ABSTRACT
The case for the Earl of Derby differs in one very important respect from that of any of the other candidates with whom we are dealing. Apart from a few short letters of a business nature, written during the latter part of his life, no acknowledged work of his, if he ever wrote any, has survived. In his case therefore there can be no literary comparisons with the Shakespearean works in the hope of discovering similarities of style and ideas. The whole theory has to be built up on external evidence only.
