Nothing is authentically proved with respect to Shakspeare’s introduction to the stage. His first play is dated by Malone in 1589, three years after the time assigned for the author’s arrival in London. It appears from the dedication to ‘Venus and Adonis,’ published in 1593, in which he calls that poem “the first heir of his invention,” that his earliest essays were not in dramatic composition. The ‘Lucrece,’ published in 1594, and the collection of sonnets, entitled the ‘Passionate Pilgrim,’ published in 1599, also belong to an early period of his poetical life. The ‘Lover’s Complaint,’ and a larger collection of sonnets, were printed in 1609. It may be conjectured that he was led to write for the stage in consequence of the advice and introduction of Thomas Green, an eminent comedian of the day, who was his townsman, if not his relation. Shakspeare trod the boards himself, but he never rose to eminence as an actor: it is recorded that the Ghost in ‘Hamlet’ was his masterpiece. But the instructions to the players in ‘Hamlet’ exhibit a clear and delicate perception of what an actor ought to be, however incompetent the writer might be to furnish the example in his own person.
The extent of Shakspeare’s learning has been much controverted. Dr. Johnson speaks of it thus: “It is most likely that he had learned Latin sufficiently to make him acquainted with construction, but that he never advanced to an easy perusal of the Roman authors. Concerning his skill in modern languages, I can find no sufficient ground of determination; but as no imitations of French or Italian authors have been discovered, though the Italian poetry was then high in esteem, I am inclined to believe that he read little more than English, and chose for his fables only such tales as he found translated.” Other writers have contended that he must have been acquainted with the Greek and Roman classics: but Dr. Farmer, in his ‘Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare,’ has accounted in a very satisfactory manner for the frequent allusions to the facts and fables of antiquity to be met with in Shakspeare’s writings, without supposing that he read the classic authors in their original languages. The supposition indeed is at variance with his whole history. Dr. Farmer has particularly specified the English translations of the classics then extant, and concludes on the whole, that the studies of Shakspeare were confined to nature and his own language.