mbe ~bakegpeare (!f)xforb Newsletter A Publication of the Shakespeare Oxford Society "Dedicated to Researching and Honoring the True Bard"

Vol. 42: No.3 "Oh let their bodies follow, my dear liege/ with blood, and sword and fire, to win YOllr right ... Henry V liii Fall 2006 R.I.P.: Bulbeck Oxford's Childhood Part II: bites the dust The first four years with Smith by Christopher Paul by Stephanie Hopkins Hughes

Readers of the Shakespeare OJ.jord Newsletter will have noticed a facelift on In Part I, (Winter, 2006), we examined and wealthy families. The historian George the cover of the last edition involving a new what is known about Oxford's early where­ Lipscomb, writing in 1847, described the font and new emblem in placeoftheBulbeck abouts, coming to the conclusion that: house as crest depicting a lion brandishing a broken 1) at age four-and-a-half, because of the a commodious rather than an spear/[penJ (Figure I). The Bulbeck crest tense political situation folIowing the start elegant mansion, standing on had been part of the newsletter's masthead of Mary Tudor's Catholic regime, he was low ground near the course of the sent, primarily through the efforts of Wil­ since the Winter 1996 issue when it ironi- Thames and a small branch of the liam Cecil, to live and study with Cecil's CoIn .... The grounds, interspersed own former Cambridge tutor, Sir Thomas with lofty trees, are charmingly Smith, England's premiere scholar of Greek disposed with every attention to and Civil Law; and that 2) Edward lived in its natural beauties [such as] the the Smith household for the better part of richly enameled meadows and high eight years, I leaving only when the death of cultivated plain, . .. while Windsor the sixteenth Earl enabled Cecil to take the Castle bursts, in all its majesty, on twelve-year-old into his own household for the distant view" (599). the final pro- cess of polish­ ing his social skills and in­ troducing him to the Court. Figure 1: Bllibeck crest depicting a lion brandishing a broken spear/[pen}. Get thee to a calIy replaced the previous logo, a circular nunnery 2 stamp containing the motto vera nihil verills. With the latest revision, the society has Although the old build­ (cont'd on p. 17) ings are gone, the landscape • I. N SID E • surrounding President's Letter/Editorial Greeting 2 Smith's estate Much Ado About Oxford 3 of Ankerwycke Fig. J: JBill-century engraving on the bank of the Thames. Letters to the Editor 18 is probably not COllrtesy of Cambridge University Libra/y. Did Shakespeare Read much different That Smith's house was built close to frOIU the 17th Earl of Oxford's today from when de Vere was a boy. It has the river can be seen from this eighteenth­ Personal Library? Part Two 25 remained free of modern construction prob­ century engraving of one wing of Smith's SOS & SF Joint Conference 29 ably because this area, so close to Windsor manor (Fig. I). Shown is alI that was left of Notes from the Field 30 and Windsor Park, has been privately owned it by then. The north bank on which it stood Review: More Shakespeare Names 31 over the centuries by a succession of gentry (cont'd on p. 5) page 2 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Shakespeare Oxford President's Page Newsletter Published quarterly by the by Matthew Cossolotto discussion group we created a few months Shakespeare Oxford Society ago. Sadly, not very many SOS members P.O . Box 1854 They say time flies when you're having have joined the group. We'll continue to Silver Spring, MD 20902 fun. If that's even partly true, this past year spread the word and I hope more members Tel: (301) 946-8333 as your president has been a real blast! I will sign up. The address is: SOS4Ever@ Fax: (301) 946-1313 can't believe nearly one year has elapsed yahoogroups.com. As I said in my last Email: [email protected] since the Board of Directors elected me to President's Page letter, this new Yahoo! ISSN 1525-6863 serve as president. group is specifically designed to give SOS www.shakespeare-oxford.com In my first President's Page message, I members an opportunity to share ideas and outlined a long list of ideas and initiatives suggestions about the Society itself - or Editors: just communicate more regularly with fel­ Lew Tate that I thought were key to revitalizing the Society. Looking back and taking stock of low SOS members. I hope you ' ll join. With Editorial Board: what has actually been achieved during an extensive list of members participating, Dr. Frank Davis my term in office is a somewhat sobering the SOS Yahoo! discussion group will en­ Susan Sybersma exercise. I think we made a brave start in able us to circulate news items and other Ramon Jimenez several areas, but many things remain to be timely information to a large number of Brian Bechtold done. One yearjust isn't enough time to get SOS members. Dr. James Brooks everything done. Regarding the SOS library, we have Joe Peel contracted with a librarian to organize our James Sherwood We have managed, with the hard work extensive collection of books and create an Dr. Richard Smiley and dedication of Trustee Richard Smiley, to revamp and upgrade the SOS website. electronic database so we will have an ac­ Layout and Printing We've given the site a new look and some curate record of the collection and a way to St. Martin de Pones Lay Dominicans enhanced features. But it's still a work in locate specific books. This project is about New Hope, Kentucky progress. All contents copyright © 2006 I'm pleased that the Board of Trustees (cont'd on p. 31) Shakespeare Oxford Society adopted a new mission statement for the The Newsletter welcomes research artic les, book society and a new descriptive tagline-both reviews, letters and news items. Contributions of which are now prominently displayed on GREETINGS should be reasonably concise and, when appro- priate, validated by peer review. Assignment of the updated website. Saying clearly that we Greetings. This is a great time for copyright is required for publication. The views are "dedicated to researching and honoring Shakespeare scholars, (that includes Oxford of contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the true bard" sums it all up pretty well. scholars). This newsletter has wonderful and the Shakespeare Oxford Society as a literary and And our mission statement is much educational organization . exciting work inching us closer and closer clearer and, I think, more compelling: to the Tru th. The Ann Arbor Conference is going to inform us, energize us, and send us . Founded in 1957, th e Shakespeare Oxford Society is a non-profit, edu­ home to continue carrying the word. There Board of Trustees cational orgallization dedicated to the SOS will join with the Shakespeare Fel­ Shakespeare Oxford Society exploring the Shakespeare author­ lowship for a double dose of Oxford study, Lifetime HOllorary Trustees ship question and researching the and one hopes we'll raise a glass or two to 01'. Gordon Cyr and Chal'les Boyle evidence that Edward de Vere, the our common cause. 2006 17th Earl ofOxford ( 1550-1604) I offer thanks to the writers of the SOS President: Matthew Cossolotto is the true author ofthe poems and Newsletter and a request that you keep it plays of "William Shakespeare. " First Vice President: Dr. C. Wayne Shore coming. Keep in mind that reports on events or experiences, responses to articles, or Second Vice President: John Hamill Last year I set forth a goal of increasing personal essays are welcome as well as the Treasurer: Virginia Hyde email communication among members. world class research that we are privileged Some progress has been made but we still J ames Sherwood to absorb. Dr. Frank Davis need to update our email address database. Also, I add my thanks to Matthew Cos­ Michael Pisapia I've sent out a few email messages to mem­ sol otto for a year of creative and energetic Randall Sherman bers but we really haven 't instituted a regular Dr. Richard Smiley leadership for the SOS. email update program. We'll continue to Elliot Stone Please enjoy this newsletter. work on this. Susan Sybersma Lew Tate, ed. Dr. Richard Joyrich One path to achieving more rapid email tate3211 @bellsouth.net communication is through the Yahoo! Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 3 Much Ado About Oxford Richard Desper, Ph.D.

Part 1. Relating Much Ado About Nothing to Indeed, this is a point upon which Oxfordians and many ortho­ dox scholars are at odds. The gentleman from Stratford-upon-Avon the Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford leaves us little in the way of biographical material to associate with It shal\ be our task here to show that Edward de Vere, 17 th Earl of those works attributed to him. In particular, their author would seem Oxford, whom many hold to be the true author of the Shakespeare to be devoid of any reason to identify himself with the values of canon, put himself, his feelings, and those persons closest to him individuals in the upper crust of Elizabethan / Jacobean society. A in his life, along with their deepest feelings, into the play which number of Oxfordians have posed this as an argument supporting has come down under the title Much Ado About Nothing. This Oxford as the identity of the author "Shakespeare." They see the should come to no surprise to us. Charlton Ogburn, Jr. addresses writer's preoccupation with the noble characters of his plays, to the in depth the concept that "the better part of genius is composed neglect of more common characters, as a reflection of his standing of memories" (Chateaubriand Jr. 352). He reinforces this position as a ranking nobleman. by reference to: This particular conflict, the question of how or whether the a) "Failing the resolution to hold our peace. we can only talk of author Shakespeare appears in the works of Shakespeare, is more ourselves"; than one of the arguing points of the Shakespeare authorship ques­ b) Anatole France: "Every man's work whether it be literature or tion. To Oxfordians, who see their man in the plays and poems, music or pictures or architecture or anything else is always a the argument brings to focus how orthodox scholarship, lacking portrait of himself'; the wherewithal needed to find their candidate in the Shakespeare c) Havelock Ellis: "Every artist writes his own autobiography" canon, have instead ventured to beguile us into denying a major (350-354). Ogburn Jr. contrasts this with examples of a number of orthodox aspect of the process of authorship. As Ogburn, Jr. has phrased it, Shakespearean scholars, i.e. those supporting the person from Strat­ "militant orthodoxy has not only misled us as to the authorship of ford-upon-Avon as the true identity of the writer "Shakespeare", Shakespeare's works: It has also, in order that we might swal\ow denying this tendency for their author (354). They take their author's its version of their derivation, talked us out of understanding the abili ty to create characters out of whole cloth as a strength, and find creative process" (356). no difficulty that nothing resembling his persona or of personal THE DATE OF THE WRITING OF significance to the writer, can be found in his writings: Thus John Wain avers, "Leafing through some recent books on Shakespeare, MUCH ADO I was saddened to find too many people playing the dreary game Past research efforts have placed a possible date for an early of deducing the writer's biography from his works. Any writer version of Much Ado as early 1583 in the form of the record of the who could be so deduced, it seems to me, would by definition be a pelformance of a play A historie of Ariodante and Genevora at second-rate writer." (qtd. Ogburn Jr. 354). Northrop Frye continues court (Hol\and 377, Clark 354, Ogburn, JR. 660-1). The identifica­ in the same note: "a capacity for subduing his nature .. . is unrivaled tion is based on the association of the title characters with those of in the history of culture, a career which leaves him not only without similar names in a story from the Fifth Book of Ariosto's Orlando a private life but almost without a private personality" (354). Furioso, fol\owed by a link of a plot device similarity between

THIS IS YOUR NEWSLETTER The Shakespeare Oxford Society welcomes articles, essays, commentary, book reviews, letters, and news items of relevance to Shakespeare, Edward de Vere and the Authorship Discussion. It is the policy of the Shakespeare Oxford Society to require assignment of copyright on any article submitted to the Newslettel: Please contact the editor with any questions. Submit text in digital form to: [email protected] ta te3211 @bellsouth.net Mail photographs and iIIustrations to: Newsletter Editor • Shakespeare Oxford Society PO Box 1854 • Silver Spring, MD 20902 page 4 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

the Ariosto story with the Much Ado scene in which Borachio age J 2 to age 21(11). However, Oxford needed no literary source woos Margaret from outside a bedroom window to instigate some for the subplot; he had his own memories of the Anne Vavasor mischief involving mistaken identity ( Kittridge 159-60, Dowden episode as source material. I 359, Neisen and Hill 179). However, one may ask whether the The namesAriodante and Ginevra are particularly significant, in Beatrice and Benedick subplot appeared in the original Ariodante that a play named a historie ofAriodante and Genevora was played and Genevora - the 1583 play could have been an early version before Queen Elizabeth on February 12, 1583 (Shrove Tuesday), lacking the vital Beatrice and Benedick subplot. There is reason mentioned by Ogburn Jr. as the likely first version of Much Ado to believe that the subplot was present in Ariodante and Genevora abollt Nothing (660-61). This accords with our reckoning of the and shall present our reasoning. events of Oxford's life after his 1576 separation from his wife, after Orthodox scholars have placed Milch Ado as no earlier than the birth of his illegitimate son by Anne Vavasor in April 1581, and 1598, based upon its absence from Meres' list printed in that year after his reconciliation with his wife in December J 581. These of a dozen Shakespeare plays. However, it may well be fallacious matters will be discussed in more detail. to aSSllme that Meres' list was an exhallstive list containing all There may be valuable implications further linking particular existing plays written by that date by Shakespeare, whoever that episodes in Oxford's life to the writing of Much Ado about Nothing. might be. In rebuttal, the latest Riverside Shakespeare, edited by the Hugh Holland, in his 1933 book, has analyzed the text of Much respected scholars J. 1. M. Tobin and G. BlakemoreEvans, includes Ado and related passages to events which were current in England Edward III in the Shakespeare canon. This play was published in the 1579-83 time frame; he suggests the possibility that Oxford in quarto with anonymous authorship in 1596 and 1599, yet the first wrote the play in that time and had it staged as Ariodante and Riverside editors feel so strongly about its authorship to give it a Genevora for the Queen in 1583. The February date for the play is long-belated place among the plays of Shakespeare. Yet Edward particularly intriguing, in that Oxford was still under banishment III was not on the Meres list of J 598. If we accept the attribution from the Queen's presence, as he had been since the J 581 birth of of Tobin and Evans, this establishes that, whether by design or by his son by Anne Vavasor. This banishment ended in June 1583 with accident, the Meres list was not a complete list of the Shakespeare the intervention of a newly-risen star at court, Sir Walter Raleigh, plays in existence in 1598. Hence the exclusion of Milch Ado from on the Earl's behalf (Ogburn, Jr. 663-66). that same list may not be taken as evidence that it was written after If Ariodante and Genevora was Oxford's play, having it per­ the 1598 date of the list. fonned before the Queen at a time of his own personal banishment Two sources have could have presented difficulties. London theater was in a state of been commonly as­ (collt'd all p. 21) cribed l for the Hero Visit the Shakespeare and Claudio plot line of Milch Ado: OXFORD'S LEI'IERS Oxford Society website at first, the tale of Ari­ 'the Letters of ~dward de Vere odante and Ginevra www.shakespeare-oxford.com inAriosto's Orlando Seventeenth ~arl of Oxford FII rioso of 1532, Publications and second, the 22,"1 Read by Sir Derek Jacobi tale in Bandello's With quotes from letters by contemporaries Novelle of 1554. Membership and music thought to be by de Vere Both sources contain Calendar source material sug­ Narration by Joan Walker gesting the Hero and Narrative and editing by Stephanie Hopkins Hughes Links to Shakespeare on Claudio plot line, but Recorded by Malcolm Blackmoor at EFS Motivation Sound nothing resembling Studios in London the Net the Beatrice and Produced by Susan Campbell and Malcolm Blackmoor Benedick plot line. Blue Boar Giftshop Orlando Furioso For the 2CD set, send order and check: was available to Ox­ IN AMERICA IN ENGLAND ford - Jolly (I J) Shakespeare Oxford £9.95 to: reports that Or/ando $20 to; Stephanie Hughes Susan Campbell Library Fllrioso, in Italian, 59 Depew Ave. 36 Shad Thames formed part of Lord Nyack, NY 10960 308 Butler's Wharf Burghley's library, 2006 Authorship London SE 1 2YE and Oxford was a Conference ward under the care For more information see wIVw.politiclVorm.com of Burghley from Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 5

Oxford's Childhood (cont'dfrolll 1'. 1) is somewhat higher than the Berkshire shore, which was then (and was one of many small nunneries created during the Middle Ages still is) a flood plain, another reason, no doubt, why it has remained as a place where single women of local gentry families might live clear of buildings.3 The old hall was torn down in the nineteenth out "useful" lives, supported by the Church. By the beginning of century by a Smith descendant to make way for an up-to-date the sixteenth century its modest assets could have supported no Victorian house built farther back from the river (Figs. 2 and 3). more than six or seven nuns besides the prioress (355-57). In 1538, ~ ~ "'-:-~~~A

Fig. 3: Closeup of the Thalll es iliaI' showing the location of the 19,II -celltury lIIanOl: RunnYlllede Isle is on the left.

