The encounters between Caesar Borgia and Niccolò Machiavelli, and their influence on the latter's thought and writing, are still shrouded in vagueness and uncertainty. This is due not to lack of positive documentation or to scarcity of evidence, but rather to a plethora of interpretations and fancy. Instances of this vagueness and fancy may be found in interpretations of a document written in Niccolò's own hand, which is preserved in the Central National Library of Florence.

On May 3, 1503, a certain Troches or Troccio, until then one of Caesar's most trusted bravos, fled from Rome. Caesar at once despatched a circular letter to his vassals ordering them to seize the fugitive, alleging that he had fled the city without hcense of His Holiness.

With all the immense learning and imagination we have been taught to expect, William Empson, in Seven Types of Ambiguity, provides more than seven readings of ‘Brightnesse falls from the ayre’, the third line in the third stanza of Thomas Nashe's ‘Song’ from Svmmers Last Will and Testament. Yet only in what appears to be his ninth ambiguity does Mr. Empson even approach Nashe's meaning. Possibly the line is obscure, but it does not present the difficulties that R. B. McKerrow implies nor the indirections that Mr. Empson records. McKerrow suspected ‘that the true reading’ for ayre ‘is “hayre” ‘ and admitted candidly that hair would give ‘a more obvious, but far inferior, sense’. Mr. Empson calls the verse ‘an example of ambiguity by vagueness’ and believes that ‘evidently there are a variety of things the line may be about’.

On Mistress Mary Prideaux: Epitaph 1-8
Happy Grave, thou dost enshrine
That which makes thee a rich mine:
Remember yet, ‘tis but a loane;
And wee must have it back, Her owne,
The very same; Marke mee, the same:
Thou canst not cheat us with a lame
Deformed Carcase; Shee was fayre,
Fresh as Morning, sweete as Ayre.

Bishop Henry King and Canon William Strode seem to have been handled similarly by fate until 1921, when in his essay on the metaphysical poets T. S. Eliot stimulated poetic interest in King by admiring an extended ‘journey’ metaphor that took up only a small portion of ‘The Exequy’. I wonder if something can be done for Strode. In several ways these poets are alike, and for both, their finest work can be found in the elegy.

Dead Man's Fortune, played around 1590 or earlier, survives only as a plot oudine of entrances of the various characters. Although the outline gives the appearance of a scenario of the commedia dell' arte with its indication of entrances and action and therefore would suggest the practice of improvised drama in England, upon comparison with any scenario of the commedia dell' arte, it proves to be inadequate as a story outline; the ordinary scenario is much more comprehensive in its indication of plot and action. Therefore, the outline was probably used as a stage reminder. Also the fact that no exits are indicated suggests that it was probably tacked up offstage somewhere near the entrances to help cue the actors.