The Shakespeare plays are divided into acts and scenes, but each scene is also divided into episodes. Each episode is constructed around a framework of one or more dominant English words, each of which is repeated one or more times. When these dominant words are translated into Latin, a word or phrase that contains a "ver" compound can be found. If, within the clustering of these dominant words, the dialogue also contains the word nothing, or yet, this is translated into Latin as nihil or nihilominus.

So, concealed in these episodes of English dialogue is the clustering of Latin "ver" words which are combined with the Latin nihil or nihilominus. Therefore each episode is constructed around a concealed pun on the Latin vero nihil verius: truly nothing truer. This is the motto of Edward de Vere, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford; who is now the main candidate for the authorship of the Shakespeare plays.

There is an average of 24.54 of these concealed motto puns in each of the Shakespeare plays; 908 in all of the plays.

As Shakespeare wrote in sonnet 76: "Why write I still all one, ever the same...That every word doth almost tell my name...So all my best is dressing old words new,"

The question that Shakespearean academics have to answer is: who but the Earl of Oxford would have written the Shakespeare plays knowing, as the author would have done, that they contain an average of 24.54 concealed puns on the motto of the Earl of Oxford?

The average number of puns on the motto of the Earl of Oxford that can be found in the plays that were written between about 1570 and 1620 but were not written by Shakespeare is 2.85; this is the figure that constitutes coincidence. These non-Shakespeare motto puns are of the very simplest formation; they do not have the complexity, the Latin connections, or the wit of the motto puns that are written by Shakespeare. The average number of motto puns that can be found in modern plays, plays written within the last one hundred years, is 1.5. So, 1.5  is the figure of coincidence for modern plays and 2.85 is the figure of coincidence for non-Shakespearean plays written between 1570 and  1620; and yet the Shakespeare plays contain an average of 24.54 puns on the motto of the Earl of Oxford.

Each chapter of The Wit of William Shakespeare deals with one of the thirty-seven plays, explaining about 85 per cent of the concealed motto puns that have such a profound influence on the dialogue and the plots. Therefore The Wit of William Shakespeare is very much like a reference book.

Shakespearean academics say that if the Earl of Oxford had written the Shakespeare plays, why did he not indicate anywhere that he was the author. The answer is that he did. It is concealed in the plays.

If anyone wants to dispute the findings in The Wit of William Shakespeare then the only thing that they have to do is to disprove every single pun on the Earl of Oxford`s motto that is presented in the book.

The most important aspect of this book, however, is that it is now possible for us to understand how Shakespeare constructed his comedies, histories, and tragedies; to see the inspiration for his imagination and inventiveness. It will be of considerable interest to academics, university students, teachers and their pupils, theatre-goers, and anyone who is curious about the creative process of the world`s greatest ever playwright. The book records the wit of William Shakespeare, and in so doing shows that Shakespeare is even more of a genius than even his most ardent admirers realize.