New Linguistic 'Fingerprinting' Reveals Shakespeare May Have Penned Three More Works

The Guardian reports that Shakespeare might have penned parts of three Elizabethan plays previously believed to have been written by other authors. This news comes as the result of new computer analysis and linguistic "fingerprinting" tests. The plays are Arden of Faversham, The Spanish Tragedy and Mucedorus, and will be included in a new collection of Shakespeare's work.

Read the original report here.

The three works will be part of an edition of collaborative plays by Shakespeare, co-edited by Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bale and other experts in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Palgrave Macmillan.

Computer analysis of every surviving play from Shakespeare's time has enabled Bale and his colleagues to go "quite a lot further than previous scholars" in pin-pointing Shakespeare's writing. The edition will show Shakespeare as "reviser, rewriter and collaborator," according to Bale.

The RSC will be producing Arden of Faversham -- originally published anonymously -- this spring. Evidence shows that Shakespeare likely wrote at least one scene, with Thomas Kyd potentially penning the rest. Kyd is credited with The Spanish Tragedy, which is now shown to include writing by Shakespeare. Mucedorus was produced by Shakespeare's Acting Company in 1610 with extra scenes, and Bale says "at least one of those scenes is, we think, linguistically full of his fingerprints."

William Shakespeare AND OTHERS: COLLABORATIVE PLAYS will be published on October 28.