In Defence of Kyd: Evaluating the Claim for Shakespeare’s Part Authorship of Arden of Faversham

Abstract

MacDonald P. Jackson first argued for Shakespeare’s part authorship of Arden of Faversham in his university dissertation in 1963. He has devoted several articles to developing this argument, summarized in his monograph Determining the Shakespeare Canon (2014). Jackson’s part ascription has led to the inclusion of the domestic tragedy in The New Oxford Shakespeare. However, Jackson and his New Oxford Shakespeare colleagues have either dismissed or neglected the evidence for Thomas Kyd’s sole authorship presented by other scholars. This essay focuses primarily on Jackson’s monograph and argues that the evidence for adding the play to Kyd’s canon, encompassing phraseology, linguistic idiosyncrasies, and verse characteristics, seems solid.