The Authorship of " King Henry VI." 189 



It is generally agreed — rightly, I think — that the three authors 

 addressed by Greene in the passage under discussion are first Mar- 

 lowe, " famous gracer of Tragedians," whose supposed atheism and 

 Machiavellianism are dwelt upon in rather malicious manner ; then 

 Nash, " young luvenall, that by ting Satyrist, that lastlie ^dth mee 

 together writ a Comedie" ; and finally Peele. The address to the last 

 and the general admonition which follows must be quoted entire, 

 since they include the pith of the letter: 



" And thou no lesse deseruing then the other two, in some things 

 rarer, in nothing inferiour ; driuen (as my selfe) to extreame shifts ; 

 a little haue I to say to thee : and were it not an idolatrous oth, 

 I would sweare by sweet S. George, thou art unworthie better hap, 

 sith thou dependest on so meane a stay. Base minded men al three 

 of you, if by my miserie ye be not warned ; for unto none of you 

 (like me) sought those burres to cleaue : those Puppits (I meane) 

 that speake from our mouths, those Anticks garnisht in our colours. 

 Is it not strange that I, to whom they al haue beene beholding : is 

 it not like that you, to whome they all haue beene beholding, shall 

 (were ye in the case that I am now) be both at once of them forsaken ? 

 Yes, trust them not : for there is an vpstart 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 lohannes factotum, is in his owne 

 conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrie. O that I might intreate 

 your rare wits to be imployed in more profitable courses ; & let these 

 Apes imitate your past excellence, and neuer more acquaint them 

 with your admired inventions. I know the best husband of you 

 all wil neuer proue an Vsurer, and the kindest of them all wil neuer 

 prooue a kinde nurse : yet, whilst you may, seeke you better Maisters ; 

 for it is pittie men of such rare wits, should be subject to the plea- 

 sures of such rude groomes." ^ 



The " extreame shifts " to which Peele was driven by his poverty 

 were notorious in his day and furnished the subject of many contem- 

 porary anecdotes. 2 Greene's comment is pointed enough : " thou 

 art unworthie better hap, sith thou dependest on so meane a stay" ; 

 namely, on the sorry recompense offered by the players to their poets. 

 Base-minded men, he goes on, they must all be if they are not 

 warned by Greene's misery, for none of them has been so much 

 solicited in the past as Greene, by " those burres . . . those Puppits 



1 Shakspere Allusion- Books, Part I, ed. C. M. Ingleby, 1874, p. 29—31. 



2 Cf. The Merrie conceited Jests of George Peele, Gent., 1607. 

 Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. XVII. 13 Jdly, 1912. 



