Editing Shakespeare apocrypha (section)

==Apocryphal poems==
Several poems published anonymously have been attributed by scholars to Shakespeare. Others were attributed to him in 17th century manuscripts. None have received universal acceptance. The authorship of some poems published under Shakespeare's name in his lifetime has also been questioned.

===''The Passionate Pilgrim''===
{{main|The Passionate Pilgrim}}
''The Passionate Pilgrim'' is a collection of poems first published in 1599 by [[William Jaggard]], later the publisher of Shakespeare's [[First Folio]]. Though the title page attributes the content to Shakespeare, many of the poems were written by others. Some are of unknown authorship and could be by Shakespeare. Jaggard issued an expanded edition of ''The Passionate Pilgrim'' in 1612, containing additional poems on the theme of [[Helen of Troy]], announced on the title page ("Whereunto is newly added two Love Epistles, the first from Paris to Hellen, and Hellen's answere back again to Paris"). These were in fact by [[Thomas Heywood]], from his ''Troia Britannica,'' which Jaggard had published in 1609. Heywood protested the unauthorized copying in his ''Apology for Actors'' (1612), writing that Shakespeare was "much offended" with Jaggard for making "so bold with his name." Jaggard withdrew the attribution to Shakespeare from unsold copies of the 1612 edition.<ref>[[#Halliday|Halliday (1964)]], pp. 34–35.</ref>

==="A Lover's Complaint"===
{{main|A Lover's Complaint}}
This poem was published as an appendix to Shakespeare's sonnets in 1609. Its authorship has been disputed by several scholars. In 2007 [[Brian Vickers (literary scholar)|Brian Vickers]], in his monograph, ''Shakespeare, "A Lover's Complaint", and John Davies of Hereford'', attributes the "Complaint" to [[John Davies of Hereford|John Davies]]. Other scholars continue to attribute it to Shakespeare.

==="To the Queen"===
{{main|To the Queen}}
[[File:As the Dial.jpg|thumb|upright=1.55|The manuscript of "To the Queen by the Players"]]
"To the Queen" is a short poem praising Queen Elizabeth, probably recited as an epilogue to a royal performance of a play. It was first attributed to Shakespeare by American scholars William Ringler and [[Steven W. May (academic)|Steven May]], who discovered the poem in 1972 in the notebook of Henry Stanford, who is known to have worked in the household of the [[Lord Chamberlain]].{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} The attribution was supported by [[James S. Shapiro]] and Juliet Dusinberre. It was included in 2007 by [[Jonathan Bate]] in his complete Shakespeare edition for the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]].<ref name="Rosenbaum">{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2193477/ |title=Are Those Shakespeare's "Balls"? |author=Ron Rosenbaum |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |access-date=24 March 2012 |date=12 June 2008}}</ref> The attribution has since been challenged by Michael Hattaway,<ref>{{cite journal |author=Michael Hattaway |year=2009 |title=Dating ''As You Like It'', epilogues and prayers, and the problems of "As the Dial Hand Tells O'er" |journal=[[Shakespeare Quarterly]] |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=154–167 |doi=10.1353/shq.0.0074 |jstor=40468403|doi-access=free }}</ref> who argued that the poem is more likely to be by [[Ben Jonson]], and by Helen Hackett, who attributes it to [[Thomas Dekker (writer)|Thomas Dekker]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Helen Hackett |year=2012 |title='As The Diall Hand Tells Ore': the case for Dekker, not Shakespeare, as Author |journal=[[Review of English Studies]] |volume=63 |issue=258 |pages=34–57 |doi=10.1093/res/hgr046}}</ref>

===''A Funeral Elegy''===
In 1989, using a form of [[stylometry|stylometric computer analysis]], scholar and forensic [[linguistics|linguist]] [[Donald Foster (professor)|Donald Foster]] attributed ''A Funeral Elegy for Master William Peter'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://shakespeareauthorship.com/elegy.html |title=Text of ''A Funeral Elegy for Master William Peter'' |publisher=Shakespeareauthorship.com |access-date=2013-02-27}}</ref> previously ascribed only to "W.S.", to William Shakespeare, based on an analysis of its grammatical patterns and idiosyncratic word usage.<ref>[[#Foster89|Foster (1989)]]; [[#Foster00|Foster (2000)]]</ref> The attribution received extensive press attention from ''[[The New York Times]]'' and other newspapers.

