The New Murrey and Blue blog

Using software that detects plagiarism in phrases etc, Dennis McCarthy has concluded that Shakespeare adapted earlier plays by “the scholar knight” Sir Thomas North. He sets his reasoning out in a new book entitled simply Thomas North, with the subtitle The Original Author of Shakespeare’s Plays.

Is this true? Well, according to this review it very probably is.

There are no known likenesses of North, but the one above is as he’s imagined from family portraits. I confess to ignorance about him, but there’s no lack of information online, including the connection between his work and Shakespeare’s. Mr McCarthy’s new research receives a lot of attention too. His book promises to be an interesting read.

To read more go here, here and here.

There is a Smithsonian book about Mr McCarthy and Sir Thomas North.

Both books are available from Amazon.