Psyché' as a Rosetta Stone? Assessing Collaborative Authorship in the French 17th Century Theatre

<div><p>During the 17th century, a significant number of collaborations emerged between playwrights, among which authors as famous as Pierre Corneille, Thomas Corneille or Molière, as well as Philippe Quinault or Jean Donneau de visé. The actual division of labour between authors can sometimes be deduced from historical documents, but is most of the time uncertain. In this paper, we try to address this question by using the information we got from one specific instance of collaboration: Psyché (1671). We first try to assess the accuracy of the notice to the reader of the printed edition of the play, where each author's involvement is clearly claimed, using machine learning and "rolling stylometry" methodology. We then use the optimal parameters already applied to this play to analyse other collaborative works of the time, in particular cases of potential collaboration between Thomas Corneille and Jean Donneau de Visé in Circé and L'Inconnu.</p></div>