Background

Shakespeare had been writing sonnets to Henry Wrothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, to encourage him to get married and propagate, probably at the behest of the Machiavellian courtier William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who had a vested interest in marrying the adolescent, one of the richest men in England, to his grand-daughter. The young Wriothesley, however, was not only not interested in getting married, he was not interested in women full stop.

Having finished some sixteen sonnets to the young man, fairly formal in style, but of undeniably high quality, Shakespeare launches out on his own and begins to woo the young man, looking for patronage. His sonnets clearly impressed the circle around Henry, who were also certainly aware of Shakespeare's work in the theatre. The relationship becomes more intimate. At Sonnet 20, Shakespeare addresses the fact that the young man has a penis, and seems to reject what appears now on to be on offer: an intimate sexual relationship with the young man. But then, in the ensuing sonnets, he pursues the young man with ardour, expressing his 'love' in some of the most persuasive love sonnets in the English language. It would appear, for a time anyway, that they were genuine expressions of feeling, but it is also clear that Shakespeare is also using them to establish himself in the young man's entourage.

The theatres were closed because of the plague in London, and Shakespeare launches out on the long poem, Venus and Adonis. He had probably seen manuscript copies of Christopher Marlowe's Hero and Leander, and, having already imitated Marlowe in writing history plays, he imitates him again by writing a long poem. Anything you can do ....

Thus Venus and Adonis becomes the first known published work of William Shakespeare in 1593. It is dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, but, unlike the first sonnets, it does not encourage him to marry. Shakespeare clearly realises that he now has an opportunity to exploit the relationship he has established with his young friend for his own ends. He has various things in mind: the acquisition of a coat of arms giving the status of a gentleman (Harry's grandfather was Garter King of Arms); the acquisition of property in Stratford-on-Avon again tied to his project to be recognised as a gentleman; the acquisition of a part in the troupe of actors for whom he writes and sometimes acts, and the publication of a poem which effectively lifts him out of the servile status of an actor and playwright writing for the common people, to the status of a poet with aristocratic patrons.

Venus and Adonis hits all the buttons.