Note 271 — BOOK III THE COMPANIES (continued 2)

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.