Fig. 2: Frolll a 19'I1 -century "BinI's Eye View of the River Thalllesfrolll Oxford to London "; Ankenvycke and Wraysblll)' in the bottolll left cornel; Old Windsor just above it, Windsor Castle at the top left. Courtesy of Llewelyn Carto­ graphic. Fig. 4: The Thallles frOIll the old Ankenvycke site with a descendant of the royal swans of de Vere s tillie, still protected by royal fiat, as they have been since the Today the spot where Smith's home must have stood 12'11 centlll)'. Photo Hughes. is a grassy field bounded on half its circumference by trees and on the other half by the river (Fig. 4). this nunnery, with the estates belonging to it, were added to those This section of the Thames has shrunk and now can carry little of Bisham Abbey (further up the river, just past Windsor Castle). more than kayaks or punts, but then it was, as it had been for cen­ Following the surrender of that monastery in 1540, the estates were turies, the main thoroughfare for those who lived near it to get to then granted to Lord Windsor, whose son and grandsons would London and back and to visit friends who lived along it. Behind cause so much trouble for both Smith and de Vere later on. and on either side of the house were the gardens and orchards that Smith planted wherever he lived. Living with History According to George Lipscombe (History o/BlIckingham, 1906), For a boy whose inheritance included a romantic vision of the Ankerwycke priory was founded during the reign of Henry II by past, this location was rich in historical associations. Back when GilbertdeMontfichet, lord ofWyrardisbury (pronouncedWraysbury, the shore wasn't lined with trees, the Isle of Runnymede would as it's usually spelled today). Dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, it have been well within view of Ankerwycke (Fig. 3). As Smith page 6 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

would have informed Edward, it was here that in 1215 the 3rd Earl him during the Marian reign. With so many of their friends fleeing of Oxford, along with twenty-four other barons, parlayed beneath the country, forced into silence and inactivity by the regime, cautious the famous Charter Oak before signing the Magna Carta. Although about writing down anything in a letter or manuscript that might be Shakespeare ignores this event in King John, he does include one used against them, the only recourse these reform-minded friends of his few child characters, a prince whose life was in jeopardy of Smith had for developing their ideas and exchanging information because of his status as a political pawn. was hours of private, unrecorded conversation with others of like Also on the Berkshire side and within view was the town of Old mind. Some were focused on new information about the heavens Windsor, the oldest Saxon town in the region. This had been the ancient coming from discoveries in optics, chemical experiments, new ways seat of Edward the Confessor, whose crown would have passed in time of reaching and mapping the far corners of the earth, and almost to the Saxon nobleman, Edgar Atheling, the I st Earl of Oxford, had all of them consumed with excitement over information gleaned not England been invaded just then (1066) by William of Normandy, from ancient works in Latin, rediscovered over the past century in who gave the earldom to de Vere's ancestor (Hunter 13). monastery libraries in Italy, and most recently in the manuscripts in Ed. Note: There has been conflicting research in naming the 1st Earl of Latin and Old and Middle English, just then coming to light in the O-'!ord, Edgar Atheling or Aubrey Devere. Stephanie Hopkins Hughes wake of the destruction of their own English monastic libraries. and Christopher Paul in this edition and Thomas Hunter in the Winter As for female influences on de Vere, the primary figure must 2006 edition. have been Smith's wife, Philippa Wilford. Although as yet we know Upriver from Windsor, closer to Oxford, was the gorgeous medi­ little about her, it's clear she came from a staunchly Protestant eval abbey of Abingdon, built in 675 AD by a king of Wessex (West background. In her early thirties when she married Smith and de Essex), who, like many other builders of abbeys and monasteries Vere came to live with them, she was almost forty by the time he in the Middle Ages, craved "a retreat" from "the World." Though left at age twelve. What sort of relationship did they have? From no longer a Church property it would still have been a thing of what we do know of her, we can be sure of one thing, like most of splendor in de Vere's time, lavished with expensive reconstruction Shakespeare's female characters, Philippa was no "patient Grissel," by four fifteenth-century abbots. Here, during the Middle Ages, content to sit silently by while men ran her life. what's now known as the Abingdon chronicle was being compiled Sadly, it's unlikely that Edward's own mother, the Countess of by educated monks from texts dating back to the ninth century, Oxford, had much influence over him as a young child, nor should forming a significant part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the oldest we think it unusual. Few English aristocrats, then or later, had more history of any European country in a vernacular language. These than a passing acquaintance with their parents until they were fin­ records of the kings and events of the period make clear why men ished with school (Stone 6, 132; Erickson 40). If de Vere's parents and women like the founders of the Abingdon Abbey might want played any role in his early life, it would have been as idealized to escape a "World" where brutal wars continuously raged among dream figures who came to life briefly once or twice a year at Court native British, Norse Vikings, Danes and Norman French. ceremonies, decked out in full holiday regalia. Just previous to the period when Smith and de Vere were liv­ On the other hand, he would probably have gotten to know ing nearby at Ankerwycke, these and similar chronicles from the Smith's family fairly well: Smith's father (whose room at Anker­ other great medieval abbeys were in the process of being collected wycke was next to de Vere's) and his brothers and sisters, seem to by Reformation scholars John Leland (1502-1552) and John Bale have played an active part in their famous brother's life, although (1495-1563), in an effort to save them from destruction with the unfortunately we still know little about them.4 His father, John, loss of the great monastery libraries. It was during this period that and his older brother, also John, both died in 1557, so Edward many of these precious documents were coming into the hands would have known them only until he was seven (Dewar 9). The of William Cecil and Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, family were little more than poor farmers when Sir Thomas began Cecil's friend from Cambridge days. Parker and Cecil would soon his rise to eminence, but his death left at least one branch at the be sponsoring their translation into Latin by a corps of scholars, level of important landowners whose children and grandchildren many of whom would form a coterie at Cecil House during the would marry into the upper levels of Essex gentry for generations, period that de Vere lived there in his mid-to-Iate teens, studying a measure of Smith's rather amazing success. under their master, the antiquarian Lawrence Nowell. Smith's years at the Court of Edward VI had put him in close From Nowell, de Vere would have heard passages from The touch with the London printing community, which was where he Chronicles read aloud in the ringing sonority of Old English, in found his first wife, Agnes Charnock (Carkeke, Carkyke, Karkek), which alliteration (not rhyme) is the major mnemonic device, but the daughter of a London printer, a modest young woman who his first acquaintance with their existence and the substance of their died just as Mary took the throne, leaving him with no children. accounts of the early kings and wars of England would have been Later two of his nephews married the daughters of London print­ from Smith, who was well-acquainted with all four, Cecil, Parker, ers, while a niece (his brother John's daughter) married Gabriel Leland, and Bale, from their years at Cambridge. Cawood (Cawode, Cawoode, Caywood), the son of Queen Mary's At his "ghostly father's" knee royal printer. Cawood, who served Smith as a courier during his French embassy of 1571-72 (Dewar 136), would print ElIphlles, De Vere would have learned a great deal from overhearing discus­ The Anatomy of Wit, in 1579, attributing it to Oxford's secretary sions when Smith's former Cambridge students and colleagues visited at the time, John Lyly.5 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 7

On occasions when the Smiths had reason to travel downriver Sommers would have been well-acquainted with Edward's father, towards London, as their barge rounded each bend in the Thames the sixteenth earl, from early days at the Court of Henry VIII, where another royal palace would come into view: Hampton Court on the both were involved in Court entertainment. right, Richmond on the left, Lambeth on the right, and, as the city with its multitude of buildings began to appear on the left, White­ "For 0, the hobby horse is forgot" hall , and the great manors of the nobles and Court officials whose Far different from the carefully-engineered merry-making houses lay along the Strand, including the splendid new Somerset at Court would have been the wild spontaneity of local country House, built by Smith's former master, Protector Somerset. Finally, festivals such as: the May-games of Spring, the pagan rituals of navigating the dangerous CUITents that poured through the narrow Midsummer's Eve, the "mumming and disguising" of the winter straits beneath London Bridge, they would pass the Tower on the holidays, the running of the stag in Windsor Forest. These rituals left, then at last to Greenwich palace on the right. Some years were still in full force in the country villages in Edward's child­ earlier, John Leland described Greenwich palace in a long Latin hood, though soon to be under all-out attack in the gathering storm poem about the Thames dedicated to Henry VIII: of the puritan revolution. By the end of the Civil War of 1640-80 they would be gone, at least in their fullest form, though watered­ See how the place I was seeking shone forth like the house down vestiges would remain for centuries in the more distant rural of a celestial cathedral! What multicolored roofs! What windows! What turrets reaching toward the stars! And what villages. Every community had its own home-grown version of pleasure gardens and ever-flowing fountains! Handsome these festivities, but all involved relaxed socializing, the consump­ flowers cover the bend in the river, furnishing the delights tion of alcoholic beverages, and some degree of sexual license. To of a bright garden. (Carley 240) what extent Sir Thomas would have allowed his household to get involved in such festivals is questionable. Although hardly a radi­ The Thames was the great "King's Highway," each bend bring­ cal reformist, it's clear that Smith himself had little appetite for ing a new vision of Tudor magnificence into view, until it climaxed such "country matters." He would also have felt his responsibility with the great city itself. to protect the Oxford heir and prevent his exposure to dangerous or licentious behavior. Cakes and ale A combination of ritual and spontaneity occurred at these Children would have been welcome at certain moments during the seasonal festivals where social and gender inequities were leveled festivities that marked the winter holidays at Windsor Palace. Here, or even, in some respects reversed, where ordinary constraints of in the company of the offspring of the palace retainers and those rank, marriage vows, and respectable behavior were relaxed, where from nearby villages and estates, Edward would have seen puppet known cuckolds, wanton wives, and annoying local authorities shows and possibly even been allowed to watch from a balcony in were tormented with riotous chivarees (charivaris). These chiv­ the great hall as his parents and other adults danced galliards and erees were probably more effective at easing social tensions than pavannes to music by the best players. During these get-togethers anything that's come to replace them. Certainly the puritans who it's likely he would become acquainted with other children of his destroyed them had nothing better to offer than threats of hellfire rank, among them his teenaged Howard cousins, Thomas and Henry, in the life to come. It would be Shakespeare's task to create the now being raised in London by the ultra-conservative Catholic modern compromise whereby men and women can participate, if clergyman John White (who had replaced Smith's old tutor, John only vicariously, in such leveling rituals by means of the staged Taylor, as Bishop of Lincoln) (Williams 28), and their mother, his dream worlds of "Illyria" and "Ephesus." aunt Frances (30). He may also have had the chance to socialize with some of his many Vere cousins. As for his parents, it's more A quiet life likely that he would have seen them at Windsor or in London at Apart from Christmas extravaganzas and these seasonal local Christmas than at Hedingham Castle, a long winter trip for a young festivals, chances are that for the years of the Marian regime, boy on dangerous winter roads. The magnates, particularly those little Edward lived a rather quiet life compared with children subject to royal disfavor, were well aware that it was unwise to whose lives were enmeshed with those of siblings, friends, and keep the holidays away from Court. schoolmates. There may have been other children connected with To a solitary boy raised by a parsimonious scholar, onefor whom Smith's household, but none Edward could regard-or rather, that such entertainments were wasteful follies (Dewar 57, 167), the he would be allowed to regard-as his social equals. It's hard to glittering lights of thousands of candles, the sweetness of candies, have a genuine friendship with someone who's required to address perfumes, and freshly cut herbs, the richly colored clothing of the you as "your Lordship." dancers and musicians, the shouts of excitement at the antics of Smith had a son some three years older than de Vere, fathered clowns and acrobats, the chaotic gabble of dozens of conversations out of wedlock before his first marriage, but so far there is no sign all going on at once, must have been overwhelming. The "Yorick" that Thomas junior ever lived with his father and step-mother. None who bore him "on his back a thousand times" would have been of the rooms in Smith's Ankerwycke inventory bore his name, nor the legendary Will Sommers, Henry's jester (d.l560), who, to do his detailed housekeeping records show anything that can be the shrieking delight of an audience of children, might well have construed as payments for his upkeep. This is not to say that Smith "poured a flagon of Rhenish" on some drunken bystander's head. ignored him. He may simply have made private arrangements with page 8 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

his mother for his care.6 Later in life Gabriel Harvey would claim father," while Dee referred to Digges as "my most worthy math­ that young Smith had introduced him to de Vere at Cambridge, where ematical heir" (ODNB). During this early period, Dee was based in deVere gave him "angels" (money) (Nelson 45). So far as we can London (ODNB), but he may already have been spending time at tell, Smith's patronage of Harvey began after de Vere's departure, his mother's property at Mortlake on the Thames, just southeast of so it's unlikely that they met while still boys. London, which he would inherit in 1565, and where he was probably already collecting one of the largest and most important libraries of The Digges connection his time, with scores of books and manuscripts on ancient wisdom One boy with whom he would have become acquainted during and science, many obtained through the dispersal of the monastic these early years was Thomas Digges, the future mathematician and libraries. That knowledge of the Copernican theory had spread to scientist. Thomas, much like Edward, was being taught privately, the English scientific community by the time de Vere was six is not by a tutor but by his own father, Leonard Digges (c. 1520-1559), suggested by mentions of it in publications by Robert Recorde the mathematician, astronomer, and creator of an early telescope and by Dee in his prefatory letter to John Field's ephemeris, both (ODNB). Although there is no hard evidence of such a meeting, published in 1556-57. that these two families would have connected during de Vere 's years Smith must have known Dee from Cambridge, where he en­ with Smith seems more than likely because Smith's wife Philippa rolled at St. John's in 1542 at age fifteen, five years before Smith Wilford (b. 1524) and Digges's wife Brigitte Wilford (b.1520) were was called to Court. Dee was elected four years later as a Fellow first cousins. 7 and under-reader in Greek at the newly-formed Trinity College, Family connections were all important in those days, and ap­ receiving his MA in 1548. It would have been through Smith that parently Philippa had no sisters which makes it even more likely de Vere came to know Dee, as we know he did from Dee's own that she would arrange visits with a married female cousin close statement (Nelson 58). to herself in age. As the novels of Jane Austen reveal, family visits That Dee was a charming young man is never mentioned by his in the days of horseback travel could take anything from a week biographers, but his wide circle of patrons and the ease with which to several months. The Digges family lived in Wootton, Kent, just he managed to talk himself into English and Continental Court southeast of London, a journey of roughly fi fty-fi ve miles-a good circles and out of trouble suggests a certain charisma. Arrested in day's journey by horseback to or from Ankerwycke. May 1555 on suspicion of witchcraft (i.e. for casting horoscopes for The likelihood of such a connection becomes a near certainty the Queen, Philip, and Princess Elizabeth, a criminal offense), he when we consider the interests shared by Smith and Digges in a not only talked his way out (while his poor cell mate got the stake) number of areas, but most particularly in science and astronomy/ but actually got himself hired by his interrogator as his personal astrology. The period when Edward was first living with Smith chaplain! (ODNB) was one when Digges Senior was doing his most important work, Among his vast collection of books and manuscripts at Mortlake, publishing in 1553, 1554, and 1555 the "Prognostications" that Dee owned texts by Roger Bacon. Colin Ronan suggests that it brought him renown. Written in English rather than Latin, was in Dee's library that Leonard Digges came across references in Bacon's Opus Majus (c.1267) to lenses and the ability to use These ... contained . .. useful rules and tables for astronomy them to "cause the sun, moon and stars in appearance to descend and astrology .. ; calendar dates of moveable feasts for several here below." This inspired him to construct a reflector for himself years to come; tables of the Moon's motion; a description (Ronan website).9 of how to tell the time during day or night; descriptions of How a Digges/Oxford connection might have played out in meteorological phenomena and an account of their causes; later years remains a matter for conjecture. It's clear from Thomas and even tables for bloodletting, computed-as was then Digges's writing that he was more interested in science than poetry, customary-for propitious astrological times. The book also contained a short account of the Universe according to the and his early alliance with Burghley ended in the 1580s when he traditional system of Ptolemy with tables of the dimensions adopted Leicester as his patron. Nevertheless, his younger son, of the planets and their orbits ... Prognostication was a best­ Leonard Jr., would provide a dedicatory poem for Shakespeare's seller ... (Ronan websi te) First Folio in 1623. That, following his father's death in 1595, Leon­ ard Jr.'s mother marrying Thomas Russell (1570-1634), who later Leonard Digges's most revolutionary work, however, remained would act as an "overseer" of William Shaksper's will (Kathman in manuscript, to be cautiously shared with fellow scientists (though website), raises some interesting questions regarding the Digges published after his death by his son). Digges was suffering financially family and how aware they might have been of hidden truths about from his recent (1554) involvement in Sir Thomas Wyatt's Kent­ Shakespeare's theater and publishing projects (Whalen 13-15). ish Rebellion against the Marian regime, while his wife's brothers (Philippa's cousins) were still in Germany with other Protestants Other connections through Smith who had fled at Mary's accession (Wilford ODNB). Among the visitors to Ankerwycke during these years may also With his father's death in 1559, Thomas's education (and, pos­ have been the young Greek and Latin scholar, Bartholomew Clerke sibly, wardship) would be transferred, at Leonard's request, to the (1537-1590). Clerke knew Smith from Eton, where he enrolled young mathematician/astrologer, John Dee,s then in his thirties. in 1550 (ODNB) during Smith's stint as Provost (Dewar 29, 51). Later, Digges would refer to Dee as his "revered second mathematical Clerke, aged thirteen to sixteen at the time, would certainly have Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 9

