A true report of sundry horrible conspiracies

Possible source book for Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

This is the second of two editions of this pamphlet recording the attempt on the Queen's life by her physician, a Portuguese Jew named Dr. Lopez. 'Perhaps the man was guilty; perhaps not. Certainly, as the matter was probed, it became clear that he had offered to poison the Queen in return for a substantial sum from Philip II, and his excuse, though a possible or even a probable one, was incapable of proof. He was tried and condemned' (J.E. Kneale, Queen Elizabeth). The Queen was unconvinced of his guilt, and ordered the Lieutenant of the Tower to refuse to surrender him for execution. 'According to a later story, Essex by a trick managed within two months to get Lopez out of the Tower... and was thus able to bring him to the scaffold' (ibid.)