Scribbled notes on Shakespeare prove Diana did pay attention in class

LONDON - Unlike the previous perception that Princess Diana was as ‘thick as two short planks,’ a book found in trash has revealed that she did at least try hard in class.

Notes scrawled by the teenage Diana Spencer on the copy of William Shakespeare’s play ‘The Tempest’ are signs of an academic interest in literature never previously credited to her, reports the Daily Mail.

The book bears Diana’s signature and the date 1977 on the first page. At this time she was studying for O-levels at West Heath Girls’ School in Sevenoaks, Kent.

The book was found by discarded in a rubbish bin at an apartment block in Knightsbridge in about 1998.

Although Diana left the school having failed all of her exams, the annotations made in the margins of the book imply she gave the text careful consideration - or at least listened to her teacher in class.

However, the notes also betray Diana’s seemingly pedestrian grasp of basic maths.

The book’s owner, Yvonne Pullen, now plans to sell it after getting it valued at around 1,500 pounds on the BBC1 programme Antiques Roadshow.

At the end of Act IV, Scene 1, Diana, then coming up to 16, has underlined a passage in which the spirit Ariel says: “Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou / Shalt have the air at freedom.”

Underneath she wrote: “f this play is farewell of Shakespeare to stage there is another thing to show he is leaving. Ariel stands for his seriousness.”

In May 2000 Pullen paid 50 pounds to have the handwriting examined by Joyce Martin, a renowned graphologist, who concluded it is ‘highly likely’ it was Diana’s. (ANI)