Lope de Vega's Plays: Authorship Confirmations and New Attributions Emanating From Stylometry (I)

Abstract

We are aware of more than half a thousand of preserved comedias attributed to Lope de Vega, and all have been subject to stylometric analysis as part of the ETSO project. In order to perform that analysis, R-based Stylo package developed by Eder, Rybicki and Kestemont has been used. On this occasion, the results of the 342 plays most likely to be authentic, according to the Morley and Bruerton Chronology classification, are being presented. The above-mentioned results confirm the authorship of 333, meaning 97.36%, a super high percentage that ratifies the success of that monumental study of pre-digital stylometry that took place half a century ago. At the same time, it demonstrates the effectiveness of digital stylometry in this kind of tasks about enquiring or confirming authorship, of which the Spanish theatre of the Golden Century is so much in need. Regarding the nine cases that ETSO has not been able to confirm, separate sections have been dedicated where, from bibliography and philology, it is being attempted to find explanations for these discrepancies and, in some cases, possible alternative authorships towards which research can be directed have been pointed out.