The first written record of William Shakespeare as a playwright was a public insult calling him an 'upstart crow'.

In 1592, a playwright named Robert Greene wrote a pamphlet called 'Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit'. He was dying in poverty and felt bitter about new writers. He warned his friends about an 'upstart crow, beautified with our feathers'. This is the first known mention of Shakespeare working as a playwright in London.Greene belonged to a group called the 'University Wits'. These men had degrees from famous universities like Oxford or Cambridge. Shakespeare only had a basic grammar school education from his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Greene thought Shakespeare was unqualified to write high-quality drama.The pamphlet called Shakespeare a 'Johannes Factotum'. This is a Latin term for a 'Jack-of-all-trades'. Greene also mocked a specific line from Shakespeare's play 'Henry VI, Part 3'. He changed the words to make fun of actors who try to write poetry.This attack proves that Shakespeare's plays were already popular by 1592. It shows he was a threat to the established writers of the time. Soon after, the man who printed the pamphlet apologized. He praised Shakespeare for his good character and his graceful writing style.