North by Shakespeare: A Rogue Scholar’s Quest for the Truth Behind the Bard’s Work

Sir Thomas North, Elizabethan courtier, wrote several plays for his patron, Robert Dudley, to help Dudley gain the favor of Queen Elizabeth I. Years later, Shakespeare signed his name to plays with similar themes and details strikingly similar to North’s. Does this mean Shakespeare wasn’t the author? Shakespeare scholar Dennis McCarthy—using plagiarism software, 15 years of research and a recently discovered journal of North’s travels through Italy and France—believes that Shakespeare did write the plays, though they were heavily sourced from North’s works. Blanding follows the trail across time to crack the mysteries from his own perspective of investigative journalist mixed with Shakespearean scholar.