A pasquinade on the literature of his times was published by John Davies of Hereford in 1611; it first appeared in his "Scourge of Folly," under the title of "A Scourge for Paper-Persecutors," and among other objects of his satire _Paper_, here personified, is represented as complaining of the pruriency of Shakspeare's youthful fancy. "Another (ah, harde happe) mee vilifies With art of love, and how to subtilize, Making lewd _Venus_ with eternal lines To tie _Adonis_ to her love's designes; Fine wit is shewn therein: but finer 'twere, If not attired in such bawdy geare."[31:A] The charge of _subtilizing_ which this passage conveys, may certainly be substantiated against the minor poetry of our bard: no small portion of it is visible in the _Venus and Adonis_; but the _Rape of Lucrece_ is extended by its admission to nearly a duplicate of what ought to have been its proper size. To the quotations now given, as commemorative of Shakspeare's primary effort in poetry, we shall add one, whose note of praise is, that our author was equally excellent in painting lust or continency:— "Shakspeare, that nimble Mercury thy brain Lulls many-hundred Argus' eyes asleep, So fit for all thou fashionest thy vein, At the horse-foot fountain thou hast drunk full deep. Virtue's or vice's theme to thee all one is; Who loves chaste life, there's _Lucrece_ for a teacher: Who list read lust, there's _Venus_ and _Adonis_ True model of a most lascivious lecher."[31:B] From the admiration thus warmly expressed by numerous contemporaries, even when connected with slight censure, it will, of course, be inferred that the demand for re-impressions of the _Venus and Adonis_ would be frequent; and this was, indeed, the fact. In the year following the publication of the _editio princeps_, there is reason to conclude that the second impression was printed; for the poem appears again entered in the Stationers' books on the 23d of June, 1594, by —— Harrison, sen.; unless this entry be merely preliminary to the edition of 1596, which was printed in small octavo, by Richard Field, for John Harrison.[32:A] Of the subsequent editions, one was published, in 1600, by John Harrison, in 12mo.; another occurs in 1602, and, in 1607, the _Venus and Adonis_ was reprinted at Edinburgh, "which must be considered," remarks Mr. Beloe, "as an indubitable proof, that at a very early period the Scotch knew and admired the genius of Shakspeare."[32:B] The title-page of this edition has the same motto as in the original impression; beneath it is a Phœnix in the midst of flames, and then follows "Edinburgh. Printed by John Wreittoun, are to bee sold in his shop, a little beneath the Salt Trone. 1607."