William Shakespeare

Record year1600

summaryBounded text group of political-family tragedies and late romances/tragicomic mixed-genre plays, along with their contemporaneous first stage realizations; sustained performances, Folio preservation, and later adaptations are excluded.

M rationaleFollowing M6.1: Multiple tragedies and late mixed-genre texts continuously provide resources for character understanding, power conflict, and dramatic expression across languages and centuries, achieving global significant art and comprehension capacity; new creations from later performances, education, and film/television are not claimed. The primary basis for the old M was precisely the sustained effect of the original texts; deleting the first stage realization constitutes no evidence for an upward or downward adjustment.

attribution rationaleShakespeare bears primary formative responsibility for the majority of texts and dramatic structures of this work family, assigned 0.65; the tragic tradition and specific material antecedents are assigned 0.15; co-authors like Fletcher are assigned 0.10; the unresolved formative responsibility per play is left at 0.10. First performances, typesetting, and preservation do not enter the text formation budget.

overlap boundaryThe first stage realization from the old object is deleted; M accounts for the sustained effect of the original texts/dramatic forms up to the observation date; new actions by subsequent actors, directors, films, courses, and editorial versions are reviewed separately.

Evidence gapsRepresentative play-by-play formal analysis, textual scholarship, and co-authored passages.

Record year1590

summaryComedy texts from approximately 1590–1613 and their contemporaneous first stage realizations, counted once for the entire family.

M rationaleContinuing M5.7: Multiple comedy texts form long-term cross-cultural performance and reading resources for mistaken identity, desire, and social relations; their functional scope is lower than the main tragic genre, excluding later comedies, performance industries, or educational systems. The old M is already carried by the continuous use of the original texts.

attribution rationaleRevised. Shakespeare's text/structural body 0.65 and comedy tradition, specific material antecedents 0.15 are retained; current sources only support genre boundaries, without identifying which co-author or reviser made a substantive formative action to which text in this comedy genre, so the original 0.08 team pool is merged into unresolved. The premiere team and contemporary text production still do not receive original authorship credit.

overlap boundaryThe first stage realization in the old object is deleted; each play does not duplicate M, subsequent performances and adaptations only prove the continuation of the original function or are separately counted for new additions.

Evidence gapsPlay-by-play versions, co-authorship, and premiere lineups. This round's attribution judgment gap: unknown 0.20 may include the author themselves, specific collaborators, or version-layer formative responsibility; before completing play-by-play authorship studies, it is not fixed as others' contribution, nor automatically returned to Shakespeare.

Record year1593

summary1593-1609 narrative poems, reliably attributed sonnets, and lyric poetry; disputed materials excluded.

M rationaleContinuing M5.4: Narrative poems and sonnet sequences, as independent text groups, continuously provide poetry expression and reading resources across centuries and languages, reaching the level of internationally significant work families; later anthologies, curricula, and all disputed signature works are not merged in.

attribution rationaleReliably attributed text writing takes 0.70; classical narrative and Petrarchan poetic tradition takes 0.20, unresolved formative responsibility takes 0.10. Patronage, early readers, printing, and anthology editing belong to circulation services.

overlap boundaryThe same poem is counted only once; continued reading enters this work family’s M, and new services of later editing and publication do not enter the author formation budget.

Evidence gapsThe relationship among the first edition, the 1609 poetry collection, and the manuscripts.

Record year1590

summaryThe history play texts and their first contemporaneous stage performances; chronicle facts are not attributed to the author.

M rationaleFollowing M5.5: the family of history plays continuously provides dramatic resources for discussing dynasty, war, and legitimacy, with cross-generational international influence; its scope of effect is more concentrated on historical-political narrative than the main tragedy family, and does not treat nationalist adoption or later political propaganda as net positive effects. Historical sources and co-authorship only affect a, and are not used to lower M.

attribution rationaleShakespeare's main formation of the text and political dramatic structure takes 0.55; chronicles, historical sources, and early history play inputs take 0.23, co-authors take 0.12, and unresolved per-play responsibility leaves 0.10. First performances and contemporaneous productions are excluded.

overlap boundaryThe first stage performances in the old objects are deleted; later national narratives, adaptations, and political uses are not credited back, and original historical source content is not disguised as Shakespeare's original creation.

Evidence gapsHenry VI co-authorship and historical source rewriting.