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How did it happen that the eighty-three variant spellings recorded by E.K. Chambers eventually took the single form Shakespeare? While the six supposed autographs that have been preserved are disuniform, none separates the two syllables of his last name with an e: "Willm Shaksp", "william Shakspe", "Wm Shakspe", "william Shakspere", "Willm Shakspere", "William Shakspeare". Why does the scripted "Shak" become the printed "Shake"? Randall McLeod has shown that when the compositor set k and long s against each other in italic type, the letters would each begin to bend or break, because they both usually kerned (i.e., the typeface of each letter projected beyond the small typebody behind it). To avoid breakage (and the ensuing fine), a compositor would set a neutral typebody between k and long s. The problematic "Shakspeare" would then be set in italics as "Shak-speare", "Shakespeare", or even "Shake-speare".