I am Richard II know ye not that? ... He that will forget God, will also forget his benefactors; this tragedy was played 40 times in open streets and houses.

Remarks to William Lambarde (4 August 1601), quoted in "That which passed from the Excellent Majestie of Queen Elizabeth, in her Privie Chamber at East Greenwich, 4 August 1601, 43° reg. sui, towards William Lambarde.", quoted in John Nichols, Antiquities in Kent and Sussex; Being the First Volume of the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica (1790), p. 525

Elizabeth's words are often read as a reference to Shakespeare's Richard II, a performance of which was commissioned by Essex's followers shortly before the rebellion