matociquala asked

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.

this, that, and some other things.

Finished From Ritual to Theatre and started The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois this morning. Spent the afternoon doing something else (waves at matociquala). Am now reading early Ellery Queen mysteries, about which my only substantive comment is:

Ellery Queen is so gay.

No, I don't have Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yet. I'll get it eventually, but I'm not in a hurry. My fannish drive seems to cut out right about there.

Tired. Going to bed. Anticipating weird dreams.