'Fake' Shakespeare play turns out to be real

Experts conclude that Double Falsehood was indeed written by the bard.

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last updated 10 April 2015

If someone says they've rewritten a Shakespeare play from manuscripts "lost in a library fire," there's good reason to be suspicious. But in this case, it was actually true.

Lewis Theobald claimed he adapted the play Double Falsehood in 1728 from the lost Shakespeare texts. Understandably, not many people believed him. But after studying Theobald's work with text analyzing software, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have concluded that Double Falsehood is indeed an authentic Shakespeare work.

The researchers compared Double Falsehood's language and word choice with the linguistic patterns of more than 30 other Shakespeare plays, as well as works by Theobald and Shakespeare's collaborator John Fletcher. In addition to the language similarities, Double Falsehood also shares plot similarities with classic Shakespearean tales, including women disguising themselves as men and "tragedy laced with comedy," The Independent notes. If you're a true Shakespeare fan, you'll want to add the play to your reading list.