Shakespeare had already written or assisted in writing plays for the London theatre by 1593, but the fact that several writers might work on the same play has made it difficult for modern commentators to ascribe authorship with certainty for plays relating to this period. The important thing for the theatre owners of the time was that they had new stuff to present to their London audience who were making them rich. Concern about exactly who had written a play was very much secondary to fast production. Notwithstanding this problem of accurate ascription, the following plays are thought to have been written partly or wholly by Shakespeare prior to 1593: the three parts of Henry VI, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors and possibly Titus Andronicus,

It is probable that the enforced closure of the theatres by the London authorities during most of 1592 and 1593 (largely because of the plague) left Shakespeare free to concentrate on two long poems (Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece). He had already penned sonnets to the young Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Sonnet 104, written on the occasion of Henry's coming of age in October 1594, mentions the fact that three summers have passed since they met (or, as Shakespeare writes, 'first your eye I eyde', a phrase subject to a lewd and much more intimate interpretation than 'eye to eye'), putting the date of their first meeting or intimacy at October 1591. It was a natural progression that, having established this connection, Shakespeare should attempt to secure the young aristocrat's patronage by dedicating to him some important work.

The story places Venus in the role of suitor and shows Adonis as more interested in hunting than in what Venus is only too ready to offer. The traditional roles of the sexes are reversed. Venus takes on the male role and Adonis the female. The situation thus produced parallels young Wriothesley's evident disdain for the female sex, a theme also elaborated in the sonnets the first of which were probably written some time before Venus and Adonis. But, during the course of the poem, Shakespeare does not seek to persuade the young man to act differently, unlike the early sonnets where he is encouraged to marry and propagate. The fate of Adonis, who is gored by the boar he is hunting and dies, perhaps indicates that he would nevertheless have been better advised to stay at home.

The dedication of the poem to Southampton is warm, and respectful, but avoids the type of sycophantic excess commonly used at this time in such dedications:

I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burthen: only, if your honour seem but pleased, I account myself highly praised, and vow to take advantage of all idle hours, till I have honoured you with some greater labour. (Venus and Adonis, Dedication)

Venus and Adonis showcases all Shakespeare's abilities as a poet in a sustained display of creative inventiveness which goes some way to validating Ben Jonson's criticism that he did not know when to stop. Even the most inventive poetry begins to cloy after a while. This problem was remedied in Shakespeare's plays by the use of scenes taking their inspiration from the common people, scenes which act as an interval and as relief from the high poetry of the main action. But here, there is no such counterpoise, though the poem as a whole is light in tone, has a certain sexual piquancy, and is informed by many accurate and evocative metaphors and similes taken from nature. Hunting, in particular, is described in elaborate detail, and, in this activity, there is a natural connection between the young aristocrat, one of whose prerogatives was the hunt, and Shakespeare, the poacher. In fact, hunting was as much a qualication of a gentleman as poetry, and Shakespeare is clearly not only addressing a gentleman, he is also aspiring to gentlemanly status himself, (see his later application for a coat of arms granted in 1596, and his comments regretting his having made a spectacle of himself on the stage in Sonnet 110. A gentleman did not do that.)

The poem is in some sort a reply to Christopher Marlowe's sumptuous long poem Hero and Leander, written at about the same time and circulated in manuscript. Shakespeare has already competed with Marlowe in writing histories for the stage, perhaps also collaborated with him in doing so. Now he competes with him in writing poetry.

The poem also bears a strong resemblance to The Shepherd's Venus and Adonis usually attributed to Henry Constable (1562-1613) on the basis of the signature HC, a poem of some hundred lines which covers almost exactly the same ground as Shakespeare's poem. It was probably used by Shakespeare as a basis for his own poem, in the same way that he used various sources (most notably Holinshed) as the basis for his plays.

The Shepherd's Venus and Adonis is reproduced below for those who wish to check it out. The quality of the verse ranges through bad to awful: eg In her breast so tender / He a shaft did enter or Now love's queen so fair / Had of mirth no care. But Shakespeare clearly thought he could do something with it, which, of course, he did.

'A countenance of snow, flushed with red: shining eyes, joyful and full of love - I do not believe there is a woman in the world so full of beauty and truth.' Guido Guinizelli (1220-76)

'More white and red than doves or roses are; / Nature that made thee, with herself at strife,' William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593).