Positioning Shakespeare at the "crossroads of manuscript and print" and exploring what the choice of print or manuscript reveals about the poet's intended audience and the social persona the poet wanted to assume and fashion, argues that "Shakespeare's authorial self-presentation begins as a poet and, more specifically, as a print-published poet" with the publication of Venus and Adonis in 1593 and the allusion to the publication of Rape of Lucrece in the next year. Yet also considers the implications of Shakespeare's early choice to have Sonnets read in manuscript rather than print and the appearance of Passionate Pilgrim which "does not suggest a poet who presents himself through the medium of print but reflects a manuscript poet who is brought into print by others."