Previous Neville Research

Brenda James first identified Sir Henry Neville as a candidate for authorship of the works of Shakespeare. She subsequently joined forces with the historian William D. “Bill” Rubinstein. Their collaboration produced The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare in 2005—the first book-length public presentation of the Neville authorship case.¹

John Casson was among the earliest researchers to extend James’s work. Enter Pursued by a Bear: The Unknown Plays of Shakespeare-Neville examined plays outside or at the margins of the traditional canon. Much Ado About Noting: Henry Neville and Shakespeare’s Secret Source developed arguments involving manuscripts, annotations, vocabulary, sources, and documentary evidence.

Casson subsequently collaborated with Mark Bradbeer on Sir Henry Neville, Alias William Shakespeare: Authorship Evidence in the History Plays. Their 2015 study concentrated on the English history plays, including their treatment of the Neville family, their political and dynastic interests, and their possible relationship to books and historical materials associated with Henry Neville.²

Casson and Rubinstein then produced Sir Henry Neville Was Shakespeare: The Evidence in 2016. This book attempted to consolidate the principal biographical, literary, documentary, and chronological arguments developed during the first decade of Neville research. It remains one of the most substantial summaries of the affirmative case for Neville.³

A further strand of research was developed by James Leyland and James Goding. Their 2018 book, Who Will Believe My Verse?: The Code in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, concentrated on the Sonnets, their enigmatic dedication, and the possible use of coded or cryptographic structures. Their work also brought Neville’s documented experience with diplomatic ciphers into the discussion.⁴

David Ewald collaborated with Casson and Rubinstein on the chapter “Our Shakespeare: Henry Neville, 1562–1615” in William D. Leahy’s edited collection My Shakespeare: The Authorship Controversy. Ewald later joined R. John Leigh and Casson in “A Scientific Approach to the Shakespeare Authorship Question,” a peer-reviewed article that considered how competing authorship propositions might be stated as testable hypotheses.⁵

A particular debt is owed to Gregory Thompson for his tireless archival work identifying and photographing documents relating to Henry Neville’s life, and to John O’Donnell for his essential work transcribing the documents these searches have uncovered. Their complementary contributions have made a wealth of primary evidence available for study and underpin much of the documentary research presented in this book.

The present book builds on the work of these researchers. Where an observation, document, parallel, or interpretation was first brought forward by one of these researchers, that contribution should be credited.

At the same time, this book is not intended merely to restate the earlier literature. It returns to primary sources wherever possible; rechecks bibliographical, genealogical, chronological, diplomatic, and textual claims; distinguishes documented fact from inference and speculation; corrects errors that have accumulated in previous discussions; and incorporates evidence and analytical methods unavailable to the earliest investigators. Its purpose is to present the most comprehensive, thoroughly referenced, and cumulative affirmative case for Henry Neville yet assembled.

Principal previous publications

• Brenda James and William D. Rubinstein. The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare. Pearson Longman, 2005. A revised paperback appeared in 2006.

• Brenda James. Henry Neville and the Shakespeare Code. Music for Strings, 2008.

• John Casson. Enter Pursued by a Bear: The Unknown Plays of Shakespeare-Neville. Music for Strings, 2009.

• John Casson. Much Ado About Noting: Henry Neville and Shakespeare’s Secret Source. Dolman Scott, 2010. ISBN 978-1-905553-57-0.

• Brenda James. Understanding the Invisible Shakespeare. Cranesmere Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9569495-0-9.

• William D. Rubinstein. Who Wrote Shakespeare’s Plays? Amberley Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4456-0190-8. This comparative survey considered Neville alongside other proposed authors.

• Mark Bradbeer and John Casson. Sir Henry Neville, Alias William Shakespeare: Authorship Evidence in the History Plays. Foreword by William D. Rubinstein. McFarland, 2015. ISBN 978-0-7864-9481-1.

• John Casson and William D. Rubinstein. Sir Henry Neville Was Shakespeare: The Evidence. Amberley Publishing, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4456-5466-9.

• James Leyland and James Goding. Who Will Believe My Verse?: The Code in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018. ISBN 978-1-925588-67-5.

• John Casson, William D. Rubinstein, and David Ewald. “Our Shakespeare: Henry Neville, 1562–1615.” In My Shakespeare: The Authorship Controversy, edited by William D. Leahy, 113–138. Edward Everett Root, 2018.

• R. John Leigh, John Casson, and David Ewald. “A Scientific Approach to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.” SAGE Open 9, no. 1 (2019). DOI 10.1177/2158244018823465.