This dialogue between Dick and Will appears to belong to the series of poems motived by Sidney’s love for Penelope Devereux. It must therefore date between August 1577, when Sidney first visited his sister, Lady Pembroke, at Wilton, and his own marriage on 20 Sept. 1583. There is no indication that the Queen was present; not improbably the ‘Show’ took place while Sidney was out of favour at Court, and was living at Wilton from March to August 1580.
JOHN SINGER (?-1603 <).
On Singer’s career as an actor, see ch. xv.
On 13 Jan. 1603, about which date he apparently retired from the Admiral’s, Henslowe paid him £5 ‘for his playe called Syngers vallentarey’ (Greg, Henslowe, i. 173; ii. 226). I think the term ‘vallentarey’ must be used by Henslowe, rightly or wrongly, in the sense of ‘valedictory’. Quips on Questions (1600), a book of ‘themes’, is not his, but Armin’s (q.v.).
WILLIAM SLY (?-1608).
On Sly’s career as an actor, see ch. xv.
He has been guessed at as the author of Thomas Lord Cromwell (cf. ch. xxiv).
W. SMITH.
There are traceable (a) Wentworth Smith, who wrote plays for Henslowe’s companies, the Admiral’s, and Worcester’s during 1601–3 (vide infra) and witnessed the will of W. Haughton in 1605; (b) a W. Smith, who wrote Hector of Germany and The Freeman’s Honour (vide infra); (c) a ‘Smith’, whose Fair Foul One Herbert licensed on 28 Nov. 1623 (Chalmers, S. A. 216; Herbert, 26); (d) if Warburton can be trusted, a ‘Will. Smithe’, whose St George for England his cook burnt (3 Library, ii. 231). It is possible that (a) and (b) may be identical. A long space of time separates (b) and (c), and if (d) is to be identified with any other, it may most plausibly be with (c). There is nothing to connect any one of them with the William Smith who published sonnets under the title of Chloris (1596), or with any other member of this infernal family, and the ‘W. S.’ of the anonymous Locrine (1595), Thomas Lord Cromwell (1602), The Puritan (1607) is more probably, in each case, aimed at Shakespeare.
The Hector of Germany, c. 1615