Research Catalog

Title

Defining Shakespeare : Pericles as test case / MacD. P. Jackson.

Author

Jackson, MacDonald P. (MacDonald Pairman)

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 249 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"'That very great play, Pericles', as T.S. Eliot called it, poses formidable problems of text and authorship. The first of the Late Romances, it was ascribed to Shakespeare when printed in a quarto of 1609, but was not included in the First Folio (1623) collection of his plays. This book examines rival theories about the quarto's origins and offers compelling evidence that Pericles is the product of collaboration between Shakespeare and the minor dramatist George Wilkins, who was responsible for the first two acts and for portions of the 'brothel scenes' in Act 4. Pericles serves as a test case for methodologies that seek to define the limits of the Shakespeare canon and to identify co-authors. A wide range of metrical, lexical, and other data is analysed. Computerized 'stylometric' tests are explained and their findings assessed. A concluding chapter introduces a new technique that has the potential to answer many of the remaining questions of attribution associated with Shakespeare and his contemporaries."--Jacket.

Uniform Title

University press scholarship online.

Subject

• Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
• Wilkins, George, active 1607 > Criticism and interpretation
• Authorship > Collaboration
• Authorship, Disputed

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Defining Shakespeare -- Introduction to Pericles and the Shakespeare canon -- Pericles: evidence of dual authorship -- Identifying the author of Pericles, Acts 1 and 2 -- A literary-critical approach to style in Pericles -- Wilkins as co-author: the case summarized and defended -- A new technique for attribution studies.

ISBN

0199260508

OCLC

52696022

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library