The authorship of Shakespeare’s Edward III is uncertain, as it was published anonymously and not included in earlier collections of his work. Scholars believe he collaborated with another writer and later distanced himself from the play due to its portrayal of Scots. The play was based on the same literary source as most of his stories and includes historically accurate events. Its portrayal of Scottish characters strained diplomatic relations with Scotland during the 1590s. Modern scholars believe Shakespeare collaborated with Thomas Kyd on the play, but its authorship remains controversial.
The origins of Shakespeare’s Edward III are uncertain at best. It’s not even clear that William Shakespeare was actually the author of the play. This is because it was published anonymously and was not included in earlier collections of his work. Scholars of Shakespearean and Elizabethan drama have tentatively concluded that the Bard collaborated on the play with at least one other writer. Shakespeare may have later distanced himself from the play due to its disparaging portrayal of the Scots.
The play was first published in London as The Reign of King Edward III in 1596. At that time, Shakespeare was already active in the theatre, writing historical plays based on the British monarchy, such as Henry V and Richard III. Modern academic studies have concluded that the play was based on the same literary source that he used for most of his stories. Some of his passages are also very similar to Shakespeare’s writing style. Others are not, however, and this, combined with the anonymous publication, has led to centuries of debate over the authorship of the work.
The first part of Edward III concerns the king’s ill-advised courtship of a married noblewoman. In the second half, he leads England into a territorial conflict with France. While he is so busy in the south, Scottish rebels attack from the north. This is historically accurate, but Scottish characters are portrayed as self-righteous and cowardly. This reflected contemporary British attitudes towards Scottish people; such representations, however, strained diplomatic relations with Scotland during the 1590s.
In 1598, the British envoy to Scotland complained to Lord Burghey, adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, about the representation of the Scots in a particular play. Although the name of the game is not mentioned in the surviving letter, it has long been suspected to be Edward III. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died and the British throne was occupied by her Scottish cousin, James I. This is now thought to explain why Edward III was not included in Shakespeare’s first complete collection of works in 1623. This omission was the strongest argument against Shakespeare’s authorship of the play in later centuries.
Modern scholars have noted that some lines of Edward III are identical to the poems written by Shakespeare. In 2009, a researcher ran the show through a computer program designed to analyze the authorship of college theses. The program concluded that Shakespeare collaborated on the play with another well-known playwright of the time, Thomas Kyd. Research on the matter is ongoing, but in the 1990s the university press published Shakespeare’s Edward III, attributing the play to him for the first time. It has also been performed at Shakespeare Festivals as part of the Bard’s “Apocrypha,” or controversial works.
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