Indeed, the last words that Pierce addresses to the Devil in his supplication express the wish that certain souls will be accepted into Hell, and thus will "not let our air be contaminated with their sixpenny damnation any longer". The text of "Pierce Penniless" contains an attack on both Richard Harvey, the astrologer and the Marinists, who, as part of the Marprelate Controversy, had been waging a pamphlet war attacking the episcopacy of the Anglican Church. Near the midpoint of the story, Nashe's salvo begins:  In the “Private Epistle of the Author to the Printer”, which prefaces the second edition of "Pierce Penniless", Nashe refers to another pamphlet entitled "Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit" (1592), which contains this well known attack on William Shakespeare:  From the moment "Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit" was published, people disbelieved that Robert Greene actually wrote it, let alone wrote it from his deathbed, as is purported in the pamphlet. But the two who are then suspected of writing it, Thomas Nashe and Henry Chettle, each denied being the author. Among other reasons for considering that Nashe may be the author is Nashe's denial, which at first glance seems adamant, but is immediately followed by a kind of rueful confession that seems to have left a door open for interpretation:  Nashe's character, "Pierce", occasionally has some harsh words for his unnamed fellow authors, which has led to speculation about who they might be. Nashe refers to them variously as sonnet-composing “upstarts”, who are not as well-born or as well educated as himself, who have little Latin, but who are enjoying popular success in the theatre. Nashe then, in the “Private Epistle of the Author to the Printer”, threatens anyone who might suggest his satire has particular victims: “Let the interpreter beware,” he says, “...they shall know that I live as their evil angel to haunt them world without end.” However, Nashe’s satire would have no point unless it could be seen to be striking an actual target. Nashe ends his epistle to his printer by mentioning that he would be available “... before the third impression [to] come and alter whatsoever may be offensive to any man."