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Bad Reputation · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the cabinet of Curiosities. When it comes to storytelling,
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  Speaker 1: everything eventually comes back to Shakespeare. He's widely regarded as
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  Speaker 1: the greatest play right of all time, and for good reason.
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  Speaker 1: His works continue to be adapted for the stage, film, television,
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  Speaker 1: and literature, finding new audiences through each retelling. With a
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  Speaker 1: body of work spanning thirty nine plays and four sonnets,
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  Speaker 1: William Shakespeare's contributions to English literature as well as the
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  Speaker 1: English language cannot be overstated. Phrases such as short shrift
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  Speaker 1: and with bated breath or all of a sudden can
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  Speaker 1: trace their roots back to the Bard, and even if
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  Speaker 1: he didn't originate them, he certainly popularized them enough to
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  Speaker 1: cement them as mainstays of our modern lexicon. Shakespeare and
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  Speaker 1: his bibliography have been studied to death since his own
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  Speaker 1: passing in sixteen sixteen. Throughout that time, he's been accused
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  Speaker 1: of plagiarizing and stealing the work of others, with Francis
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  Speaker 1: Bacon and Christopher Marlowe being named among his many victims,
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  Speaker 1: but not many academics believe the claims. In fact, somethink
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  Speaker 1: more of his plays and poems are still out there
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  Speaker 1: waiting to be discovered. In seventeen ninety four, it was
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  Speaker 1: twenty year old William Henry, Ireland, who had stumbled across
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  Speaker 1: several items allegedly written and signed by Shakespeare himself. A
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  Speaker 1: friend of Ireland's who wanted to stay anonymous, had given
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  Speaker 1: him a collection of old papers in his possession. Among
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  Speaker 1: them were a letter written by Shakespeare, as well as
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  Speaker 1: a deed bearing his signature. He presented everything to his father, Samuel,
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  Speaker 1: a collector of Shakespearean memorabilia. Samuel was a static and
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  Speaker 1: the more William dug around, the more he found. He
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  Speaker 1: discovered letters Shakespeare had written to his wife Anne Hathaway,
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  Speaker 1: as well as some to Queen Elizabeth. There were even
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  Speaker 1: original manuscripts of Hamlets and King Lear, their author had
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  Speaker 1: scribbled notes in their margins. Samuel consulted with Shakespearean scholars
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  Speaker 1: on what his son had given him. They confirmed everything
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  Speaker 1: was real. Samuel saw an opportunity to capitalize on his
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  Speaker 1: newly acquired historical artifacts. One year later, he compiled copies
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  Speaker 1: of the letters and notes into a book, which went
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  Speaker 1: on to be a big hit with readers. That same year,
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  Speaker 1: his son William made another incredible discovery. There was a
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  Speaker 1: new play well in old play, but one that had
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  Speaker 1: never been seen by a single soul other than its
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  Speaker 1: author Shakespeare. It was called Vortigern and Rowena. Naturally, he
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  Speaker 1: gave that to his father, and in no time another
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  Speaker 1: playwright named Richard Sheridan offered Samuel three pounds to be
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  Speaker 1: the first to produce it for the stage. Sheridan, however,
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  Speaker 1: quickly saw a problem with his purchase. For one, the
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  Speaker 1: plot was far simpler than any of Shakespeare's other works.
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  Speaker 1: He passed the play along to a colleague, who also
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  Speaker 1: thought something was off about it. Doubts about the script
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  Speaker 1: went public, and academics from all over started to pick
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  Speaker 1: through Ireland's compendium of documents looking for inconsistencies. The show
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  Speaker 1: did go on, though Sheridan's production survived a single performance
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  Speaker 1: before critics toured apart. One of those critics was Edmund Malone,
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  Speaker 1: a lawyer by trade. Malone had spent almost a decade
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  Speaker 1: publishing volumes of Shakespeare's works, complete with analytical essays and
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  Speaker 1: copious research to back up his arguments. He put out
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  Speaker 1: a rebuttal against Samuel Ireland's Shakespearean collection in sevente In
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  Speaker 1: his opinion, the letters, promissory notes, Marginalia, and especially the
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  Speaker 1: New Play had all been forged. His accusations inspired others
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  Speaker 1: to come forward. They went after Samuel, as he had
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  Speaker 1: been the one to assemble everything from his son. But
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  Speaker 1: William couldn't bear to see his father attacked in such
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  Speaker 1: a hideous fashion, and so he took matters into his
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  Speaker 1: own hands. He published a confession titled an Authentic Account
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  Speaker 1: of the Shakespearean Manuscripts. William confessed everything he had forged,
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  Speaker 1: the signatures, the documents, and the play, and nobody believed him.
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  Speaker 1: They said there was no way that someone so young
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  Speaker 1: could have pulled off such convincing fakes by himself. It
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  Speaker 1: just wasn't possible. So Samuel continued to bear the brunt
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  Speaker 1: of the criticism from his peers even after his passing
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen hundred. William published another confession five years later
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  Speaker 1: and tried to find work as a writer of original stories.
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  Speaker 1: Success though eluded him for years. His reputation had been
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  Speaker 1: too greatly tarnished, and he often found himself borrowing money
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  Speaker 1: from anyone kind enough to lend it. William Ireland did
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  Speaker 1: eventually marry and have a family, but he died poor,
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  Speaker 1: leaving his wife and daughters with almost nothing. His play
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  Speaker 1: Vortigern and Rowena remained relatively obscure for over two hundred years.
