and soldiers about London) do wholly bestow themselves upon pleasure, and that pleasure they devide (how vertu ously it skills not) either in gaming, following of harlots, drinking, or seeing a play, is it not better (since of four extreames all the world cannot keepe them but they will choose one) that they should betake them to the least, which is plaies?"

In Nash's "Pierce Pennilesse," entered on the register of the Stationers' Company, August 8, 1592, is also the following possible allusion to the First Part of Henry Sixth: "How would it have joy'd brave Talbot (the terror of the French) to thinke that after he had lyne two hundred yeare in his tomb, he should triumph againe on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten thousand spectators at least (at severall times), who in the tragedian that represents his person imagine they behold him fresh bleeding!"

"The 'unquestionable authority' named above is Robert Greene, a popular writer and dramatist, who had commenced his literary career nine years previously, and who died on the third of September, 1592. In a work entitled the 'Groatsworth of Wit,' written shortly before his death, he had travestied, in an interesting and sarcastic episode respecting some of his contemporaries, a line from one of Shakespeare's then recent compositions,- O tiger's heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide!' This line is of extreme interest as including the earliest record of words composed by the great dramatist. It forms part of a vigorous speech, which is as Shakespearean in its natural fidelity as it is Marlowean in its diction. That speech of the unfortunate Duke of York is one of the most striking in the play, and the above line was probably selected for

quotation by Greene on account of its popularity through effective delivery. The quotation shows that the Third Part of Henry the Sixth was written previously to September, 1592; and hence it may be concluded that all Shakespeare's plays on the subject of that reign, although perhaps subsequently revised in a few places by the author, were originally produced in that year." (H.-P. i. 98.)

The little work entitled "Greene's Groats-worth of Wit, bought with a Million of Repentaunce," was entered at Stationers' Hall, September 20, 1592. The passage above alluded to is as follows: "Is it not strange that I, to whom they al have beene beholding; is it not like that you, to whome they all have beene beholding, shall, were ye in that case that I am now, be both at once of them forsaken? Yes, trust them not; for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that, with his Tygers heart wrapt in a Players hide, supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shakescene in a countrie. O that I might intreat your rare wits to be imployed in more profitable courses, and let those apes imitate your past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired inventions!"

“It was natural that these impertinent remarks should have annoyed the object of them; and that they were so far effective may be gathered from an interesting statement made by the editor, Henry Chettle, in a work of his own, entitled 'Kind-Heart's Dream' that he published a

few weeks afterwards, in which he specially regrets that the attack had proved offensive to Shakespeare, whom, he observes, at that time I did not so much spare as since I wish I had; for that as I have moderated the heate of living writers, and might have used my owne discretion, especially in such a case, the author beeing dead. That I did not, I am as sory as if the originall fault had beene my fault; because myselfe have seene his demeanor no lesse civill than he exelent in the qualitie he professes; besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting, that aprooves his art.' Apologies of this kind are so apt to be overstrained that we can hardly gather more from the present one than the respectable position Shakespeare held as a writer and actor; and that Chettle, having made his acquaintance, was desirous of keeping friends with one who was beginning to be appreciated by the higher classes of society." (H.-P. i. 100.)

At the time of Greene's lampoon, the poet's father was busily engaged with his counters in appraising the goods of Henry Field, a tanner of Stratford-on-Avon, whose inventory, attached to his will, was taken in August, 1592. Richard Field, a son of Henry, went to London in 1579, became a printer, and began business on his own account about 1587. There was the provincial tie between the poet and Richard Field, and Field printed his first poem.

1593. Publication of "Venus and Adonis," imprinted by Richard Field. The dedication is as follows:

To the Right Honorable Henrie Wriothefley, Earle of Southampton, and Baron of Titchfield:

Right Honourable, I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolisht lines to your Lordship, nor how the worlde will censure mee for choosing so strong a proppe to support so weake a burthen; onelye if your Honour seeme but pleased, I account myselfe highly praised, and vowe to take aduantage of all idle houres, till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But if the first heire of my inuention proue deformed, I shall be sorie it had so noble a god-father, and never after eare so barren a land, for feare it yeeld me still so bad a haruest. 'I leaue it to your Honourable suruey, and your Honor to your hearts content, which I wish may alwaies answere your owne wish, and the worlds hopefull expectation. Your Honors in all dutie,

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Field registered the copyright on the 18th of April, and John Harrison published the first three editions. The poem "was favorably received and long continued to be the most popular book of the kind." Malone's Inquiry, 1796, quotes the following entry from a manuscript diary: "12th of June, 1593, for the Survay of Fraunce, with the Venus and Athonay per Shakspere, xij. d."

Lord Southampton, then in his twentieth year, was "wealthy, accomplished, and romantic. Literature was nearly the only passport of the lower and middle classes to the countenance and friendship of the great."

The following are copyright entries:

"1593, xviij Aprilis. Richard Feild. - Entred for his copie, vnder thandes of the Archbisshop of Cant. and Mr.

Warden Stirrop, a booke intuled Venus and Adonis. Assigned ouer to Mr. Harrison, sen., 25 Junij, 1594.1

"1593-4, vj. die Februarij. John Danter. - Entred for his copye, vnder thandes of bothe the wardens, a booke intituled a Noble Roman Historye of Tytus Andronicus.

“1593-4, xij Marcij. Thomas Myllington. - Entred for his copie, vnder the handes of bothe the wardens, a booke intituled the firste parte of the contention of the twoo famous houses of york and Lancaster, with the deathe of the good Duke Humfrey, and the banishement and deathe of the duke of Suff: and the tragicall ende of the prowd Cardinall of winchester, with the notable rebellion of Jack Cade and the duke of yorkes first clayme vnto the crowne."

1594. "Titus Andronicus," his earliest tragedy, was "successfully produced before a large audience on January 23, by the Earl of Sussex's actors, playing under Phillip Henslowe,” a theatrical proprietor and manager. His earliest dramas were produced at the Rose, a circular building in Southwark, marked on a map of the time (John Norden's) as "the play-howse." Mr. Phillipps speaks of Shakespeare's "apartment in Southwark," south of the Thames and near Bank Side.2 The play was soon afterwards "entered on the books of the Stationers' Company and published by Danter. It was also performed, almost if not quite simultaneously, by the servants of the Earls of Derby and Pembroke."

1 The last paragraph is a marginal note inserted at or near the latter date.

2 See "Bankside and its Theatres," and "Old Southwark and its People," by William Rendle.