[101] The word “bounty” indeed, as the other nouns, “Beauty,” “Bays,” etc., is printed in italics in accordance with the practice of the times. That does not, of course, imply that any extra emphasis is on the word. Mr. Dowse omits the italics in the case of the word “beauty,” but emphasises “bounty” and “compells!”
[102] I do not know what evidence there is that these initials were written by Davies himself, and were not additions made by some other hand.
[103] Mr. Dowse omits the hyphen.
[104] This parenthesis is inserted by Mr. Dowse.
[105] Spedding’s Introduction, p. xxv.
[106] I have dealt with this Epigram at some length in Is there a Shakespeare Problem? at pp. 295, 353, and Appendix A. p. 559. So far as I know there is no evidence that Davies knew either Dick Burbage or Will Shakespere personally. On March 28, 1603, Bacon wrote to Davies asking him to use his influence with King James in the writer’s favour, and concluding with the words, “so desiring you to be good to concealed poets.” (Spedding. Lord Bacon’s Letters and Life, iii. 65.)
[107] Dowse pp. 4 and 10.
[108] If we were to adopt this theory we should have to put the date for the “knocking about” of the MS. even later than that assigned by Mr. Dowse, for though Overbury’s murder was discovered in 1615, Lady Somerset, as she then was, was not committed to the Tower till April, 1616, and it is not probable if turner stands for Anne Turner, that that name would be written till after the trial had brought it prominently before the public.
[109] Life of Bacon vol. i, p. 250-1.
[110] Ibid. vol. i, p. 349.