( CNN ) '' Hamlet . '' `` Romeo and Juliet . '' `` A Midsummer Night 's Dream . '' For centuries , these plays and three dozen more by William Shakespeare have formed history 's most heralded literary canon . But now they may have to make room for an addition to Shakespeare 's famous oeuvre . New research indicates that `` Double Falsehood , '' a play first published in 1728 by Lewis Theobald , was actually written more than a century earlier by Shakespeare himself with help from his friend John Fletcher . The findings were published this week by two scholars who used computer software to analyze the writings of the three men and compare it with the language of the `` newer '' play . `` The match between the 'Double Falsehood ' play and Shakespeare was a landslide . It was shockingly clear , '' said Ryan L. Boyd , a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin . The study , co-authored by Boyd and UT colleague James W. Pennebaker , was published in the journal Psychological Science . `` There 's very little wiggle room to interpret the numbers any differently . '' Boyd said he and Pennebaker analyzed 33 plays by Shakespeare , nine by Fletcher and 12 by Theobald to create a `` psychological signature '' of each author based on word choices , phrase patterns and other factors . They compared those profiles to the language in `` Double Falsehood '' and determined that the play 's first half was almost entirely written by Shakespeare , though the second half appeared to be split evenly between Shakespeare and Fletcher . Only tiny traces of Theobald 's signature were found . `` We 're certainly not suggesting that Theobald did n't make edits , '' Boyd told CNN . `` But he clearly did not write it . '' `` Double Falsehood , '' also known as `` The Distressed Lovers , '' is based on the `` Cardenio '' section of Don Quixote , the classic 17th-century novel by Miguel de Cervantes . Set in Spain , the play revolves around the romantic entanglements of two brothers : one virtuous , one sinful . Theobald said he based the play on three original manuscripts he had discovered , all of them written by Shakespeare . But many scholars have long dismissed the play as a fake , suspecting that Theobald tried to pass the Bard 's work off as his own . Shakespeare , who died in 1616 , wrote most of his published plays between 1590 and 1612 . British publishers Arden Shakespeare published `` Double Falsehood '' in 2010 -- for the first time in 250 years -- amid renewed claims by experts that it was Shakespeare 's work . But the new study by Boyd and Pennebaker , the first to analyze the writings from a psychological perspective , may settle the matter once and for all . Shakespearean scholar Brean Hammond , professor of modern English literature at Nottingham University in the UK , praised the Texas study for its scientific approach . Hammond said Boyd and Pennebaker `` have got no dogs in the fight . They 're not literary scholars , ( so ) their work could be seen as more objective than some of the literary studies . '' Hammond studied `` Double Falsehood 's '' authorship from a literary perspective five years ago and found Shakespeare 's DNA evident in the play . But he doubts the new research will put the matter entirely to rest . `` Those people who do n't believe the play was written by Shakespeare are n't going to just lay down and die , '' he said .
New research indicates that a play published in 1728 was written by Lewis Theobald . Scholar William Shakespeare had passed the work off as his own . Texas researchers used software to analyze and compare the language of the men .