vels, 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.