"beautified"
Discussion
Act 2,
Scene 2
Lines 109-112
Polonius
Eight years earlier, when Shakespeare was first gaining attention, he was slammed by Robert Greene, one of the leading playwrights of the time. Greene labeled him an “upstart crow, beautified with our feathers,” implying that Shakespeare was imitating himself and his colleagues. Perhaps this passage is a little payback from Shakespeare, who was by now the most famous and successful playwright in London.