Shakespeare's Lost Years in London by Arthur Acheson (top inspirational books TXT) 📖

on in this dedication he refers to Southampton's study of Italian under his tuition as follows:

"I might make doubt least I or mine be not now of any further use to
your self-sufficiencie, being at home so instructed in Italian as
teaching or learning could supply that there seemed no need of
travell, and now by travell so accomplished as what wants to
perfection?"

_All's Well that Ends Well_, in its earlier form of _Loves Labour's Won_, reflects the spirit and incidents of the Queen's progress to Tichfield House in September 1591; the widowed Countess of Rousillon personifies the widowed Countess of Southampton; the wise and courtly Lafeu the courtly Sir Thomas Heneage, who within three years married the Countess of Southampton. I have suggested that Bertram represented Southampton, and that his coolness towards Helena, and his proposed departure for the French Court, reflects Southampton's disinclination to the marriage with Elizabeth Vere, and the fact of his departure shortly afterwards for France. In Florio, who was at that time attached to the Earl of Southampton's establishment, and presumably was present upon the occasion of the progress to Tichfield, we have the prototype of Parolles, though much of the present characterisation of that person, while referring to the same original, undoubtedly pertains to a period of later time revision, which on good evidence I date in, or about, the autumn of 1598, at which period Shakespeare's earlier antipathy had grown by knowledge and experience into positive aversion.

In 1591 Southampton was still a ward in Chancery, and the management of his personal affairs and expenditures under the supervision of Lord Burghley, to whose granddaughter he was affianced. It is evident then that when Florio was retained in the capacity of tutor, or bear-leader, and with the intention of having him accompany the young Earl upon his continental travels, his selection for the post would be made by Burghley--Southampton's guardian--who in former years had patronised and befriended Florio's father.

In Lafeu's early distrust of Parolles' pretensions, and his eventual recognition of his cowardice and instability, I believe we have a reflection of the attitude of Sir Thomas Heneage towards Florio, and a suggestion of his disapproval of Florio's intimacy with Southampton. This leads me to infer that though Lady Southampton and Heneage apparently acquiesced in, and approved of, Burghley's marital plans for Southampton, secretly they were not displeased at their miscarriage.

When Southampton first came to Court he was a fresh and unspoiled youth, with high ideals and utterly unacquainted with the ethical latitude and moral laxity of city and Court life. In bringing him to Court and the notice of the Queen, and at the same time endeavouring to unite his interests with his own by marriage with his granddaughter, Burghley hoped that--as in the case of his son-in-law, the Earl of Oxford, some years before--Southampton would become a Court favourite, and possibly supplant Essex in the Queen's favour, as the Earl of Oxford had for a while threatened to displace Leicester. The ingenuous frankness and independence of the young Earl, however, appeared likely to defeat the plans of the veteran politician. Burghley now resolved that he must broaden his protege's knowledge of the world and adjust his ideals to Court life. He accordingly engaged the sophisticated and world-bitten Florio as his intellectual and moral mentor. I do not find any record of Southampton's departure for France immediately after the Cowdray progress, but it is apparent either that he accompanied the Earl of Essex upon that nobleman's return to his command in France after a short visit to England in October 1591, or that he followed shortly afterwards. Essex was recalled from France in January 1592 (new style), and on 2nd March of the same year we have a letter dated at Dieppe from Southampton to Essex in England, which shows that Southampton was with the army in France within a few months of the Cowdray progress.

Conceiving both Parolles and Falstaff to be caricatures of Florio I apprehend in the military functions of these characters a reflection of a probable quasi-military experience of their original during his connection with Southampton in the year 1592.

An English force held Dieppe for Henry IV. in March 1592, awaiting reinforcements from England to move against the army of the League, which was encamped near the town. If Southampton took Florio with him at this time it is quite likely that he had him appointed to a captaincy, though probably not to a command. Captain Roger Williams, a brave and capable Welsh officer (whom I have reason to believe was Shakespeare's original for the Welsh Captain Fluellen in _Henry V_.), joined the army at the end of this month, bringing with him six hundred men. In a letter to the Council, upon his departure from England, he writes sarcastically of the number and inefficiency of the captains being made. This letter is so characteristic of the man, and so reminiscent of blunt Fluellen, that I shall quote it in full.

