Shakespeare Didn’t Work Alone

The key mysteries that surround the authorship of Shakespeare's plays has perplexed and enraged scholars for centuries. And now, Sir Brian Vickers, an authority on Shakespeare at the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, has drained all passion out of the debate.

Did Shakespeare ever collaborate? Did Shakespeare write the unattributed play about Edward III (published in 1596 when Shakespeare was 31)? All questions that fire the heart of any Shakespeare enthusiast.

In a less passionate moment, Vickers fed the text of Edward III into a computer designed to detect plagiarism and clicked "Go". A few moments later, the results collated in his printer tray as if the centuries of debate had never happened.

The result? Yes, Shakespeare did write Edward III because there are close matches with the phrases used in Shakespeare's early works. Rather more interestingly, the results also proved that the Bard collaborated with Thomas Kyd, best known for The Spanish Tragedy, a play known to have influenced Shakespeare.

About 40 per cent of the play was written by Shakespeare, while the other 60 per cent was contributed by Kyd.

In truth, I felt a little deflated when I read this story. I much prefer the debate, the passion and the mystery ... a computer print out just doesn't do it for me. Ah, well! There goes scholarship!