Shakespe are in “Arden of Ffaversham”: Versification Analysis

The essay deals with versification analysis used for attribution. The analysis has been applied to Renaissance plays written in iambic pentameter. The twelve tests used in the research are illustrated by the data of Shakespeare’s canon. The main object of analysis described in the essay is an anonymous Elizabethan tragedy “Arden of Faversham”. The central part of the play, Scenes 4–8, seems to have been written by Shakespeare, while Scenes 1–3 and 9–18 have been composed by a different playwright of an older generation. This could have been Marlowe, Kyd or, more likely, an unknown author whose plays may have been lost.