{"id":"01KG8B0SXW3Z9ZCFMZC1CFTD8T","cid":"bafkreibecmok6suhoilcrxoplvkqzcsclzmqfg5lwvlc2irz7aqhxamjae","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreidqmeaevyv46mvqp67ew7uiidkxvkivdvthxa2km4fp3hp6e7gxei","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"02_venus_and_adonis_1905_facsimile_page_0018.jpg","height":2400,"key":"pdf-page-1769806521463-zhiv4jrvo6e","label":"02_venus_and_adonis_1905_facsimile_page_0018.jpg","page_number":18,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":520335,"text":"12 VENUS AND ADONIS\ninformation under the author's hand as to the chronological\nplace which the work fills in the long list of his achieve-\nments. Shakespeare, in his letter to the Earl of Southampton,\ndeclares his Venus and Adonis to be « the first heir of my\ninvention '.\nThe frank tone of the address to the Earl combines with\nevidence from the poem's internal characteristics almost to\ncompel the critic to interpret those words — < the first heir of\nmy invention' — in their obvious sense. A difficulty inevit-\nably suggests itself. By the year 15-93, when the poem was\nfirst published, Shakespeare had written at least four\noriginal plays, and had revised as many more by other\nhands.' None of these eight plays had yet gone to press,\nbut such work must have been composed subsequently to ' the\nfirst heir' of the author's < invention', if that phrase is to\nbe taken quite literally. The needs of the situation are,\nhowever, easily satisfied by the assumption that Venus and\nJdonts was written, or at any rate sketched out, several\nyears before it was published. The theory, which there is\nabundant internal and external testimony to justify, that this\ntale in verse was in all essentials the earliest of Shakespeare's\nexperiments in poetry, does not exclude the likelihood that\nit was freshly elaborated before it was printed. There\nis indeed ground for the suggestion that the work lay\nin manuscript in the author's desk through four or five\nsummers, during which it underwent occasional change and\namplification.\nThe tone of Shakcspearc's assurance that the poem was the first-\nfruits of his mighty faculty is amply confirmed by its tone\n' The four original plays are in my view Love's 'Labour's Lost, Tivo\nGefit/emen of Verona, Comedy of Errors, and Romeo and Juliet ; the four revised\nplays are in my view Titus Androntcus and the three parts of Henry VI.\nthe poem.","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:55:21.463Z","text_extracted_by":"pdf-processor","text_has_content":true,"text_source":"born_digital","uploaded":true,"width":1632},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG89K4X0DM39SSQK43XXG34R","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KG89JREDR8WY5QQGYR5FZRDY","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:55:22.300Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:55:24.906Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFH6ETXGRVD10WPNP3007D6"}}