Note 273 — BOOK III THE COMPANIES (continued 2)

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’.