{"id":"01KG6QAN21W6F1W6NMHKCRA0FF","cid":"bafkreibilciax3jfvrwg46ll342snwud2bmj44kl22arlebq6ieycdedt4","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreiankxcvwyp5cucjt6cp2vvmrpkyjeru6pq2iiybl67rpvkshowfmi","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"06_poems_pericles_facsimiles_1905_oxford_page_0046.jpg","height":2400,"key":"pdf-page-1769752318059-naqz5jvg6zq","label":"06_poems_pericles_facsimiles_1905_oxford_page_0046.jpg","ocr_model":"mistral-ocr-latest","page_number":46,"size":534080,"text":"VENUS AND ADONIS 39\n\n## IV\n\nThe first chapter in the history of the publication of Shakespeare’s *Venus and Adonis* throws an interesting sidelight on Shakespeare’s biography. It brings the poet temporarily into close association with a fellow townsman of Stratford-on-Avon, Richard Field, who seems to have been born in the same year as himself. The fathers of the two men had been friends and neighbours at Stratford-on-Avon. Richard Field’s father, Henry Field, was a fairly prosperous tanner. He died in 1592, when his neighbour John Shakespeare, the poet’s father, attested in accordance with custom ‘a trew and perfecte inventory’ of his goods and chattels. Meanwhile Richard Field had left Stratford to follow the trade of a printer in the metropolis of London. On September 29, 1579, Richard at the usual age of fifteen was apprenticed to a London printer and stationer of good repute, George Bishop.¹ But it was arranged five weeks later that he should serve the first six years of his apprenticeship with a singularly interesting member of the fraternity, Thomas Vautrollier, a Frenchman who had originally come to London as a Huguenot refugee, and had established his position by publishing North’s translation of Plutarch’s *Lives* in 1579, a book which\n\n> His song was worthie merrit (*Shakespeare* hee)\n> Sung the faire blossome, thou the withered tree;\n> *Laurell* is due to him, his art and wit\n> Hath purchast it, *Cypres* thy brow will fit.\n\nIt is perhaps worth noting that copies of Barksted’s *Mirrba* and H. A.’s *Scourge of Venus* were bound up with copies of *Venus and Adonis* (1636) and *Lucrece* (1616), and of some other early poetical tracts, in a volume, in the library of Thomas Pearson, which fetched £1 21. od. at the Pearson sale of 1788.\n\n¹ Besides Richard Field and his brother Jasper, who was apprenticed to Richard in 1592, two other of Shakespeare’s Stratford-on-Avon contemporaries were apprenticed to London printers in the poet’s early life, viz.:—Roger, son of John Lock, a Stratford glover, on Sept. 2, 1577, to Richard Pickering, citizen and stationer of London, and Allan, son of a Stratford tailor, Thomas Orrian, to Thomas Fowkes, stationer, on March 1, 1585.","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T06:12:15.568Z","text_extracted_by":"ocr-service","text_has_content":true,"text_images_count":0,"text_source":"ocr","uploaded":true,"width":1750},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6QANJ54ANE7XAA8BEHCAYV","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6QANJJC5CQ1N42BYR3GEXS","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KG6QV7E33FPVYJWAYC8WC0CN","peer_label":"06_poems_pericles_facsimiles_1905_oxford_page_0046_medium.jpg","peer_type":"file","predicate":"has_derivative"},{"peer":"01KG6QVAE6BAX2VP93ARAVTAQ2","peer_label":"06_poems_pericles_facsimiles_1905_oxford_page_0046_thumb.jpg","peer_type":"file","predicate":"has_derivative"},{"peer":"01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA","predicate":"has_assembly"}],"ver":7,"created_at":"2026-01-30T05:51:59.041Z","ts":"2026-01-30T06:22:44.510Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFC4A8W8939TXGEXCK439ZK"}}