332 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VII. April 23. '59. 



witty in conversation is to be inferred from his daugh- 

 ter's epitaph ; that he was termed ' Will Shakespeare ' 

 is certain ; but I must at once express my own convic- 

 tion that Sir Philip Sidney never could have applied to 

 him the terms 'jesting player' and 'knave,' even allow- 

 ing that the latter word might not be used in the modern 

 oifensive sense. Shakespeare's earliest works bear upon 

 them the stamp of a mind far too contemplative and refined 

 for its possessor ever to have been regarded as a jester or 

 buffoon ; besides which, the only traces that we have of 

 him as an actor are in old Adam and the Ghost in Ham- 

 let, certainly not humorous characters." 



Mr. Bkuce's opinion, that Shakspeare was not 

 alluded to by Sidney is, it is obvious, mainly 

 founded on his belief that Sidney could not and 

 would not have designated Shakspeare as "knave" 

 or "jesting." One word as to the epithet "knave." 

 This, which our great dramatist himself makes 

 Brutus apply to Lucius : — 



" Gentle knave, good night : " 

 and Anthony to Eros : — 



" M}' good knave, Eros "— • 

 Sidney might without offence apply to Shak- 

 speare, who was then, be it remembered, not the 

 genius which the world now recognises, but the 

 young fellow of two-and-twenty, a youth of pro- 

 mise Indeed, but one whom Sidney perhaps knew 

 best from his late deer-stealing peccadillo, as a 

 roystering youngster with a nimble wit, a stout 

 heart, and a ready hand. 



But all who know my friend Mr. Beuce are 

 aware of his great reverence, if I may so term It, 

 for Shakspeare — a reverence which renders it 

 almost Impossible for him to conceive that Sidney, 

 or indeed anybody, could apply to that mighty 

 genius the epithets " knave " and ^'■jesting player" 

 — while, as he shares Johnson's " great contempt 

 for that species of wit — puns," he is naturally dis- 

 inclined to believe that Shakspeare's conversation 

 was ever so marked or marred by the use of them 

 as to earn for him the character of a "jesting" 

 spirit. 



I, on the other hand, have no doubt that of 

 Shakspeare himself, whose whole mind was " quip- 

 pish," it might almost be said, " not a word with 

 him but a jest," and that his conversation, like 

 his writings, was " full qf odd quirks and rem- 

 nants of wit ;" and I feel sure that those who re- 

 member Johnson's remark, " that a quibble was 

 to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the 

 world, and was content to lose it," will admit that 

 I have some grounds for my belief. Besides, have 

 we not Aubrey's report of his " very ready, plea- 

 sant, and smooth wit ? " and does not Fuller, In 

 his admirable account of his wit-combats with 

 Ben Jonson, speak especially of "the quickness 

 of his wit and Invention." I think, therefore, that 

 at two-and-twenty he might deserve to be called 

 "a jesting player." 



I will now quote th^ passage in which Mr. 

 Bbdcb then proceeds to show how great Is the 



probability that the Earl of Leicester's players 

 accompanied him Into the Low Countries ; and 

 then, albeit unwilling to believe that Shakspeare 

 could have been the "jesting player" and " knave" 

 referred to by Sidney, he. asks, "was not Shak- 

 speare probably with them ? " 



" He left Stratford after the birth of his twins, who 

 were baptized in the month of February, 1585. He is 

 next traced as an important member of Lord Leycester's 

 company of players, in 1589. He must have been in the 

 company some considerable time, or he could not have 

 attained the station which he held. Now, the earl was 

 appointed to the command in the Low Countries in Sep- 

 tember, 1585, and immediately afterwards seut out let- 

 ters to his friends and retainers, requesting them to 

 accompany him thither. From Warwickshire, and espe- 

 cially from the neighbourhood of his domain at Kenil- 

 worth, his 500 men were in great part procured. One 

 ' John Arden,' who was recommended to the earl's ser- 

 vice by his relative and confidential servant Mr. Thomas 

 Dudley,* and another, 'Thomas Ardern,' who was 'Clarcke 

 Comptroller,' f were probably relatives of Shakspeare, 

 and ' Miles Comes,' or, as he is afterwards termed, ' Miles 

 Combes,' J was probably his neighbour. It was just 

 about the time of the stir which this incident created in 

 Warwickshire, that Shakespeare's father attained the 

 lowest depth of his poverty, and that Shakespeare him- 

 self left his native town. The incidents may be altoge- 

 ther unconnected ; but a young man of an excitable tem- 

 perament, encumbered by an imprudent marriage and 

 domestic difhculties — one to whom neither the world of 

 Stratford nor its law was friendly — was of all persons the 

 most likely to be affected by the general commotion 

 around him. The departure of friends and neighbours 

 would be to him a temptation and an example. They 

 marshalled him the way that he should go ; and althougli 

 seeking distinction in other fields, stirred him up to find 

 an arena for the exercise of that power which he must 

 have felt within him. This consideration would lead to 

 a conclusion very consonant with all we know of his 

 biographj'; that he left home a little earlier than has 

 been usually supposed. There may be nothing in it, but 

 I 'point it out as a subject for investigation to those who 

 feel an interest in such questions, and who have greater 

 facilities for pursuing the necessary inquiries than I at 

 present possess." 



This was published in 1844, but by that time 

 my leisure had passed away, and I could not ac- 

 cept the friendly challenge. It is only the cir- 

 cumstance of my having accidentally come across 

 some of the notes which I then made on the sub- 

 ject of Shakspeare's "military acquirements," just 

 after reading Lord Campbell's evidence of his 

 " legal acquirements," that has induced mo to 

 undertake my present task of showing that, like 

 George Gascoigne, who had also served in the 

 Low Countries, Shakspeare might have adopted 

 for his motto, " Tam Marti tarn Mercurio." 



But before I proceed to point out some of those 

 passages In Shakspeare's writings which, as I con- 



* Galba, c. viii. fo. 106. f l^id., fo. 108. 



t Ibid., fo. 106. • In the same MS. list of Leycester's 

 servants, we find under the head of "Musiconer," the 

 following names : " Thomas Cole, William Bainton, James 

 Wharton, William Edgley, William Black, Jo, the har- 

 per, Walter, the boye." "No players are mentioned. 



