Was Richard Field a Clot?

Shakespeare's reference to the printer of "the first heir of my invention"

A pig displaying his CLOTEN in a FIELD. Image by Beatrice Hohl from Pixabay

Richard Field was born in 1561, three years before William Shakespeare, and grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon. The town at this point had 1500-2000 inhabitants, so it’s likely that the two youths would have known each other. In 1579, Field took up an apprenticeship with a printing f…