LITERARY CONTEXT

Of the dramatists active in London when Shakespeare began his career, the majority were university men - the university wits, as they are sometimes called: Robert Green, Christopher Marlow, Thomas Lodge, John Lyly, George Peele, Thomas Nashe and others.



Greene and Shakespeare

Groats-worth of WitHe is most familiar to Shakespeare scholars for his pamphlet Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit (full title: Greene's Groats-worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance), which most scholars agree contains the earliest known mention of Shakespeare as a member of the London dramatic community. In it, Greene disparages Shakespeare, for being an actor who has the temerity to write plays, and for committing plagiarism. The passage quotes a line which is purportedly from Shakespeare's play Henry VI, part 3, but scholars are not agreed on exactly what is meant by this cryptic allusion:

"...for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey".
Though anti-Stratfordians argue that the early date of Greene's remark precludes a reference to Shakespeare (who in 1592 had no published works to his name), most scholars feel that Greene's comment refers to Shakespeare, who would in this period be an "upstart" new to the scene as an actor and contributor to plays such as Henry VI, Parts 1-3 and King John, which were most likely written and produced (though not published) before Greene's death.

In any case, it should be noted that all or part of the Groats-Worth may have in fact been written shortly after Greene's death by one of his fellow writers (the pamphlet's printer, Henry Chettle, is one candidate) hoping to capitalize on it with a lurid tale of death-bed repentance.

Greene's colorful and irresponsible character have led some, for example Stephen Greenblatt, to speculate that Greene may have served as the model for Shakespeare's Falstaff.
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http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/drama/contemporariessubj.html


http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/globe-theatre/features/shakespeare-s-contemporaries