been drawn to Smith, whose interests were so similar to his own. household while Cheke was tutoring young Edward VI. In 1552, Everyone at Eton would have known everyone else, as the enroll­ the famed Italian mathematician/astrologer/ philosopher, Jerome ment at that time was only 70, with perhaps 30 more living off Cardan, had stayed with Cheke at his London residence during his campus (Hatfield email). By the time de Vere joined Smith, Clerke visit to the English Court (Nicholls 99). This would have been an was at Cambridge. event of extreme importance to Smith, who may have met Cat'dan In his biography of Matthew Parker, Strype asserts that Clerke during his stay in Padua in 1540-42. If not (Cardan's biography was "dear to" Oxford to whom he "seemed to have been" tutor at places him in Pavia or Milan at this time) he would certainly have one time (2.183). If Bartholomew Clerke did act as Edward's tutor, heard a great deal about him as by then Cardan was already re­ it must have been in Clerke's early twenties during the five months nowned at Padua for brilliant mathematical discoveries. Cardan's that de Vere was enrolled at Queens' College (1558-59), since commentary on Ptolemy was on Smith's 1566 library list. Clerke was on campus and a teaching fellow at that time. Readers Others personally known to Smith whom he may have intro­ will recall that, as a young adult, Oxford would write a polished duced or at least mentioned to de Vere, included: Sir John Perrot, Latin introduction to Clerke's Latin translation of Castiglione's whom Smith would have known from the Courts of Henry VIII Il Cortegiono in which he would provide a template for what and Edward VI (ODNB); William Brooke, later Baron Cobham were about to become standards of taste for English Renaissance (1527-1597), who enrolled at Queens' College during Smith's literature. II Corfegiono is included on Smith's library list of 1566 tenure; and Sir John Harington, Sr. Smith and Harington Sr. spent (Strype 278). several weeks in the Tower in each other's company following their Another colleague of Smith's that he might have come to know arrest as members of Somerset's household, weeks Smith devoted early on as a youngster at Eton was the geographer Sir Humphrey to translating the Psalms (Dewar 64-5) and Harington to translat­ Gilbert, who joined Smith later in two failed projects, one to ob­ ing Cicero (ODNB). tain copper from iron (Dewar 150-6), the other to colonize Ulster It can't be emphasized too strongly that the worlds of sixteenth­ (ODNB). Following Smith's death, Gilbert became a leader in the century English scholarship, particularly of language and science, project to discover a northwest passage to China, this based on and the worlds of court and reform politics, worlds that frequently maps drawn by John Dee. As a young adult, de Vere would invest overlapped, were all so small-the populations of each of the uni­ heavily in one of these voyages of exploration. versities during Smith's time numbered under a thousand, including Other scholars and former students who might have visited Smith masters, fellows, and students II-that everyone involved would have during the period that de Vere lived with him include Edward's been acquainted, if not personally, at least by reputation. uncle, Arthur Golding, his mother's brother, known later for his many translations, a Cambridge student until 1553, and a member Books, maps, and globes of Smith's community of Greek and Latin scholars. A solitary child, raised apart from home, family, and children William Cecil, Smith's alter ego at the Court of Edward and his own age, will fill the void with imaginary beings, today from Somerset, for whom Smith wrote a number of important position television and video games, in those days from books and fireside papers over the years, may well have felt it needful to consult with tales. Books were not in short supply in the Smith household. An his old tutor in private during this period. From 1555 until he built inventory in Smith's own hand from 1566, four years after de Vere's Cecil House in Westminster in the early '60s, Cecil was based at departure, lists over 400 titles (Strype 274) and although most of "The Parsonage," at Wimbledon, about twenty-five miles southeast these were tomes in Latin or Greek, far beyond most children offi ve, of Ankewyke. Here de Vere could have met two teenagers, Cecil's six, and seven, they would not have been beyond a budding genius son Thomas and his ward Arthur Hall. That Cecil visited Smith of language. As Sir Thomas Elyot has assured us, in Sir Thomas at Ankerwycke is more likely since it lies midway on the route Smith's day, four was not too young to start if a boy was to be ready between Wimbledon and Bisham, the home of Mildred, Cecil's to understand Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero in their native languages sister, Elizabeth Cooke Hoby, later Lady Russell. by his early teens (Hughes 10). Along with books, Smith's study Thegeographer Richard Eden (1520-1576) is another likely visi­ provided maps and also wooden globes, made by Smith's own hand, tor. He was Smith's friend and former student from his Cambridge each no doubt following new developments that he learned about days (Dewar 139). Eden's translation of the Italian geographer, Peter ·from his adventurous geographer friends. One of these, a celestial Martyr, titled The Decades o/the New World, another highly influ­ globe, can be seen in the old library at Queens' College ential book in its time (listed by Smith in his 1566 inventory), was Reading in de Vere's day meant fluency in Latin and French. published in 1555.According to theDNB, it was Eden's relationship Latin was still the linguo/ronco of all the nations of the West, while with Smith that led to his career as a translator and geographer and French had been the language oflaw and literature since 1066. Only lo to other important connections and opportunities. 20 of the 400 plus titles in Smith's library were in English. The Other friends and associates still in England during this period Renaissance roused interest in Greek, amplified by a Reformation included Walter Haddon, who followed Smith's lead into the study belief that Greek and Hebrew were essential to understanding the of Civil Law, and John Cheke, his partner in championing the new Bible and the early Church. For a solitary boy, thirsty for adven­ pronu nciation of Greek at Cambridge, in London from 1556 until ture and romance, languages were just so many challenges to be his death the following year. The same age and from similar back­ overcome in his search for adventure stories. Homer, a favorite of grounds, Smith and Cheke had also been intimates in Somerset's Smith's, offered an endless string of adventures. Smith's Homer page 10 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

was in the original Greek-the Iliad would not be translated into creatures, including the occasional hermit and poacher, managed English until 1611. to live a life of Eden-like immersion in Nature, disturbed only by Significantly absent from Smith's library (and from Shakespeare) the trumpets, shouts, and dogs of the occasional royal hunt. were the French romances that fed the fantasies of most literate Smith enjoyed the sports of hunting and hawking, and since boys of Edward 's class, tales of King Arthur, Tristram, and Lancelot horsemanship and falconry were skills in which a nobleman must (MacFarlane 236,244). Reformation scholars scorned these, blam­ also be well trained, he would have taken Edward with him, some­ ing them for the bad behavior of certain noblemen of recent history. times just the two of them, other times in the company of other What the growing peer needed was true history, true stories of real men and boys, neighbors or visitors. Shakespeare's frequent use heroes that would build an awareness of right and wrong that could of hawking metaphors would seem to derive from just such early promise a future of peace and prosperity. and exhilarating ventures into fields like the ones surrounding When Edward's appetite for the wrath of Achilles seemed to flag, Ankerwycke and through woods like those of the Forest of Windsor, Smith might direct him to Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks alld merlin on wrist or hounds yelping as they rode through fields and ROl11alls, in either Latin or Greek. Plutarch's stories were not only leaped over hedges, arriving home after dark, late, tired and dirty, rich in adventure, but had the added virtue of being history and to a cold supper by what was left of the kitchen fire. therefore more "true." Other good sources for stories on Smith's Although the comparison of a woman to an untrained hawk, a shelves were Aesop, Apulius,Aristophanes, and Euripides in Greek; favorite of Shakespeare's, may have been a commonplace in those Plautus, Petrarch, and Ovid in Latin; Boccaccio and Dante in Ital­ days, it's one that Smith might well have resorted to on more than one ian, as well as the Bible in several languages (Strype 274-81), all occasion," since, as Dewar points out, it's obvious from his letters of which would contribute, some significantly, to Shakespeare's and his dealings with Queen Elizabeth that he had little understanding sources. Smith had all the histories that Shakespeare used as sources of women. During a marriage of over twenty years, his relationship for his history plays, even the more arcane, whether Greek, Ro­ with his wife must have gone tlu'ough a series of changes, but sadly, man, French, Italian, ancient and modern (Strype 275-77), while in ended in bitter estrangement. During his final days, when dying of the more recent chronicles of Edward Hall, Richard Grafton, and cancer, he became aware that his wife was plotting with his enemies Polydore Virgil'2 Edward found stories in which his own ancestors to take the property that he had willed to his brothers. He scratched played important roles. Smith had them all, that is, all but Holin­ out her name in the list of executors, although he left her the property shed, which was published the year he died, but which contained he considered rightfully hers. Nonetheless, as soon as he was dead, significant amounts of material from the earlier historians, as well she "lost no time in drawing up a will to suit herself and in a series as some traces of his own writing. 13 of elaborate bequests to no less than ninety-three relations, friends, Along with these texts from the past, recently published books and household servants, she disposed of all the furnishings of both olfered another sort of challenge. Encouraged by John Bale, John houses down to the last pot and pan, sheet and napkin" (Dewar 207). Foxe's martyrology, a long, spirited account of the sufferings of One source of ill feeling must have been her failure to provide Smith the evangelical community, was published at Basle in 1554. Bale with children. So intent was Smith on acquiring an heir that he kept himself published a scurrilous blast against the Marian regime in track of his wife's ovulations, as can still be seen in a chart in one 1554. Smith's friend, Richard Eden published his translation of of his notebooks (now at Queen's College). Peter Martyr's reports of earlier explorers in 1555 and Leonard Along with food for the table, Smith's gardens and orchards Digges published several editions of his Prognostications. In 1557, provided materials for his "precious" stills, an interest he probably the bookseller Tot tel published the poetry of Edward 's uncle, Hemy acquired during his year at the University of Padua, as renowned Howard, Earl of Surrey, along with the poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt, for its advanced views on medicine as for its teaching of the Law. '6 for whose rebellious son Leonard Digges and other Kentish friends The word still derives from the verb to distill, the process whereby had lost their estates in 1554. Smith himself wrote a number of a substance is concentrated through heating in a glass vessel until important treatises during this period, but since he "published" the impurities are boiled away. Wherever he lived, Smith created these only in the traditional manuscript form, his authorship has labs with stills in which he decocted medicines, "sweet waters" been lost from all but a few (Dewar 4-5). (mild perfumes), and liquors. Smith had twenty books on medicine (Strype 279-80). Entire books have been written on the subject of Woods, gardens, and laboratories Shakespeare's medical expertise (Davis 45, 58). At five, six, seven, and eight, Edward was probably happy to Most of Shakespeare's uses of the word "dew" derive from his follow Smith about the estate, helping him yank weeds and destroy knowledge of distilling, often at moments of intense emotion: as caterpillars, absorbing without thinking his tutor's diatribes on just when Hamlet, his mind on suicide, cries, "0 that this too too sullied how composting turns nasty waste into useful soil, how grafting flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew"; or from SOIl­ can create sweeter apples and roses, and the thousand and one other nef 119: "What potions have I drunk of Sirens' tears, distill'd from secrets of Nature that occupy the mind of the diligent gardener. 14 Iimbecs foul as hell within ...." As those readers who have taken As Caroline Spurgeon has noted, gardening metaphors rank at the beginning chemistry can imagine, some of Smith's trial decoctions top in Shakespeare's use of imagery (16). must have looked pretty nasty-and smelled just as bad. On the Berkshire side of the river were thousands of acres of Distilling is a good metaphor for the process by which Shake­ woodland, the Forest of Windsor. Here deer, boar, and other wild speare rendered so many of the popular sayings and maxims of Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 11

his time into the brief, potent forms in which they survive until living in Strasbourg, dragged back to England and intimidated by this day, filling sixty-four pages of Bartlett's Fallliliar Quotations. the Dean of St. Paul's into recanting his Protestant beliefs in public. Oxfordians have pointed to Burghley's advice to his son Thomas Sadder yet, the scorn that this brought down on the gentle scholar as a model for Polonius's advice to Laertes. Closer to home might from his reform community, plus his own bitter self-hatred, must be Smith's "Advertisements and counsels very necessary for all surely have contributed to his death the following year at age forty­ noblemen and counselors, gathered out of divers authors both two. A similar fate took away another colleague from Somerset Italian and Spanish" (Strype 53), written in 1557 when he had no days, Sir James Hales, Judge of the Common Pleas. official status with any "noblemen and counselor" but one small boy. Polonius's advice says basically the same thing as Smith's, The winds of change only condensed into a beautiful fraction of the words. But by May of 1558, it was becoming obvious that regime And so the days and years went by, and the Marian inquisi­ change was on its way. It had been well over nine months since tion continued, probably without touching de Vere, though Smith the Queen's husband was last with her, nine months during which must have suffered, knowing the trials his friends were enduring she had ostentatiously played at being pregnant, yet still there was in Europe, hearing of the courage of his old colleagues, Cranmer no child. By now it was obvious there would never be. The false and Ridley at Oxford as the flames consumed their clothes and pregnancy had sapped Mary's fragile strength and will; she was licked their flesh. At the universities, revered scholars (and their failing. It was time to get ready. wives) were dug from their graves, their bones burned or thrown From Cecil, whose contacts at Court kept him informed, 17 the on dung heaps (Fig. 5). word went out to be prepared, for the news could come at any time Near Windsor things were quiet, but in London and in Smith's that the Queen was dead, and with so many colleagues overseas, home county of Essex, now with his old adversary William Bonner those who remained at home must be ready to move at a moment's at the helm as Bishop of London, the imprisonments, tortures, and notice, to put the last living child of Henry VIII on the throne before burnings raged on. In 1556, Smith must have wept to hear how his the Papists could act to prevent it. old friend John Cheke had been arrested by Philip's agents while Both Smith and Cecil must have felt certain that Smith would be picked for the new Privy Council. A sea­ soned statesman with years of experience in government, Smith had remained faithful to the Protestant cause, and unlike so many Reforma­ tion ministers, he was within reach. His work on England's claim to Scotland (Dewar 48), on the coinage (76), and the Book of Common Prayer (Strype 170) would sure­ ly put him at the top of the new queen's list. Whether Smith wait­ ed atAnkerwycke or Hill Hall for the summons to Court, or hurried on to his house at Cannon Row in Westminster, is unknown. He was certainly at his Cannon Row house in December where he was called to officiate at a meeting of Protestant divines to Fig. 5. Woodcut from Foxe's Martyrology (1563 ed.) showing Cranme/; aUlhor oflhe Common Book of Praye/; being discuss a revision of the buml allhe Slake al Oxford. Courlesy "Shakespeare Ihe Globe alld Ihe World" (Schoenbaum 17). 1552 Book of Common Prayer (Strype 56-7). page 12 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

It must have been in response to Smith and Cecil's belief that Fowle's St. John's biography shows him as a Senior Fellow from Smith would soon be busy on Elizabeth's council that, on May January 4,1559 to 1560, as Senior Dean from January 7,1559 to 4, the sixteenth Earl had added to his payroll an annuity for one 1560, and again from January 14, 1560to 1561 (Harrison email). His Thomas Fowle for "his service in teaching Edward de Vere . . . Vi­ appointments to various rectorships in EastAnglia all begin in 1561, count Bulbecke" (Nelson 25). In October the boy was enrolled at one continuing until 1581, another until his death in 1597 (Cooper Smith's alma mater, Queens' College, Cambridge and new locks 1.452); thus it is clear that he left the university in 1561162. It is true were installed in the rooms assigned to him (23-4). On November that such offices were often sinecures, but this was no more true of 14 his name was entered in the university matriculation records such offices than it was of annuities or any other of the many ways (24). Mary's death followed three days later.ls in which Elizbethans of all ranks created their networks of support De Vere was one of a handful of youngsters enrolled at Cambridge and clientage. Other than the months following his restoration as a as an ill/pubes, an underage scholar. Although these boys were sup­ Senior Fellow and Dean at SI. John's upon Elizabeth's accession posed to be studying with a tutor, they were not required to attend in January 1559, the record so far shows nothing indicating that lectures or disputations with the undergraduates where, in fact, they Fowle resided with or near de Vere at any other time or location. would probably have been unwelcome. In all likelihood, they were Had he continued to tutor de Vere at Cambridge, the record of de there less to study than to keep them out of harms way, having, for Vere's presence would probably have continued, but since it ends anyone of a number of possible reasons, nowhere else to go. after March, while Fowle continued on the books as Senior Fellow and Dean until 1561, it seems that whatever their connection, it "Fair is Fowle and Fowle is fair" must have ended after March, 1559. What little we know of Thomas Fowle tells us that he was made a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1550, got his MA in 1553, was deprived under Mary that same year, and was restored again in 1558 under Elizabeth. During Mary's reign he acted as minister to a protestant group that met secretly in or near London (Cooper 1.452). Beyond that his history reveals him as a troublesome nonconformist (the contemporary term was "hot­ gospeller")-not the sort Smith, who detested irrational fervor, would have approved. What seems most likely is that Smith simply left the matter of Edward's care at this time in Cecil's hands, so that Cecil, who (understandably) was finding it a matter of urgent necessity to re­ cruit agents willing to work for the Protestant cause, recruited the currently unemployed Fowlel9 as much for his own purposes as for de Vere's, (as he would more than once in the future), not hesitating to reward Fowle by means of the seemingly inexhaustible funds of the great Oxford earldom. Fowle's later anti-papist/nonconformist activities were under the authority of the bishops, but well in line with Cecil and Walsingham's efforts to force both to submit to state Fig. 5: 17'/I -cell/lllY map oj Queells , College, courtesy oj Cambridge church policy. Whatever Fowle's personal beliefs, his willingness to Ulliversi/y Library. assist the Bishop of Norwich by interfering with "certain religious exercises called 'prophesyings'" (spontaneous preachings a la the Quakers) at Bury St. Edmonds" in 1573 doesn't speak well for his "The winter of our discontent" personal integrity, nor would his participation in the destruction On the face of it, these five months at Cambridge during 20 of the organ at the Norwich cathedral c.1570 have endeared him the winter of 1558-59 could not have been an easy time for the to his former pupil. eight-year-old. Wherever it was that he was used to spending his Because Fowle received an annuity from the Oxford estate from Christmas holidays, they must have included either Smith's family 1558-1571 does not necessarily mean that he acted in this capacity or his own and at least one and possibly several exciting events, tlu'oughout the entire twelve-year period, only that it was in that gift-giving, banquets, plays, and so forth. Due to the nature of that 21 capacity that the annuity was initiated. Annuities were given for particular moment in time, it is unlikely that there was anything a variety of reasons, among them: as a form of retainer to keep the of the sort at Cambridge that January, or if there was, it must have recipient on call for whatever duty might be required; another, as been fairly half-hearted. Although in normal times the holidays a stipend to keep bread on the table of a poor scholar or otherwise were probably rather festive at the universities, with more than a worthy individual. The traditional duty of a magnate like Earl John few students staying over to catch up on their studies, or because was to provide a living for as many persons as he could, which was they preferred to hang around with their pals, the plays and pranks at the same time his chief means of creating and maintaining his that accompanied the holidays, the election of a Boy Bishop or a power base (MacFarlane 290). Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 13

