DID SHAKESPEARE WRITE THE GOOD PARTS OF HENRY VIII AND FLETCHER THE BAD? Professor Herschel Baker in the Riverside Shakespeare tells how what seems to be a majority of scholars have thought that Fletcher had helped write Henry VIII. The theory arose in 1850, when a man named James Spedding wrote an article proposing it. The scholars have followed Spedding’s assignment of scenes to Shakespeare (I,i; I,ii; II,iii; II,iv; III,ii ll.1 to 203, and V,1). The rest of the scenes are assigned to Fletcher. The play is thought to have been written to be performed for the wedding of the daughter of King James. Baker says that Spedding proposed that Shakespeare “had got as far, perhaps, as the third act when something more appropriate for the royal wedding was required, whereupon he gave his manuscript to Fletcher….”
There are many ways for joint authors to divide their work (for example, by writing alternative drafts). Absent any indication that the Shakespeare and Fletcher divided their scenes strictly, I am inclined to believe that the scenes are divided by the scholars on the basis that the scenes they dislike were written by Fletcher. Mary Jane commented in her post that “…this is a little hard on poor Fletcher.”