Shakespeare didn\'t work alone... (Humans)

by dhw, Friday, October 16, 2009, 11:24 (5309 days ago) @ xeno6696

Matt: "Analysis of writing style shows some discrepancies."-Not that it has much to do with agnosticism, but I wonder why this subject has hit the headlines anyway. "Discrepancies" is a bit misleading ... as if something's wrong somewhere. As the article indicates, Edward III has long been regarded as a joint effort, and it's generally accepted that Shakespeare probably collaborated on other plays, like Henry VIII and Two Noble Kinsmen. There was nothing unusual in playwrights working together at that time. Beaumont and Fletcher were probably the best known pair, and John Fletcher was almost certainly one of Shakespeare's collaborators. The Bard may also have written part of Sir Thomas More. Even in Macbeth, which is as Shakespearian as a Shakespeare play can get, we know that Thomas Middleton later interpolated the witch songs, and almost certainly the silly Hecate scenes ... silly because they tell us nothing we don't already know or are about to learn. That said, Hecate has a couple of great lines that might make for an interesting discussion:
 "And you all know, security
 Is mortals' chiefest enemy."