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The volume dating from 1634 was found by a Scottish economist academic researcher Adam Smith.
A rare edition of Shakespeare’s latest play has been found in a Scottish Catholic school in Spain.
The Two Noble Kinsmen, written by Shakespeare with John Fletcher, was found by a researcher investigating the work of Scottish economist Adam Smith.
The 1634 print might be the oldest Shakespearean play in the country.
In the 17th century, the Madrid seminary was an important source of English literature for Spanish intellectuals.
The Two Noble Kinsmen was included in a volume consisting of several English plays printed from 1630 to 1635.
Dr. John Stone, from the University of Barcelona, said he found it among old books in the library of the Royal College of Scots – Royal Scots College (RSC) – which is now in Salamanca.
What is The Two Noble Kinsmen about?
“Friendship turns to rivalry in this study of the intoxication and strangeness of love,” is how the Royal Shakespeare Company described the play, which is based on Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale.
It was probably written around 1613-14 by Shakespeare and John Fletcher, one of the house playwrights of Bard’s theater company, The King’s Men.
It was probably Shakespeare’s last play before retiring to Stratford-on-Avon. He died there in 1616 at the age of 52.
Described as a “tragicomedy”, the play features the best friends, who are knights captured in battle.
From the window of their prison they see a beautiful woman with whom they fall in love.
In a moment, they have gone from being close friends to jealous rivals in a strange love story that features absurd adventures and confusion.
Dr Stone, who has worked in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, said: “These works are likely to arrive as part of a student’s personal library or at the request of the Rector of the Royal Scots College, Hugh Semple, who was a friend of the Spanish playwright. Lope de Vega and had more plays in his personal library.
“It is probable that these works were acquired around 1635 by an English or Scottish traveler who would have liked to take these works, all the London editions, to Madrid.
“In the 1630s, English plays became increasingly associated with elite culture.
“This small community of Scots was briefly the most important intellectual bridge between the Spanish and English-speaking worlds.”
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, collections of books in English were rare in Spain due to ecclesiastical censorship, but the Scottish school had a special authorization to import what they wanted.
Works in English were exceptionally rare in the period, and Shakespeare’s oldest play in Spain was previously thought to be a volume found at the Royal English College of Saint Alban in Valladolid.
It is believed that it arrived in Spain in the decade after the volume found in the Scottish school.
Scots College Chancellor Father Tom Kilbride said the college was proud that such an important work had been discovered in its library.
He said: “It says a lot about the type of education that priests in training were receiving since the founding of the college in Madrid in 1627, a complete education in which the culture of the time played an important role.
“To think that the plays would have been read and possibly performed at that time is quite exciting.
“There was clearly a great interest in Spain at that time for English literature.”
The RSC no longer trains men for the priesthood in Scotland, but offers six-month preparatory courses for those expressing a vocation and organizes regular retreats and conferences for the Scottish Catholic community.
In act 5 scene 1 Arcite, one of the gentlemen speaks of “dusty and old titles”, which sums up the find in Salamanca.
