A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen

A disputed play gives William Spalding a way to examine the evidence of literary style. His critical letter considers Shakespeare's possible share in The Two Noble Kinsmen, weighing his writing against that of John Fletcher. The comparisons consider expression, thought and imagination, drawing distinctions between the two dramatists rather than treating literary quality alone as proof of authorship.

The discussion also places Shakespeare beside Marlowe, Jonson, Massinger and Middleton, showing how similarities between writers complicate judgments about individual passages. This edition includes introductory commentary that questions Spalding's argument and records his later uncertainty, along with a life of the author by John Hill Burton. Readers interested in drama and literary criticism can follow both a case for attribution and the doubts surrounding it, while seeing how close attention to language becomes evidence in a scholarly debate.