Later analyses by scholars Gilles Monsarrat and [[Brian Vickers (literary scholar)|Brian Vickers]] demonstrated Foster's attribution to be in error, and that the true author was probably [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]]. Foster conceded to Monsarrat in an e-mail message to the SHAKSPER e-mail list in 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.shaksper.net/archive/2002/198-june/16408-abrams-and-foster-on-qa-funeral-elegyq |title=Abrams and Foster on "A Funeral Elegy" |first1=Don |last1=Foster |first2=Rick |last2=Abrams |website=SHAKSPER: The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference |date=12 June 2002 |access-date=8 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=William S. Niederkorn |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E5DD143FF933A15755C0A9649C8B63 |title=A scholar recants on his 'Shakespeare' discovery |work=The New York Times |date=20 June 2002 |access-date=24 March 2012}}</ref>

===''Shall I Die''===
This nine-verse love lyric was ascribed to Shakespeare in a manuscript collection of verses probably written in the late 1630s. In 1985 [[Gary Taylor (scholar)|Gary Taylor]] drew attention to the attribution, leading to widespread scholarly discussion of it.<ref name = "well">[http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198117353.001.0001/acref-9780198117353-e-2622# Dobson, M., Wells, S, "Shall I die", ''The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare'']</ref> The attribution is not widely accepted.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Otto Friedrich |date=21 June 2005 |title=Education: Shall I Die? Shall I Fly ... |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1074859,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080123122536/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1074859,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 January 2008 |magazine=Time |access-date=24 March 2012}}</ref> Michael Dobson and [[Stanley Wells]] state that Shakespeare's authorship "cannot be regarded as certain".<ref name = "well"/>

===Epitaphs===
[[File:Tomb of John Combe.jpg|thumb|The tomb of John Combe in Holy Trinity church, Stratford-upon-Avon]]
Shakespeare has been identified as the author of two epitaphs to John Combe, a Stratford businessman, and one to Elias James, a brewer who lived in the Blackfriars area of London. Shakespeare certainly knew Combe and is likely to have known James. A joking epitaph is also supposed to have been created for [[Ben Jonson]].

The [[s:Epitaph on Elias James|epitaph for James]] was on a memorial in the church of [[St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe]]. The memorial no longer exists but was recorded in the 1633 edition of [[John Stow]]'s ''Survey of London''. The text is also present in the same manuscript which preserves ''Shall I Die'', where it is ascribed to Shakespeare.<ref name="well1">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198117353.001.0001/acref-9780198117353-e-955 |author1=Dobson, M. |author2=Wells, S. |chapter=Epitaph on Elias James |title=The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare|isbn=978-0198117353 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 }}</ref> The epitaph is a conventional statement of James' godly life.

The [[s:Epitaphs on John Combe|epitaphs for Combe]] are different. One is a satirical comment on Combe's money-lending at 10&nbsp;per cent interest. The verse says that ''he lent money at one-in-ten, and it's ten-to-one he'll end up in hell''. This is recorded in several variant forms in the 17th and 18th&nbsp;centuries, usually with the story that Shakespeare composed it extempore at a party with Combe present.<ref name = "scho">{{cite book |author=Schoenbaum, S. |title=Shakespeare's Lives |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1991 |pages=42–46}}</ref> Shakespeare is said to have written another, more flattering, epitaph after Combe died in 1614. It praises Combe for giving money in his will to the poor. This was said to be affixed to his tomb, which is close to Shakespeare's. However, there is no sign of it in the surviving tomb. The first epitaph, in variations, has also been attributed to other writers, addressed to other alleged usurers.<ref name = "scho"/>

An anecdote recorded in the mid-17th&nbsp;century has Jonson beginning an epitaph to himself with the conventional "''Here lies Ben Jonson''&nbsp;...", and Shakespeare completing it with the words "...&nbsp;''who while he lived was a slow thing / And now being dead is no thing.''"<ref name = "scho"/>