- description
- # II
## Overview
This is a section labeled "II" extracted from a text file, representing a portion of the chapter "[PERICLES](arke:01KG6S4D9MD59KJ70ZSS7J97J8)" within a larger collection of Shakespeare's works. The section spans lines 13739 to 13749 of the source file "[pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt](arke:01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA)".
## Context
This section is part of the "[PDF Workflow Main Test 2026-01-30T00:26:53](arke:01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y)" collection. It appears in the chapter "[PERICLES](arke:01KG6S4D9MD59KJ70ZSS7J97J8)", following the section "[Defects of the plot.](arke:01KG6S5Q9ZJ44QW6RG4BH6TNS3)" and preceding "[Shakespeare’s alleged authorship.](arke:01KG6S5QA7GSDY2E7P2Z32VJDM)". The section was extracted by the "structure-extraction-lambda" process.
## Contents
The section discusses the literary quality of the play *Pericles* and external evidence that refutes the assertion that Shakespeare was the sole author of the drama. It references Richard Flecknoe's *Diarium* and John Day's comedy *Law Tricks*, and mentions a novel of 1608 by Wilkins. The section questions the reliability of the title page of the 1609 edition as sole testimony of authorship.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T06:26:30.759Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- II
- end_line
- 13749
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T06:24:08.806Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 13739
- text
- ## II
The literary quality of the bulk of the play, and some external evidence, refute the assertion of the title-page of 1609 that Shakespeare was sole author of the drama. Such testimony as the title-page offers counts in itself for little. There are several instances of the appearance of Shakespeare’s
¹ In 1656 Richard Flecknoe, in his *Diarium*, p. 96, has the epigram:—
‘On the play of the life and death of Pyrocles.’
Ars longa, vita brevis, as they say,
But who inverts that saying made this play.
² The conjecture that there was an edition of 1608 is uncorroborated. The statement that the Duke of Roxburghe’s copy of the First Quarto (now in the Boston Public Library, No. VII *infra*) bore the date 1608 is untrue. Some sentences in the fishermen’s talk in *Pericles*, Act ii, Sc. 1, are closely copied in John Day’s comedy called *Law Tricks*, which was undoubtedly published in 1608. But the fishermen’s talk was generally reproduced in Wilkins’ novel of 1608, and Day might have read it there.
- title
- II