mainly Puritans, hated them mortally, but the young gallants were not
Puritans. The Court patronised the actors who performed Masques in
palaces and great houses. The wealth and splendid attire of the
actors, their acquisition of land and of coats of arms infuriated the
sweated playwrights. Envy of the actors appears in the Cambridge
"Parnassus" plays of c. 1600-2. In the mouth of Will Kempe, who
acted Dogberry in Shakespeare's company, and was in favour, says
Heywood, with Queen Elizabeth, the Cambridge authors put this brag:
"For Londoners, who of more report than Dick Burbage and Will Kempe?
He is not counted a gentleman that knows not Dick Burbage and Will
Kempe." It is not my opinion that Shakespeare was, as Ben Jonson
came to be, as much "in Society" as is possible for a mere literary
man. I do not, in fancy, see him wooing a Maid of Honour. He was a
man's man, a peer might be interested in him as easily as in a
jockey, a fencer, a tennis-player, a musician, que scais-je?
Southampton, discovering his qualities, may have been more
interested, interested in a better way.

In such circumstances which are certainly in accordance with human
nature, I suppose the actor to have been noticed by the young,
handsome, popular Earl of Southampton; who found him interesting, and
interested himself in the poet. There followed the dedication to the
Earl of Venus and Adonis; a poem likely to please any young amorist
(1693).

Mr. Greenwood cries out at the audacity of a player dedicating to an
Earl, without even saying that he has asked leave to dedicate. The
mere fact that the dedication was accepted, and followed by that of
Lucrece, proves that the Earl did not share the surprise of Mr.
Greenwood. He, conceivably, will argue that the Earl knew the real