As we have seen, then, Sonnet 144 alone will not allow us to dismiss Antonio as only a buffoonish sidekick of Bassanio. The question of whether he had an adulterous affair with Shylock's wife remains unanswered. Adultery was an important subject regarding the fate of the Queen's mother, some in Shakespeare's audience might have noted. Shakespeare and Marlowe were 8 years old when news of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre must have reached England in 1572. It seems reasonable then that we would find lines such as "Go hence to have more talk of these sad things"(R&J5.3.317) in their work.