Shakespeare Notebooks

The Shakespeare Notebooks were a record kept by William Shakespeare over several years which were described by The Shakespeare Notebooks as a scrapbook containing early drafts and key scenes and moments from his plays as well as other observations, and previously unknown material, including several sonnets. The Doctor appeared in various guises throughout and it was speculated they formed the basis of an epic work in which Skakespeare planned to present the adventures of the character.

The Skakespeare Notebooks called its source material priceless in literary terms. There was some doubt over the authenticity of the Notebooks in the academic world and the publication invited the reader to "to determine whether you believe the Shakespeare Notebooks are indeed genuine, or an elaborate hoax" for themselves. They were supposedly first put together in late 1599 and continued to be updated until Shakespeare's death. (PROSE: Preface to the First Edition)

Contents of the Notebooks
The single page explanation at the front of the Notebooks was considered by many to be the most "intriguing and enigmatic" feature of the work. In it, Shakespeare speaks of the "strange and unsettling events" of the first only only performance of Love's Labour's Won and of a mysterious stranger known as the Doctor. He adds that now freed from the influence of the Carrionites he came to realise that several other strangers who had influenced his life might all be the same man. He states "it is as if the Doctor has somehow traversed my life in retrospect, removing any references and allusions to himself and to the strange world of wonders and magick that is his habitation". (PROSE: Prelude to the First Edition)

An early draft of Hamlet featured in the Notebooks where the ghost of Hamlet's father is of a rather different aspect than the finished product. A magician who calls himself a Lord of Time appears to Hamlet from a blue box to tell him of his father's murder. (PROSE: Notes on a Play)