The years between 1607 and 1610 are biographically murky. Theletters are hard to date and hard to decipher, and the best historicalrecords we have are of jobs that didn’t happen. He failed to get aposition in the Queen’s household in 1607, and there are referencesin the letters to his application to jobs in Ireland or, even moreremotely, Virginia, but neither came to anything, if they were everserious prospects to begin with. It’s equally likely that they were anattempt on his part to look industrious, both to his friends and tohimself; neither Ireland nor Virginia were at all desirable places atthe time.