luce. And Henri III. may be shadowed forth at I. i. 137 in "her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father," taking the king as pater patria. He was not decrepit with age, but "he ended the long roll of his vices and crimes" in August, 1589 (v. ii. 708-9). Again, when the Princess (France) speaks of the heresy of her being "saved by merit" (IV. i. 21) as "fit for these days," which was a purely Romanist expression (see note), may she not refer to her own country's history? Henri III., in the midst of his dissipations, posed as a good Roman Catholic, and his last words were to recommend his heir, Henry of Navarre, to become one too. In 1593 he did so to secure his kingdom : the injunction was fulfilled and France was saved.

It is an interesting fact, surely worthy of mention here, that Spenser's eleventh canto of Book v. of his Faerie Queene (printed in 1596) is largely devoted to the "Bourbon knight," Henry of Navarre. His "faere lady" is France, or the genius of France, "hight Flour de lis" (stanzas 43 and 49). Spenser begins at stanza 43 by recalling Elizabeth's assistance: " Assure yourself, Sir Knight, she shall have ayd"; and at stanza 47: "whom when they thus distressèd did behold, they drew unto his aide." And in the previous stanza, when the Bourbon knight was so sharply assayed, "That they his shield in pieces battered here, and forced him to throw it quite away," thereby being blotted with blame and counted but a recreant knight, the allusion undoubtedly is to Henry's leaving Protestantism and turning Roman Catholic. See notes in Todd's Spenser, vi. 288 et seq. And at the end of the canto Bourbon gains the "Ladie," "and bore her quite away nor well or ill apayd." This part of Spenser's work was therefore probably composed in 1593-4.

This parallelism between Shakespeare's and Spenser's topical allusions is of interest, and has not, I think, been noticed,

Another contemporary non-historical reference to Elizabeth's aid to Henry of Navarre may be quoted from Speeches to the Queen at Bisham, 1592 (Nichols' Progresses, iii. 134): "One hande she stretcheth to Fraunce to weaken Rebels; the

other to Flaunders to strengthen Religion: her heart to both countries, her ventures to all."

I have already mentioned Hunter's theory, which may safely be set aside. But I find it is given a prominent place in Hudson's edition of the play in the Windsor Shakespeare, and it seems to have caught on particularly by the help of the "two hundred thousand crowns." Furnivall (Old Spelling Shakespeare) devotes an express paragraph to "the two hundred thousand crowns." And certainly the passage in Love's Labour's Lost (II. i. 129-149) is told in most historical fashion of a hundred thousand crowns, and of another hundred thousand crowns, as indemnities for war expenses. The passage in Monstrelet (as quoted by Hudson) has nothing of wars, or tribute towards the expenses of wars, in it. The sum is there specified as being paid as the result of successful negotiations in lieu of an exchange of territories, castles, etc. The figure is not an uncommon one: "Henry the 2. afterwards gave out a generall absolution, and forgave the racing of the Townhouse [of Burdeaux] the paiment of two hundred thousand pounds, and the defraying of the charges of the armie❞ (T. B.'s translation of Primaudaye's French Academy, chap. 30, 1586). And in Secret Court Memoirs: The Court of Berlin (i. 102) (Grolier Society), writing of date 1786: "The old Monarch has been generous. He has bequeathed Prince Henry two hundred thousand crowns." The bare sum is not a strong enough peg to hang a theory on, although it be a transaction between France and Navarre.

...

Another suggestion of Hunter's with regard to the plot may be mentioned here. He believed that the promise given about Armado (I. i. 170), and so entirely unfulfilled, as well as the speech of the King on money matters (beginning II. i. 129), so unsuited for verse, are proofs that Shakespeare was working on a story formed for him. I should add to that reasonable view the pathetic touch about Katharine's sister (V. ii. 13) as belonging perhaps to a fuller tale. Armado's peculiarities will be spoken of presently.

Sidney Lee finds a parallel in contemporary events for another episode in the play, namely, the masque of Muscovites