out the necessary musters and accounting of "the most likely and able men for the wars" and that these accounts, along with notes on the state of their arms and other equipment, were provided in due course to the Lord's Lieutenant, a situ­ ation that conjures up the review by Shallow and Silence of Falstaff's pitiful troop in The Men), Wives of Windsor(3.2). Perhaps Smith took Edward along on one of these reviews, or regaled the table at dinner with a succinct account. Hill Hall Although Smith had obtained the property of Hill Hall in Essex in July of 1554 through his marriage to Philippa Wil­ ford, it is not at all clear when he actually made it his primary residence. Every commentator gives a different timetable. It could not have been earlier than 1556 since it took until then for the necessary paperwork to be completed. Once having obtained the title, he began the extensive renovations that had to be finished before his wife and their servants could be Fig. 6: Qlleens' College, the Old Courtyard, bllilt in the 15'11 cellllll)'. comfortable in their new home, which, according to his diary, Photo Hughes. took two years (1557-58). What records there are suggest Lord of Misrule (banned under Edward), the Christmas pudding, that from 1557 or so he maintained some staff at Hill Hall, wassail bowl, and so forth, would have overcome loneliness with but that, even after the move to Essex, he continued to maintain a pleasure or, at least, excitement. household at Ankerwycke, both probably staffed by local people But this was a unique moment in the history of the university, who had ties to their respective communities. and it's unlikely, first, that there were many students staying over Thus it's hard to say exactly where de Vere might have been at (everyone who could would be in London for the ensuing corona­ any given time between 1559 and 1562. Perhaps he too shuttled tion ceremonies in mid-January) or second, that the Fellows who back and forth from Windsor to Essex during the final four years remained on campus had much enthusiasm for festivities. The of his life with Smith. In any case, what seems most likely is that Catholics feared what might come with the protestants back in it was to the newly rebuilt Hill Hall that de Vere came to rejoin the power, and the rest would simply have dreaded the inevitable up­ Smith household following his departure from Cambridge in March heaval of another major policy shift. This period shows what may or April, a period in his life that we must save for another article. have been the lowestemollment the university had ever experienced A possible quid pro quo (Mullinger qtd. in Gray 95). To Smith's no doubt shocked surprise, following his work on the That Smith had de Vere in his care for so long has been ques­ committee for the Book of Common Prayer in December (Strype 31), tioned because, despite his usual meticulous record-keeping, there 23 he was passed over by Elizabeth. He may have blamed Cecil, but it is no record, either in his books or the accounts of the 16th Earl, was probably not Cecil's fault. 22 Elizabeth was open to suggestion, of payments for his eight years of care, feeding and tutoring of but she was not easily persuaded to do anything she did not want de Vere. Although it will-probably always remain in the realm of to do. As is obvious from later developments, the Queen did not conjecture, what seems most likely is that, in exchange for his like Smith very much, an attitude that may have originated with his agreement to tutor deVere, Cecil agreed to arrange Smith's mar­ interrogation of herself and her household during the excruciating riage to the recently widowed Philippa Wilford Hampden.24 This 1549 examination into her relationship with Sir Thomas Seymour, marriage brought with it a magnificent property in Smith's home Elizabeth bitterly resented being questioned by anyone, much less county of Essex. If, as part of the bargain, Cecil promised to get by Smith (Dewar 47). Under suspicion of encouraging Seymour him a post with a subsequent regime, it would help to explain the in his efforts his tactlessness as a virtue. In any case, Elizabeth "bickerings" that arose between them following his failure to get preferred to keep as many members of her sister's council in place a post under Elizabeth, "bickerings" that disappear overnight fol­ as she could until such time as they could be quietly replaced by lowing the death of the 16'h Earl, de Vere's immediate removal to attrition, an early sign of the managerial skills that would mark her Cecil House in London, and his own immediate appointment as reign as one of the most successful in history. ambassador to France. By June of 1559, Smith was back in Essex, charged with various That Cecil was in a position in early 1554 to arrange such a local duties, amoilg them assisting the Lord Lieutenant (the 16th marriage is entirely possible. It is entirely possible that both Cecil Earl) in swearing in the local Justices of the Peace (Strype 57-59). and Smith would have been well-acquainted with Sir John Hamp­ Aware that the accession of the Protestant Queen would be seen den from their days at the Court of Edward VI, as he was the son as an affront to Spanish sovereignty, Smith, and his counterparts of Elizabeth Sidney, governess to the King and sister to Sir Henry in all the shires, were also to see to it that the constables carried Sidney, Steward of the young king's household. While Smith had page 14 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

been away from Court for several years, Cecil had only just ter­ 1559, another of Thomas Wilford's children, Brigitte's younger half­ minated his own post, and would remain throughout the Marian sister Cicely, married Edwin Sandys (1519-1588), later Archbishop regime in touch with his own and his father's friends at Court, who of York (1576-1588), whose struggles under the Marian regime are would have been quick to inform him of Hampden's death. With a described in detail by John Foxe. Their son Edwin would be a future property like Hampden's, and a widow unencumbered by children, organizer of the Virginia Colony. 8 Dee's father, Rowland Dee, a mercer, had been, like Leonard, this juicy plum would not last long. imprisoned and sentenced to death for involvement in the Wyatt It seems unlikely that Smith could have arranged it purely on his Rebellion, then later pardoned. own, considering his poor prospects at the time and lack of Court 9 Roger Bacon's alchemical magic and his reflecting glass provided the contacts. Also, that the widow of a man so closely connected to basis for an anonymous 1580s play in the style of early Shakespeare: Court circles would have been allowed to choose for herself also Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, attributed to Robert Greene. seems unlikely, knowing how such matters were handled in those 10 There can be confusion over the name "Peter Martyr." Smith would days. As the daughter of a second son, one who had few connec­ have known the Italian theologian by that name who was brought to 25 tions (or at least, none that have made it into the record books ), England by Cranmer in 1547. The author of the Decades, however, the importance of her property would have outweighed her personal was a fifteenth-century Ttalo-Spanish abbot who traveled extensively desires, a situation which, if true, might help shed light on her furi­ throughout the Mediterranean recording the travels of various explorers ous treatment of Smith's heirs following his death in 1577. of his time. Both had adopted the name from a famous thirteenth­ century Christian martyr. End Notes II This is my conjecture. There simply are no solid figures for the university populations at this time (Courtenay 2, Evans 660), but a guess I That de Vere spent the major part of his childhood with Smith rests can be made based on what records there are, indicating they reached primarily on Smith's own letter to Cecil of 1576 in which he states that their lowest levels from 1547 to 1558. Oxford was "brought up in my house" (BL Harleian MS 6992/21), 12 All on Smith's library list of 1566. the meaning of "brought up" then being no different from what it 13 Dewar explains how Smith and William Harrison, author of A means today. This is reinforced by Smith's 1569 inventory in which Description of England published in 1577, had exchanged material that the contents of one of the rooms is labeled "in my Lordes Chamber" was to be published in an unrealized project of the printer Reginald (Lipscombe 4.597), there being no other " lord" in Smith's life at the Wolfe, but that was not published in either Harrison's or Smith's book, time. De Republic Anglorum, until after Smith's death, material that was later 2 We spelled it "Ankerwick" in Part I, but "Ankerwycke" brings the most incorporated into Holinshed (114). information on the Internet. 14 Smith wrote long letters to his wife while he was posted in France, 3 Caroline Spurgeon, whose 1935 book Shakespeare s Imagel)' is still instructing her in detail on the care of his gardens (Dewar 132). Strype preeminent on the subject, gives quotations from Shakespeare indicating comments on his "employing his own hands for his diversion in grafting that, as a child, he must have " lived near a river where he would often and planting" (164). have seen the meadows covered with the unprepossessing slime it leaves 15 Strype includes Smith's treatise on the Queen's marriage in an behind when it has overflowed it's banks" (II). She devotes some space appendix, which includes this statement: "The Italians be so jealous that to Shakespeare's use of river imagery, in her view, second only to his almost every private man there doth not think himself sure of his wife use of gardening terms (92-6). unless he keep her close in a mew, as here in England men keep their 4 One thing we do know is that Smith's father and older brother were hawks" (233). closely allied with their Walden neighbor, William Strachey, whose 16 As Dr. Frank Davis points out in "Shakespeare's Medical grandson William would write the treatise on Bermuda that orthodox Knowledge," most of the great Renaissance doctors and teachers of scholars claim as Shakespeare's source for The Tempest. Dewar suggests medicine, those who left their names on the science, "were either based that the Stracheys became involved in colonizing through Smith's at the University of Padua ... or they studied there before returning efforts to colonize Ulster County in 1573-76 (169-70). home to practice" (46). 5 Oxford's secretary, John Lyly, to whom is attributed authorship of 17 Though Cecil had resigned his post as Principal Secretary, he the Euphues novels and several plays performed at COUIt by Paul's remained in touch with those Court officers who continued under Mary, Boys during the 1580s, is usually described as the grandson of the among them his former colleague William Petre, not to mention the grammarian, William Lily, but there is no documentation for this. There numerous backstairs supernumeraries, his father's colleagues, whose was, however, a "Iohn Lyllye" listed as a beneficiary in Earl John's private religious beliefs were no threat to the regime. will (PRO PROB 11/46/174). If this John Lyly was related to Oxford's 18 Despite Nelson's assumption that de Vere was in residence at Queens' secretary, he would have been his father or uncle, as the secretary would from October, when his room was reserved, through the following have been about eight-years-old when Earl John died. school year (24), records of payments to the university for services and 6 He certainly connected with him later, taking him along on his dining privileges prove his actual presence only from January through ambassadorial junket to France in 1567 (Strype 95) and later, putting March 1559. him in charge of his Irish project (Dewar 157-64). I~ Cooper records that during the Marian regime, Fowle acted as 7 Their fathers were brothers. The Wilfords were an old landowning " minister of a congregation of protestants which met secretly in or near family from Kent that, besides Sheriffs of London, had also contributed London" (1.452). military leaders to the nation. Brigitte's father, Thomas Wilford (of 20 This information comes from the St. John's College Biographical Hartridge, Kent) was the oldest son of James Wilford, Sheriff of London Sheet on Fowle, courtesy of Jonathon Harrison, St. John's librarian, and in the reign of Henry VII, while Philippa's father, John Wilford, Sheriff of Alan Nelson. of London in the later years of Henry VIII, was his youngest son. In 21 A case in point is the annuity granted Smith by Queen Mary on May Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 15

12, 1554. Ostensibly to recompense him for his loss of the Deanery Gray, J.H. The Queens' College of St. Margaret and St. Bernard in the of Carlisle and the Provostship of Eton, it was in fact given, as Dewar University of Cambridge. Cambridge: CUP, 1926. shows, for services already performed, namely for having provided Gyll, Gordon W.J. HistOl:voJthe Parish oJWraysblll)" Ankenl'ycke Priory, Mary's Council with cogent reasons for the actions they then took on and Magna Charta Island. London: 1862. the coinage, actions that overruled the recommendations of their agent Lipscomb, George. History of Buckinghamshire. Vol 4. London: 1847. in Antwerp, Sir Thomas Gresham (Memorandum 476). Smith continued Erickson, Carolly. Bloody Mw)'. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1978. to get the annuity although he performed no other recorded service for Evans, T.A.R. and R.J . Faith. "College Estates and University Finances the Marian regime. 1350-1500." The History of the University ofO.>..ford. Ed. T.H. Aston. n That Smith noted in his diary for 1561-62 certain "bickerings" 8 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992. between himself and Cecil has been noted by historians though they Hughes, Stephanie Hopkins. "Oxford's Childhood: What we know and could determine no cause (Nichols 110). what we don' t." Shakespeare OxJord Newsletter. 42.1. Winter (2006): 23 Though we can't be sure we have all of Smith's record books, those I, 5-11. we have do show a number of accounts relating to this period. Smith Hunter, R. Thomas. "Shakespeare and the First Earl of Oxford." The Shake­ was a fastidious record-keeper. speare O.>..ford Newsletter 42.1 winter (2006): 13-14, 26-28. 24 Sir John Hampden died in December 1553. Philippa married Smith MacFarlane, K.B. The Nobility oj Later Medieval England. Oxford: the following july. Clarendon, 1973. 25 In a paper from 1626 on the subject of the coinage, in a list of names Nichols, John Gouge. "Some Additions to the Biographies of Sir John of persons who had written on the subject earlier, is a "Mr. Wilford Cheke and Sir Thomas Smith." Archaeologia. London: Society of Merchant of London," (SP 16/43/13, fo. 22) which, based on the dates Antiquaries, March 31, 1859. for the other names in the list, might have been either Philippa's father Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England: J 500-J800. or her brother (her cousins were military men from Kent), but this is New York: Harper & Row, 1977. slim evidence. Spurgeon, Caroline FE.. Shakespeare's Imagery. (CUP 1935) Boston: Beacon, 1958. Works Cited Strype, John. The Life and Acts oj Matthew Parker . ... London: Claren­ don, 182l. Abbreviations: _____. The Life oJthe Learned Sir Thomas Smith. ( 1820) New York: Burt Franklin, 1974. BL British Library Whalen, Richard. "Cross-examining Leonard Digges on his Stratford Con­ ERO Essex Record Office nections." Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter 37.1 (200 I): I, 13-15. ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2005) PRO Public Record Office Websites and emails SP State Papers (Public Record Office) Ford, David Nash, ed. www.britannia.com/history/berks/churches/abing­ Carley, James P. "John Leland's Cygnea Cantio: a Neglected Tudor River don Poem.6 Humanistica Lovaniensia 32 (1983): 225-4l. Harrison, Jonathon. Librarian. St. John's College. Private email. July 13, Cooper, C. H. Athenae Call1abrigienses. Vol I. Cambridge: 1858. Davis, Frank. "Shakespeare's Medical Knowledge: How did he acquire 2006. Hatfield, Penny. Eton College Archivist. Private email, August 4, 2006. it?" The 040rdian 3 (2000): 45-58. Kathman, David. Shakespeareauthorship.com Dewar, Mary. Sir Thomas Smith: A Tudor Intellectual in Office. London: Leland, John. "Swan Song." Trans. Dana F Sutton. UC Irvine, March 27, Athlone, 1964. _____. "The Memorandum Forthe Understanding of the Exchange': 2006. http://www.philological.bham.ac. uk/swansongli ntro Padfield, Anne. Hill Hall Docent. Private email, March 2005. It's Authorship and Dating." Economic Histol), Review, NS 17.3 Ronan, Colin. www.chocky.demon.co.uk/oas/diggeshistory (! 965): 476-87. Courtenay, W.A. Theology and Theologians from Ockham to Wyclif. Ed. T.H. Aston. 8 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992. page 16 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Dear Editor, that Henry can "write" her story and future I think Richard Whalen did a great job in It was very gratifying to see in the news­ even better than the writer of the sonnets his review of "The 'Prince Tudor' Hypoth­ letter the article on Oxford's possible library can. And to understand the sonnets in this esis: A Brief Survey of the Pros and Cons." to which I contributed ever so slightly, and light even reveals the timeline of Oxford's Whalen laid out very logically, the history, I really enjoyed the balanced treatment life and the metaphor of this travel in his problems and issues around this theory. Richard Whalen gave to the merits and move to Hackney to which he alludes in I also want to thank Whalen for men­ limitations of the Prince Tudor theory. Sonnet 47 when he says a "league is took." tioning in his article my bisexual theory I would like to submit, however, some (Hackney is approximately three miles-a (published in the 2005 Oxfordian) as an additional thoughts on the Prince Tudor league-distant from London.) alternative. Oxfordians need to know that theory. I think there is too little appreciation To understand the sonnets in this way is there is an alternative. The only thing I for the possibility that many of the literary to understand that Sonnet 104 is written to would have added, is that in addition to works to which Oxford and his associates Henry as a three-year-old and why there is Maljorie Garber, the bisexual theory has contributed were both political and related so much language in the poem that relates much support in academia. In the new to continuing a Tudor monarchy and rec­ to how a doting father would relate to a Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ognizing an unrecognized prince. I believe child and to realize why there are many (2004), Peter Holland acknowledges that England's Helicon, The Paradise ofDaint y expressions and references to his doting in the "ex plicit homoeroticism [of the Sonnets1 Devices, Emaricdlllfe, Willobie His Avisa, the preceding sonnets. These doting verses suggests that Shakespeare's sexuality was and the Pamasslls works are chief among are dedicated to one he calls his "friend" but consciously bisexual in its desires." Harold them. The moral lessons that might also one Elizabeth herself and others apparently Bloom agrees: "The human endowment, be related to the same theme in the works abhor or hate. And to understand that Sonnet Shakespeare keeps intimating, is bisexual." of Shakespeare have received too little at­ 126 as the first sonnet to his son actually I don' t think that Sobran or Pequiney's po­ tention, as well. metaphorically leaves the last couplet as sition concerning sexuality is any different But my primary reason for writing is a symbolic reference to his unwritten and from mine. They emphasize that the sonnets to offer another manner of understanding undecided future, to which Oxford likely reveal the homosexual relationship of the Shakespeare's sonnets in a PT perspective. dedicated his life and his works. author with the fair youth, but they do not This, however, requires a paradigm shift and To perceive the sonnets this way is the deny the heterosexual nature of the Dark a new realization and understanding of a key to unlocking and understanding Shake­ Lady sonnets. greater depth and meaning in the sonnets. It speare the man. To understand the grief So, I don't think there are three different also requires an ever greater understanding that he expresses in the early sonnets in the positions: Prince Tudor, homosexual and of J. B. Leishman's observation in Themes shock at the crime Elizabeth commits and bisexual. These last two are essentially the and Va riations in Shakespea re 's Sonnets that his ultimate disappointment as she takes to same position, and seem to be widely ac­ Shakespeare thought in metaphor. I believe her grave Henry's secret. It is the key as cepted - except in Oxfordian circles. there is a very simple ex planation of the son­ well to understanding his plan for anonym­ What IS different concerning the Son­ nets. They are exactly what the dedication ity and his efforts to disguise the Stratford nets, is the theory that Mark Anderson and tells us they are: an argument for Elizabeth man as "Shakespeare." I have raised on the strong possibility that to live on through Henry Wriothesley in a While I've provided a very limited set the Dark Lady was Oxford's wife, Elizabeth veritable eternal line stretching five hundred of examples supporting my explanation, the Trentham, and its potentially explosive years into the future, as Oxford's own line key to my theory is that virtuall y anyone else impact on the authorship issue. These two stretched back that far. The dedication's can embark on this understanding by simply points (bisexuality and the identity of the description of Mr. W. H. as the "only beget­ reading the sonnets the way I believe they Dark Lady and her Bastard) could jointly ter" means that the sonnets were wri tten on should be read. If nothing else, I hope to solve the riddles of the Sonnets his behalf and also provides the chief clue have at least exposed a larger audience to Best Regards that the sonnets are in reversed order. When yet another view of Shakespeare. Perhaps John Hamill read in this order, they reveal essentially a one day I will publish my book FOIgotten complete story of Oxford 's lobbying efforts Secret, The True Story of Shakespeare's to convince Queen Elizabeth to live on Sonnets in which I fully explore what I have through their son, to use what she keeps in only briefly touched on here. store and ultimately to metaphorically form Sincerely, another version of herself. Alan Tarica To appreciate the power of metaphor in these sonnets is to understand that the so­ called rival poet is a metaphor for expressing Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 17

