Did William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd Write Edward III?

TL;DR

This study applies a neurolinguistics multi-feature analysis to determine authorship of Edward III, suggesting significant scenes may be attributed to Thomas Kyd, challenging traditional attribution to William Shakespeare.

Contribution

It introduces a novel four-feature neurolinguistic technique, RPAS, for authorship attribution, combining multiple analytical methods to improve robustness.

Findings

Up to 14 scenes attributed to Thomas Kyd

Challenged traditional Shakespearean authorship of certain scenes

Multivariate techniques proved robust in authorship analysis

Abstract

William Shakespeare is believed to be a significant author in the anonymous play, The Reign of King Edward III, published in 1596. However, recently, Thomas Kyd, has been suggested as the primary author. Using a neurolinguistics approach to authorship identification we use a four-feature technique, RPAS, to convert the 19 scenes in Edward III into a multi-dimensional vector. Three complementary analytical techniques are applied to cluster the data and reduce single technique bias before an alternate method, seriation, is used to measure the distances between clusters and test the strength of the connections. We find the multivariate techniques robust and are able to allocate up to 14 scenes to Thomas Kyd, and further question if scenes long believed to be Shakespeare's are not his.