But, since Spenser died some seventeen years before Shakespeare, and if--as must be supposed from their flippancy--these lines point to the enforced or voluntary retirement or silence of some writer, rather than to his death--they appear more nearly to refer to Sidney than to Shakespeare. And this now appears to be conceded. (See Morley's "English Men of Letters: Spenser," by Dean Church. American edition, Harpers, New York, 1879, p. 106.) Besides, "The Tears of the Muses" was written in 1580, when Shakespeare was a lad of sixteen, holding horses at the theater door. "Will," or "WiB," appears to have been the ordinary nickname of a poet in those days.--R. Gr. White's "Shakespeare," vol. i., p. 57, note. Especially on one occasion does Sir Tobie devote himself to a subject-matter wherein, if there had been any "Shakespeare" within his ken, he could very properly--and would, we think, very naturally--have mentioned him. In the "Address to the Reader," prefixed to one of his works, * he says, speaking of his own date, "We have also rare compositions made among us which look so many fair ways at once that I doubt it will go near to pose any other nations of Europe to muster out in any age four men who, in so many respects, should be able to excel {149}four such us we are able to show--Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Francis Bacon. For they were all a kind of monsters in their various ways," etc. * "A Collection of Letters made by Sir Tobie Matthew, with a Character of the Most Excellent Lady Lucy, Countess of Carlisle. To which are added Many Letters of his Several Persons of Honour, who were contemporary with him." Loudon, 1660.