Questions on North’s Authorship of Shakespeare’s Source-Plays

• Why Didn’t North Publish His Plays?
  “Why would anyone write an Othello or a Macbeth and then not publish them so they could get credit for them and people could read them?” This is perhaps the most common question that I hear, andContinue reading “Why Didn’t North Publish His Plays?”
• Wouldn’t Someone Have Complained That Shakespeare Used Old Plays? (They Did!)
  Another question I often hear is: “Why didn’t anyone complain about this? Why didn’t people at the time mention that Shakespeare was just working from old plays?” I always respond that many people did complain about it—andContinue reading “Wouldn’t Someone Have Complained That Shakespeare Used Old Plays? (They Did!)”
• Why Wasn’t This Discovered Till Now?
  The short answer is: 21st-century digital technologies. Before the advent of literary databases, like Google Books and Early English Books Online, and new computer tools, like plagiarism software, this discovery could never have been made. In theContinue reading “Why Wasn’t This Discovered Till Now?”
• What About The Title Pages? (They Also Prove Shakespeare Adapted The Plays!)
  When Shakespeare died in 1616, the majority of his plays still remained unpublished –and many of the plays that had been published while he was alive and with his name on the title pages are today consideredContinue reading “What About The Title Pages? (They Also Prove Shakespeare Adapted The Plays!)”
• Did Shakespeare Really Adapt Old Plays? (YES! And No-One Denies This!)
  As all Shakespeare source-scholars agree, and as umpteen pre-Shakespeare allusions to these earlier plays confirm, and as the first title pages of Shakespeare’s plays make clear, and as Shakespeare’s contemporaries frequently complained: Shakespeare remade old plays. ThisContinue reading “Did Shakespeare Really Adapt Old Plays? (YES! And No-One Denies This!)”
• Contemporary Praise for North as Tragedian and Records Documenting North as Playwright
  Multiple records confirm Thomas North began writing plays early, starting at Lincoln’s Inn, and continued to do so throughout his life. By 1560, the year North turned 25, Jasper Heywood placed him at the top of aContinue reading “Contemporary Praise for North as Tragedian and Records Documenting North as Playwright”
• Not Just a Translator: Extraordinary Praise for Originality and Quality of North’s Writing
  Nineteenth and early twentieth century scholars studying Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives were often effusive in their praise of both the originality and quality of North’s prose. They noted that North frequently veered from the originalContinue reading “Not Just a Translator: Extraordinary Praise for Originality and Quality of North’s Writing”

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