SHAKESPEARE’S LOW-LIFE COLLABORATOR.

SHAKESPEARE’S LOW-LIFE COLLABORATOR. Charles Nicholl wrote a book, THE LODGER: SHAKESPEARE ON SILVER STREET, about Shakespeare’s testimony in a court case involving his landlord. Nicholl has an article in the London Review of Books (June 24, 2010) which contains new information about the landlord. What struck me, however, was the information about George Wilkins, who is thought to have collaborated with Shakespeare on Pericles. (Marjorie Garber says: “It seems clear from internal evidence that most of the first two acts of Pericles were written by someone else, probably George Wilkins….”) Nicholl’s article refers to George Wilkins as a “hack author and brothelkeeper” and says that “Wilkins frequently appeared before the Middlesex magistrates, sometimes on charges of gross violence against the prostitutes who worked for him.” Despite the expertise of Wilkins, Marjorie Garber says that the brothel scenes in Pericles are surely by Shakespeare.”