This book introduces a new method for determining the authorship of renaissance plays. Based on the rapid rate of change in English grammar in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, socio-historical linguistic evidence allows us to distinguish the hands of renaissance playwrights within play texts. The present study focuses on Shakespeare: his collaborations with Fletcher and Middleton, and the apocryphal plays. Among the plays examined are Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Macbeth, Pericles, and Sir Thomas More. The findings of the book allow us to be more confident about the divisions of the collaborative plays, and confirm the status of Edward III as a strong candidate for inclusion in the canon. Using graphs to present statistical data in a readily comprehensible form, the book also contains a wealth of information about the history of the English language during a period of far-reaching change. The authorship of Shakespeare's plays The authorship of Shakespeare's plays A socio-linguistic study Jonathan Hope School of English, University of Leeds CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521417372 © Cambridge University Press 1994 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1994 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Hope, Jonathan, 1962- The authorship of Shakespeare's plays: a socio-linguistic study / Jonathan Hope, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 41737 6 (hardback) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 - Authorship. 2. English drama - Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 - History and criticism. 3. English drama - 17th century - History and criticism. 4. English language - Early modern, 1500-1700 - Grammar. 5. Authorship — Collaboration — History. 6. Drama —Authorship — History. I. Title. PR2937.H65 1994 822.3 '3 - dc20 93-29834 CIP ISBN-13 978-0-521-41737-2 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-41737-6 hardback Transferred to digital printing 2006 . . . first I stood on that earthen floor for a hundred years, while the language changed around me. (Peter Didsbury, 'The Barn', in The Classical Farm, Bloodaxe Books, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1987) Contents page List of tables and graphs x Preface xv Acknowledgements xvii List of abbreviations xviii PARTI METHODOLOGY 1 Introduction 3 2 The auxiliary 'do' 11 3 Relative markers 27 4 'Thou' and 'you' 54 PART II APPLICATIONS 5 Shakespeare as collaborator 67 The Shakespeare-Fletcher collaborations 67 The Shakespeare-Middleton collaborations 100 6 The Shakespeare apocrypha 106 The 1664 folio plays 106 Other apocryphal plays 128 PART III CONCLUSION 7 Summary of findings 149 Statistical appendix 156 Bibliography 177 Index 186 Tables page 2.1 Regulated and unregulated use of the auxiliary 'do' 12 2.2 Alternative sentence structures in early Modern English 18 3.1 Relative markers in early Modern English 29 3.2 Relative markers in Present-day Standard English 29 3.3 Relatives in Shakespeare sample 2 34 3.4 Relatives in the Fletcher sample 35 3.5 Effect of animateness of antecedent 36 3.6 Effect of restriction 36 3.7 Relative markers as a percentage of the total relative use by play 38 3.8 Relative markers in Shakespeare sample 1 41 3.9 Relative markers in Shakespeare sample 2 43 3.10 Relative markers in the Marlowe sample 45 3.11 Relative markers in the Dekker sample 47 3.12 Relative markers in the Fletcher sample 49 3.13 Relative markers in the Middleton sample 50 3.14 Relative markers in the Massinger sample 52 4.1 T/V choice and social relationship 57 4.2 Percentage of V forms in the comparison sample plays 59 4.3 Values for relationships by sex of speaker/addressed 61 4.4 T index for plays in the Shakespeare canon by genre 62 5.1 Divisions of Henry VIII 68 5.2 Hoy's 1962 division of Henry VIII 70 5.3 Percentage of positive declarative sentences formed with auxiliary 'do' 73 5.4 Unregulated positive declarative sentences as a percentage of all positive declarative sentences in Henry VIII 74 5.5 Pronoun choice in Henry VIII 81 5.6 Divisions of The Two Noble Kinsmen 84 5.7 Unregulated positive declarative sentences as a percentage of all positive declarative sentences in The Two Noble Kinsmen 87