Intertextual Distances Between Shakespeare Plays, With Special Reference to Henry V (Verse)
Thomas Merriam · Journal of Quantitative Linguistics · 2002
The method of comparing intertextual distances described by C. and D. Labbé is applied in simplified form to the 36 plays of the Shakespeare First Folio. The resultant configuration by verbal proximity corresponds generally to the plays’ association by chronology and genre. A partition of Henry V, however, into equal parts of prose and verse shows the 11,371 words of the play’s verse to be anomalous with the rest of the Shakespeare texts, and, unusually, with the prose of the same play. This feature reinforces previous doubt cast on the authorial integrity of the play.