the annoying actor and the author must have been two separate individuals; some professional truth-benders might have a problem with that, but there it is.
To sum up: The quote from “Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit”, which has been repeated ad nauseum, when interpreted correctly proves Greene’s adoration of a singular dramatist, later renowned as William Shakespeare.
(In any case we are surprised to see a reference to the author’s name “Shakespeare”, a name first made public in the summer of 1593 with the appearance of “Venus and Adonis”. In January 1593 Thomas Nashe made references to a certain “Master William” just three months after “Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit”.)
We can say with a high degree of certitude that the actor in question was the popular Edward Alleyn, a member of “The Admiral’s Men “. He was the son-in-law of Philip Henslowe who left James Burbage’s theatre company in 1592, ensuing the rivalry between the two leading theatre companies, “The Admiral’s Men” and “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men”.
The irony of the matter is that this self-satisfied address to the other leading playwrights of the day was, in all likelihood, not written by Robert Greene at all. “Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit” went to press two months after its young author’s death. The printer, Henry Chettle, was also a playwright. The main theme of “Greene’s Groatswort of Wit” is the life story of an actor which ends abruptly on page 39. The address to the playwrights, and the chiding of the annoying actor, seem to be grafted on to the end of the book. It is hard to imagine that Greene would have done such a thing on his death bed.
Greene writing from out of his funeral shroud, taken from John Dickenson‘s
“Greene in Conceipt” (1598)
In view of the fact that Henry Chettle was known for his very liberal views in the matter of plagiarism, it would seem that Chettle used “Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit” to hide behind the name of Robert Greene and pontificate to his enemies: Christopher Marlowe and Edward Alleyn. Marlowe (“the famous grazer of tragedians”) and Nashe (“the young juvenile”) litigated against the publisher of the pamphlet. Marlowe threatened Chettle with vengeance. Nashe, a declared friend of Robert Greene called the publication a “scald trivial lying pamphlet”.
Who would have thought that reading could be so difficult?
Ironical though it may seem; the strongest argument for William Shaksper being the author of the Shakespearian works is often overlooked by those who wish to prove just that; (the Stratfordians).
In 1601 Ben Jonson, the author of “Every Man in his Humor” (1598) and Every Man Out of his Humor” (1599), staged a piece called “Poetaster”. In this work the character of “Falstaff” was ridiculed by the character”Captain Tucca”, furthermore, there were sarcastic parodies on the balcony scene in “Romeo and Juliet” and the welcome of the wandering players in “Hamlet”.
Shakespeare did not let the matter go unpunished. In 1601/2 he staged “Troilus and Cessida”; in this work the slow-witted anti-hero Ajax stands proxy for Ben Jonson. Shakespeare lambasted the self-enamoured young upstart Jonson with the words:
This man hath robb’d many beasts of their particular additions: he is as valiant as a lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the elephant- a man into whom nature hath so crowded humours that his valour is crushed into folly, his folly sauced with discretion. There is no man hath a virtue that he has not a glimpse of, nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of it. (Troilus and Cressida, I/2)
This was indeed a ticking-off that the sensitive young Ben Jonson wouldn’t forget that soon.
For the Christmas festivities of 1602 the students of Cambridge University staged a very successful satire “The Return from Parnassus”, in which two somewhat older students go about discovering themselves and what are their vocations.
William Kempe dancing “the morris”
After many failed attempts to find a vocation, Philomusus and Studioso try the acting profession. They seek the advice of two members of Will Shaksper’s company “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men”; Richard Burbage and William Kempe, the clown and the tragedian respectively. The two young men perform for the actors, whereafter Burbage and Kempe discuss their talents.
KEMPE. The slaves are somewhat proud, and besides it is a good sport in a part to see them never speake in their walke, but at the end of the stage, just as though in walking with a fellow we should never speake but at a stile, a gate, or a ditch, where a man can go no further.
BURBAGE. A little teaching will mend these faults, and it may bee besides they will be able to pen a part.
KEMPE. Few of the University men plaies well, they smell too much of that writer Ovid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talke too much of Proserpina and Juppiter. Why heres our fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe. Aye, and Ben Jonson too. O that Ben Jonson is a pestilent fellow ... but our fellow Shakespeare hath given him a purge that made him bewray his credit.
(The Return of Parnassus, IV/3)
„Our fellow Shakespeare“? When Kempe, the clown speaks of “our fellow Shakespeare” does he mean Will Shaksper, the actor or does he mean William Shakespeare, the author? In the satire, the words that are put into Kempe’s mouth suggest that he holds “Metamorphosis” for the name of an author even though everybody knows that the “Metamorphoses” are a piece written by the author Ovid- and in the same breath he says that Will Shaksper, the actor, is the author of the Shakespearian works.
This joke that the students make at Kempe’s and Shaksper’s expense is based on the fact that Will Shaksper, the actor’s being William Shakespeare, the author is no more likely than “Metamorphosis” being the name of an author; two huge deliberate blunders!
A modern day rapper might say, when discussing modern day myths in a similar way:
”Elvis is still alive, man,
Paul McCartney lies in his grave,
Milli Vanilli sings their own songs, man,
And Will Shaksper writes his own plays.”
Ah but! I hear from Stratford “What about that monument and the strange looking bust in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford?” -The bust was commissioned to a famous Anglo-Flemish sculptor family by the name of Janssen, presumably, six or seven years after Shaksper’s death. biblograpop
The family Janssens also made the monuments for the graves of Henry Wriothesley, second Earl of Southampton and for the third, fourth and fifth Earls of Rutland.
The businessman and actor, Will Shaksper, didn’t make any arrangements for a monument in his will. Such a monument, plus the transport from London would have cost somewhere between £ 50 and £ 60 (the price of a house). We can safely assume that his family didn’t decide to spend that much money, so there must have been an anonymous donor.
1709
There has
