{"id":"01KG8B56MDW58P65CH20NJJ55E","cid":"bafkreiew57hkmzgpbzouugrn4so4jddj3ay5pzx4nbnrryxt2cjycrzvci","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreihvtrh7pxrrbcos6mxhabeqlhdij35qv7yjtmksnvmvd3kngcg4dm","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"02_venus_and_adonis_1905_facsimile_page_0143.jpg","height":2400,"key":"pdf-page-1769806643966-s3htj3nj8ys","label":"02_venus_and_adonis_1905_facsimile_page_0143.jpg","page_number":143,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":557035,"text":"When dedicating his first narrative poem, Venus ami shake-\nAdonis^ to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare Jo^^s^p^jj-on\nwrote: 'If your Honour seem but pleased, I account myself\nhighly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours\ntill I have honoured you with some graver labour.' There\nis no reason to doubt that Shakespeare's poem of Lucrece was\nthe fulfilment of this vow. Lucrece was ready for the press in\nMay, 1 5-94, thirteen months after Fenus and Jdonis. During\nthose thirteen months his labour as dramatist had occupied\nmost of his time. In the interval he had probably been at\nwork on as many as four plays, on 'Richard III^ Richard 11^\nKing John^ and Titus Andronicus, Consequently Lucrece was,\nas he had foretold, the fruit, not of what he deemed his\nserious employment, but of 'all idle hours\". At the same\ntime the increased gravity in subject and treatment which\n' Between the dates of the issue of the two poems, a play, in the\ncomposition of which Shakespeare was concerned, had come from the printing-\npress for the first time. The subject was drawn like Lucrece from Roman\nhistory, and the play and the poem must have occupied Shakespeare's attention\nat the same period. On February 6, 15\" 5'+) licence had been granted\nto John Danter for the printing of Titus Andronicus, in which Shakespeare\nworked up an old play by another hand. Danter was a stationer of bad\nreputation. Shakespeare was not in all probability responsible for Danter's\naction. The first edition of Titus, of lytj-f, of which the existence has been\ndoubted, survives in a single copy. The existence of this edition was\nnoticed by Langbaine in i6'(ji, but no copy was found to confirm Langbaine's\nstatement till January, 19O), when an exemplar was discovered among the\nbooks of a Swedish gentleman of Scottish descent, named Robson, who\nresided at Lund (ch Athenau?n, Jan. 21, ipo^). The quarto was promptly\npurchased by an American collector for j/,'2,ooo. The title-page runs :—\n' The most lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus : as it was\nPlaide by the Right Honourable the Earle of Barbie^ Earle of Femhrooke, and\nEarle of Sussex, their Seruants. London, Printed by John Danter, and are","text_extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:57:23.966Z","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":"2026-01-30T20:57:46.381Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:58:34.613Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFFH6ETXGRVD10WPNP3007D6"}}