Shakespeare Wrote It? Computer Says Yes

When not being used to bust cheating college students, a computer program that detects plagiarism may have helped show that Shakespeare, below, was an author of an unattributed play about Edward III, The Times of London reported. Brian Vickers, a professor at the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, told the newspaper that a comparison of the language in “The Reign of King Edward III,” published anonymously in 1596, with that of other works by Shakespeare published before it showed 200 matches of phrases of three or more words. The comparisons were made using the software program Pl@giarism, developed by the University of Maastricht to keep its students honest. Mr. Vickers also said the program turned up 200 matches of the play with the works of Thomas Kyd, the Elizabethan playwright of “The Spanish Tragedy” who probably collaborated with Shakespeare on “The Reign of King Edward III.” Shakespeare’s authorship of the play has been widely debated, though it is included in “The Riverside Shakespeare” and “The Oxford Shakespeare” anthologies.