In this case the owners would not permit the publication of
the play if they could prevent it. The title provokes Mr. Greenwood
to say, "Why these worthies should be so styled is not apparent;
indeed the supposition seems not a little ridiculous." {301a} Of
course, if the players were the possessors, "grand" is merely a jeer,
by a person advertising a successful piracy. And in regard to
Tieck's conjecture that James I is alluded to as "the grand
possessor, for whom the play was expressly written," {301b} the
autocratic James was very capable of protecting himself against
larcenous publishers.
APPENDIX II--CHETTLE'S SUPPOSED ALLUSION TO WILL SHAKSPERE
In discussing contemporary allusions to William Shakspere or
Shakespeare (or however you spell the name), I have not relied on
Chettle's remarks (in Kind-Hart's Dreame, 1592) concerning Greene's
Groatsworth of Wit. Chettle speaks of it, saying, "in which a
letter, written to divers play-makers, is offensively by one or two
of them taken." It appears that by "one or two" Chettle means TWO.
"With NEITHER of them that take offence was I acquainted" (at the
time when he edited the Groatsworth), "and with one of them I care
not if I never be." We do not know who "the Gentlemen his Quondam
acquaintance," addressed by Greene, were. They are usually supposed
to have been Marlowe, Peele, and Lodge, or Nash.
Pages:
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268