larryhammer | Further Dispatches from the Poetry Front (Reply)

I knew the new Collected Poems of William McGonagall has additional works not in his three collections. I hadn't known one is a previously unpublished play: a sub-sub-Shakespearean wonder called Jack o' the Cudgel, or The Hero of a Hundred Fights. (Note to

angevin2: It's set in the court of Edward III.) Judging from extracts quoted in reviews, it's never been performed because it's unperformable.

Leave the minstrel, thou pig-headed giant, or I'll make you repent
For thou must know my name is Jack, and I hail from Kent.

Declaim that iambic pentameter with a straight face, if you can. Later, when the king knights him:

Sir Jack, I give thee land to the value of six hundred marks
In thine own native county of Kent, with beautiful parks
Also beautiful meadows and lovely flowers and trees
Where you can reside and enjoy yourself as you please.

Clearly, I need this.

---L.