[MR] Archaeology News: New Origin for Shakespeare Insult

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Archaeology News is currently featuring a story on the origin of the insult
"Upstart Crow".

The jibe was used to describe William Shakespeare as a pretentious and
unworthy social climber. Shakespeare never attended university, while most
of his contemporaries had at least part of a university education (well, of
sorts; some spent their school days in drunken mischief). No matter their
moral failings, most of Shakespeare's cronies and rivals considered
themselves as "gentlemen". He was an outlier in their eyes.

"Upstart Crow" has long been attributed to Shakespeare's rival the
Cambridge-educated Robert Greene (1558-1592), one of the era's most
prolific authors. It appears in his pamphlet *Greene's Groats-Worth of
Witte, bought with a million of Repentance*. The pamphlet was supposedly
written shortly before Greene's death, and published posthumously at his
request.

Some scholars speculate that Shakespeare may have based his buffoonish
character Fallstaff upon Greene, which would certainly have fueled their
rivalry.

New computer-aided linguistic comparison by several scholars now points to
Thomas Nashe (1567-c. 1601), one of Shakespear's friends and collaborators,
as the actual author of the slur. It appears that *Groats-Worth* was
actually written by Greene's literary executor Henry Chettle with Nashe's
assistance. Chettle and Nashe always denied responsibility for the insult.

The story is found at
https://archaeologymag.com/2025/06/shakespeares-famous-upstart-crow-insult/
.

More on Robert Greene is at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Greene_(dramatist) .

A brief piece on Thomas Nashe is at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nashe .

Years ago there was a bookstore/coffee shop I patronized in Alameda,
California, called "The Upstart Crow". Since I was not a Shakespeare geek,
I did not know the origin of the name.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.