any, previous experience with the social life of the nobility;
yet here, in what is recognised by practically all critical students as
his earliest comedy, the original composition of which is dated by the
best text critics in, or about, 1591, he displays an intimate
acquaintance with their sports and customs which in spirit and detail
most significantly coincide with the actual records of the Queen's
progress, late in 1591, to Cowdray House, the home of the mother of the
nobleman whose fortunes, from this time forward for a period of from ten
to fifteen years, may be shown to have influenced practically every poem
and play he produced.

As the incidents of the Queen's stay at Cowdray are reflected in the
plot and action of _Loves Labour's Lost_, so, in _All's Well that Ends
Well_, or, at least, in those portions of that play recognised by the
best critics as the remains of the older play of _Love's Labour's Won_,
the incidents and atmosphere of the Queen's stay at Tichfield House are
also suggested. The gentle and dignified Countess of Rousillon suggests
the widowed Countess of Southampton; the wise and courtly Lafeu gives us
a sketch of Sir Thomas Heneage, the Vice-Chamberlain of the Court, who
married Lady Southampton about three years later. Bertram's
insensibility to Helena's love, and indifference to her charms, as well
as his departure for the French Court, coincide with the actual facts in
the case of Southampton, who at this time was apathetic to the match
planned by his friends, and who also left home for France shortly after
the Queen's visit to Cowdray. Parolles is, I am convinced, a caricature
from life, and in his original characterisation in _Love's Labour's Won_
was probably a replica of the original Armado of the earliest form of
_Love's Labours Lost_. Both of these characters I believe I can
demonstrate to be early sketches, or caricatures, of John Florio, the
same individual who is caricatured in _Henry IV._ and the _Merry Wives
of Windsor_ as Sir John Falstaff. The characterisation of Parolles as we
have it in _All's Well that Ends Well_ is probably much more accentuated
than the Parolles of the earlier form of the play, in which he would
most likely have been presented as a fantastical fop, somewhat of the
order of Armado. By the time the earlier play of 1591-92 was rewritten
into its present form, in 1598, the original of the character of
Parolles had in Shakespeare's opinion developed also into a "