Dr Emma Smith’s work on Shakespeare reveals a co-author

27 April 2012

Hertford Fellow and Tutor in English Dr Emma Smith and Professor Laurie Maguire (Professor of English Literature at Magdalen College) have published some research which suggests that All’s Well that Ends Well may be a collaboration between William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton.

[Emma Smith] We are not saying that Middleton and Shakespeare definitely worked together on All’s Well, but Middleton’s involvement would certainly explain many of the comedy’s stylistic, textual and narrative quirks. The narrative stage directions – especially “Parolles and Lafew stay behind, commenting on this wedding” –  look as though it is the point at which one author handed over to another.