The play IS the thing: Using agent-based modeling to suggest authorship for A Yorkshire Tragedy

Brian Kokensparger, Creighton University

In this paper, A Yorkshire Tragedy is used as a focus for development of an agent-based modeling application, using a Java swarm-type modeling library called Mason. This paper utilizes data generated by stylometric algorithms within the modeling application to visualize interactions and affinities, employing plays, playwrights, and theatres all as agents against a simple backdrop of Early Modern London. Though the title page of A Yorkshire Tragedy attributes authorship to Shakespeare, and first performance to the Globe, this model suggests that it may have been written by William Rowley, and stylistically has affinities with the CockPit theatre.