R.l.P. (collt'dfrOIll p. 1) redoubled its efforts to represent "nothing brought great wealth and the title complicated affair. There were apparently truer than the truth." The design of the new of Viscount [Lord] Bolebeck to the two separate branches of the Bolebecs: masthead emblem, my own contribution, is de Veres. From thence the courtesy those holding baronies in Northumberland based upon an image portraying Edward title of "Lord Bolebec" was be­ and thosein Buckinghamshire--oronly one stowed at birth on the first-born son de Vere's illustrious ancestor, Aubrey de branch with theNorthumbrian Bolebecs also of each Earl of Oxford. (7) Vere, Lord Great Chamberlain of England possessing the barony in Buckinghamshire, (so granted by Henry I), who was father of Thus much is true, but Miller then asserts, depending on which source is consulted. Aubrey de Vere, first Earl of Oxford. I The "The crest of the B olebecs was a I ion shaki ng Whichever the case may have been, there banner bearing Oxford's motto and t.he a broken spear, symbol of a disabled enemy, were several consecutive generations from 'dripping quill' were inspired by society and of success in tournaments" (emphasis in Domesday on consisting of fathers, sons, president Matthew Cossolotto's use of the original). Again true, but which Bolebecs, and brothers all named Walter and Hugh. term "dripping quill" in lieu of "smoking and when?The crest is also blazoned on the Confusing matters further, the de Veres gun". Although Oxfordians may not have cover of Miller's 1974edition of Eva Turner married into the Bolebecs twice, and both an actual smoking gun (or dripping quill), Clark's Hidden AlIl/sions in Shakespeare's times with Isabels! In 1184 or thereabouts, the amount of circumstantial evidence Plays (beneath the dust jacket), and is again Aubrey III, first Earl of Oxford, obtained that Edward de Vere was the author of the displayed in her 1975 annotated edition of the wardship (but not the lands) of Isabel I Shakespeare works is substantive enough Looney's Shakespeare Identified, with the de Bolebec, daughter and heir of Walter de to withstand the expulsion of the Bulbeck caption "Lion brandishing a broken spear. Bolebec, and in 1190 gave 500 marks for crest. Nevertheless, like many Oxfordians, I Hereditary Crest of Edward de Vere as Lord permission to marry her to his son, Aubrey was enamored with the crest and its alleged Bolebec," followed by Ben Jonson's quote IV, second Earl of Oxford, Aubrey IV ob­ symbolism and was therefore disappointed "He seems to shake a lance, As brandish't tained the Bolebec fief upon his marriage to learn that it was a fraud-or more likely at the eyes of ignorance" (471). with Isabel I, and paid 100 shillings scutage an honest mistake. This article will take a In 1997, while perusing Canon Gerald on his wife's barony, and later paid 10 marks brief look at how this may have come to Rendall's Oxfordian papers which had been and one palfrey for having an inquisition pass, and why this crest does not, and never deposited in Liverpool University Library, of the land of her father Walter. Isabel I, did, apply to Oxford. researcher John Rollett discovered that however, died without issue in 1206/07 It is difficult to pin down precisely Rendall, over half a century earlier, had when her heirs were her aunts (her father when and how the Bulbeck crest of the investigated the validity of the claim that Walter's sisters) Isabel II and Constance lion brandishing a broken spear came to this version of the Bulbeck crest was used de Bolebec. Aubrey IV died without issue be associated with Edward de Vere as Vis­ by Edward de Vere. Rollett published his in 1214 and was succeeded by his brother count Bulbeck (variously spelled Bulbeke, findings in the Summer 1999 web-based Robert as third earl of Oxford. Robert had Bollbecke, Bollebec, Bolbec, Bolebec, edition of the now defunct Spear Shaker previously (around 1208) acquired one etc.). The earliest reference I have found Review in an article titled "An Oxfordian moiety of the Bolebec barony by marry­ is in thel923 Shakespeare Throl/gh OxfOld Myth?", in which he reported that there ing Isabel II, whose inheritance of half the Glasses, wherein H.H. Holland asks, "Why were two letters among Rendall's papers barony increased to the whole after her should the Bolebec crest turn out to be a from correspondents on this topic. One of sister Constance died without issue. It was lion shaking a spear?"2 Whether or not these, according to Rollett, had consulted through this match that the earls of Oxford Holland introduced the notion, it obviously Windsor Herald, who replied as follows: assumed the Bolebec barony (and hence the followed hard on the heels of J.T. Looney's "The lion rampant with broken spear was title of Viscount Bulbeck).3 1920 Shakespeare Identified; we can be the crest of another branch of the Bolebecs, Unfortunately, I have had no more suc­ reasonably confident that it did not come which had nothing to do with de Vere." The cess than Rollett in pinpointing precisely before. This handsome crest eventually second letter, also from an expert in the when the crest as its known today came became an appealing 'selling point' in the field, stated that "[t]he 'broken spear' is a into being, or which branch of the Bulbecks Oxfordian arsenal. By the time it appeared later feature." created it, although it was probably a cadet on the dust jacket of Eleanor Brewster's Although the spear-wielding lion is given branch (younger sons, cousins, etc.) that 4 19640xfOld, Courtier to the QI/een (if not in several books on heraldry as a crest of varied the crest with a mark of distinction. before), the lion's spear had been cleverly the Bolebecs, no information is given as to However, as late as 1559, the lion-rampant transformed into a pen. The late Ruth Loyd which member of the family might have arms and crest, with no broken spear, were Millerchampioned thecrestin several of her assumed it. While I don't wish to weary confirmed to JolmB ulbeck of Knighton Sey­ 5 publications, including one of her circulars my readers with a long antiquarian treatise, mourin Somerset. While the earls of 0 x ford titled "Abstract of Facts", with thefollowing it will be useful to review the origin of the were able to quarter their coat of arms with explanation: Bolebec intersection with the de Veres, and the Bolebec charge after Isabel II's death in why it is that the crest in question would 1245, their own family crest alternated, as it Isabel Bolebec (Bulbeck), Count­ never have been used by the seventeenth earl had timeoutofmind, between the blue boar ess of the 3rd Earl of Oxford, 6 of Oxford. Tracing the descent is a somewhat and the eagle. Even if Oxford had deigned page 18 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

to use a Bulbeck crest on any armorial bear­ 3)8. One can see how much more primitive name and astrological significance. For ings prior to 1562, while he was still only these insignia are than that of the lion in the BlIlbeck-the second coat in the top row­ Viscount Bulbeck, it would have looked Bulbeck crest we know. Morgan writes: "2. Venus, a Lion rampant nothing like the one we know today, which Other pertinent examples may be found Luna, vulned in the shoulder." While the is far too modern for the Sixteenth century.7 in the de Vere coat of arms portrayed in wounded shoulder does not appear obvious If anything, it would have resembled the various Sixteenth and Seventeenth centmy to the naked eye in this depiction, what is lion in the contemporaneous Bolebec arms, publications. Sylvanus Morgan's 1661 The obvious is that there is no spear either in which consisted of a lion rampant (i.e. in Sphere ofGentlY contained a copper cut of the illustration or in Morgan's heraldic profile with the body upraised), vulned in description of the Bulbeck coat. Moreover, the shoulder (i.e. 'wounded', so that blood the Bulbeck coat appeared in several works appears). One can get a good idea of how that were dedicated to Edward de Vere in this would have looked from the Bolebec his own lifetime, but most Oxfordians were arms displayed in Thomas Milles' 1610 apparently unaware that the lion rampant The catalogue of hO/101; or tresUl), of tme pictured in this quarter of Oxford's coat of nobility, peculiar to Great Britain (Figure anns represented the Bulbeck cognizance. 2). Milles included a chapter on the geneal­ For comparative purposes, I have chosen the ogy of the earls of Oxford and displayed the woodcut in George Baker's 1574 The Com­ Bolebec escutcheon on page 679 above his position or Making of the Most Excellent discussion of Isabel II de Bolebec, wife of and Pretious Oil Called Oleum Magistrale, Robert de Vere, third Earl of Oxford. The which was dedicated to Oxford9 (Figure 5). heraldic description of the Bolebec ensign Again, the vulned, or wounded shoulder, is given in the margin: "V[ert] a Lyon / is not discernible in the two foregoing examples, but is clear in Edward de Vere's arms illustrated in Golding's genealogical tract on the family of Vere (Figure 6). Figure 3: 1sabel de Bolebec's arllls in Per­ A further comparison with contempo­ cival Golding :~ lIIanuscript (c. 1615-20). raneous emblematic lions should prove

the armorial bearings of Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last earl of Oxford (Figure 4). In conjunction with the image, Morgan wrote: "AubelY de Vere Earle of Oxford, Lord Blilbeck, Sandford, and Badlesmer, Scales, beareth quarterly many Coats, of which I have chosen Eight." Morgan then describes each coat, left to right, top to bottom, with its corresponding

Figure 2: Isabel de Bolebec's arllls in The VERa Nil-IlL VERIVS catalogue of honOl; or treslII), of tme nobility, peculiar to Great Britain (1610). Figure 5: Oxford's arlllS in The COlli position rampant A[rgent] / wounded G[ules)". In or lIIaking of the 1II0St excellent and pretious heraldic terminology, this would have been Oil called OleuIII Magistrale (1574). a green lion (Vert) on a silver background helpful in demonstrating that the Bulbeck (Argent) with a red wound in the shoulder crest of the lion brandishing the broken (Gules). The wounded (vulned) shoulder, is spear/[pen] is simply too modern to be not particularly discernible here, but is quite synclu'onous to the seventeenth earl of clear in the Bolebec ensign illustrated in Oxford's lifetime. Percival Golding's presentation manuscript Figure 7: The Lion crest is depicted in The Armes, Honours, Matches, and Issues the frontis matter of the 1597 (2nd ed.) of the auncient and illustrious family of Brittons BowreofDelights. Note the striped Figure 4: Aubrey de Vere, twentieth earl of Veer, which was written c. 1615-20 (Figure or interwoven padded ribbon (called a Oxford's arlllS in The Sphere of Gentry (1661). "torse") from which the lion's torso ex- Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 19

Halstead was a pseudonym for Henry Mordaunt, second earl of Peterborough). The Aubrey de Vere depicted here was the second of that name, being son of Aubrey I de Vere, who came in with William the Conqueror and founded Earls Colne Priory. Aubrey II's son, who became the first earl of Oxford, was also named Aubrey (Ill), and his son, still another Aubrey (IV), was the second earl of Oxford. In some records Aubreys I, II and III are also listed as earls (or counts) of Guisnes, but Aubrey III was apparently the only one who had a legitimate claim to that title through his first wife Beatrice, countess of Guisnes, which Figm'e 8: Emblem in The heroicall devises he subsequently lost when he divorced her. (I 59 1). The tenth and twentieth earls of Oxford were Figure 6: 040rd's arms in Percival Golding 's anaclu'onistic quality of the Bulbeck crest also named Aubrey, and there were many MS. (c. 1615-20). with emblazomy contemporary to Edward more Aubreys in the de Vere lineage besides. tends, similar to the one on which the lion de Vere's era. The earliest designs I've The name Aubrey (anglicized from the Latin in the modem Bulbeck crest is perched. The found of this style date to the mid to late Albericus) was obviously favored among the de Veres, and has an interesting etymology; torse is similar; the lion is not. Seventeenth centulY and beyond. One can it literally meant 'elf king', deriving from the Figure 8: Next we have lion emblem in fact compare the progression in technique Germanic Albirich, or Alberic, the French depicted in the 1591 English translation of between the 1574 and 1661 renditions of form being Auberon, from whence we get Paradin's H eraicall devises. The accompa­ the Oxford insignia (Figures 4 & 5). It has Oberon. nying moral describes "a Lion shaking a been suggested that perhaps some know­ 2 As cited by Ron Hess, who rightly adds sword betweene his forefeete ingrauen, to ing descendants of the Bulbeck line added that "this fact has recently come into doubt signifie perhaps a hard and bold voyage or the spear in deference to their late great as attributable to the 17th Oxford", The Dark enterprise" (105-6). ancestor-a bit of a nudge, nudge, wink, Side of Shakespeare, 1,77. wink, if you will. Such a view, of course, 3 For the foregoing information I have can only be pure speculation. I personally followed Geoffrey H. White, ed., The Complete Peerage (London: The SI. Catherine Press, 1945), X, 204-13. However, other sources offer conflicting genealogies for Isabels de Bolebec I and 11, and while the entries in The Complete Peerage seem to be the most reliable, they may not be without faults. Even Percival Golding in his genealogical tract on the family of Veres (c. 1615-20) expressed the difficulties in pinning down the matter, suggesting that there were Figure 9: Emblem in Dialogo dell' imprese not two, but only one Isabel de Bolebec, militari et amorose (1559). that Aubrey IV having married an Isabel de Bolebec was based on a forged document, and Figm'e 7: Devicefrom Bril/O/ls Bowre of that only Robert, third earl of Oxford, married take more comfort with the view that the Delights (1597). Isabel de Bolebec. Golding's frustration is degree of circumstantial evidence for Ox­ evident when he wrote "Here is to be observed ford having written the Shakespeare works that the proper names of Hugh and Walter in Figure 9: The Lion emblem is depicted can bear up against the loss ofthis particular this family . .. were very frequent insomuch as in Giovio's 1559 Dialogo dell' imprese crest with naIY a dent in its hide, and that for the space of an hundreth yeeres together, mililari el amorose. The accompanying its passing should not be mourned. Indeed, there is no other to be found in the heires Italian moral describes "vn Leone rampante as Oxfordian scholarship advances, I prefer males" (I Ov). Additionally, I have found di color naturale in campo rosso con vno to embrace Oxford's motto-Vera Nihil contradictory information on the matter in stocco in mano", i.e. "a lion rampant of Verius-and thus say "good riddance" to question in the following sources: U. Sanders, color natural in red field with a long sword the Bulbeck crest. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and in hand" (130-1).10 Descel/t, 1086-1327 (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1960), p. 98; Richard Welford, Mel/ Additional examples could be offered, but (Endnotes) of Mark 'twixt Tyl/e alld 1\l'eed (London: the foregoing illustrations are representative 1 The emblem appears in Robert Halstead's Walter Scott, 1895), 1lI, 344-5; Nicholas and should more than suffice to reveal the 1685 Succillct Genealogies (Wing P 1693; Harris Nicolas, A Synopsis of the Peerage of page 20 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

