The language studies ask three connected questions: whether Neville’s language in context resembles Shakespeare more closely than that of other writers; when vocabulary associated with his embassy becomes more prominent in Shakespeare; and which plays resemble his prose in recurring two-word sequences.
Chapter 12 compares Neville with other diplomats and with ten dramatists. Chapter 13 follows a panel of diplomatic vocabulary through the plays in time. Chapter 14 compares two-word sequences by three methods.
The comparisons reveal suggestive and meaningful affinities with Shakespeare’s language. They extend the inquiry beyond individual passages to patterns across larger bodies of text. They are not definitive authorship tests: shared subjects, professional language and literary conventions can also produce similarity. The studies use overlapping material and answer different questions; their results should be read together without treating them as independent confirmations of authorship.