ne tradition,
as call-boy, to another, as holder of the horses of theatergoers. But by
1592 we are assured that he had entered the ranks of the playwrights,
and had achieved enough success to rouse the jealous resentment of a
rival. Robert Greene, who died on the third of September in that year,
left unpublished a pamphlet, _Greenes Groatsworth of Witte: bought with
a Million of Repentaunce_, in which he warned three of his fellows
against certain plagiarists, "those puppits, I meane, that speake from
our mouths, those anticks garnisht in our colours." "Yes, trust them
not," he goes on; "for there is an upstart 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 _Johannes Factotum_, is in his owne conceit the only
Shake-scene in a countrie. O that I might intreate your rare wits to be
imployed in more profitable courses, and let those apes imitate your
past excellence, and never more acquaint them with your admired
inventions! I know the best husband of you all will never prove an
usurer, and the kindest of them all wil never proove 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 pleasures of such rude groomes." The
phrase about the "tyger's heart" is an obvious parody on the line,

Oh Tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide!

which occurs both in _The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke_, and
in the variant of that play which is included in the First Folio as the
third part of _Henry VI_. "The only Shake-scene" has naturally been
taken as an allusion to Shakespeare's name; and it is scarcely possible
to doubt the reference to him throughout the passage. This being so, we
may infer that by this date Shakespeare had written, with whatever else,
his share in the three parts of _Henry VI_, and was successful enough to
seem formidable to the dying Greene. It is noteworthy, too, that thus
early we have allusion to his double profession: as an actor in the
words "player's hide" and "Shake-scene," and as an author in the charge
of plagiarism. That the reference in "beautified with our feathers" is
to literary plagiarism is confirmed by the following lines from
_Greene's Funeralls_, by R. B., 1594, which seem to have been suggested
by Greene's phrase:

Greene is the ground of everie painters die;
Gr