ABSTRACT
The thought repressed so firmly by O'Kill will be given leave to blossom in the rest of this book. Suppose the ambitious parents John Shakespeare and Mary Arden did place their brilliant son where he would have a chance of advancement in life - in the 'court' of the greatest courtier in the land, who happened to be their local patron. Suppose young William did start writing early, under the tutelage of the best writers in the land. Suppose he came to inhabit a peculiar position in that caste society, recognized as an equal talent to the revered poet Philip Sidney, yet irredeemably proletarian by birth. Suppose he supported not the Tudor dynasty but the Leicestrian cause. The two would coincide only if Leicester succeeded in marrying the Queen.