"Moste Honorables, yesterdaie it was your Lordship's pleasure to
shewe the roll of captaines by their names. More then half of them
are knowen unto me sufficient to take charges; a greate number of
others, besides the rest in that roll, although not knowen unto me,
maie be as sufficient as the others, perhapps knowen unto menn of
farr better judgment than myselfe. To saie truthe, no man ought to
meddle further than his owne charge. Touching the three captaines
that your Lordships appointed to go with me, I knowe Polate and
Coverd, but not the thirde. There is one Captaine Polate, a Hampshire
man, an honest gentleman, worthie of good charge. There is another
not worthie to be a sergeant of a band, as Sir John Norris knows,
with many others; and I do heare by my Lord of Sussex it is he.
Captain Coverd is worthie, but not comparable unto a dozen others
that have no charge; but whatsoever your Lordships direct unto me, I
muste accept, and will do my best endeavour to discharge my dutie
towards the service comitted unto me. But be assured that the more
new captaines that are made, the more will begg, I meane will trouble
her Majestie after the warrs, unless the olde be provided for. I must
confess I wrote effectual for one Captaine Smithe unto Sir Philipp
Butler; two of the name Sir John Norris will confess to be well
worthie to commande, at the least, three hundred men a-piece. He that
I named, my desire is that he may be one of myne. I protest, on my
poore credytt, I never delt with her Majestic concerning any of those
captaines, nor anything that your Lordships spake yesterday before
me; but true it is, I spake before the Earle of Essex and Sir John
Norris, it was pittie that young captaines should be accepted and the
old refused. True it is that I toulde them also that the lieutenants
of the shire knew not those captaines so well as ourselves. On my
creditt, my meaning was the deputies lieutenants, the which, as it
was toulde me, had made all these captaines. My speeches are no lawe,
nor scarce good judgment, for the warrs were unknowen to me 22 yeres
agon. Notwithstanding, it shall satisfie me, that the greatest
generalls in that time took me to be a souldier, for the which I will
bring better proofs than any other of my qualitie shall deny. Humbly
desiring your Lordships' accustomed good favor towards me, I reste to
spend my life alwaies at her Majestie's pleasure, and at your
Lordships' devotion. (27th March 1591.)"

Within a short period of the arrival of Sir Roger Williams he had dispersed the enemy and opened up the road to the suburbs of Paris; which city was then held by the combined forces of the League and the Spanish. I cannot learn whether Southampton accompanied the troops in the proposed attack on Paris or continued his travels into the Netherlands and Spain. Some verses in _Willobie his Avisa_ suggest such a tour at this time. He was back in England, however, by September 1592, when he accompanied the Queen and Court to Oxford. It is probable that Florio accompanied the Earl of Southampton upon this occasion, and that the nobleman's acquaintance with the mistress of the Crosse Inn, the beginning of which I date at this time, was due to his introduction. Florio lived for many years at Oxford and was undoubtedly familiar with its taverns and tavern keepers.[30]

In depicting Parolles as playing Pander for Bertram, and at the same time secretly pressing his own suit, I am convinced that Shakespeare caricatured Florio's relations with Southampton and the "dark lady." It is not unlikely that Florio is included by Roydon in _Willobie his Avisa_ among Avisa's numerous suitors.

The literary history of _All's Well that Ends Well_, aside from internal considerations, suggests that it was not composed originally for public performance, nor revised with the public in mind. It appeared in print for the first time in the Folio of 1623, and it is practically certain that no earlier edition was issued. If we except Meres' mention of the play, _Love's Labour's Won_, in 1598, the earliest reference we have to _All's Well that Ends Well_ is that in the Stationers' Registers dated 8th November 1623, where it is recorded as a play not previously entered to other men. There is no record of its presentation during Shakespeare's lifetime.

Though the old play of _Love's Labour's Won_ mentioned by Meres has been variously identified by critics, the consensus of judgment of the majority is in favour of its identification as _All's Well that Ends Well_. In no other of Shakespeare's plays--even in instances where we have actual record of revision--can we so plainly recognise by internal evidence both the work of his "pupil" and of his master pen. As I have assigned the original composition of this play to the year 1592, regarding it as a reflection of the Queen's progress to Tichfield House and of the incidents of the Earl of Southampton's life at, and following, that period, so I infer and believe I can demonstrate that its revision reflects the same personal influences under new phases in later years.

In February 1598 the Earl of Southampton left England for the French Court with Sir Robert Cecil. He returned secretly in August and was married privately at Essex House to Elizabeth Vernon, whose condition had recently caused her dismissal from the Court. Southampton returned to France as secretly as he had come, but knowledge of his return and of his unauthorised marriage reaching the Queen, she issued an order for his immediate recall, and upon his return in November committed him, and even threatened to commit his wife (who was now a mother), to the Fleet. It