Basic Research

Basic research to lay the foundation for an effective investigation into the authorship of Shakespeare works involves:

• Establishing the attribution history of the works, including the . .

1. performance, registration, printing, and publication
2. title(s) presented under
3. author names, with exact spellings¹ (or lack thereof where printed anonymously)

• Establishing general range of consistency in author name spellings of the time when their works are attributed in performance, printing, and publishing.²
• Determining amount of documentary evidence generally observed with authors of the time, e.g., drafts, manuscripts, letters, journal entries, etc.
• Cataloguing sources of the works, e.g., real-life, historical, literary.³
• Cataloguing other works printed or published anonymously during the authorship era(s)⁴ in question, especially those with similar style, substance, and titling.
• Cataloguing important references for the overall research effort.⁵

Research might be presented in tables or charts laying out a detailed history of each work that captures these elements and makes proper references to establish the results readably for a journal article or presentation to a group (example table). An historical overview of significant events before, during, and after the authorship era--e.g., political, military, royal, literary, international--would provide a useful backdrop for interpreting the works, as well as theorizing as to their authorship (though it might not be considered 'basic research').

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1. accounting for variations precisely. Example: 'An entry in a 1604 Revels Office account notes that on November 1 of that year a play entitled "The Moor of Venis" by "Shaxberd" was performed at the Banqueting House at Whitehall.' (source)
2. to use as baseline when comparing variations in anonymous and named attributions of Shakespeare works.
3. to use as baseline when comparing with evidence for authorship of Shakespeare works.
4. and before and after for comprehensiveness and to establish context.
5. online links to full, readable sources; where not available, creation of/submission for such; physical locations in repositories/libraries.