Who Wrote Pericles?

That George Wilkins was Shakespeare’s collaborator on Pericles is a conjecture turned fact in Shakespeare Studies. Although Emma Smith does not challenge that attribution, her lecture explores the wider cultural and interpretative work the standard division of labour between the playwrights undertakes. It explores the ways in which modern attribution methods share some surprising territory with earlier scepticism about Shakespeare’s authorship of the plays. The second part of the volume discusses the materiality of books over a long history, from Gutenberg’s Bibles to Marilyn Monroe’s picture reading Ulysses.

Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford. Her work focuses in particular on the reception of Shakespeare in print, criticism and performance. Her books include This is Shakespeare (2019), Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (2016, second edition 2023), and Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers (2022). She is currently working on editions of Twelfth Night (Arden Shakespeare) and Summer’s Last Will and Testament (the Oxford Nashe edition), and on a book on early modern dramatic collaboration, with Laurie Maguire.