‘A raven for a dove’: Kyd, Shakespeare, and the Authorship of Arden of Faversham’s Quarrel Scene

This article explores Arden of Faversham’s quarrel scene (Scene Eight) in relation to the current primary candidates for the play’s authorship: Shakespeare and Kyd. A selection of the plays of Shakespeare and Kyd first performed during the decades 1580–1600 were tested for unique and shared collocations of words. The operational elements of function-units and function-words in these matches were examined, in the hope of bridging different methodologies such as linguistic/collocation analysis and computational stylistics. In order to differentiate between associative groupings at the forefront of single authors’ memories and verbal details shared between collaborating dramatists, the study further examines word sequences shared between the quarrel scene and the remainder of the play. The article does not attempt to bring the debate over the play’s authorship to a definitive conclusion.