Shakespeare, 'A Lover's Complaint', and John Davies of Hereford

Brian Vickers addresses the fundamental issue of what Shakespeare actually wrote, and how this is determined. In recent years, Shakespeare's authorship has been claimed for two poems, the lyric 'Shall I die?' and A Funerall Elegye. These attributions have been accepted into certain major editions of his works. Through a fresh examination of the evidence, Professor Vickers shows that neither poem has the stylistic and imaginative qualities we associate with Shakespeare. In other words, they are 'counterfeits', in the sense of anonymously authored works wrongly presented as Shakespeare's. He identifies the poet and dramatist John Ford as the actual author of the Elegye. Book jacket.