e's plays
any such topical significance. This attitude of the critics is due
largely to neglect or ignorance of contemporary history, and also to the
lack of a proper understanding of the chronological order in which the
plays were produced, and their consequent inability to synchronise the
characters or action of the plays, with circumstances of Shakespeare's
life, or with matters of contemporary interest, as well as to the
masterly objective skill by which he disguised his intentions, in order
to protect himself and his company from the stringent statutes then in
force, prohibiting the presentation of matters concerning Church or
State upon the stage.

CHAPTER VII

THE INCEPTION OF THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN SHAKESPEARE AND THE EARL OF
SOUTHAMPTON

1591-1594

A few months after the publication of Greene's _A Groatsworth of Wit_,
Henry Chettle issued a book entitled _Kinde Heartes Dreame_, to which he
prefaced an apology for publishing Greene's attack upon Shakespeare. He
writes: "I am as sorry as if the original fault had been my fault,
because myselfe have seene his demeanour 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 writing that approoves his art." When critically examined,
these references to Shakespeare take on a somewhat greater biographical
value than has usually been claimed for them. Agreeing with the
assumption that Shakespeare left Stratford between 1586 and 1587,--that
is, at between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-three years,--we are
informed by these allusions, that by the time he had reached his
twenty-eighth year he had attained such social recognition as to have
enlisted in his behalf the active sympathies of "divers of
worship,"--that is, men of assured social prestige and distinction,--whose
protest against Greene's attack evidently induced Chettle's amends.
Chettle's book was published in December 1592; just four months later,
in April 1593, _Venus and Adonis_ was licensed for publication, and
shortly afterwards was issued with the well-known dedication to Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. It is reasonable to assume that
this poem and its dedication had been submitted in MS. to Southampton
and held some time previous to the date of the application for licence
to publish, and that his favour was well assured before the poem was
finally let go t