Was there any distant connection between Will Kempe and Sir A. Sherley? His mother’s name was Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Kempe, and had three sons—Thomas, Anthony, and Robert. “No three persons of one family ever experienced adventures at the same time so uncommon or so interesting” (from a book “The Sherley Brothers,” by one of the same house, for Roxburghe Club, Evelyn Philip Shirley). Sir Anthony married a first cousin of the Earl of Essex, “who had oftentimes to befriend him.” He was sent on embassies to every quarter of the known world. Was ofttimes in communication with Burleigh. We hear of him most in Italy, “sent by Emperor of Germany as ambassador to Morocco”; “hired horses to pass the Alpes” (see Kemp, p. 16); writes to Anthony Bacon, a friend of Essex (p. 22). It appears that he wrote many letters at this period to his patron Earl of Essex, Mr. Anthony Bacon, and Mr. Secretary Cecil. He is found everywhere, sometimes employed as ambassador, sometimes on special missions, sometimes in questionable ventures. Milan, Venice, where at one time he seems to have resided for several years, Rome, Persia, Cyprus, Antioch, Syracuse, Prague, Arabia, Tripoli, Aleppo, Bagdad, Constantinople, Portugal, Spain. Sir Anthony appears (Annals of the Shirley Family) with his brother Sir Robert to have always been in debt and difficulty, “sometimes like to starve for want of bread,” profuse and extravagant when money was to be had, utterly careless how it was obtained. Mention is made of “Henry Sherley, kinsman of Mr. James Sherley, the _play-wright_, and who did also excel him in that faculty.” Henry Sherley was the author of the following plays never printed: Spanish Duke of Lerna, Duke of Guise, Gasaldo the country lover (p. 270, Annals of Shirley Family). Sir Anthony was ever aiming to get reinstated at Court, and if he had been known to have been mixed up with these plays, it would have been fatal to his chance with Elizabeth. Clearly he had something to do with Will Kempe, a member of Alleyn’s company, who acted the prominent parts in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merchant of Venice, etc. Was not “Will Kempe” the go-between the manager and the author? Was it not necessary, in order to keep the secret, that the MSS. should not pass from hand to hand, or be entrusted even to the ambassador’s bag? Lansdowne MSS. 1608, Milan, Sir Anthony Sherley to his sister, Lady Tracy, “you will say, I should have written; it is true, but there are such intercepting of my poor papers that before God I dare commit nothing to paper, and now less than ever.” The extraordinary capacity and knowledge of languages and familiarity with places and scenery by Sir Anthony Sherley, especially in Italy, were clearly unequalled. What share had he in what may be a joint-stock company for the production of these plays? It is now acknowledged that many of the plays are translated from Italian plays and other novels. Did he bring this grist