eene gave the ground to all that wrote upon him.
Nay, more, the men that so eclipst his fame,
_Purloynde his plumes_: can they deny the same?

Somewhat less certain is the allusion in a document closely connected
with the foregoing. _Greenes Groatsworth_ had been prepared for the
press by his friend Henry Chettle, and in the address "To the Gentlemen
Readers" prefixed to his _Kind-Harts Dreame_ (registered December 8,
1592), Chettle regrets that he has not struck out from Greene's book the
passages that have been "offensively by one or two of them taken." "With
neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them
I care not if I never be. The other, whome 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 usde 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[1] he
professes: Besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightnes of
dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing,
that aprooves his Art." This characterization so well fits in with the
tone of later contemporary allusions to Shakespeare that it is
regrettable that Chettle did not make its reference to him beyond a
doubt.

[1] _I.e._, profession, used especially at that time of the profession
of acting.

[Page Heading: First Publications]

Within a few months after the disturbance caused by Greene's charges,
Shakespeare appeared in the field of authorship in quite unambiguous
fashion. On April 18, 1593, Richard Field, himself a Stratford man,
entered at Stationers' Hall a book entitled _Venus and Adonis_. The
dedication, which is to the Earl of Southampton, is signed by "William
Shakespeare," and the state of the text confirms the inference that the
poet himself oversaw the publication. The terms of the dedication, read
in the light of contemporary examples of this kind of writing, do not
imply any close relation between poet and patron; and the phrase "the
first heyre of my invention," applied to the poem, need not be taken as
placing its composition earlier than any of the plays, since writing for
the stage was then scarcely regarded as practising the art of letters.
_Lucrece_ was registered May 9, 1594, and appeared likewise without a