Did Shakespeare write his plays? - Natalya St. Clair and Aaron Williams

Translator: Andreja Benčina Reviewer: Matej Divjak

"Some are born great,

Nekateri se veliki rodijo,

some achieve greatness,

nekateri veličino dosežejo,

and others have greatness thrust upon them", quoth William Shakespeare.

in nekaterim je vsiljena," je dejal William Shakespeare.

Or did he?

Pa je res?

Some people question whether Shakespeare really wrote the works that bear his name,

Nekateri dvomijo v avtorstvo del, ki nosijo njegovo ime,

or whether he even existed at all.

ali celo v to, da je sploh obstajal.

They speculate that Shakespeare was a pseudonym for another writer,

Menijo, da je bilo to ime psevdonim za drugega avtorja,

or a group of writers.

ali skupino avtorjev.

Proposed candidates for the real Shakespeare

Med kandidate za pravega Shakespeara prištevajo druge dramatike,

include other famous playwrights, politicians and even some prominent women.

politike in celo nekatere vplivne ženske.

Could it be true that the greatest writer in the English language

Ali je mogoče trditi, da je bil največji angleški pisec

was as fictional as his plays?

enako izmišljen, kot so njegova dela?

Most Shakespeare scholars dismiss these theories

Večina strokovnjakov te teorije zavrača,

based on historical and biographical evidence.

na podlagi zgodovinskih in biografskih dokazov.

But there is another way to test whether Shakespeare's famous lines

Obstaja pa še en način, da preverimo,

če je njegove slavne vrstice v resnici napisal nekdo drug.

were actually written by someone else.

Linguistics, the study of language,

Jezikoslovje, znanost o jeziku,

can tell us a great deal about the way we speak and write

nam lahko pove veliko o načinu lastnega pisanja in govora,

by examining syntax, grammar, semantics and vocabulary.

tako da preuči skladnjo, slovnico, pomene in besedišče.

And in the late 1800s,

Konec 19. stoletja

a Polish philosopher named Wincenty Lutosławski

je poljski filozof, Wincenty Lutosławski,

formalized a method known as stylometry,

utemeljil metodo, poimenovano stilometrija.

applying this knowledge to investigate questions of literary authorship.

Z njo se je lotil preiskovanja književnega avtorstva.

So how does stylometry work?

Kako torej stilometrija deluje?

The idea is that each writer's style has certain characteristics

Osnova je, da ima slog vsakega avtorja določene značilnosti,

that remain fairly uniform among individual works.

ki se v avtorjevih delih večinoma ponavljajo.

Examples of characteristics include average sentence length,

Primeri značilnosti so: povprečna dolžina stavka,

the arrangement of words,

razporeditev besed

and even the number of occurrences of a particular word.

in celo število pojavov določene besede.

Let's look at use of the word thee and visualize it as a dimension, or axis.

Oglejmo si rabo besede 'tebe/te' in si jo zamislimo kot os.

Each of Shakespeare's works can be placed on that axis,

Vsako Shakespearjevo delo lahko postavimo na to os kot podatek

like a data point, based on the number of occurrences of that word.

glede na število pojavov te besede.

In statistics, the tightness of these points

V statistiki nam tesna razporeditev teh točk prikazuje varianco,

gives us what is known as the variance, an expected range for our data.

pričakovano mero razpršenosti spremenljivke.

But, this is only a single characteristic in a very high-dimensional space.

A to je le ena značilnost v zelo visoko-razsežnostnem prostoru.

With a clustering tool called Principal Component Analysis,

Z orodjem za grupiranje, imenovanim analiza glavnih komponent,

we can reduce the multidimensional space into simple principal components

lahko zmanjšamo večdimenzionalni prostor na osnovne glavne komponente,

that collectively measure the variance in Shakespeare's works.

ki kolektivno merijo varianco v Shakespearjevih delih.

We can then test the works of our candidates

Zdaj lahko primerjamo dela naših kandidatov

against those principal components.

s temi glavnimi komponentami.

For example,

Na primer:

če dovolj del filozofa Francisa Bacona pade v okvir variance,

if enough works of Francis Bacon fall within the Shakespearean variance,

that would be pretty strong evidence

je to precej močen dokaz,

that Francis Bacon and Shakespeare are actually the same person.

da sta Francis Bacon in Shakespeare pravzaprav ista oseba.

What did the results show?

Kaj so pokazali rezultati?

Well, the stylometrists who carried this out have concluded

Stilometriki, ki so izvedli raziskavo, so prišli do zaključka,

that Shakespeare is none other than Shakespeare.

da Shakespeare ni nihče drug kot Shakespeare.

The Bard is the Bard.

Poet je Poet.

The pretender's works just don't match up with Shakespeare's signature style.

Dela pretendentov se preprosto ne ujemajo z osebnim slogom Shakespeara.

However, our intrepid statisticians did find

Toda naši neustrašni statistiki

so vseeno našli nekaj prepričljivih dokazov o sodelovanju.

some compelling evidence of collaborations.

For instance, one recent study concluded

Pred kratkim izvedena študija je pokazala,

that Shakespeare worked with playwright Christopher Marlowe on "Henry VI,"

da je Shakespeare sodeloval z dramatikom Christopherjem Marlowom pri Henriku VI,

parts one and two.

pri prvem in drugem delu.

Shakespeare's identity is only one of the many problems stylometry can resolve.

Stilometrija pa lahko poleg identitete, razreši tudi druge težave.

It can help us determine when a work was written,

Pomaga nam določiti, kdaj je bilo delo napisano,

whether an ancient text is a forgery,

če je starodavno besedilo ponaredek,

whether a student has committed plagiarism,

če je študent zagrešil plagiatorstvo,

or if that email you just received is of a high priority or spam.

ali če je elektronska pošta pomembna ali vsiljena.

And does the timeless poetry of Shakespeare's lines

Ali to pomeni, da lahko brezčasno poezijo Shakespeara

just boil down to numbers and statistics?

zreduciramo na številke in statistiko?

Not quite.

Ne povsem.

Stylometric analysis may reveal what makes Shakespeare's works structurally distinct,

Stilometrija lahko odkrije, kaj je v Shakespearjevih delih značilno,

but it cannot capture the beauty of the sentiments and emotions they express,

ne more pa zajeti lepote, občutkov in čustev, ki jih izražajo,

or why they affect us the way they do.

ali pojasniti, zakaj v nas vzbujajo določene občutke.

At least, not yet.

Vsaj za sedaj še ne.