His early work in putting the past history of England into dramatic form may possibly have suggested to him to put more recent history on the stage by means of this Comedy. Light as it is, the point of it is to satirize the monastic and exclusive element in current educational schemes. Fictitious as the story is, it touches upon names and incidents belonging to actual history. So familiar were these actual happenings of the day to his audience that it could especially enjoy these veiled allusions to them. The main idea of the plot of the Comedy--the "Academe," was one that had a bearing upon various similarly named educational projects of that time in England. One such scheme was drawn up about 1570, by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh's half-brother, for the "education of her Majeste's Wardes and others the youths of nobility and gentlemen." This plan was, like Shakespeare's arranged for a "three yeeres terme" (I, i, 20) and at the end of "every three years" some book was to be published which would represent the fruit of the Academy's study during that period. Merely the title of this scheme--"Queen Elizabethes Achademy" may have suggested Shakespeare's "Achademe" (I, i, 17). Of course, however, both Gilbert's and Shakespeare's adoption of the name are examples of the appropriation by educational groups of the classic academes of the Philosophers of Athens and their student followers. Another educational plan "for the bringing up in vertue and learning of the Queenes Majestis Wardes," was devised by Sir Nicholas Bacon, in 1561. Later, in the reign of James I, the establishment of the "Academe Royal" by Bolton, is an example of the early vogue of the name, which has since become familiar everywhere, for educational and learned institutions. A less important element in the formation of the plot is the allusion to current French politics which the situation of the characters of the Play suggests. A King of Navarre and a Princess of France conferring in treaty over a disputed province and a claim of allowance for services rendered is an incident constituting a reference to a state of things in France then closely concerning England. The succession to the throne of France of Henry of Navarre, the champion of the Huguenots of France, was long contested. England was friendly to Navarre, the object of her foreign policy being to counterpoise the power of Spain and the Catholics of France, with whom Queen Elizabeth's most formidable rival, Mary Stuart, was allied in interest.