Double Falsehood or The Distrest Lovers is a 1727 play by the English writer and playwright Lewis Theobald, although the authorship has been contested ever since the play was first published, with some scholars considering that it may have been written by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Some authors believe that it may be an adaptation of a lost play by Shakespeare and Fletcher known as Cardenio. Theobald himself claimed his version was based on three manuscripts of an unnamed lost play by Shakespeare.
Title page of the 1st edition of Double Falshood.
Title page of the 3rd edition of Double Falshood.
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was an English playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; during his lifetime and in the Stuart Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's. Fletcher collaborated in writing plays, chiefly with Francis Beaumont or Philip Massinger, but also with Shakespeare and others.
John Fletcher (playwright)
Portrait of John Fletcher
Blue Plaque to John Fletcher on the north boundary wall of Peterborough Cathedral grounds, near where he lived as a schoolboy
