<P> In 1985 manuscript expert Charles Hamilton, compared the signatures, the handwritten additions to the play Sir Thomas More, and the body of the last will and testament . In his book In Search of Shakespeare he placed letters from each document side - by - side to demonstrate the similarities and his reasons for considering that they were written by the same hand . </P> <P> The handwriting in the body of Shakespeare's last will and testament indicates that it is written all by one person in at least two sessions: First the entire will of three pages, then a revision on the lower half of the first page that runs over onto page 2, and finally the additions or bequests that are inserted between the lines . The lower half of page one, the part that was written later than page 2 and 3, shows a disintegration of the penmanship . This problem worsens until the last written line, leaving his second - best bed to his wife, is almost indecipherable . The ink used for the interlinear additions is different from the ink in the main body of the will, but it is the same ink that is used by the four witnesses that signed the will . </P> <P> The Shakespearean scholar, Eric Sams points to a letter written by the 20 - year - old Earl of Southampton to a Mr. Hicks (or Hyckes) regarding Lord Burghley, at a time when Southampton had not yet agreed to marry Burghley's granddaughter . The letter is signed by the Earl of Southampton, but the body of the letter was written by someone else . It is dated 26 June 1592, a year when it is thought that Shakespeare may have first encountered Southampton and had begun writing the sonnets . Sams notices that the handwriting in the body of the letter is literally a secretary hand, and it resembles the handwriting found in the addition to Sir Thomas More by Hand D. After close scrutiny of the letters and pen strokes in each, and referencing the detailed descriptions found in Edward Thompson's Shakespeare's Handwriting: A Study, Sams finds that there are enough similarities to merit further consideration . This letter was written by Southampton regarding one of his houses that was in need of repair, and as Eric Sams points out, it was written at a time when Southampton was the recipient of sonnets written by Shakespeare that contained imagery suggesting the young lord might consider repairing his house: "Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate / Which to repair should be thy chief desire ." (Sonnet 10, lines 7 - 8) And "who lets so fair a house fall to decay?" (Sonnet 13, line 9) </P> <P> On 4 December 1612 Shakespeare's friends, Elizabeth and Adrian Quiney, sold a house to a man named William Mountford for 131 pounds . The deed of sale, written out apparently by a legal clerk, was witnessed and signed twice in different parts of the deed by William Shakespeare's daughter, Judith, who used for her signature a squiggle with two loops in it . Judith's given name and surname were written out on either side of Judith's marks, by someone who was not the clerk, or the witnesses or the signers . Paleographer Charles Hamilton studied this document and found that Judith's surname as it is written out is so similar to the surname in Shakespeare's own signature as it appears on other documents, that it may be reasonable to consider that Shakespeare could have been there at the signing of the deed, and assisted his daughter as she made her mark . Hamilton considers that there may be reasons for Shakespeare not witnessing the document himself . For example, he could have been involved in some way that would have precluded him from acting as witness, either in the drawing up of the deed or in advising the Quineys . </P>

How many of shakespeare's original manuscripts have survived