This companion volume to The New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works
concentrates on the issues of canon and chronology--currently the most
active and controversial debates in the field of Shakespeare editing. It
presents in full the evidence behind the choices made in The Complete Works
about which works Shakespeare wrote, in whole or part. A major new
contribution to attribution studies, the Authorship Companion illuminates
the work and methodology underpinning the groundbreaking New Oxford
Shakespeare and casts new light on the professional working practices, and
creative endeavors, of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. We now know that
Shakespeare collaborated with his literary and dramatic contemporaries and
that others adapted his works before they reached printed publication. The
Authorship Companion's essays explore and explain these processes, laying
out everything we currently know about the works' authorship. Using a
variety of different attribution methods, The New Oxford Shakespeare has
confirmed the presence of other writers' hands in plays that until recently
were thought to be Shakespeare's solo work. Taking this process further
with meticulous, fresh scholarship, essays in the Authorship Companion show
why we must now add new plays to the accepted Shakespeare canon and
reattribute certain parts of familiar Shakespeare plays to other writers.
The technical arguments for these decisions about Shakespeare's creativity
are carefully laid out in language that anyone interested in the topic can
understand. The latest methods for authorship attribution are explained in
simple but accurate terms and all the linguistic data on which the
conclusions are based is provided. The New Oxford Shakespeare consists of
four interconnected publications: the Modern Critical Edition (with modern
spelling), the Critical Reference Edition (with original spelling), a
companion volume on authorship, and an online version integrating all of
this material on OUP's high-powered scholarly editions platform. Together,
they provide the perfect resource for the future of Shakespeare studies.