The possibility that William Shakespeare was the “Cygnus” (Swan) who wrote a sonnet in praise of Ben Jonson’s Sejanus His Fall (Ben Jonson work from 1603 may contain ‘lost’ Shakespeare sonnet, say experts, 23 March) would have an interesting sidelight.
The poem’s reference to “the crew of common playwrights” is the earliest known use of the word “playwright” in print. The coinage is somewhat sardonic, since “wright” was generally used of manual occupations (“cartwright”, “wheelwright” etc). The term “wordsmith” is a later phrase along the same lines. Jonson himself uses “playwright” in three of his epigrams, but they were not published till 1616.
It would be nice to think that Shakespeare first gave us the word, though honourable mention should also go to the satirist Joseph Hall, who described feeble imitators of Petrarch as “plagiary sonnet-wrights” in 1597.
Charles Nicholl
Lewes, East Sussex
