Welcome to the machine Thursday, 17 December 2020 09:39
Petr Plecháč, completing a Ph. D. at Charles University, made world headlines with his analysis of Shakespeare’s
Henry VIII. It was long accepted that the play was co-authored by playwright John Fletcher, but Plecháč’s study – using machine learning – analysed word frequency patterns and rhythms to provide further evidence that the play was a collaborative effort.
Henry VIII was not written by Shakespeare alone.
Determining the differences required a granular approach by the academic, who explained the various aspects of the project, including why Shakespeare was so suitable for such an investigation:
“My Ph. D. thesis explored the possibility of using versification features – such as rhythm or rhyme – to help determine authorship or authorship recognition. I chose Shakespeare’s