Greenes, groats-worth of witte: First printed allusion to Shakespeare as a playwright

The earliest known allusion to Shakespeare as a playwright appears in Greenes, groats-worth of witte. Though the title page attributes the pamphlet to the recently deceased playwright Robert Greene, scholars agree that the author is more likely to have been either the playwright and printer of the work, Henry Chettle, or the playwright Thomas Nashe, or perhaps both. This copy is one of only two known surviving of the first edition, printed in 1592, the year it was entered into the Stationer’s Register. The other copy of the first edition is at the British Library (BL C.57.b.42).

Greenes, groats-worth, presented as having been authored by Robert Greene on his deathbed, begins as a tale of two brothers, Roberto and Lucanio. The tale follows the misfortunes of the brothers--Roberto, who tries to steal Lucanio's fortune and fails, and is left to make a living as a playwright, and Lucanio, who spends all his wealth on loose women and eventually becomes a pimp. Although Roberto is initially successful in writing plays, he squanders his wealth and is left dying with only a single "groat" (a coin worth four pence) to his name. The narrative shifts to first person, revealing that Roberto is Robert Greene, the supposed author. Robert repents his dissolute ways and sinful life and addresses a letter to three playwrights who bear strong resemblances to Thomas Nashe, Christopher Marlowe, and George Peele. "Greene" warns them  to stay away from actors who also write for the stage, especially the one he calls

an vp=start 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 beeing an absolute Iohannes fac totum is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.

A variety of clues makes it clear that this "Shake-scene" is a reference to William Shakespeare. In the early 1590s, Shakespeare had just begun to make a name for himself as a playwright, with works such as Henry VI and Comedy of Errors. Shakespeare’s mastery of blank verse, a style favored by university-educated playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and George Peele, may have hit a nerve. “Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde," picked out as a quote in Roman type, is clearly a play on a line from Henry VI, Part 3, where the Duke of York exclaims of Margaret of Anjou, “O Tyger’s hart wrapt in a woman’s hide!” The allusion to York's speech makes it clear that Henry VI, Part 3 had been written before 1592 and that it was familiar to London audiences. "Iohannes fac totum" means “Johnny-do-all,” the base of the phrase “Jack of all trades,” referring to Shakespeare's inflated sense of himself. The passage ends with a pun on Shakespeare’s name, “Shake-scene.”

Henry Chettle and Thomas Nashe both publicly denied authorship of Greenes, Groats-worth. Chettle's denial appeared in the preface to a pamphlet he wrote titled Kind-hart’s Dream (1592) in which he noted that the letter in Greenes, Groats-worth addressed “to diuers play-makers" was "offensiuely by one or two of them taken.” He apologizes profusely to one of the playwrights, generally assumed to be Shakespeare, praising his demeanor and his acting skills and noting that he was supported by "diuers of worship" who praise his honesty and his polished writing. This suggests to scholars that Shakespeare, by 1592, already had supporters who rushed to his defense in the face of the rather vicious attack. Nashe's denial appears in the preface to the second edition of his Pierce Penniless (1592), where he writes that he had nothing to do with this "trivial lying pamphlet":

Other newes I am aduertised of, that a scal'd triuiall lying Pamphlet, called Greens groats-worth of wit is giuen out to be of my doing. God neuer haue care of my soule, but vtterly renounce me, if the least word or syllable in it proceeded from my penne, or if I were any way priuie to the writing or printing of it. (sig. ¶2v)

Henry Clay Folger purchased the Folger Shakespeare Library's copy of Greenes, Groats-worth on February 3, 1928 through one of his agents, A.S.W. Rosenbach. The former owner, William Augustus White, was a prolific collector of Shakespeareana: Mr. Folger purchased Greenes, Groats-worth along with nineteen of White’s other rare early modern works for the sum of $122,500 (approximately $1.7 million today). White acquired the pamphlet in 1886 from the sale of the library of Sir John Fenn and his descendant, John Tudor Frere, where it had remained in the family since 1785.