[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-661642-105":59,"doc-detail-661642-en":134},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":127,"head_meta":129,"extra_data":131,"updated_unix":133},105,"en","june-2003-language-features-and-chronology-de-vere-society-newsletter","June 2003 Language Features and Chronology - De Vere Society Newsletter","","Explores whether stylistic and metrical evidence can establish the chronology of Shakespeare’s works, prompted by a 2003 AGM talk. Argues that dating based on style is undermined when texts may have been revised, since core texts must belong to a narrow composition window. Reviews computational corpus approaches to authorship and evolution, then considers metrical theories from Walker, Bathurst, and Sidney Lee, assessing their fit against individual plays and conflicting feature patterns across early and late groups.",{"@graph":69,"@context":126},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/june-2003-language-features-and-chronology-de-vere-society-newsletter/661642/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/june-2003-language-features-and-chronology-de-vere-society-newsletter/661642.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"supergirl","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-28",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118,122],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Can style and verse be used to date Shakespeare’s plays reliably?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The paper treats style as measurable and potentially indicative of period, but argues its reliability depends on whether the texts are known to be largely unrevised within a short time span.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Why are revised or substantially altered texts a problem for stylistic chronology?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"If plays were revised between composition and first publication, stylistic signals may reflect later editing rather than original composition dates, making chronology conclusions uncertain.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How do computational studies of Elizabethan authors relate to chronology?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Computational and corpus analysis has mainly been used to establish authorship—e.g., distinguishing Marlowe from Shakespeare—not to trace stylistic evolution over time to build a chronology.",{"name":123,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":124},"What do Walker, Bathurst, and Sidney Lee contribute regarding metre and chronology?",{"text":125,"@type":113},"They link metrical patterns to chronological phases, including Sidney Lee’s description of evolving features like rhyme frequency, pauses, and extra syllables; the paper then tests these claims against specific plays and their commonly assigned periods.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":128,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":130,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":132,"site_id":62},661642,1793172946,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":135},{"doc_id":132,"user_id":136,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":137,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":138,"file_id":139,"file_url":140,"file_type":141,"file_size":142,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":81,"language":143,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":144,"faqs":145,"seo_title":146,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":133,"read_time":39},962088121634,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","June 2003 Language Features and Chronology De Vere Society Newsletter  \nLanguage Features and Chronology  \nBy Kevin Gilvary  \nCan Style help establish the Chronology of Shakespeare’s works? This paper was given at the AGM held at Birkbeck College, London, May 2003  \nMembers will recall an illuminating meeting at Montacute House a few years back, in which many distinguished speakers presented brief papers about the basis for assigning dates to plays post 1604. I myself had the straightforward brief of summarising the reasons for dating Coriolanus to the year 1608.  \nMy task was easy because there is NO evidence for the dating of this play (or All’s Well or Timon of Athens) before the First Folio; the main argument for Coriolanus’ late date is derived from style and versification. I toyed with a number of tables dealing with various features, such as the proportion of blank verse, rhyme and hypermetric syllables. In the end, such an approach seemed inconclusive and problematic.  \nToday I wish to consider the background to such an approach. In what ways can a study of style and verse reveal the chronology of composition for any author? Have stylistic tests been used to date the works of other authors? I am hoping to develop this into a chapter in the society’s publication on the dating of the plays, complete with detailed appendices. I would be most grateful for any contribution to the subject, especially with regard to similar studies on other authors.  \nSince the advent of computational or corpus analysis in the mid 1970s, other Elizabethan authors have been analysed for their style. The main purpose of these more recent studies has been to establish authorship, or at least to demonstrate that the verse of Marlowe is significantly and sufficiently different from Shakespeare’s. These studies of style have NOT been used to establish evolution of style and from that a chronology of his works. Since Marlowe’s plays are not convincingly dated, it is surprising that a technique used to date some of Shakespeare’s plays has not been applied to a contemporary author.  \nNo theory of how a study of style and/or verse can help with dating an author’s works. It seems to run as follows: there is a discernible, measurable and relatively consistent evolution in an author’s use of language across a significant number or works and a significant period of time. For this tobe useful in dating otherwise updateable texts, I suggest that the following features need to be established.  \nUnrevised texts  \nSome authors this is difficult as it is known or suspected that some works were significantly altered between their original composition and their eventual first publication. Jane Austen’s novel First Impressions was completed in 1797, but was only published after considerable revisions in 1813 as Pride and Prejudice. It is impossible to reconstruct which part belongs to the original (ie waqs written pre 1797) and which to the revised part (written between 1797 and 1813) .  \nSimilarly with Shakespeare’s works: were the plays ever or even extensively revised? Wells and Taylor think so for in 1987 they published the complete works with two versions of King Lear, one based on the Quarto of 1608 and one on the First Folio of 1623, which they take to be an authorial revision. If the author revised one play why not others? Such a question calls into doubt the actual basis for making any kind of decision.  \nTo continue to use metrical or other stylistic tests on Shakespeare’s plays is to assume that they were composed and ‘set in stone’, as it were, with no revisions, rather than dynamic texts that were altered at different periods of composition. So this is the first point: core texts (those used for establishing style) must be known to have been composed within one short time span.  \nWhich data? Metre and Chronology  \nThe first commentator to link metre and chronology was Walker in 1854, closely followed by Bathurst in 1857. By 1898, Sidney Lee was able to","cbCaicfiqcsji1Xt","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicfiqcsji1Xt","pdf",45546,"English","# Language Features and Chronology\n## Motivation and research question\n## Limits of stylistic testing and unrevised texts\n## Which data? Metre and chronology\n## Sidney Lee’s metrical claims and counterexamples","[{\"question\":\"Can style and verse be used to date Shakespeare’s plays reliably?\",\"answer\":\"The paper treats style as measurable and potentially indicative of period, but argues its reliability depends on whether the texts are known to be largely unrevised within a short time span.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are revised or substantially altered texts a problem for stylistic chronology?\",\"answer\":\"If plays were revised between composition and first publication, stylistic signals may reflect later editing rather than original composition dates, making chronology conclusions uncertain.\"},{\"question\":\"How do computational studies of Elizabethan authors relate to chronology?\",\"answer\":\"Computational and corpus analysis has mainly been used to establish authorship—e.g., distinguishing Marlowe from Shakespeare—not to trace stylistic evolution over time to build a chronology.\"},{\"question\":\"What do Walker, Bathurst, and Sidney Lee contribute regarding metre and chronology?\",\"answer\":\"They link metrical patterns to chronological phases, including Sidney Lee’s description of evolving features like rhyme frequency, pauses, and extra syllables; the paper then tests these claims against specific plays and their commonly assigned periods.\"}]","June 2003 Language Features and Chronology - De Vere Society Newsletter | PDF"]