Forty plays, yet there is not one handwritten manuscript, not one fragment of a play written by Shakespeare. During the performance of Henry VIII at the Globe Theatre in London in 1613, a cannon was fired for sound effect in a shed on the roof and the thatching caught fire. Someone tried to douse it with a flagon of ale, which fueled the flames, and the Globe burned to the ground. No one was hurt except a man whose pants caught fire.

We can surmise that when the Globe burned to the ground all his autographed copies of plays went up in flames. But there is also another reason we do not have those papers: Shakespeare did not regard his plays as having monetary value. The theater was not considered a true literary genre. The manuscripts were as much a part of the theater's stock as the costumes, sets, and props.

There is one scene from one play, Sir Thomas More, that may have been written in Shakespeare's hand, although he did not create the play. Two mediocre playwrights, Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, wrote the play. When it was submitted to the Master of Revels for approval, one scene showing Londoners rioting in the city and being pacified by Sir Thomas More was deemed too vapid in its presentation. The authors hired another playwright to rewrite a powerful scene of More calling for law and order. Even then, the play was not approved. The handwritten play was eventually discovered in the British Library in London.

Scholars noted that the three-page scene of the rioting was written in a different hand than the rest. The style was obviously superior, rich in imagery and smooth in the flow of words and in the intentness of More's speech. Even the spelling was different from the other writing and more in tune with Shakespeare's spelling. Did Shakespeare write the scene? That question will haunt future scholars — unless another manuscript is discovered.