or Russians (v. ii. 121: see my note at the passage). He thinks the event there mentioned, the mission to Queen Elizabeth of an ambassador to seek a wife in her court for Ivan the Terrible in 1583, accounts for Shakespeare's introduction of the Russians. The description of these circumstances is to be found in The Travels of Sir Jerome Horsey (Hakluyt Society, 1856, pp. 173, 174 and 195-96). Furnivall quotes them in his Old Spelling edition; and they are given in modernised form by Furness from Sidney Lee's article in the Gentleman's Magazine (p. 455) already referred to. The event may have taken some hold on people's minds, since Lady Mary Hastings, who was selected as bride, to her horror, was said to have been known afterwards in court as the "Empress of Muscovia." Russians or Muscovites were very much in evidence at the latter part of the sixteenth century in London on account of the foundation of the Russian company in 1569 and Muscovy trade. Giles Fletcher's Russes Commonwealth was printed in 1591, an important and popular work. It is reprinted in the same volume as Horsey with a highly interesting introduction upon Russia at the close of the sixteenth century by Edward H. Bond. The passages quoted from Horsey are more curious than convincing, and would occupy more space than they appear to me to be worth. Horsey's travels had not been printed in those times. He gives an appalling account of Ivan, in a most illiterate style. He tells us (p. 187) during his mission in 1580 that Bomelius "had deluded the Emperouer, makinge him belive the Quen of England was yonge, and that yt was very feacable for him to marry her; whereof he was now owt of hoep. Yeat heard she had a yong ladie in her court of the bloud ryell, named the Ladye Mary Hastings of which wee shall speake more herafter." At the same date (p. 192) he tells how the son of the governor of Orentsburgh "gave mee a faire Garmaine clocke," the earliest German clock I have met with. See note at III. i. 181, which passage, misprinted "cloak" in the old editions, is the oldest illustration in New English Dictionary. This is an odd coincidence.

There is a remarkable parallel for the introduction of "Mus

covites or Russians" in a masque on the London stage in Gesta Grayorum, 1594.

This interesting series of masques is the more worthy of notice since its connection with Shakespeare is undoubted. It was during these performances that his Comedy of Errors was acted under most unfortunate auspices, a play which contains, like Love's Labour's Lost, contemporary reference (III. ii. 125127) to the civil wars of France and Henry of Navarre. Gesta Grayorum was a magnificent and costly production, and must have aroused the greatest interest, quite beyond the precincts of the Court at which it was held for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth. At pp. 296-301 (Nichols' Progresses, iii.) we are told how the revellers with the mock "Prince of Purpoole" from Gray's Inn, rode through Chancery Lane, Fleet Street, so through Cheapside, Cornhill, and to Crosby's Place in Bishopsgate Street, where was a sumptuous and costly dinner, etc., "and returned again the same way the streets being thronged and filled with people, to see the gentlemen as they passed by; who thought there had been some great prince, in very deed, passing through the city, so this popular show through the streets pleased the Lord Mayor and his commonalty. . Shortly after this show . . . upon Twelfth-day at night . there was presently a show which concerned his Highness's State and Government: . . . First there came six Knights of the Helmet, with three that they led as prisoners, and were attired like monsters and miscreants. The knights gave the prince to understand, that as they were returning from their adventures out of Russia wherein they aided the Emperor of Russia against the Tartars, they surprised these three persons which were conspiring against his Highness . . . they were Envy, Male-content and Folly. . . . Then willed they the knights to defeat and to carry away the offenders. . . . After their departure, entred the six knights in a very stately mask, and danced a new devised measure, and after that they took to them ladies and gentlewomen, and danced with them galliards and so departed . . . then the King at arms came in before the prince and told his Honour, that there was arrived an ambassador from the mighty Emperor of Russia and Muscovy

that had some matters of weight. . . who came in attire of Russia, accompanied with two of his own country in like habit. When they were come in presence of the Prince, the ambassador . . . took out letters of credence . . to be read publicly. Dated at our Imperial city of Moscow. . . . When the Prince had thus spoken, the ambassador was placed in a chair near the Prince; and thare was served up a running banquet for the Prince and the lords present, and the rest, with variety of music." There are then some other minor "Letters of Advertisement" attended to, containing plots of insurrection and rebellion, and these being disposed of, the Prince goes on: "Ourself, with our chosen Knights, with an army Royal, will make towards our brother of Russia with my Lord here, his Ambassador . . . he took a lady to dance withal, and so did the rest" (p. 305).

It was,

Shakespeare had good reason to be annoyed at this probably unauthorised production of his Comedy of Errors. however, the cause of much subsequent merriment, and it was satisfactorily shown by "judgments thick and threefold which were read publicly by the Clerk of the Crown" (p. 279) that the cause of all that "confused inconvenience" was a sorcerer or conjurer, who "had foisted a company of base and common fellows to make up our disorders with a play of 'Errors and Confusions."" Shakespeare himself was perhaps not present, since he was acting on the same day before the queen at Greenwich. But the affair was a chief topic during the remainder of the Gesta, and we might imagine his inserting a hit at these masquers, “disguised like Muscovites in shapeless gear," with some content, since his play was so badly handled. The speeches of the counsellors in this show are well composed. It is likely that Bacon, a bencher of Gray's Inn at this time, took part in the entertainment. His masque, A Conference of Pleasure, is of the same date. This suggested source of the cause of the Muscovite masque is but one more of several evidences of the later manipulations of Act v. in Love's Labour's Lost. It is much nearer home than the Horsey

business.