Shakespeare authorship and computer-analysis
March 7, 2021 7:11 PM Subscribe
I've been trying to find out what the latest computerized analysis of Shakespeare's plays have to say about authorship? Have they finally disqualified some of the pretenders? Which ones?
I have come across a study that pointed to Marlowe being a collaborator in some of the History plays. But what about the longstanding claim of Francis Bacon for example?
I have come across a study that pointed to Marlowe being a collaborator in some of the History plays. But what about the longstanding claim of Francis Bacon for example?
This New Yorker article from 2017, The Radical Argument of the New Oxford Shakespeare, gives a pretty good overview of the current state of play. Briefly: there's a broad consensus that Shakespeare often collaborated with other authors. But establishing which plays were written collaboratively, and who Shakespeare's co-authors were, is very much open to debate.
The editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare have argued that All's Well That Ends Well was written in collaboration with Thomas Middleton, and that the three Henry VI plays were written in collaboration with Christopher Marlowe. That's a controversial argument, to say the least. (See the New Yorker article for some of the dissenting voices.) Over and above the detailed stylometric arguments, there's a bigger question about the nature of collaboration. Is it an artistic strength? -- a bunch of talented authors getting together, like a modern writers' room, and letting the creative sparks fly? Or is it an artistic weakness? -- like a Hollywood screenplay rewritten by multiple script doctors, when everybody can see there's a problem with it but nobody can agree on how to fix it? The New Oxford editors would argue for the former. Others would argue for the latter.
It's important to distinguish between collaboration and authorship. Analysing Shakespeare's collaboration with other writers is a respectable, if controversial, branch of modern Shakespeare studies. Challenging Shakespeare's authorship of the plays is a branch of pseudo-scholarship with no evidential basis. To take a modern analogy: the former would be like analysing the script of The Wire to establish which lines were written by David Simon; the latter would be like arguing that episodes of The Wire were secretly written by Barack Obama and smuggled into the show under someone else's name. But it can sometimes be tricky to tell the difference between the two. For example, the article linked in the comment above, which purports to be a serious discussion of the limits of stylometrics, is actually a piece of pseudo-scholarship peddling the ridiculous theory that the plays were written by the Earl of Oxford.
posted by verstegan at 1:42 PM on March 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
The editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare have argued that All's Well That Ends Well was written in collaboration with Thomas Middleton, and that the three Henry VI plays were written in collaboration with Christopher Marlowe. That's a controversial argument, to say the least. (See the New Yorker article for some of the dissenting voices.) Over and above the detailed stylometric arguments, there's a bigger question about the nature of collaboration. Is it an artistic strength? -- a bunch of talented authors getting together, like a modern writers' room, and letting the creative sparks fly? Or is it an artistic weakness? -- like a Hollywood screenplay rewritten by multiple script doctors, when everybody can see there's a problem with it but nobody can agree on how to fix it? The New Oxford editors would argue for the former. Others would argue for the latter.
It's important to distinguish between collaboration and authorship. Analysing Shakespeare's collaboration with other writers is a respectable, if controversial, branch of modern Shakespeare studies. Challenging Shakespeare's authorship of the plays is a branch of pseudo-scholarship with no evidential basis. To take a modern analogy: the former would be like analysing the script of The Wire to establish which lines were written by David Simon; the latter would be like arguing that episodes of The Wire were secretly written by Barack Obama and smuggled into the show under someone else's name. But it can sometimes be tricky to tell the difference between the two. For example, the article linked in the comment above, which purports to be a serious discussion of the limits of stylometrics, is actually a piece of pseudo-scholarship peddling the ridiculous theory that the plays were written by the Earl of Oxford.
posted by verstegan at 1:42 PM on March 8, 2021 [6 favorites]
Response by poster: This is very helpful folks. Armed with the above (thanks for wiki authorship article, verstegan) I found this nice summary of stylometric (thanks adekllny for the terminology!) research from the Claremont Clinic.
posted by storybored at 2:50 PM on March 9, 2021
posted by storybored at 2:50 PM on March 9, 2021
I wrote an article for the front page of the New York Times a few years ago about Dennis McCarthy, an independent scholar who used plagiarism software to discover a new source for nearly a dozen of Shakespeare's plays -- a 16th century manuscript by courtier George North.
Since then I have continued to follow McCarthy's work, and I have written a book to be published by Hachette Books on March 30, 2021. His computer analysis has led him to the conclusion that Shakespeare used plays written by the translator Sir Thomas North as sources for most if not all of his plays. It sounds incredible, but McCarthy has done meticulous digital scholarship to support his theories.
As a journalist I wrote the book from a skeptical viewpoint, but there is much about his research that is compelling. Here's more info if you are interested.
posted by michaelblanding at 9:54 AM on March 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
Since then I have continued to follow McCarthy's work, and I have written a book to be published by Hachette Books on March 30, 2021. His computer analysis has led him to the conclusion that Shakespeare used plays written by the translator Sir Thomas North as sources for most if not all of his plays. It sounds incredible, but McCarthy has done meticulous digital scholarship to support his theories.
As a journalist I wrote the book from a skeptical viewpoint, but there is much about his research that is compelling. Here's more info if you are interested.
posted by michaelblanding at 9:54 AM on March 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
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Googling "shakespeare stylometry" gave plenty of resources, including some that looked recent and thoughtful, like https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/shakespeare-by-the-numbers-what-stylometrics-can-and-cannot-tell-us/. HTH
posted by adekllny at 11:36 AM on March 8, 2021