Conspiratorial snobs that like to think
He was not who he was, the Stratford man,
Enchain themselves by their desire to link
The Bard with Oxbridge chair or noble clan.
Elizabethan playwright Robert Greene
Discharged a pamphlet just before he died
About young Will; but this old fart had seen
An upstart crow and beast in player’s hide.
Perhaps in truth the green-eyed rival knew,
When also calling him a Jack of all,
The latter through such wholeness safely flew
To heights from which less balanced souls would fall.
Integrity, by far the greatest art,
Aligned Will’s senses, intellect and heart.
Jerusalem
19 November 2005