2"'' S. VII. Ai'niL 23. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



331 



In this I had two especial objects ; the one, and 

 the only one to which I need now advert, being 

 to ascertain how far such an examination made 

 by another mind — that is, a mind dilTerently con- 

 stituted, although less gifted and far-sighted than 

 those wliich had been already employed upon it — 

 might discover in Shakspeare's writings the means 

 of increasing the comparatively scanty materials 

 which we possess for the biography of the poet. 



Those labours were destined to be interrupted 

 before I had accomplished one-half of my self- 

 appointed task, but not until I had arrived at a 

 conclusion, of the accuracy of which I now feel 

 morally certain, — namely, that at some period 

 of his life Shakspeare must have seen military 

 service. 



I arrived at this conclusion just about the time 

 at which my friend Mr. Bruce discovered, or 

 perhaps I should rather say, was about to call 

 attention to, the curious passage in a letter of Sir 

 Philip Sidney, then engaged in the war of inde- 

 pendence in the Low Countries, which forms the 

 subject of the interesting paper entitled " Who 

 was Will, my Lord of Leicester's jesting Player?" 

 communicated by him to the first volume of the 

 Shakspeare Society s Papers ; and to which Letter, 

 dated Utrecht, the 24th March, 1586, I shall have 

 occasion hereafter to refer. I remember that the 

 mutual communication of the point raised in that 

 paper and my opinion took place in the same con- 

 versation — one was consequent upon the other; 

 but whether I stated my opinion that Shakspeare 

 had seen military service in consequence of Mr. 

 Bruce's drawing my attention to Sidney's allusion 

 to " Will my Lord of Leicester's player," or he 

 directed my attention to the passage in Sidney, on 

 hearing my conviction that Shakspeare must have 

 been a soldier, because I found his plays so hor- 

 ribly "stuff'd with epithets of war," I do not now 

 recollect, nor is it material to the present inquiry. 



The impression then made upon my mind has 

 been deepened by subsequent consideration, and I 

 trust before this paper is concluded that I shall 

 convince my readers that Shakspeare has suc- 

 ceeded in describing all the " pride, pomp, and 

 circumstance of glorious war " with such unri- 

 valled skill, because, as Pope says, — 



" He best can paint them who has felt them most." 



And here I may remind my readers that, if 

 Shakspeare served in the army, he is by no means 

 the only poet of his age who did so. Aubrey tells 

 us that Ben Jonson " went into the Lowe Coun- 

 treys, and spent some time (not very long) in the 

 armie, not to the disgrace of it, as you may find 

 in his Epigrammes." "Gascoyne, Churchyard, 

 Whetstone, Rich, and others " are enumerated 

 by Mr. Collier (Poetical Decameron, ii. 141.) as 

 among the phalanx of poets who united their en- 

 deavours under Elizabeth to free the Low Coun- 

 tries from the weight of the Spanish yoke ; while 



the probability that Donne was engaged in mili- 

 tary operations under Prince Maurice is shown 

 not only by Marshall's portrait of him, but by the 

 epigrams attributed to him, and which form the 

 subject of Mr. Yeowell's communication to "JS". 

 & Q.," 2"i S. iv. 49. 



But, it may be asked, do the known facts of 

 Shakspeare's life admit the possibility of his having 

 ever encountered " the grappling vigour and 

 rough frown of war ?" 



Let us see how far they are consistent with the 

 supposition that he may have accompanied or fol- 

 lowed the Earl of Leicester to the Low Countries. 

 Leicester sailed from Harwich on the 4th, and 

 landed at Flushing on the 10th December, 1585. 

 He returned on 3rd December, 1586. 



Now all that we know with certainty with 

 respect to Shakspeare at this period is, that his 

 twins, Hamnet and Judith, were born in Feb- 

 ruary, 1585 ; and from that date until 1589, when 

 we find him a sharer in the Blackfriars' Theatre, 

 nothing is really known as to where or how he was 

 engaged. 



It is clear, then, that it is quite possible that 

 Shakspeare may have followed in Leicester's train. 

 I think the passage in Sidney's Letter converts 

 that possibility into something more than a pro- 

 bability. Let the reader judge for himself. The 

 Letter, which is addressed to Secretary Walsyng- 

 ham, Sidney's father-in-law, is dated " at Utrecht 

 this 24th of March, 1586," and besides sentences 

 which, as Mr. Bruce remarks, " seem to contain 

 something like a foreshadowing of several of 

 Shakspeare's noblest passages," contains the fol- 

 lowing allusion, as I believe, to Shakspeare :— 



" I wrote to yow a Letter by Will, my lord of 

 Lester s jesting plaier, enclosed in a letter to my 

 wife, and I never had answer thereof. Hit con- 

 tained something to my lord of Lester and coun- 

 cil, that som wai might be taken to stay my ladi 

 there. I since divers tymes have writt to know 

 whether you had receaved them, but yow never 

 answered me that point. I since find that the 

 knave deliver'd the letters to my ladi of Lester, 

 but whether she sent them yow or no I know not, 

 but earnestly desire to do,'ibecause I dout there 

 is more interpreted thereof." 



After showing that there were four persons to 

 whom Sidney may have referred, as Will, my 

 Lord of Leicester's jesting player, namely, Wil- 

 liam Johnson, William Sly, William Kempe 

 (whom he believes to have been the "Will" 

 alluded to), and William Shakspeare, Mr. Bruce 

 expresses his conviction that Sir Philip Sidney 

 never would have applied to Shakspeare the 

 terms "jesting player" and "knave," even "allow- 

 ing that the latter word might not be used in the 

 modern ofiensive sense." 



"Now that Shakespeare ijas a light-hearteJ, frolic- 

 some man ia clear from the deer-stealing; that he was 



