matociquala asked

[truepenny]

The first mention of W. Shakespeare, actor and playwright, comes from the vindictively jealous pen of Robert Greene, in his Groatsworth of Wit (1592, the year of his death; in fact GWoW appeared posthumously):

There is an upstart Crow, beautiful in our feathers, that, with his tiger's heart wrapt in a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you, and, being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is, in his own conceit, the only Shakescene in the country.

I found the relevant passage, tidily excerpted, here, and Amazon claims they can get Groats-worth of Witte for you; I'll let y'all judge whether you want to believe that, and whether it's worth $59 to you for a reprint of a 1923 edition.

The whole text (with, be warned, abominable formatting) is up on this staunchly pro-Marlowe page

Or, you can find it in .pdf or .html, with much better formatting, from here, a middle school in British Columbia.

For the Oxfordian view, take a look at this.

Here's a review of the 1994 edition, suggesting that Groatsworth of Wit was largely or entirely written by its publisher, Henry Chettle.

Comments

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Sad but true, though, that the only reason anyone at all knows Robert Greene's name is because he was bitchy about a writer who got to be infinitely more famous than him...

[papersky.livejournal.com]

That's not sad, it's comforting! I mean, whenever someone is bitchy about you, thinking that that's the only reason anyone will know their name in four hundred years is quite restorative and it makes it much easier to forgive them now.

[marith.livejournal.com]

*snk* Is this an appropriate place to cite "The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered"? (Not that Greene ever got that satisfaction.)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Ooh, do you have the whole text of that, or do you know how to find it?

Anne Lamott quotes the first line in Bird by Bird and I have desired madly ever since to read the whole thing.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Ask and ye shall receive:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/remaindered.html

*giggles madly all over again on rereading it*

"Edsels of the world of moveable type", indeed.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

And the books are real. The Kung-Fu Cookbook and Barbara Windsor's Book of Boobs and so on.

I've seen them in remainder bookstores myself.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU!

I am grinning like a fool now.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

[nitpick]
Well, not quite true. Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay does get taught and is one of the four non-Shakespearean Eng. Ren. plays on the Master's exam reading list for my department (the M.A. here is broadly generalist; you start with Beowulf and end with Toni Morrison). But, okay, yes, outside of a small tribe of geeks, Greene's claim to fame is slamming Shakespeare.
[/nitpick]

Somehow I do not think this would make him any less bitter. *g*

[poisoninjest.livejournal.com]

Hee! I reread Henry VI just the other night and I can't see the line "O tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide!" without thinking "Awww! Bitter!Greene!" *g* [/dorkitude]

Bitter Green

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Which, to free-associate a little, is a Gordon Lightfoot song.

Thank you, truepenny!

Oh, it's on Peter Farey's page! He froths rather well, and I have to credit him for his primary sources: it's a great resource, which I've stolen ^H^H^H^H^H^H borrowed from extensively.

These darn Marlovians. If they don't get me, the Oxfordians will.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

... which sends me off on a tangent to say: Sarah Smith's new novel Chasing Shakespeares (http://www.chasingshakespeares.com) is out.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, that's exciting.

And reminds me that I stalled out halfway through The Knowledge of Water--they were so grim and miserable and going to hell in such an UGLY handbasket--and need to get back to it.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't remember The Knowledge of Water as being as dark as A Citizen of the Country. But I do need to reread the lot of them.