A procedure to determine authorship using pairs of consecutive words: More evidence for Wilkins's participation in Pericles

Abstract

A method is analysed and developed in which specific consecutive pairs of words (i.e. collocations) are deduced in order to distinguish between the works of different authors. The approach is designed for use in conjunction with two earlier proposals which are based, respectively, on the first word in every speech and on all the remaining words spoken on stage. Treating two plays of known authorship as anonymous, the new approach to collocations is found to assign each correctly from a group of five dramatists. For further verification, the technique is applied to Acts III, IV and V of Pericles. In accordance with literary scholarship, Shakespeare is selected as the author from a group of seven contemporaneous playwrights. Tests based on collocations show that Wilkins is more likely than either Chapman or the mature Shakespeare to have been the (main) writer of Acts I and II of Pericles, thus confirming the result obtained from both previous studies.