PLAYWRIGHTS AND STATISTICS. A difficulty confronting the statistical analysts of Shakespeare’s plays is that they reach different conclusions. Lukas Erne in his review summarizes the findings of contemporary scholars about Henry VI, Part I.
Gary Taylor: Part I is by Shakespeare, Thomas Nashe and two unknown collaborators. Brian Vickers: It’s by Shakespeare, Nashe and Thomas Kyd. Hugh Craig and Arthur Kinney: It’s by Shakespeare, Nashe (perhaps) and Christopher Marlowe.
I posted here on Richard Feynman’s explanation of how difficult it is to design statistical experiments. As I posted here, “Nature doesn’t run very good experiments.” It looks like Elizabethan dramatists didn’t either.