England (London: 1. Nichols and son, IS25) to patronize, but as a testimony of particular away"; and noticed Shakespeare's familiar I, 69; The NOn/ICIII People, and Their Existing . affection" [2r]) between 1615 and 1620. The derivation of 'stuck' from 'stocco' in Tl velfth Descendants in the British Dominions and the closest reference to a terminus ad quem comes Night: "I had a pass with him, rapier, scabbard United States ofAmerica (London: Henry S when Golding writes that Oxford's daughter and all, and he gives me the stuck in with such King, IS74), 177 [no author given]; Charles Bridget Vere is "wife of ffrancis now Lord a mortal motion" (III, 4), and in Hamlet: "If Wriothesley, Windsor Herald, ed. William Norreis of Ricot" (25r). As Francis Lord he by chance escape your venom'd stuck" Douglas Hamilton, A Chronicle of England Norris was created earl of Berkshire on 28 (IV, 7). during the Reigns of the Tudors, from A.D. January 1621 it can be assumed the writing 1485 to 1559 (XX, N.S., II , Camden Society, antedates this. Henry de Vere is referred to as WORKS CITED: IS77),50. "now Earle of Oxen ford , High Chamberlayne Breton, Nicholas. Brillons BOlVre of Delights. 4 Citing Alexander Deuchar's British Crests of England" (25v). Earl Henry seems not London: Richard Jones, 1591. Hyder Rol ­ (ISI7), Rollett describes several crests listed to have officially taken up his duties as lins, ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1933. under the name Bolebec; included are: "(a) a Lord Great Chamberlain until May of 1619, Giovio, Paolo. Dialogo dell' imprese militari lion's head regardant, proper; (b) a lion sejant but Golding's reference cannot confidently et amorose. Lyon: Appresso Guglielmo supporting with his dexter paw a broken lance, post date th at since Earl Henry was referred Rouiglio, 1559 (see http://iris.lib.virginia. all proper; (c) a hand holding a sealed letter, to as LGC in many earlier documents edu/rmds/gordon/gordonimages/Gor­ proper". This last refers to "plate 12, crest 3"; regardless of this fact. The pertinent don I 559_G56_n L2/). however, Rollett says that plate 12, crest 3 terminus a quo comes with Golding's two Golding, Percival. The Armes, Honours, actually shows a hand holding a pen. Rollett references to Horatio Vere's children. He Matches, and Issues of the auncient and writes that perhaps "some Oxfordian saw the first writes that Horatio married Mary, illustrious family of Veer. (c. 1615-20; BL lion with the lance in a book of crests, and daughter of Sir John Tracy, "by whom he MS. Harleian 4IS9). assumed that Oxford as Lord Bulbeck would hath issue fowr daughters" (23r). Horatio's Hess, Ron. The Dark Side ofShakespeare. Vol.l, have used it. But there is no more warrant to first four daughters were born in Holland New York/London/Shanghai: Writers Club assume this than there is to suppose that he between 1610 and 1614. Six pages after this Press (iUniverse), 2002. used the crest of the lion's head, or the hand passage, Golding lists Horatio and Mary'sjive Holland, Hubert Henry. Shakespeare Through holding a letter, or pen." daughters (26r). The couple's fifth daughter 040rd Glasses. London: C. Palmer, 5 Information supplied to Rollett from was born in 1616, baptized at the parish of St. 1923. Oxfordian Eddi Jolly (obtained from a Herald Bartholomew the Great in England on January Miller, Ruth Loyd. Shakespeare Idelltified personally known to her). 15th of that year. [after Looney]. Vol. I, P0I1 Washington, 6 See Robert Brazil's aI1icle: "Oxford's 9 Readers will observe in comparing NY /London: Kennikat Press, 1975, for Heraldry Explained", Shakespeare Mailers Morgan's and Baker's versions of Oxford's Minos Publishing Co. 5:3, Spring 2006, 1+. arms that the coat representing Colbrook (on __. "Abstract of Facts: Oxford / DeVere / 7 Rollett writes that "[t]he comment has been the bottom, third quarter to the right) differs: Shakespeare". Undated circular. made that Oxford, as Lord Bulbeck, having the 1574 version includes a Lion rampant Milles, Thomas. The catalogue of hOIlOl; or inherited the ancient Bolebec crest of a lion, behind a 'fess' (a division ofa shield formed treslll ), of true 1I0bility, peculiar to Great might have decided to add the lance to it. This by hvo lines drawn horizontally) containing Britaill. London: Jaggard, 1610 (STC seems very unlikely indeed. Edward became three crosses, whereas the 1661 version 17926). Earl of Oxford at age twelve, on the death of does not include the Lion, but only the fess. Morgan, Sylvanus. The Sphere of Gentry, de­ his father. He would use the undifferenced Morgan describes this quarter of the arms: "7. duced from the Principles of Nature: all Vere arms, and the crest of a blue boar, from Luna, a Lion rampant Mars, debrused by a Historical alld Gellealogical Work ofArms this date. He would have had no reason to Fesse Sol, charged with Three Crosses partee alld Blazoll, ill Four Books. London: Wil­ revert to the inferior rank of Baron as Lord fiched Saturn." The heraldic term 'debrused' liam Leybourne, 1661 (Wing M2743). Bolebec, adopt the Bolebec crest of a lion is used when an ordinary or subordinaty is Paradin, Claudius M. The heroicall devises rampant, and then difference it by adding a placed over an animal or charge, sometimes of M. Claudius Paradin, Whereunto are broken spear. In any case, such a difference also called 'surmounted'. Although Morgan added the Lord Gabriel Symeollsand others normally indicates a cadet branch, while describes the lion in the Colbrook quartering, (Translated out of our Latin into English by the de Veres were the senior branch, having for some reason it is not rendered in the P.S.). London: William Kearney, 1591 (see inherited the barony." illustration. http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/paradI05. 8 Percival Golding was the son of Oxford's 10 Stocco in Italian is a sword, or rapier, and htm). uncle, Arthur Golding. Internal evidence dates stoccata a thrust. Confer Mercutio in Romeo Rollett, John. "An Oxfordian Myth?", Spear the composition of his manuscript (dedicated and Juliet (TII, I): "Alia stoccata carries it Shaker Review (Web Edition, no longer to Sir Horatio Vere "not as a publike worke on-line) #6 Summer 1999. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 21

Mil ch Ado (cont'dfrolll p. 4) flux in the period 1581-83. While records Polo's travels, translated to English by and sees Beatrice as a representation of are sketchy, it appears that Oxford was J. Frampton and published in 1579. Oxford's mistress Anne Vavasor.4 In addi­ not officially the sponsor of any profes­ o In III.i.6lff: "She would spell him tion, Oxford's first wife, Anne Cecil, has sional acting troupe in this period, and as backward: if fair faced .. . her sister, been counted by Ogburn as the model for E.K. Chambers reports (II 5), the Queen's if black ... a foul blot; if tall a lance Hero in this playas well as for other suf­ Company was formed "incorporating, in ... if low, an agate velY vilely cut; if fering, falsely accused wives - Imogen, addition to Tarlton, ... the leading members speaking ... blown with all winds, Hermione, and Desdemona (567). These of the pre-existing companies", including if silent ... moved with none" (III. identifications have been suggested before "John Dutton from Oxford's". Eva Clark i.61 ff) . Holland (39-40) reports, as - Vera and Charlton Ogburn in their earlier attributes the performance to "Mr. [Rich­ have others, that these lines were "in­ book, identified Beatrice and Benedick as ard] Mulcaster's children, the boys of the spired by a passage ofa similarnature being based on Anne Vavasor and Oxford, Merchant Taylor's School" (Ogburn, Jr. in Lyly 's Euphues, theAnatomyojWit and also saw the pair as the models for 660 I, Clark 372ft). Oxford does appear (1579): "They account one a dastard Rosaline and Berowne of Love 's Labour's in connection with the stage as holder of ifhe be not desperate, a pinch penny Lost(20 1,481-5). Certainly the concept that the sublease in 1583 of the theater at the if he be not prodigal, if silent a sot, Oxford put himself and those about him in former monastery of Blackfriars, which iffull of words a fool, if tall a lance, the play has been voiced before, but only in he transferred in turn to his secretary, John if short a dwarf'(39-40). passing. A detailed examination is needed Lyly giving Lyly the supervision of the o "Thou knowest that the fashion of a to show that Much Ado is a thoroughly auto­ new boys' company acting there (Ogburn, doublet or a hat or a cloak is nothing biographical play delving quite deeply into Jf. 661-2). There are reports that Lyly was to a man ..." (III.ii.125ff). Holland the life and the feelings of Oxford, and of trying to amalgamate the children's troupes finds this long passage to be an allu­ those nearest and dearest to him. under Oxford's patronage, something which sion to the Sumptuary Laws issued Let us first examine in detail the possible became an established troupe, but perhaps by the Queen in the spring of 1580 identification of Hero with Anne Cecil, not by the time of the court pelformance of dealing with certain fashions then in Countess of Oxford, Edward de Vere's first Ariodante and Genevora in February 1583 vogue(41). wife. The strongest feature of Anne Cecil (Bradbrook 299, Chambers II 17, Ogburn, potentially identifying her as contribut­ Jr. 662). It appears instead that boys of the Four of the five ties noted here are found ing to the Hero character is the suspicion Merchant Taylor's School were used to in the final text of Milch Ado in speeches of sexual infidelity and the subsequent mount the February 1583 presentation of referencing the Beatrice and Benedick sub­ alienation from her husband. The question Ariodante and Genevora. plot, the first three relating to establishing of Anne's possible infidelity is one that Holland's suggestion that the play Ari­ Benedick as a professed bachelor, and the remains problematical over the centuries. odante alld Genevora staged in 1583 was fourth relating to establishing the argumen­ Oxford himself never directly voiced such the original version of Much Ado is based tative and contentious attitude of Beatrice an accusation: his most explicit word on the on dating a number of lines from the final towards a possi b Ie h us band. Since these pas­ subject is in his letter of April 27, 1576, to version of the play to events and to other sages, through the literary works to which Lord Burghley, his father-in-law (Chiljian works of literature immediately predating they allude, place the date of their writing 24, Ogburn, Jr. 559). In this he describes his that performance. Holland notes the follow­ to 1580-83, then we are dating Beatrice and countess "as your daughter or her mother's ing such examples:2 Benedick lines to that time frame - such more than my wife ..." and as one who lines make no sense in terms of a simple had made their marriage "the fable of the o "In time the savage bull doth bear Hero-and-Claudio plot line. This provides world".' The public damage to herreputation the yoke" (I.i.263) occurs in Thomas important evidence that the Beatrice and along with the long-delayed reconciliation Watson's Hekatoll1pathia of March Benedick plot line formed an integral part make her a very credible candidate for the 1582, a work dedicated to the Earl of of the original Ariodante and Genevora, a living source of Hero. Add to this the Earl Oxford which, according to the dedi­ significant point which has been heretofore of Oxford's penchant, in his role as the cation, Oxford had perused before its overlooked. playwright William Shakespeare, for dark printing; DETAILS OF OXFORD'S plots revolving about other falsely accused o "I look for an earthquake too then" wives - such as Hermione,6 Desdemona, I.i.274 may well refer to the earth­ LIFE APPEARING IN Imogen, and Helena - all strongly suggest quake which startled the English (a MUCH ADO 3 Oxford's remorse over how he had treated velY rare occulTence for that nation) her. If this is actually the case, nowhere is it As we proceed to seek evidence of the on April 6, 1580. more dramatically and explicitly displayed author's hand and person in Milch Ado o "I will bring you the length ofPrester than in Claudio's remorse expressed before abollt Nothing, we must acknowledge that John's foot, fetch you a hair of the Hero's monument. indeed, there is a history of Oxfordian great Cham's [Khan's] beard" (II. The playwright may have given Hero identifications in the play. Ogburn, Jr. sees i .280ftD Such are mentioned in Marco other marks identifying her with Anne Ce- Benedick as the embodiment of Oxford page 22 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

ci l, notably her short stature and her brown role as the model for Hermia in Midsum­ be a source of great embarrassment for hair. She lacked the stature and the blonde mer Night's Dream, in view of quite similar members of his immediate family. hair considered by some to be the mark of teasing material: As for the other couple in the play, feminine beauty at the time. Benedick goes Beatrice and Benedick, there would seem out of his way to apprise Claudio of these Hermia. "Puppet?" Why so? Ay, that to be a great deal of evidence supporting qualities in his beloved: way goes the game. Now I perceive the association of these two with Oxford that she hath l/Ig'd her height; and himself and his court mistress, Anne Vava­ Claud. Benedick, didst thou not note the with her personage, her tall person­ sor. Miss Vavasor created quite a stir in daughter of signior Leonato? age, Her height, forsooth, she hath the court of Queen Elizabeth when, while Bene. I noted her not; but I look'd on prevail 'dwith him,And are you grown a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, she gave heJ: so high in his esteem, Because I am so birth in the maidens' chambers to a son Claud. Is she not a modest young dwarfish and so low? How low am I? and named Edward de Vere as the father lady? I am not yet so loll' but that my nails (Ogburn, Jr. 646-666) This background is Bene. Do you question me, as an honest can reach unto thine eyes ... essential to understanding the subtlety of man should do, for my simple true Helena .. . . And though she be but little, many lines in the play. judgment, orwollid YOll have me speak she is fierce. Foremost among the elements of the after my custom, as being a professed Hermia. "Little" again! Nothing but relationship between the Beatrice and tyrant to her sex? "low" and "little"! Why will you Benedick characters is the "merry war", the Claud. No; I pray thee speak in sober suffer her to fiout me thus? [Emphasis ongoing "skirmish of wit between them" judgment. added] (IlI.ii.289-98 and 325-27) as reported by Leonato in I.i.62-3. Indeed, Bene. Why, l' faith methinks she's too many Oxfordian scholars, among them We see here the personality of the low for a high praise, too brown for first Eva Turner Clark (192) then Dorothy Merry Madcap Earl, Edward de Vere in his afairpraise and too little for a great and Charlton Ogburn (Sr.; 201) see in this irrepressible manic phase of his manic-de­ praise ... " [emphasis added] "merry war" much the same relationship pressive nature, so very common to artistic The lady's short stature is remarked on as that between Rosaline and Berowne in geniuses, as explored by Simonton7 in later at I.i.214-16: Love's Labour's Lost. There is a history general and by Llewellyn8 for the particular Bene . ... He is in love. With who? Now between them, even before the start of the case of the Earl of Oxford. The depressive that is your Grace's part. Mark how play, revealed by Beatrice in the opening phase is most eloquently expressed in short his answer is: - with Hero, scene): Leonato 's shortdaughteJ:" [Emphasis Hero's Epitaph: added] (I.i.163-75) Beat. You always end with ajade 's trick; Done to death by slanderous tongues I know vou of old. [Emphasis added] Was the Hero that here lies. The exchange is best understood, taking (I.i.146) Oxford as the playwright, when one recog­ Death, in guerdon of here wrongs, nizes that Oxford was raised from age 12 Gives herfame that never dies. The later conversation between Don to manhood in the house of Anne's father, So the life that died with shame Pedro and Beatrice (II.i.285-95), viewed Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley, Lives in death with glorious faille. (Y. in this light, may be seen as being most with Anne in the role, effectively, of his iii.3-8) pregnantlO in meaning: little sister. If there is any constant in hu­ Anne Cecil died in 1588, but her memory man nature, it is that older siblings tend to D. Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have is enshrined in a tomb in Westminster Ab­ tease their younger siblings unmercifully, lost the heart ofSignior Benedick. bey, where her short, brown-haired image particularly in the case of an older brother Beat. Indeed, my lord; he lent it me a is painted on her recumbent funeral statue and a younger sister. That feature of such while; and I gave him use for it, a in the style of Julio Romano,9 as was the a relationship is abundantly played out in double heart for his single one. Many, standing statueofHermione in The Winter's the above exchanges. As a youth he might once before he won it ofme with false Tale. If we are correct in identifying Anne have been wont to express himself to one dice, therefore your Grace may well Cecil with Hero, as we earlier identified with the standing of a younger sister in the Say I have lost it. her with Hermione, two characters suffer­ form of teasing. And how better to tease D. Pedro. You have put him down, ing from the injury of false accusation of her? The ideal English lady of the day was lady, vou have put him down. (II. sexual infidelity, the playwright, whom we tall and fair (i.e. blonde) - now there's the i.285-95) identify as the Earl of Oxford, is obviously stuff with which to tease a short, brown­ Beat. So I would not he should do me. mv ex pressing a deep personal remorse. Indeed, haired girl. lord. lest I should Drove the mother of such adeep expression of personal lament in Having considered the short, brown­ fools. [Emphasis added] (I.i.146) such a public manner, were Oxford known haired Anne Cecil as the possible model for as the author of Much Ado about Nothing Viewed in terms of the history of Oxford Hero, we should also examine her possible and The Winter's Tale would of necessity and his mistress, double meanings leap off Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 23

