[270] The show itself was perhaps of Italian origin, for on 17 June 1572 the Earl of Lincoln was entertained at Paris by the Duke of Anjou (2 Ellis, iii. 12, from Cott. MS. Vesp. F. vi, f. 93) with ‘an Italian comedie, which eandid, vaulting with notable supersaltes and through hoopes, and last of all the Antiques, of carying of men one uppon an other which som men call labores Herculis’.
[271] J. Bruce from Harl. MS. 287, f. 1, in Who was Will, my Lord of Leicester’s jesting player? (Sh. Soc. Papers, i. 88). Bruce thinks that ‘Will’ might be Johnson, Kempe, or Sly, but not Shakespeare, whose ‘earliest works bear upon them the stamp of a mind far too contemplative and refined’ for Sidney to call him ‘knave’ and ‘jesting player’. I do not subscribe to the reasoning. W. J. Thoms, Three Notelets on Shakespeare, 120, upholds the Shakespeare theory, and attempts to support it by evidence of military knowledge in the plays.
[272] Wright, Eliz. ii. 268, from Cott. MS. Galba C. viii; cf. M. L. R. iv. 88.
[273] Fleay, 82; but cf. Lee, 36, and pp. 124, 272. The thing is complicated by the influence of Malone’s suggestion (Variorum, ii. 166) that Shakespeare might have left Stratford with Leicester’s men on a visit to the town. This assumes its most fantastic form in the suggestion of Lee1, 33, that Shakespeare was already in London, but ‘Shakespeare’s friends may have called the attention of the strolling players to the homeless youth, rumours of whose search for employment about the London theatres had doubtless reached Stratford’.
[274] At Exeter they are called the Lord Steward’s, certainly not the Marquis of Winchester’s, as Murray, ii. 95, suggests, for he was never Steward of Elizabeth’s household.
[275] Norfolk Archaeology, xiii. 11.
[276] J. M. Cowper, in 1 R. Hist. Soc. Trans. i. 218, records a performance by ‘my Lord of Leicester’s men’ at Faversham in 1589–90; but I think this must be an error.
[277] J. D. Walker, The Black Books of Lincoln’s Inn, i. 374, gives the name as ‘Lord Roche’, but this is probably a mistake. Viscount Roche of Fermoy in Ireland is not likely to have had players in London.
[278] J. de Perott (Rev. Germ. Feb. 1914) suggests that Portio and Demorantes may be the Lamorat and Porcia of the French version (1548) of Amadis de Grecia (1542), viii. 56.
[279] Murray, i. 307, and A. Clark (10 N. Q. xii. 41) add records for 1573–83.