A common method for verifying authorship is by studying the printing history, extant copies and the performance history of the plays. Sir John Oldcastle has done eminent work in this regard. In his extensive research work on the subject Oldcastle has identified how some of the Bard’s plays were printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Pavier. Simmes is a printer of some reputation who printed several Shakespeare quartos as well as plays staged by the Admiral’s Men. As with many such quarto editions of plays,
“no author is mentioned, but we know from Philip Henslowe’s diary that ten pounds were allotted “to pay mr monday mr drayton & mr wilsson & haythway for the first pte of the lyfe of Sr Jhon Ouldcastell . . .”. By the time of the 1619 reprint, however, “William Shakespeare” appears on the title page” (Kinney, 201)
While proofs in support of Shakespeare’s authorship exist, there are equally valid proofs to the contrary. For example, at the turn of the 17th century, the proprietary status of printed drama was not of importance. This may have given Pavier the liberty to ascribe Shakespeare’s name to plays he had not written. Further weakening Shakespeare’s case is the fact that
“nearly half of the plays that appeared in print before the 1623 Folio made no claims to Shakespeare’s paternity. Only Nathaniel Butter’s 1608 quarto edition of King Lear – printed for him by Nicholas Okes – accords top-of-the-title-page billing to “M. William Shak-speare”…The only other place that Shakespeare could have seen his name set in comparably large type was blazoned across the title page of the 1609 Sonnets in capital letters. In strictly typographic terms, Shakespeare, the poet, fared better as a “man in print” during his lifetime than Shakespeare, the playwright.” (Brooks)
Even under a thorough typographic examination, more gaps have started to emerge in the authorship debate. For instance, the first quarto of a play to mention Shakespeare’s name was Loves Labors Lost (1598). In the middle of the title page, written in small type is the information ‘Newly corrected and augmented / By W. Shakespeare’. But there is no evidence that Shakespeare was editing and augmenting his own work. It wasn’t until two years later, with the publication of Henry IV Part II that a conclusive accreditation appears: ‘Written by William Shakespeare’. This is the first instance of “an unambiguously authorial attribution to Shakespeare on the title page of an early modern play.” (Brooks)