the page. When Beatrice speaks of "know­ Yet who doth most adore this wight, oh watchmen "frequentl y address each other as ing" Benedick of old, she is looking back to hollow caves tell true? You. 'neighbour(s)' ; and that in both plays their an earlier time when she, as Anne Vavasor, What nymph deserves his liking best, 'bills' (halberds or pikes) are mentioned in knew "Benedick", i.e. Oxford, in the biblical yet doth in sorrow rue? You. connection with the watchmen's stupid­ sense of carnal knowledge, only to lose his What makes him not regard good will ity." (152). Another parallel mentioned by heart as he abandoned her when she bore with some regard or ruth? Youth. Johnson is in references in both plays to the his child. 11 The sexual innuendol2 contin­ May I his favour match with love, if he "bird-bolt", "a blunt, wooden-headed arrow ues with "put him down", a mildly bawdy my love will try? Ay. for stunning small birds and for safe use by allusion l3 to their past amorous activities, May I requite his birth with faith? Then children (and fools). In yet another pm'allel, which led, in real life, to the pregnancy Faithful will I die? Ay. both plays feature a speech concerning the for which Beatrice marks herself as "the transformation of a soldier into a lover: Sir mother of fools". The "Echo Poem" is sometimes attrib­ Tophas speaking in Endimion (IILiii) and A particularly poignant pair of references uted to Edward de Vere himself. Looney (in Benedick speaking in Milch Ado (lI.iii). to Oxford and Anne Vavasor is found in the Appendix III, Poems of Edward de Vere , Johnson delineates further specific final scene of Much Ado): Vol. L pp. 560-61 of the Miller edition) and parallels between the two plays in terms Ogburn, Jr. (393) offer the "Echo Poem" as of euphuistic style, showing characteristic Claud. And /,11 be swom IIpon't that he a fragment within a larger work - ten lines pairings involving contrasts and parallels; loves her; / For here's a paper writ­ beginning "Sitting alone upon my thought syntactic parallelism; semantic contrast; and ten in his hand, / A halting sonnet of ..." form an introduction to the "Echo Poem" apparent contradiction (154). Finally, the his own pure brain, / Fashion 'd to itself. Ward's biography of Edward de Vere two plays show remarkable parallels in word l 5 Beatrice. offers both the ten introductory lines un­ imagery, particularly in terms of metaphors Hero. And Here 's another / Writ in der the heading "Verses made by the Earle of catching birds and fish (155). Essentially, my cousin's hand, sto/'n from her of Oxforde" [sic], followed immediately Johnson has shown that there was extensive pocket, / Containing her affection by the "Echo Poem" itself under the title borrowing between the writers of Much IInto Benedick. (V.iv.84-90) "Ann Vavesor's Eccho" [sic]. Perhaps the Ado and of Endimion. This should hardly "Echo Poem" was a separate work of Anne be a surprise, if Oxford wrote Milch Ado, In fact, two such poems have survived and Vavasor for which de Vere later penned considering that Lyly had been Oxford's were made public in Elizabethan times. The an introduction; perhaps not. We shall not secretary in the 1580-88 time frame, and first is the "Dark Lady"14 sonnet of Love's quibble here as to whether de Vere or Anne manager of his acting troop at B lackfriar's. Labollr's Lost (Iv.iii.258-65): Vavasor wrote the poem; if de Vere wrote This leads us to ask, which was the source, it, the intention was to sound as though the Bir. 0, if in black my lady's brows be and which the derivative work? In dating lady wrote it. deck'd, / It I/Wllms that painting and Endimion, Johnson (151) notes that it was IIsltlping hair / Should ravish doters RELATING MUCH ADO first published in 1591, and that (accord­ with a false aspect; / And therefore ing to the title page) "it had been played is she bom to make black fail: / Her WITH LYLY'S PLAY 'before the Queenes Majestie at Greenwich favour tllms thefashion ofthe days, / ENDIMION on Candlemas day at night by the Chyldren ofPaules'''(qtd. in Johnson 151). Johnson For native blood is counted painting Philip Johnson has researched the con­ further notes that scholars, such as W.A. now; / And therefore red, that wOllld nection between Much Ado about Nothing Neilson, place an earlier date, perhaps even avoid dispraise, / Paints itself black, and John Lyly's court play, Endimion, as 1586 or 1588, on the performance indicated to imitate her brow. (IV.iii.258-65) has Humphreys in the Arden Shakespeare. in the title page. There is an obvious connection between the Oxfordians identify Edward de Vere as One must consider, however, that A his­ two plays in terms of the euphuistic speech the author of these lines. The second, in torie ofAriodante and Genevora was staged styles they share. The speeches of the Mes­ which Anne Vavasor proclaims her love at court in February, 1583, evidence that senger, Beatrice, Benedick, Don John, and for Oxford, is known to the world as Anne such a play had been written well before the Borachio in Milch Ado show great similar­ Vavasor's Echo Poem: writing of Endimioil. In particular, as noted ity to Lyly's euphuistic style in his fiction the final script of Much Ado contained allu­ and in his courtly plays. More specifically, o heavens! Who was the first that bred sions to literary works in the 1579-82 time in terms of content, both Humphreys and in me this fever? Vere. frame: Watson's Hekatompathia (1582); Johnson link the befuddled watchmen in Who was the first that gave the wound Frampton's translation of Marco Polo's trav­ Milch Ado to a similar group of characters in whose fear I wear for ever? Vere. els (1579);and Lyly'sEllphues, theAnatolllY Endimion, and see borrowings between the What tyrant, Cupid, to my harm usurps of Wit (1579). These passages would have two in terms of Dogberry's "reasonslraisins" thy golden quiver? Vere. been fresh in the author's mind (and topical pun reflected by a similar pun in Endimion. What wight first caught this heart and can to the public) in 1583, but would have been Johnson notes further pm'allels: both sets of from bondage it deliver? Vere. less fresh and less topical years later. These page 24 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

considerations suggest that Ariodante and relationships, broken marriages, disabling tical Approach to the Shakespeare Author­ Genevora was an early version of Milch personality traits, and alcoholism. ship Question", The Elizabethan Review, Ado, including the Beatrice and Benedick 8 Llewellyn's Oxfordian article would seem to Vol. I No.2, fall 1993, pp. 36-42. plot (to which these lines contribute) as well indicate that a problematic personality, rather Dowden, Edward, Comedies, Tragedies and Histories and Poems ofShakespeare, 3 vols. as the Hero and Claudio plot suggested by than being a bar for Oxford as a creative writer, is a common trait of gifted writers. London, Oxford University Press, 1911. its title, dating to 1583; if so, Endimion was 9 The painted statue, one of the few such in Evans, G. Blakemore, and Tobin, J.J.M., Eds. , the derivative work rather than the source. the Abbey, was noted by Desper and Vezzoli, The Riverside Shakespeare - Second Edi­ and Bette Talvacchia has confirmed it as a tion, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1997. (Endnotes) typical work of the 16th century artist Julio Greenblatt, Stephen, editor, The Norton Shake­ 1 For discussion of these sources, see Holland, Romano, although earlier critics had criticized speare, Based on the Oxford Edition, NOlton pp. 37-43; Ogbul11 and Ogburn (Sr.), pp. 480- "Shakespeare" for confusing the painter & Co., New York, 1997. 506; Nielson and Hill, p. 179; Ogburn (Jr.), p. Romano with a sculptor. He was both. Humphreys, A. R. , (ed.) Milch Ado abollt Noth­ 661 Greenblatt (Norton 1381-8). 10 The present author apologizes; he could ing, The Arden Shakespeare, 1981. 2 Ogburn and Ogburn (Sr.) echo many of not resist the temptation for use of "pregnant". Holland, H.H., Shakespeare, OxfOid and Elizabe­ these examples in their later book, Ch. 37, pp. II A secret love affair was one thing, but as than Times, Denis Archer, London, 1933. 480-506. a married man the Earl could not give his Jolly, Eddi , "Shakespeare and Burghley's Li­ 3 There now seems to be a literalY precedent mistress his name. Even if he had wanted brary" Bibliotheca IIIustris: Sive Catalogus for the title used for this paper, Much Ado to do so, a divorce from Anne Cecil would Variorum Librorium" Th e Oxfordian, Y. III, about Oxford. Brame and Popova, In their have the crown as final arbiter, according pp. 3-18, 2000. recent book, Shakespeare:s Fingelprints, to the Act of Supremacy, of such matters, Johnson, Philip, "John Lyly's Endimion and Wil­ begin with a chapter, "A Naughty Note on and Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer, Anne's liam Shakespeare's Much Ado about Noth­ Nothing", and in this chapter they identify father William Cecil, Lord Burghley, would ing, in Creat Oxford, R. Malim, K. Gilvary, Oxford with the verbal cues nothing and be adamant against it, and would call in E. Imlay, and E. Jolly, eds., Parapress Ltd, nallght. From repeated use in the Shakespeare evelY debt the Queen owed him on such an Tunbridge Wells, 2004, pp. 151-158. canon, they identify nothing and naught occasion, as one who had helped her survive Kittredge, George Lyman (editor), The Com­ through the digit zero (0) with "the big princesshood to become Queen. plete Works ofShakespeare, Ginn, Boston, 0", the letter "0", which they identify as 12 Ogburn and Ogburn (Sr.) (p. 485) find 1936. symbolization for Oxford himself. Thus they further sexual innuendoes in IIl.iv suggesting Llewellyn, Sally Hazelton, " Such Shaping see "Much Ado about Nothing" as the original a pregnant Beatrice, such as references to Fantasies? Psychology and the Authorship playwright's way of saying "Much Ado about "barns" ("bairns"?) and to "A maid, and Debate ", The Oxfordian, Vol. 4, 2001, Oxford". While the coincidence is inadvertent, stuff'd!" 143-53. the present writer does not wish to take credit 13 Reminiscent of a quite similar bawdy Looney, J. Thomas, "Shakespeare " Identified in for originating the latter phrase. allusion in Romeo and luliet, l.iii.40-49. EdwQld De lIere, Seventh Earl of Oxford, 4 Ogburn (Jr.), p. 614; he also sees Anne 14 Anne Vavasor's well-known dark hair fits Minos Publishing Co., Kennikat Press, Port Vavasor as the model for Rosaline of Love's with the depiction in the "Dark Lady" sonnet Washington, New York, 1975. Originally Labour's Last (pp. 613-15) and Oxford as the in LLL (IY.iii.258-265) of Rosaline's hair. publ ished London, 1920. model of Rosaline's lover Berowne (pp. 475, However, Ms. Vavasor is not particularly Miller, Ruth Loyd (ed.), "Shakespeare " Identi­ 613-14, 623-25, 726). identified here as the "Dark Lady" of the fied in EdIVaI'd De Vere Seventeenth Earl 5 Indeed, Anne herself broached the matter to Shakespeare Sonnets collection. of OxfOid and The Poems of Edward De the world outside the family herself. Before 15 Ward cites Bodleian, Rawlinson Poetical Vere, Vols. I and II, Minos Publishing Co., her child was born, while Oxford was away on MS., 85, Ill; see also Clark, Hidden Allusions, Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New travel, she discussed her fears as to whether pp.472-73. York, 1975. her husband would suspect infidelity with Dr. Neilson, William A. , and Hill, Charles J. , Eds., Masters, the Queen's physician, which led to WORKS CITED The Complete Plays of William Shake­ speare, Riverside Press, Cambridge, sharing these fears with the Queen and the Bradbrook, Muriel C., The Rise of the Com­ Mass., 1942. Earl of Leicester, a personal enemy of her mon Player, Chatto and Windus, London, Ogburn, Charlton (Jr.), The Mysterious William husband. See Ogburn (Jr.), pp. 561-2, 571-2. 1962. Shakespeare - the Myth and the Reality, 6 Desper and Vezzoli have explored the Chambers, Sir Edmund K., Elizabethan Stage, EPM Publications, McLean, VA, 1984. identification of Leontes and Hermione with Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1923. Ogburn, Dorothy and Charlton (Sr.), This Star Oxford and his first Countess in a Elizabethan Chiljian, Katherine, Leiters and Poems of Ed­ of England, Coward-McCann, New York, Review paper showing that and many other ward, Earl of Oxford, Katherine Chiljian, 1952. connections between The Winters Tale and San Francisco, 1998. Simonton, Dean Keith, OriginsofCenius, Oxford the life of its playwright, Edward de Vere. Clark, Eva Turner, Hidden Allusions in Shake­ University Press, Oxford, 1999. 7 See Simonton, Origins ofCenius . .. for speares Plays, 3rd Edn, Kennikat Press, Talvacchia, Bette, The Rare Italian Master and his thorough investigation of the association New York, 1974. First published Payson, the Posture of Hermione in The Winter 's of artistic genius, in many instances, with New York, 1931. Tale, The Elizabethan Review, Vol. 1 No. a degree of psychopathology, problematic Desper, Richard, and Vezzoli, Gary C. , "A Statis- I, Spring 1993, pp. 40-56. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 25 Did Shakespeare Read From the 17th Earl of Oxford's Personal Library? w. Ron Hess, assisted by Alan Tarica

