Some authors write alternate endings to their stories; I haven’t yet. I have, however, written an alternate answer to a question that I asked in my book Sir Francis Burdett. The question and answer, as asked in the book (pages 94 and 95), are shown below.

+++ PUBLISHED ANSWER

RCB: Disraeli, in the clip I just played, noted that you often quoted Shakespeare. I encountered some of that as I read your speeches before Parliament; but I also noted that you often interjected Latin phrases. What was with the Shakespeare and Latin?

SFB: If I believed that Shakespeare had written something that was related to the debate, or if a Latin phrase, possibly legal, was pertinent to my speech, I would sometimes interject them. I believed that these phrases often substantiated that what I was saying was both serious and timeless.

SFB: Shakespeare was very popular at that time, more so than when his plays were first performed. My parents and grandparents always quoted him. There was some talk that the family knew him personally in the days of Raphael Holinshed. I also found that my parliamentary contemporaries, mostly Oxford and Cambridge educated, were always up for a Latin refresher.

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After publishing Sir Francis Burdett, I was rummaging around the Folger Shakespeare Library website and found that Sir Francis at one time owned “Folger First Folio 10.” If I had known that little tidbit earlier, I would probably have changed the second part of the answer to something like what is noted below.

+++ AN ALTERNATIVE ANSWER

SFB: Shakespeare was very popular at that time, more so than when his plays were first performed. My parents and grandparents always quoted him. There was some talk that the family knew him personally in the days of Raphael Holinshed. I was also fortunate, in that I had access to Shakespeare’s writings. My friend Tooke had passed on a folio of Shakespeare’s plays to me before he died in 1812. As to the Latin, I found that my parliamentary contemporaries, mostly Oxford and Cambridge educated, were always up for a Latin refresher.

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Sir Francis and I had discussed Tooke earlier in the interview, starting on pages 25-26. Angela Burdett-Coutts later purchased “The Daniel copy” (Folger First Folio 5). Queen Victoria subsequently gifted Angela an ornate and unique oak casket to store that folio (as pictured via the link).