Editorial

he case for and against Oxford or anyone else as the author of the Collected Works and several apocryphal plays, has lately been dominated by the stylometricians and their acolytes. Refuting or confirming their attributions often requires the close scrutiny of page after page of numbers and elemental word lists, claimed percentages, unfamiliar statistical rubrics and other bloodless practices not always congenial to the literary mind. Nevertheless, many scholars have risen to the challenge, leading to highly detailed arguments about apparently minor points. From the outside the process may resemble academic bickering of the pettiest kind. It’s made even less attractive by the not-infrequent asnides (snide asides) insinuating that those who differ are possessed of limited intelligence or, the even more damning academic charge, culpable ignorance. T