Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide - Nick Groom, Piero 2013

Cardenio, or The Double Falsehood

Lewis Theobald was too sensitive to the un-Shakespearean qualities of the play. He anticipated criticism in his preface by commenting that some might say…

…THO’ THE PLAY MAY HAVE SOME RESEMBLANCES OF SHAKESPEARE, YET THE COLOURING, DICTION, AND CHARACTERS COME NEARER TO THE STYLE AND MANNER OF FLETCHER. IT WAS NOT COMPLETELY CLEAR IN THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY THAT SHAKESPEARE HAD COLLABORATED WITH JOHN FLETCHER.

20th-century stylometry, which analyses dramatists in terms of the frequency of minor words, contractions, and patterns of usage and occurrence of rare words - for example, use of thee and thou, ye and you, I’m, and so forth - may yet solve the secret of The Double Falsehood.