play and propose various explanations for the text's rarity and exclusion from the canon (one theory considers the play as having been written for a secret lover who rejected it). In 1979, however, A.E.H. begins serving a ten-year prison sentence for one of his schemes, and as an act of rebellion, Dana becomes an anti-Stratfordian. To insult her father and his lifelong love of Shakespeare, she spends several years – including her time at Brown – developing her own Shakespearean authorship theory, one that posited the works of "William Shakespeare" as the product of two men – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and the son of a Jewish moneylender. She quickly abandons this theory upon graduating college in 1986, but "was converted by the fire of her experience into a lover of works, not authors." The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 76
A.E.H. Phillips spends most of the next decade in prison, while Dana finds work acting for theater companies in New York City, and Arthur follows her to be a copywriter for an ad agency, and ultimately a freelance writer. He spends several years in Europe, having fled his "father", "mother", "twin", "work" and "an entire life, which [he] at twenty-eight dismissed as unoriginal and a failure".The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 113 He settles down and marries a Czech woman named Jana, and his twin sons are born in 1995; he remains in Prague until 2009, publishing four novels in that time. He returns to the United States sporadically, first to visit Dana and his father upon his release from prison, and then again when "Sil", his stepfather, dies. At this point Dana has moved back to Minneapolis and is thriving as a high school drama teacher and a successful actor in local theaters, and when he returns for Sil's funeral, he becomes obsessed ("something rarer than mere lust but that no twenty-first-century grown-up can dare call by its proper name: 'love at first sight'"The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 128) with his sister's girlfriend, Petra.
On this latter trip, he also meets up with his father, imprisoned again, who fervently insists that Arthur help him with a project. A.E.H. Phillips directs his son to a safe-deposit box, and Arthur reluctantly obliges, enlisting Petra to help him. The safe-deposit box – which, they're told, hadn't been opened in 23 years – contains a quarto edition of The Tragedy of Arthur – with Shakespeare's name on the title page – dated 1597. They bring the quarto back to Petra and Dana's apartment and pore over it, Petra and Dana excited, Arthur intrigued and skeptical. Arthur quickly concludes that it "was obviously a Shakespeare play because these two women [he] loved so differently each loved it so much the same."The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 148 In spite of Dana's confidence as to its veracity, Arthur gets in contact with his father, who assures him of its authenticity, and instructs him to confirm it using modern scientific techniques and scholarship. Arthur agrees to follow his father's instructions to publish the play, but remains confused about why his father enlisted his help, rather than Dana's. He notifies his family (back in Prague) that he has to stay in Minneapolis in order to complete this project.
Unable to find any reference to the play – or any other copies of the 1904 hardcover edition – on the internet, Arthur meets with his father in person to learn about the quarto's origin. A.E.H Phillips claimed that, in 1958, he travelled to England to "do some work for a wealthy client."The Tragedy of Arthur, p. 156 In this client's enormous country house, he found a series of homemade anthologies featuring self-bound quartos of plays by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and others, and in one of these A.E.H. Phillips found a 1597 quarto (unlisted in the table of contents) that he had never heard of, credited to Shakespeare. Upon reading the play through and through, he decided that the play was undeniably the work of Shakespeare, stole the quarto out of the book using nail scissors, and brought it back to Minnesota. A.E.H. Phillips claims that while, in his research, he found no reference to the play whatsoever, he maintained his certainty that it was real. He admits to creating the 1904 edition (as a travel copy, for himself) and the Errol Flynn poster (as a gift to Dana), but continues to insist that the quarto is real, and not one of his cons.
Arthur's father insists that Arthur has to get the play published so that Arthur, Dana, and their mother can profit immensely from it. He wants Arthur to claim the quarto was found by Sil in an attic in the 1950s, and to verify that nobody else would have a claim to the text (namely, the estates of the printer and publisher, William White and Cuthbert Burby). A.E.H. Phillips reveals that he is dying, and, with Dana and Petra's encouragement, Arthur agrees to carry out this last request in spite of his lifelong distrust of his father.
Arthur proceeds to get the play verified and published, with Random House shouldering the burden of the authentication process. When his editor offers to take the play out of his hands, Arthur insists that it's his family's project, and he wants to be a part of it, and is tasked with writing the play's Introduction. He begins to believe that, without question, The Tragedy of Arthur was written by William Shakespeare, and as he works on the publication of the text, Arthur remains preoccupied with Petra, and ultimately starts sleeping with her despite her relationship with Dana. After his father's death, however, Arthur discovers an index card with details of the play on it, and becomes convinced that it's evidence that the play is a forgery. Furthermore, his father's will dictates that the profit from the publication of the quarto be divided between Arthur, Dana, their mother, and his former business associate, Charles Glassow. The will also requires that the play be published as the work of William Shakespeare, and that any effort made by Arthur to dispute the play's authenticity will result in his share of the profits being forfeited.