Question

What does the term courtier poet of middling talent mean

Answer 1

It is describing the main characteristics of the person who, according to the text, is considered more suspicious of being the real author of Shakespeare's work.

Step-by-step explanation:

The text talks about Shakespeare´s work. It tries to prove that the real author could not have been someone who had only born with exquisite talent for writing; that someone must have had college education in order to produce such works of art. Thus "courtier poet of middling talent" is defining the characteristics that the main suspicious of being responsible must have had.

Courtier: that is related to royalty (in order to pay for studies)

Poet: Title of his education

Middling talent: That wasn´t born knowing how to write beautifully, but has lots of practice on doing it.

Answer 2

To understand this phrase you have to analyze it in pieces.

Courtier is a word to describe a person that goes to the court to present, in this case, poetry. The court was the place where the powerful people (kings, princes, queens, royal governors...) of society would go to have a different kind of reunions and presentations.

Middling is a word that was used as a synonym for standard, regular. Here it means that the poet is not particularly bright, not all that talented.