n Muse did not offend_,
He is the fountain whence my streams do flow,
Forgive me if I speak as I were taught."

In 1595 Gervase Markham, in a Sonnet prefixed to his poem on Richard
Grenville's fight in the _Revenge_, addresses Southampton as:

"Thou glorious laurel of the Muses' hill,
_Whose eyes doth crown the most victorious pen_,
Bright lamp of virtue, in whose sacred skill
Lives all the bliss of ear-enchanting men."

The line italicised not only refers to Shakespeare but gives evidence
also of the assured standing among poets which he had now attained in
unbiased judgments.

In addition to these evidences of Southampton's bounty to Shakespeare at
this time, we have the poet's own acknowledgment of the recent receipt
of a valuable gift in the _Lucrece_ dedication: "_The warrant I have of
your honourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored lines, makes
it assured of acceptance_."

In his _Hymns to the Shadow of Night_ (1594) and its dedication, Chapman
complains of his lack of patronage and refers to what he designates as
Shakespeare's "_idol atrous platts for riches_."[27] In the body of the
poem he writes:

"Wealth fawns on fools; virtues are meat for vices,
Wisdom conforms herself to all earth's guises,
_Good gifts are often given to men past good
And noblesse stoops sometimes beneath his blood_."

In view of the general knowledge of Southampton's bounty to Shakespeare
at this time, and of the anti-Shakespearean intention which I have
demonstrated in Chapman's poem, it is apparent that these lines refer to
the nobleman's gift as well as to the intimacy between the peer and the
player at this period.

In this same year (1594) the scholars devised a plan to disrupt the
intimacy between Shakespeare and Southampton by producing and publishing
a scandalous poem satirising their relations, entitled _Willobie his
Avisa, or the true picture of a modest maid and a chaste and constant
wife_. In this poem Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, is
represented as "Henry Willobie a young man and a scholar of very good
hope," while Shakespeare is indicated as "W.S.," an "old actor." "W.S."
is depicted as aiding and abetting Henry Willobie in a love affair with
Avisa, the wife of an Oxford tavern keeper who conducts a tavern
described as follows:

"See yonder house where hangs the badge
Of England's saint when captains cry
Victorious land to con