A Scholar Recants on His ‘Shakespeare’ Discovery

In 1995 Donald Foster, a professor of English at Vassar College, made a startling case for Shakespeare’s being the author of an obscure 578-line poem called “A Funeral Elegy.” After a front-page article about his methods of computer analysis in The New York Times — and after his reputation was further burnished by unmasking Joe Klein as the author of “Primary Colors” — the poem was added to three major editions of Shakespeare’s works.

Now, in a stunning development that has set the world of Shakespeare scholarship abuzz, Professor Foster has admitted he was wrong. In a message dated June 12 and quietly left last Thursday on the Internet discussion group Shaksper (www.shaksper.net), he said that another poet and dramatist was the more likely author of the poem. He was joined in his recantation by Richard Abrams, a professor of English at the University of Southern Maine, who has been his close associate in the Shakespeare attribution. NY Times