A 17th CENTURY notebook featuring contemporary comments on Shakespeare’s plays could prove invaluable to scholars.
The tiny pad, written during the Bard’s lifetime, will feature on BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow tonight (Sunday), and has been described as one of the most remarkable items ever seen on the show.
Manuscripts specialist Matthew Haley was left “trembling” when the notebook was brought along to a valuation day at Caversham Park in Berkshire.
It is thought to have come from the collection of 18th Century antiquarian John Loveday of Caversham. It was found by the five times great grandson of Loveday among his mother’s belongings.
Written in Latin, much of the notes were all but illegible on first inspection, but quotes and references to the Bard’s plays were decipherable.
Mr Haley suggested the jottings could have been the work of a student analysing Shakespeare’s work.
Mr Haley said: “It’s amazing, it’s almost completely illegible, but you can pick out the odd word, and you can pick out phrases that appear in Shakespeare.”
The estimated value of the notebook will be revealed on the programme which starts at 8pm.
