Thinky Thursday: Is Shakespeare's "Lost Play" Burried on Oak Island?

My kids and I enjoy watching the treasure hunting show The Curse of Oak Island on The History Channel. I enjoy lwatching people read through documents and search through archives. My kids like all the big equipment and discussions about the engineering challenges presented by the proposed digs on the island. But this season has been especially interesting as we keep hearing the narrator's voice tease that the island could be a hiding place for one of William Shakespeare's long lost manuscripts. Let me just go on record here with my thoughts about that possibility.

Um, no.

Don't get me wrong, I love that the writers of the show are thinking about Shakespeare and consider his work to be worthy of treasure status. But, no. I don't think Bacon wrote the plays and I don't buy the Oak Island connection. Believe me, I would be thrilled if an original manuscript of The History of Cardenio was discovered during my lifetime, but I'm not expecting the Lagina brothers to extract it from one of the many shafts on Oak Island.

As much as I love a shout out to the Bard, I'm not holding my breath for that one.

That being said I think it's worth reflecting on the relationship between treasure hunting and literature. Besides the obvious classics The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, the show reminds me of another book I read during my youth: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts.

I don't remember how the book came into my possession, but I do remember the thick cover with a red faux marble design and the solid binding. It was a heavy book and the most impressive-looking tome in my little library. As a child I spent many sleepless nights under the covers with my flashlight wondering what happened the crew of the Mary Celeste and wondering about the Money Pit on Oak Island. That sense of wonder and curiosity still lingers with me today whenever I'm reading. What will become of the characters now that I've finished the novel? Where do they go? What becomes of them?

My imagination has spent so much time with the characters that I can't help growing attached to them and wondering about them. The act of reading is in itself a kind of hunt for treasure. Rick and Marty Lagina might never find any treasure on Oak Island, but the real value is in the sense of wonder behind the motivation to dig in the first place.