References to Shakespeare, Burbage, and Kemp: The Progress to Parnassus

In several scenes, the Cambridge University play Progress to Parnassus mocks the literary tastes and talents of the London commercial stage, depicting Shakespeare as a popular but unsophisticated playwright and poet. One scene includes critiques of Christopher Marlowe (“Wit lent from heaven, but vices sent from hell”), Ben Jonson (“The wittiest fellowe of a bricklayer in England”), Shakespeare (“His sweeter verse contains heart-throbbing line”), and other playwrights and poets as part of an overall critique of the recently published literary anthology Bel-vedere. In another scene, a student auditions before Richard Burbage for the role of Shakespeare’s title character Richard III with the famous speech: “Now is the winter of our discontent.” Burbage himself was famous for this role, which is part of the joke. Progress to Parnassus was the third in a trilogy of comedies performed at St. John’s College, Cambridge in 1598, 1600, and 1601. It appeared in printed form in 1606 as The Returne from Pernassus: or The scourge of simony, but this manuscript version is thought to be the more reliable text.