Artificial Intelligence Reveals Second Playwright's Contributions to Shakespeare's 'Henry VIII'

In the summer of 1613, an early performance of William Shakespeare's Henry VIII--then titled All is True--found the Globe Theater packed with spectators. Cannon fire sounded as the play's eponymous monarch walked onstage toward the end of the first act, captivating audience members to such an extent that they failed to notice a fiery prop landing on the theater's thatched roof. Within an hour, the Globe had been reduced to ash. New research suggests Shakespeare didn't pen the history play-turned-tragedy by himself. Since literary analyst James Spedding first raised the possibility in 1850, scholars have speculated that Henry VIII was actually a collaboration between the Bard and John Fletcher, who succeeded Shakespeare as house playwright of the King's Men acting company.