There is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers that, with his 'tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide,' supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you; being an absolute Johannes Factotum, in his conceit the only shake-scene in a country.

Robert Greene
Groatsworth of Wit (1592)

The Upstart Crow: A Shakespeare Journal is published annually by Clemson University. Each volume contains essays, notes, poems, and thought-provoking ideas concerning Shakespeare's works. The title derives from the first recorded allusion to Shakespeare by a rival playwright and poet on the Elizabethan stage, Robert Greene. Greene called Shakespeare an "upstart crow" on the stage because of the phenomenal success of his early history plays and comedies. Because Shakespeare was an actor and a playwright, Greene was referring to the Bard's theatrical gestures onstage as well.