A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen and on the characteristics of Shakspere's style and the secret of his supremacy

"A Letter on Shakspere's Authorship of The Two Noble Kinsmen" by William Spalding is an early 19th-century essay that tackles the question of who really wrote the play "The Two Noble Kinsmen," usually credited to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Spalding looks at clues from history and the writing styles within the play to try and prove that Shakespeare had a hand in creating it. He starts by pointing out the confusion around who wrote the play, recognizing that some plays thought to be Shakespeare's might not be, and some of his might be missing. He highlights that when the play was published, it was known to be by both Shakespeare and Fletcher, even though the way it's written sounds a lot like Shakespeare. Spalding also thinks about how Shakespeare's writing is different from Fletcher's, setting up a way to compare and figure out who wrote what.