Patronage:

 

A patron is a sponsor.  In Shakespeare's case he needed someone to help him pay the bills.  Remember, he had a wife and three kids back home in Stratford and the life of an actor is not always the most profitable.  William was lucky enough to find a man who was willing to pay him for simply writing.  This man was named, Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southhampton.  He was a man who was introduced in court at the age of 17 and made an immediate impression upon Queen Elizabeth.  Wriothesley was educated in Cambridge and was a fan of the local literary scene in London often granting financial support to various theatrical productions as well as offering aid to struggling poets.   The two lyrical poems that Shakespeare wrote, Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) were both dedicated to Wriothesley.