Getting started

Readers interested in authorship attribution may understandably find the sheer quantity of scholarship on the subject intimidating. For an engaging introduction to attribution study – its history, principles, and methods – written for the non-specialist reader, the Generals Editors recommend Harold Love's Attributing Authorship: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002).

For an overview of attribution studies of Shakespeare and early modern drama, see Gabriel Egan's chapter, 'A History of Shakespearean Authorship Attribution', in The New Oxford Shakespeare Authorship Companion, ed. by Gary Taylor and Gabriel Egan (Oxford UP, 2017), pp. 27–47. For a primer in Shakespeare authorship attribution, see Hugh Craig, 'Shakespeare and Authorship Attribution Methodologies', in The Arden Research Companion to Shakespeare and Textual Studies, ed. by Lukas Erne (Arden Shakespeare, 2021), pp. 225–43.

Works Cited

This section supplies bibliographical information for scholarship cited in CADRE entries.

C

• Craig, Hugh, 'Authorship', in The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare, ed. by Arthur F. Kinney (Oxford UP, 2012), pp. 15–30.
• Craig, Hugh, 'Shakespeare's Vocabulary: Myth and Reality', Shakespeare Quarterly, 62.1 (2011), 53–74.
• Craig, Hugh, 'Shakespeare and Authorship Attribution Methodologies', in The Arden Research Companion to Shakespeare and Textual Studies, ed. by Lukas Erne (Arden Shakespeare, 2021), pp. 225–43.
• Craig, Hugh, and Greatley-Hirsch, Brett, Style, Computers, and Early Modern Drama: Beyond Authorship (Cambridge UP, 2017).

E

• Egan, Gabriel, 'A History of Shakespearean Authorship Attribution', in The New Oxford Shakespeare Authorship Companion, ed. by Gary Taylor and Gabriel Egan (Oxford UP, 2017), pp. 27–47.
• Elliott, Ward E.Y., and Robert J. Valenza, 'Shakespeare's Vocabulary: Did It Dwarf All Others?', in Stylistics and Shakespeare's Language: Transdisciplinary Approaches, ed. by Mireille Ravassat and Jonathan Culpeper (London: Continuum), pp. 34–57.

G

• Greatley-Hirsch, Brett, 'Computational Studies', in The Arden Research Handbook of Contemporary Shakespeare Criticism, ed. by Evelyn Gajowski (London: Arden Shakespeare, 2020), pp. 205–21.

H

• Hope, Jonathan, The Authorship of Shakespeare's Plays: A Socio-Linguistic Study (Cambridge UP, 1994).
• Hoy, Cyrus, 'The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (I)', Studies in Bibliography, 8 (1956), 129–46.
• Hoy, Cyrus, 'The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (II)', Studies in Bibliography, 9 (1957), 143–62.
• Hoy, Cyrus, 'The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (III)', Studies in Bibliography, 11 (1958), 85–106.
• Hoy, Cyrus, 'The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (IV)', Studies in Bibliography, 12 (1959), 91–116.
• Hoy, Cyrus, 'The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (V)', Studies in Bibliography, 13 (1960), 77–108.
• Hoy, Cyrus, 'The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (VI)', Studies in Bibliography, 14 (1961), 45–67.
• Hoy, Cyrus, 'The Shares of Fletcher and His Collaborators in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon (VII)', Studies in Bibliography, 15 (1962), 71–90.

J

• Jackson, MacDonald P., Determining the Shakespeare Canon: "Arden of Faversham" and "A Lover's Complaint" (Oxford UP, 2014).

K

• Kahan, Jeffrey, '"I tell you what mine author says": A Brief History of Stylometrics', ELH, 82.3 (2015), 815–44.

L

• Love, Harold, Attributing Authorship: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002).

O

• Oliphant, E.H.C., The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher: An Attempt to Determine Their Respective Shares and the Shares of Others (Yale UP, 1927).

S

• Schoenbaum, S., Internal Evidence and Elizabethan Dramatic Authorship: An Essay in Literary History and Method (Northwestern UP, 1966).

V

• Vickers, Brian, Shakespeare, Co-Author: A Historical Study of Five Collaborative Plays (Oxford UP, 2002)