Imagine Fletcher, chatting with Shakespeare,
ageing at fifty, saying: What about
this Spanish bloke, Cervantes?
Quixote’s made a stir at court. Let’s
steal a chapter for our next romance.
Two Noble Kinsmen went quite well.
What about Cardenio? So Will was tempted,
wrote half a play for King and Globe.
Hemming and Condell, seven years later,
perused a browning sheaf of paper.
Not enough of Will, perhaps they thought,
casting it aside. But a century after,
Warburton’s cook, spotting crinkled sheets
her master left on the kitchen table.
Good enough for cakes she thought.
Did Cardenio sink into the mix
to be caked in history?
©Terry Hodgson2020
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