GHT
I'll Lock Up
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George Macdonald Fraser relates in Quartered Safe Out Here, his autobiographical account of his time as an infantryman fighting in Burma during the Second World War, that his hard-case Cumbrian sergeant, after reading Henry V, was also of the opinion that Shakespeare had been a soldier.
You both make a very valid point about Shakespeare, the so called, lost years and his knowledge of the military. Remember, during those lost years, 1588 to be exact, England was in turmoil because of the threat of invasion by The Spanish Armada. He was probably mustered, the term used in those days for conscription.Shakespeare had a turn of phrase for all of life's vagaries and vicissitudes. In school some mention was made
that a decade of his life had never been fully accounted for and remained open to conjecture. From what I have
read of the man I suspect that at some point in life he had been a soldier.