This week, scholars Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter announced that
they had discovered a new major source of Shakespeare’s plays. Using
plagiarism software and literary analysis, McCarthy and Schlueter are
preparing a new book in which they argue that the forgotten A Brief Discourse of Rebellion and Rebels by the even-more-forgotten George North was a key point of inspiration for 11 of his major works.
He wrote prolifically, which necessitated recycling ideas, themes, and bits of dramatic business. As a part owner of his company, he also had to respond to practical matters like trends, government censorship, and the need to fill up to 3,000 seats a night.
A grubby businessman furiously writing plays and ripping off whatever he could get his hands on hardly fits our model of artistic genius.