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Craig, Kinney and their collaborators confront the main unsolved mysteries in Shakespeare's canon through computer analysis of Shakespeare's and other writers' styles. In some cases their analysis confirms the current scholarly consensus, bringing long-standing questions to something like a final resolution. In other areas the book provides more surprising conclusions: that Shakespeare wrote the 1602 additions to The Spanish Tragedy, for example, and that Marlowe along with Shakespeare was a collaborator on Henry VI, Parts 1 and 2. The methods used are more wholeheartedly statistical, and computationally more intensive, than any that have yet been applied to Shakespeare studies. The book also reveals how word patterns help create a characteristic personal style. In tackling traditional problems with the aid of the processing power of the computer, harnessed through computer science, and drawing upon large amounts of data, the book is an exemplar of the new domain of digital humanities.
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SH A K E SPE A R E , COM PU T E R S, A N D T H E M YS T E RY OF AU T HOR SH I P Hugh Craig, Arthur F. Kinney, and their collaborators confront the main unsolved mysteries in Shakespeare’s canon through computer analysis of Shakespeare’s and other writers’ styles. In some cases their analysis confirms the current scholarly consensus, bringing longstanding questions to something like a final resolution. In other areas the book provides more surprising conclusions: that Shakespeare wrote the 1602 Additions to The Spanish Tragedy, for example, and that Marlowe, along with Shakespeare, was a collaborator on Henry VI, Parts 1 and 2. The methods used are more wholeheartedly statistical, and computationally more intensive, than any that have yet been applied to Shakespeare studies. The book also reveals how word-patterns help create a characteristic personal style. In tackling traditional problems with the aid of the processing power of the computer harnessed through computer science, and drawing upon large amounts of data, the book is an exemplar of the new domain of digital humanities. is Professor of English at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he also directs the Centre for Literary and Linguistic Computing. He has published books on Sir John Harington and Ben Jonson, and articles on English Renaissance literature and on computational stylistics. . is Thomas W. Copeland Professor of Literary History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Director of the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies. His most recent books are Shakespeare’s Webs (2004), Challenging Humanism: Essays in Honor of Dominic Baker-Smith (2005), and Shakespeare and Cognition (2006). SHAKESPEARE, COMPUTERS, AND THE MYSTERY OF AUTHORSHIP HUGH CR AIG AND ARTHUR F. KINNEY Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521516235 © Hugh Craig and Arthur F. Kinney 2009 Th is 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 2009 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Craig, D. H., 1952– Shakespeare, computers, and the mystery of authorship / Hugh Craig, Arthur F. Kinney. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-51623-5 (hardback) 1. Shakes