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  Speaker 1: Then in two thousand and eight, Pembroke College and in
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  Speaker 1: And produced a version for the stage. Several years later,
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  Speaker 1: the American Shakespeare Center in Virginia put on its own performance,
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  Speaker 1: giving the late Mr Ireland one last chance to have
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  Speaker 1: his work appraised by the theater going public. Apparently, opinions
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  Speaker 1: haven't changed all that much, as the play hasn't been
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  Speaker 1: produced since. Everyone has a bad day now and then,
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  Speaker 1: the kind of day when no matter what you do,
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  Speaker 1: everything seems to go wrong. You burn the dinner, you
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  Speaker 1: pour too much detergent into the washing machine, or you
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  Speaker 1: suddenly hear a drip, drip drip under the kitchen sink.
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  Speaker 1: It becomes a twenty four hour embodiment of Murphy's law,
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  Speaker 1: the idea that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen o nine, Mrs Tottenham of London experienced the
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  Speaker 1: worst day of her life when her modest home on
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  Speaker 1: burn N Street caused a citywide panic. It all started
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of November. A chimney sweep had arrived
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  Speaker 1: at dawn to clean Mrs Tottenham's chimneys. There was just
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  Speaker 1: one problem. She had never asked for such a thing.
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  Speaker 1: The maid who answered the door sent him on his way.
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  Speaker 1: Almost as soon as he left, though, there was another
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  Speaker 1: knock at the door. Another sweep had come to clean
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  Speaker 1: the chimneys as well. The maid dismissed him, then answered
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  Speaker 1: the door one more time for yet another chimney sweep.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout the early morning hours, she wound up sending a
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  Speaker 1: dozen soot covered men away from the premises. And then
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  Speaker 1: things got even stranger. The chimney sweeps were replaced by
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  Speaker 1: a caravan of coal carts. They'd all had orders placed
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  Speaker 1: for fifty four burners streets Mrs Tottenham's address. She herself
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  Speaker 1: came out to address them, and it formed the delivery
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  Speaker 1: drivers that they all had the wrong address. She never
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  Speaker 1: ordered any coal. The carts soon left their drivers confused
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  Speaker 1: and frustrated, but the peace and quiet didn't last too long.
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  Speaker 1: Next to arrive was a line of bakers armed with
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  Speaker 1: tall and expensive wedding cakes, at which point Mrs Tottenham
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  Speaker 1: couldn't get rid of them fast enough. Almost as soon
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  Speaker 1: as one order arrived, another of a different kind quickly followed.
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  Speaker 1: Suit Lawyers, doctors and apothecaries swarmed Burners Street. Clergymen who
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  Speaker 1: had been told of a dying man inside came to
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  Speaker 1: give last rites, and right behind them were the undertakers,
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  Speaker 1: toting brand new coffins for the soon to be deceased,
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  Speaker 1: despite no such person being present in the house. Cobblers,
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  Speaker 1: habit dashers, butchers and fishmongers only added to the spectacle.
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  Speaker 1: But perhaps the pinnacle of the day came when twelve
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  Speaker 1: pianos arrived, accompanied by six men carrying an organ. Soon
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  Speaker 1: heads of states and business got wind of what was
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  Speaker 1: going on at the Tottenham residence. The Governor of the
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  Speaker 1: Bank of England, the chairman of the East India Company,
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  Speaker 1: and the Lord Mayor of London came to Burner's Street
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  Speaker 1: to see it for themselves, as did Mrs Tottenham's neighbors,
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  Speaker 1: who poured out from their homes to witness the growing
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  Speaker 1: crowd of tradesmen eathered at her door. They'd all come
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  Speaker 1: to deliver goods and services, none of which she had
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  Speaker 1: ever ordered in the first place. One of Mrs Tottenham's
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  Speaker 1: neighbors was a Mr Samuel Beasley, who lived across the
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  Speaker 1: street from her. He watched the calamity unfold along with
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  Speaker 1: his friend Theodore Edward Hook. At one point, Beasley begrudgingly
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  Speaker 1: slipped Hook a guinea and the plan had worked. Hook
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  Speaker 1: had made a bet with Mr Beasley in which he
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  Speaker 1: claimed that he could turn any house in London into
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  Speaker 1: the talk of town. He did it by putting in
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  Speaker 1: over four thousand orders with businesses, politicians, clergy and anyone
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  Speaker 1: else who would show up at fifty four Burners Street
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  Speaker 1: on the morning of November and show up they did.
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  Speaker 1: His stunt forced the police to come and break up
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  Speaker 1: the crowds of both tradespeople and neighbors. Once peace was
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  Speaker 1: finally restored to London, a bounty was put out, offering
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  Speaker 1: a reward for the capture of whoever had played such
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  Speaker 1: a disruptive, practical joke. Hook, of course, played it cool
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  Speaker 1: and hit out for a few weeks, claiming illness. When
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  Speaker 1: officers and onlookers discussed who might have caused the rucus,
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  Speaker 1: Hook inevitably came up as the prime suspect. Apparently his
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  Speaker 1: reputation preceded him. Once the fervor died down, though, Hook
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  Speaker 1: retreated to the country and was never caught, but he
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  Speaker 1: did get the last laugh. Hook didn't just plan elaborate hoaxes.
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  Speaker 1: He was also a playwright. The protagonist of his play
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  Speaker 1: titled Gilbert Gurney at a small speech beginning with this
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  Speaker 1: line what else made the effect in Berner Street, I
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  Speaker 1: am the man. It was about as close to a
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  Speaker 1: confession as anyone was going to get. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,