and distorting, his private affairs, entitled _Willobie his
Avisa_. From this time onward until the year 1609-10, Chapman, Roydon,
and John Florio--who in the meantime had joined issue with
them--continue to attack and vilify Shakespeare. Every reissue, or
attempted reissue, of _Willobie his Avisa_ was intended as an attack
upon Shakespeare. Such reissues were made or attempted in 1596-1599-1605
and 1609, though some of them were prevented by the action of the public
censor who, we have record, condemned the issue of 1596 and prevented
the issue of 1599. As no copies of the 1605 or 1609 issues are now
extant, it is probable that they also were estopped by the authorities.
In 1598-99 these partisans (Chapman, Roydon, and Florio) are joined by
John Marston, and a year later, also by Ben Jonson, when, for three or
four years, Chapman, Jonson, and Marston collaborate in scurrilous plays
against Shakespeare and friends who had now rallied to his side. In
about 1598 Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle joined sides with Shakespeare
and answered his opponents' attacks by satirising them in plays. John
Florio, while not participating in the dramatic warfare, attacks
Shakespeare viciously in the dedication to his _Worlde of Wordes_, in
1598, and comes in for his share of the satirical chastisement which
Shakespeare, Dekker, and Chettle administer to them in acted, as well as
in published, plays.

As Ben Jonson's dramatic reputation became assured the heat of his
rivalry against Shakespeare died down; his vision cleared and broadened
and he, more plainly than any writer of his time, or possibly since his
time, realised Shakespeare in his true proportions. Jonson, in time,
tires of Chapman's everlasting envy and misanthropy, and quarrels with
him and in turn becomes the object of Chapman's invectives. After
Shakespeare's death Jonson made amends for his past ill-usage by
defending his memory against Chapman, who, even then, continued to
belittle his reputation.

While various critics have from time to time apprehended a critical
attitude upon the part of certain contemporary writers towards
Shakespeare, they have usually regarded such indications as they may
have noticed, merely as passing and temporary ebullitions, but no
conception of the bitterness and continuity of the hostility which
actually existed has previously been realised. Much of the evidence of
the early antagonism of Greene and Nashe to Shakespeare has been
entirely m