Now these quotations, it may be urged, were picked out with a view to prejudice a favourable opinion of the play. But disparagements are, none the less, important links in a question of authorship. In fact it was because Shakespearian critics, of undisputed authority, declared that "Henry VIII." was not a play worthy of the poet's genius that a few advanced scholars were encouraged to come forward and pronounce that no part of the play had been written by Shakespeare. * * * * * In the autumn of 1850 Mr. Spedding, the able editor of Bacon's works, published a paper in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in which he stated it to be his belief that a great portion of the play of "Henry VIII." was written by Fletcher; a conjecture that indeed had been anticipated and was at once confirmed by other writers. Tennyson, on Mr. Spedding's authority, had pointed out many years previously the resemblance of the style in some parts of the play to Fletcher's. In fact, the conclusion arrived at by the advanced critics was that the play has two totally different metres which are the work of two different authors. On this point Mr. Spedding wrote: "A distinction so broad and so uniform running through so large a portion of the same piece cannot have been accidental, and the more closely it is examined, the more clearly will it appear that the metre in these two sets of scenes is managed upon entirely different principles and bears evidence of different workmen." This conclusion, however, was not endorsed by all commentators. It was acknowledged that metrical evidence must not be neglected, and that "there is no play of Shakespeare's in which eleven syllable lines are so frequent as they are in "Henry VIII."; and even Swinburne, whose faith in Shakespeare's authorship was unwavering, asserted "that if not the partial work it may certainly be taken as the general model of Fletcher, in some not unimportant passages." It was contended besides that the poet's hand was hampered by a difficulty inherent in the subject, since of all Shakespeare's plays, "Henry VIII." is the nearest in its story to the poet's own time, and that the elliptical construction and the licence of versification, which are peculiar to this play, are necessary in order to bring the dialogue closer to the language of common life. In fact, Mr. Spedding's opponents, while admitting an anonymous hand in the prologue and epilogue, rejected the theory as to the manner in which the collaboration was carried out, and asserted that the structure of the play, the development of the action and the characters showed it to be the work of one hand, and that Shakespeare's.