The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0165  Tuesday, 14 March 2006

From: 		Dennis Taylor <
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Date: 		Monday, 13 Mar 2006 20:06:07 -0500
Subject: 	Chettle, Greene, Shake-scene

I would like to see Chettle's famous description of Shakespeare, "his 
uprightnes of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace 
in writing", etc. kept in the biographical canon (sic).  But Lukas 
Erne's ""Biography and Mythography: Rereading Chettle's Alleged Apology 
to Shakespeare," ES (1998), p. 430-40, disputes the applications of 
Chettle's description to Shakespeare.  Has Erne's attack been "accepted"?

I can think of two objections to it, that Peele (Erne's choice for 
Chettle's object of description) remains a less likely Greene target 
than Shakespeare ("the onley Shake-scene in a countrey").  Also 
Chettle's reference to "schollers" is too grammatically ambiguous to 
exclude Shakespeare; Chettle says that his defense of scholars is well 
known, and now he turns to the objects of Greene's attack who may or may 
not be scholars.

Does the listserv have an opinion about this?  The Chettle bit is, after 
all, a widely accepted piece of Shakespeare lore, as Erne points out.

Incidentally, does anyone know what defense of scholars Chettle is 
referring to?

PS I quickly checked the SHAKSPER postings, and there seems to be a 
tendency to assume that Chettle wrote the Greene attack; but I believe 
Erne deals with this.

Dennis Taylor
Boston College

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