evidence linking
the plays of this period with the affairs of Southampton and his
connections. It is unlikely that Shakespeare would introduce that "sweet
wench" my "Young Mistress of the Tavern" into a play after the
publication of the scandal intended by Roydon in 1594, and probable that
he altered the characterisation of the hostess to the old and widowed
Mistress Quickly in the _Second Part of Henry IV._ for this reason.

Believing that _Love's Labour's Won_--i.e. _All's Well that Ends Well_
in its earlier form--reflects Southampton in the person of Bertram, and
Florio as Parolles, I have suggested that the military capacity of the
latter character infers a temporary military experience of Florio's in
the year 1592. It is evident that most of the matter in this play
following Act IV. Scene iii. belongs to the period of revision in 1598.
In Act IV. Scene iii. we have what was apparently Parolles' final
appearance in the old play of 1592; here he has been exposed, and his
purpose in the play ended.

FIRST SOLDIER. You are undone, Captain, all but your scarf; that has
a knot on't yet.

PAROLLES. Who cannot be crushed with a plot?

FIRST SOLDIER. If you could find out a country where women were that
had received so much shame, you might begin an impudent nation. Fare
ye well, Sir; I am for France too; we shall speak of you there.

[_Exit Soldiers._

PAROLLES. Yet am I thankful: if my heart were great,
'Twould burst at this. Captain, I'll be no more;
But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft
As captain shall: simply the thing I am
Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this, for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.
Rust sword! cool blushes! and, Parolles, live
Safest in shame, being fool'd, by foolery thrive.
There's place and means for every man alive.
I'll after them.

[_Exit._

The resolution he here forms augurs for the future a still greater moral
deterioration. He resolves to seek safety in shame; to thrive by
foolery; and, though fallen from his captaincy, to

"eat and drink, and sleep as soft as captain shall."

When Shakespeare resumed his plan of reflecting Florio's association
with Southampton, in the _First Part of Henry IV._ he recalled the state
of mind and morals in which he