eriod we have more explicit information. These reveal Shakespeare
undisguisedly as an adapter of plays by other hands. Though they lack
the interest attaching to his unaided work, they throw invaluable light
on some of his early methods of composition and his early relations with
other dramatists.

'Henry VI.'

On March 3, 1592, a new piece, called 'Henry VI,' was acted at the Rose
Theatre by Lord Strange's men. It was no doubt the play which was
subsequently known as Shakespeare's 'The First Part of Henry VI.' On its
first performance it won a popular triumph. 'How would it have joyed
brave Talbot (the terror of the French),' wrote Nash in his 'Pierce
Pennilesse' (1592, licensed August 8), in reference to the striking
scenes of Talbot's death (act iv. sc. vi. and vii.), 'to thinke that
after he had lyne two hundred yeares in his Tombe, hee should triumphe
againe on the Stage, and have his bones newe embalmed with the teares of
ten thousand spectators at least (at severall times) who, in the
Tragedian that represents his person, imagine they behold him fresh
bleeding!' There is no categorical record of the production of a second
piece in continuation of the theme, but such a play quickly followed; for
a third piece, treating of the concluding incidents of Henry VI's reign,
attracted much attention on the stage early in the following autumn.

Greene's attack. Chettle's apology.

The applause attending the completion of this historical trilogy caused
bewilderment in the theatrical profession. The older dramatists awoke to
the fact that their popularity was endangered by the young stranger who
had set up his tent in their midst, and one veteran uttered without delay
a rancorous protest. Robert Greene, who died on September 3, 1592, wrote
on his deathbed an ill-natured farewell to life, entitled 'A Groats-worth
of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance.' Addressing three brother
dramatists--Marlowe, Nash, and Peele or Lodge--he bade them beware of
puppets 'that speak from our mouths,' and of 'antics garnished in our
colours.' 'There is,' he continued, 'an upstart Crow, beautified with
our feathers, that with his _Tygers heart wrapt in a players hide_
supposes he is as well able to bumbast out a blanke verse as the best of
you; and being an absolute _Johannes factotum_ is, in his owne conceit,
the only Shake-scene in a countrie. . . . Never more acquaint [those
apes] with your admired inventions,