PART TWO

Book 4: Geneva Bible six of the "Description of Ireland" points say to whom, but the fact that he dedicated to a humorous digression about a parson his first work to Oxford was not likely 1569 2nd Edition (under who diminished to 500 the number fed accidental! Notably, all editions of this Archbishop Parker): by Christ's few loaves and fishes, stating extremely popular manual on how to write The next example we need only briefly that his pragmatic flock would never have letters, up to its 1635 last edition, featured discuss, because Dr. Roger Stritmatter believed the Biblical claim that 5,000 were Oxford's coat-of-arms after the title-page did a thorough job of examining the 1569 fed. Anotheron page ten points to a reference and slight variations on the original dedica­ Geneva Bible, illustrating two examples to the Castle of Dublin and another on page tion to Oxford. Although Part two existed of the manicule with aristocratic sleeve twenty-two to "Syr Thomas Butler ErIe of and was entered into the Stationers Registry ruffs (224-25). Shakespeare seems to have Ormond and Offery." This last one is sig­ in 1587, it wasn't published until 1592, at been very interested in those cases associ­ nificant because "Black Tom Butler" entered which time it was dedicated to: 1] Justice ated with Psalms, yet Stritmatter couldn't Gray's Inn in 1566-67 alongside Oxford of the Common Pleas Sir Francis Gawdy, completely overcome the problem that we and was Queen Elizabeth's Lord Lieuten­ 2] Gawdy's ex-son-in-Iaw (that same Sir have a not-before date (1569); therefore, ant ofIreland in the early 1580s, likely the Wm. Hatton mentioned above, who as a we can't determine with certainty when conquering general of Ireland referred to in widower had remarried to Oxford's niece), specific annotations were made. Oxford the"Prologue" in Shakespeare's H en I}' V ,as and 3] Oxford's "old friend" Thomas. likely scribbled in his Bible over the rest opposed to the ignominious return of Essex Bedingfield, who had translated the 1573 of his life, even though the assumption to London in the late 1590s or the return Cardanlts Comjortat Oxford's "command­ is reasonable that many annotations were of Mountjoy only after his "Empress" was ment" and with Oxford's preface, a work made shortly after he bought it, Also ,there dead in 1603. In The Historie oj England many suggest was the book "Prince Hamlet" is little doubt that Oxford owned that book there is an intriguing annotation, "Oxford read in Shakespeare's playas "Polonius" which he annotated. founded in the year 895." This betrays the got dubbed a "fishmonger!". annotator as principally thinking of him­ What was so surprising about this 1586 Book 5: Holinshed's self as a Cambridge man (as our Oxford copy was that it had existed in a Scolar Chronicles 1577, would have), for below it was scribbled the Press edition ever since 1967, and nobody, 1st Edition: prouder, "Cambridge founded the year630." not even Oxfordians, had commented on Pressing on, the 1577 Chronicles (1st Another manicule points to a description its voluminous annotations. It contains at ed., Vols. I & II), attributed to Raphael of the Roman founding of Colchester, near least six instances of the manicule figure in Holinshed , and actually begun by Royal Cambidge and Oxford's Hedingham and its margins and plenty of Shakespeare and Printer Reginald Wolfe, who died 1573, Wivenhoe estates, strangely describing a hi 11 Oxford relevant material. For example: drew on a number of older chronicles such with a ditch, somewhat similar in JHelll}' 1] pg. 56 left margin, pointing to, "It as Hall's, as noted above. Along with its IV to the terrain for the Gads Hill escapade may please your good Lord [i.e. , Oxord?] 1587 2nd ed., it was one of Shakespeare's ,which was actually in Kent. There are also On the twelfth hereof is George Carey [i.e., major sources for his history plays. Thus, examples of a strange "X" with dots in each son of Oxford's ally Henry Carey, Lord we note that Hamilton discussed a heav­ of its quadrants which may be noteworthy Chamberlain] and his company came to the ily annotated copy residing at the Folger (an "OX" symbol?). So, this fragile book Town [Edinburgh] with greater speed then Library (STC )3568b, copy 3, 1577), and bears closer examination. the Ll. [Lords] here looked for: causing even mentioned "finger-pointings" from them heereby (as they saye) to omit sundrye it (167). The book itself is too fragile for Book 6: English Secretorie complements of enterteingnement to haue first-hand examination, but at our request 1586, 1st Edition: beene shewed to him, both in the way, and also at his ariuall heere [i.e., in Scotland]," copies were made of an interior title page We proceed to perhaps the most surpris­ (some ofA. Day's "letters" were intelligence and ten pages selected by the Folger Photo ing find we have ever made, a copy of the reports? See my Vol. I, Sect. 6.N & Vol. II, Lab. There are many examples of the ma­ 1586 first eition. of The English Secretorie Chap. 8); nicules we were looking for, some of them by Angel Day, who had served as an ap­ 2] pp. 70-71 , underlined "Seemed Vertlte with ruffed sleeves, though perhaps not of prentice printer 1563-75 and then took euer proud, but in hys onely perfection?" & particularly artistic quality. One on page service as a secretary to a lord. He didn't "sole imposition or taxe contraried in his page 26 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter gouernment of Gascoigne excepted" (under Book 7: Holinshed's tic one I hypothesized above, which I argue epistles for lauding dead persons, possibly is the strongest modern reason: "despair over relevant to the late G. Gascoigne, who died Chronicles 1587 the scarci ty of sol id evidence for divine Wil­ in 1577 after seemingly collaborating with 2nd Edition: ly, causing a strong temptation to 'correct the Oxford and others in the 1576 Paradyse of Finally, the 1587 Chronicles (2nd ed.), record' to match assumed history."(97 -100) Dainty Devices?); attributed to Raphael Holinshed (died c. One comparison would be the "Piltdown 3] pp. 80-81 left margin, a loop pointing 1580) , finished by a bevy of other authors, Man", anonymous forger(s), who manufac­ at "Now in causes of sway and gouernement, was, on orders of the Privy Council, partly tured evidence less for personal gain than a man might be praysed for his great wise­ censored in ways that may have affected to support the fervent British notion that dome ..." followed shortly by underlined­ Shakespeare, (such as treatments of King humanity's cradle just had to be found on stipled 1st part of " ... A president hereof Richard II & III), and along with its 1577 their imperial island. Oxfordians have noted might be the L. chiefe Justice of England I st edition was one of Shakespeare's major that even excellent scholars like Professors in the time of king Henry the 4th, who was sources for his history plays. Thus, we note A.L. Rowse, Stanley Wells, and Alan Nelson so strictly bent to the obseruation of Justice, the many intriguing discoveries offered in have stretched reality to its uttermost limits as hauing one of the princes seruauntes 1938 by French orthodox Professor Clara in order to contrive pro-Shakspere or anti­ arraigned before hym at the kyngs bench L. De Chambrun. The Preface by Professor Oxford conclusions from otherwise benign barre, for a fellonie, & being one that the G.B. Harrison essentially credits her with the evidence. With such an attitude pervasive young Prince greatly at that time of his original information supporting the "Catho­ among orthodox scholars, is it too much youth fauoured" (i.e., Shakespeare's 1 H4 lic roots" ofMr. Shakspere, his family, and of a stretch for some of the weaker-ethical Iii, the "Chief Justice's" attempt to arrest neighbors). Dr. Chambrun's Introduction among them to put a dot inside of the loop "Falstaff"); described her problems with being taken of a "W," or to ingeniously modify an exist­ 4] pg. 170 left margin, the annotator seriously for her forward-probing theories ing signature by "w. Lambarde" to make it apparently entered his first name, "Edvar­ and new evidence, until she took the trou ble appear to be "W. Shakspere," then stand by dius," and underlined "stile and order and to attain a PhD (something Oxfordians can thrillingly as they watch "history" unfold? deliuerie appertaining to either of these relate to). (vi) Immediately after her PhD, I agree with Dawson (89-94) that Ireland [craving vs. troubling] is greatly different" those who had earlier snubbed her,such and Collier forged for self-gain 89-94), but (possibly pertinent to the varying style of as Sir Sidney Lee, turned to adopting her I believe even Collier was partly stricken by Oxford's beseeching Burghley for prefer­ evidence for their own studies. Dawson this altruistic reason to forge. The altruistic ment at Court?); and (88-89) notes that she brought her copy reason may also explain a "salting of the 5] pg. 236, underlined " ... Vlisses para­ of Holinshed to "this country" [the U.S.] mine" in anticipation of Professor C.W. gon was not so precious .. ." (Shakespeare's where she spent time at the Folger Library, Wallace's trip to England from the Univer­ snide attitude about "Ulysses" & other and he became dismayed at her insistence sity of Nebraska in 1905 when he almost "heroes" tarnished in T &C?). on comparing its annotations not with the immediately just happened to stumble Obviously, a more complete study should authenticated Shakspere signatures, but on a 1612 MSS that Bri tish scholars had be done of this work's promising annota­ with the handwriting in the bulk of the 1616 myopically overlooked for centuries. Wal­ tions. But an important point needs to be Shakspere Will, normally thought to be by lace thus all-too-conveniently established made about the manicules here. We noted a lawyer or scribe. (88-89) This snicker at for our opponents that Mr. Shakspere had they were crude in the c. 1565 annotations her innovative thought processes prompted dwelt in London in 1604 and had in 1612 of Hall's Chronicles, and it still remained Dawson to observe: made the sixth authentic signature. But that somewhat crude in thec. 1569 Geneva Bible forger was too ingenious, for he/she went annotations; with pencil-thin, uncreative, "I do not think that the Jaggard­ too far by having Mr. Shakspere give 48 as straight fingers. It was sometimes artistic Chambrun Holinshed is a forgery; his age in 1612; whereas, the 1623 monu­ but often crude in the 1577 Holinshed's if it were, there would be more to ment would inscribe in stone that his family Chronicles, but here in the c. 1586 annota­ connect it with Shakespeare .. . . knew he had been born in 1663, not the 1664 It is a fairly obvious axiom in tions of what was likely a "presentation baptism date traditionally accepted today. palaeography that the more value copy" personally given to Oxford by his My forthcomingAppendix 0 notes what the a piece of writing purports to have, probable secretary, the manicules were the greater the chance there is of its 1905 forger missed: in 1612 Mr. Shakspere surprisingly anatomically correct, and some bei ng spurious, for no sane person would have been calculated to reach age 49 instances had a distinctive finger-band on will take the necessalY painsorrun from his 1663 actual birth-date, not 48 from the index finger. We marvel at the intricate the inevitable risks to fabricate a his later-to-become tradi tional 1664! detail of the knuckles and fingers. Even de­ signatureof[a nobody like] Nahum To resume, in her book's section on her tails of the sleeve ruffs differed from earlier Tate." (89) copy of Holinshed, deChambrun described books, here more aristocratically lacy than its annotations, beginning at discussions ever. Our annotator loved that book, even To briefly digress, Dawson listed several of the reign of King Richard II and stop­ as he scribbled in it! reasons for forgeries, neglecting the altruis- ping with King Richard III, the span of Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 27

Shakespeare's core history plays), and French native language, was unaware that e] B. Jonson collaborated in play proj­ several were important (249-50): she had muddied the waters. So, her opinion ects with Oxford's associates Munday and was that de Chambrun actually referred to Nashe, some possibly for the amalgamated " ... shown by roughly drawn index the Folger's 1577 copy (discussed above). Oxford's-Worcester's Men at the Boars fingers," or"a pointing finger" [i.e., Sadly, colophons shown by de Chambrun's Head Inn, and his dual-edged comments maniculesJ, especially two about book don't match those of the 1577 copy. about Shakespeare in the 1623 First Folio King Henry V's claims to France (the Salic law dispute) and seigeof And even Dawson avoided distinguishing and elsewhere helped create the "Stratford­ Rouen which is pat'phrased in the which edition de Chambrun was carrying ian myth." Prologue to Shakespeare's Hell/,Y around with her(88) So, we're puzzled. Although the manicule may be a "red­ V. (249-50) As Harrison 's Preface herring" in the sense that it may not defini­ to her book said: Manicule instances: tively distinguish Oxford's or Shakespeare's As Alan and I embarked on our Reader­ annotations from others, such things may still be "predictive" at least in the sense that "" ,Shakespeare's own copy ship studies at the Folger Library (thanks of Holinshed's Chronicles to letters of recommendation from a PhD our man was very likely to have used ma­ [possibly] still exists. If so, Chemist and a PhD Russian Literature nicules in any books he had lengthy access it is a rare personal relic of scholar!), one of our discoveries was that to. Thus, combined with the handwriting the greatest sentimental and our Stratfordian opponents have in recent itself, which we saw Harrison pronounce to literary value. So far as such years done a great deal of research into be a source of disagreement among experts, matters can be finally proved, marginalia and annotations in general, and such things as the manicule may help lock I believe that the book has as in particular into the manicule. Articles by down identification. much right to be accepted as Professors William H. Sherman and Dr. Jan As alluded to earlier, Alan believes Shakespeare's as the famous Broadway highlight annotations by Arch­ there was possibly a more reliable, and three pages in the manuscript more rare indicator of Oxford's authorship of Sir Thomas More .... Pal­ bishop Parker, Dr. John Dee, Gabriel Harvey, of annotations and writings. This was the aeographic evidence based on and Sir Walter Raleigh (whose libraries are such slight foundations [as that largely identified; e.g., Parker died in 1575 "griffe de notaire" identified by de Cham­ for Sir T.More] must be taken after willing his vast ecclesiastical library to brun (267-72). Alan demonstrates in our with faith, for hand-writing an extant collection). Each appears to have forthcoming Appendix R that this insignia experts disagree more than used the manicule to some extent, as did likely represented stylized initials "WSS" most." (vii), other Elizabethans. It is interesting to learn (for Will Shake-Spear). Thus, he believes from an e-mail from Dr. Sherman that until Oxford is likely the author of a juvenilia Note the wise emphasis on disagree­ recently most occurrences of the manicule play from an MS in the Folger called July ment of experts, which is why we suspend were falsely attributed to libraries of Sir and Julian (c.1560 at Cambridge D., there judgment on whether handwriting of the Francis Bacon or Ben Jonson. Of course, is a 1955 Malone Soc. Reprint). Derran annotator(s) of these works match or not, each of the above men were in some ways Charlton demonstrated that an Oxford preferring to devote more space to the linked to the 17'h Earl of Oxford: associate used a type of these seemingly subject in my forthcoming Appendix RWe a] Archbishop Parker oversaw both rare French insignias. And we show that haven't yet examined the copy that de the Bishop's Bible and the "Geneva Bible certain letters of Oxford's bore it in a very Chambrun described, and that may be just projects, and it's not unreasonable that a surprising way! as well. Because, as Alan says, the manicule precocious royal ward & Gray's Inn student "may have predictive power." It may be a might have accessed Parker's books. Conclusion: future test of our theory that genuine Oxford b] Dr. 1. Dee noted Oxford and relatives We argue that the aristocratic manicule - and Shakespeare-related texts will tend as among his astrology customers, and they key annotation element (the finger-pointing to have the aristocratic manicule in them, were both involved in preparations, finances, with ruffed sleeve) may not be just a fre­ and texts with them will more likely have and aftermaths of the 1576 to 78 Frobisher quently-used eccentricity. It could be one of been held by Oxford. expeditions. the viablecIues to "Shakespeare was here!" If readers know more about this 1587 c] Sir Walter Raleigh was a servant of Thus, Oxfordians should more deliberately Holinshed, please let us know. We sent out Oxford's in the 1570s, and was noted by search for it elsewhere, among other clues. requests to every Shakespearean library Aubrey's Lives as Oxford's second in a But what ifthemanicules are different from we knew of worldwide, and none knew duel and a key member of a literary group thise used in the Geneva Bible known as the location of de Chambrun's copy. Dr. including Oxford and his Vere cousins. Oxford's? Actually, we feel there's virtue in Georgiana Ziegler, the Folger's Head of d] Sir Francis Bacon was Oxford's wife's variability. Styles of ruffs varied, fashions Research, did a closer study than most and first cousin and a fellow courtier sharing changed, an individual like Oxford had his noted de Chambrun began by discussing the Oxford's plight of not getting the preferment own habits change. Possibly he took an 1577 1 st edition, then lurched into a mention they wished to have from their mutual in-law, interest in anatomical drawing, and it may of the 1587 2nd, and possibly due to her the disapproving Lord Burghley. be that a crude symbol in his youth was page 28 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

improved with age. He could have been library has been di spersed over time, it just - De Chambrun, Clara L. , Shakespeare Redis­ in a hurry in one drawing but leisurely in appears that many men used that aristocratic covered by Mealls ofPllblic Records, Secret another. In other words, variability should manicule affectation, when actually it was Reports & Private Correspolldellce .. . , NY, be expected rather than necessarily viewed Oxford-Shakespeare's peculiar eccentric­ 1938, Scribner. - Detobel, Robert, "Proofs of the Illiteracy of as problematic. ity! Dr. Stritmatter's study of the 1569 Mr. Shakspere," [email protected] [# 4 on Our opponents claim manicule "fi nger­ Bible located one volume in that library. my webpage]. pointing" or "fist" figures were common The 1550 Hall 's Chronicle, and 1577 & Gillespie, Stuart, Shakespeare's Books, in Elizabethan texts. I say, to coin a phrase 87 Holinshed's Chronicles yield us three London, 2004, Continuum ISBN # 0- from a Texan, "bring 'em on!" Let's see all more good prospects, making four, thus 8264-7775-5. these alleged "many instances" and check beginning a pattern. But, when we add the - Green, Nina, "Was Edward de Vere, the each of them out. We've checked out quite 1586 English Secretary, we have five . Can 'annotator' of a copy of Hall's Chronicle? a few from what we could find in the STC Oxfordians build on this, and establish an [PI. 3 of 3]," Edll'Clld De Vere Newsleller descriptions, through Readership at the even more-solid point? #'s 32-34, 39, & 56, see http://drk.sd23. Folger Library, and over Google, but so bc.ca/De Vere/. far few match what we are looking for with Sources: - Halliday, F.E., A Shakespeare Compallioll 1550-1950, London, 1952, Gerald Duck­ the aristocratic ruffed sleeve. It may be that - Broadway, Jan, " Layered Readings: Towards worth Co. a great majority of aristocratic manicules an electronic edition of Gabriel Harvey's - Hamilton, Charles, III Search ofShakespeare: Margi nalia, Pilot Project Report," www. were actually the special eccentricity of A Recollllaissallce illto th e Poet 's Life & livesandletters.ac. ukJpapersl, 12-02-04. one man. After all, Occam's razor would Halldwritillg, San Diego, CA, J 985, Har­ - Broadway, Jan, "Political Appropriation: have us consider that possibility, since it court Brace Jovan. Reading Sir Walter Ralegh's 'Dialogue would be far less complex than the alterna­ -James, Brenda, and Rubinstein, William, Tl'llth between a Counsellor of State and a Justice tive of many men each taking considerable Will Ollt, London, 2005, Longmans. of Peace,'" www.livesandletters.ac.ukJpa­ trouble to draw these in such detail and - Keen, Alan & Lubbock, Roger, The Allllota­ persl, 06-15-06. tor: Pllrsllit of all Elizabethall Readel: .. , frequency, then each would independently - Cox, Jane, "Shakespeare in the Public Re­ London, 1954, Putnam. apply them preferentially to passages rel­ cords," JOllrnal ofthe British Records Office - Pitcher, Seymour, The caseforShakespeare 's evant to Shakespeare's works or Oxford's (D. Thomas, ed.), 1985, 24-34, London, allthorship of 'The famolls victories,' NY, heritage. And, if Alan was right about the Her Majesty's Stationery Office [# 3 on 1961 , State U. of NY. figure's "predictive power," we might get my webpage]. - Sherman, William H. , "Toward a hi story - Craster, Sir Edmund, ed., HistOlY of the more unwitting help from our opponents in of th e Manicule," www.livesandlelters. Bodleiall Library 1845-/945, Oxford , 1952, identifying potential texts at one time held ac.uk/papers, Nov. 9, 2005. Clarendon Press. and annotated by the 17th Earl of Oxford, - Stritmatter, Roger, The Marginalia of - Dawson, Gile E., "Authenticity and Attribu­ or Shakespeare if you please! Edward De Vere's Ceneva Bible: Provi­ tion of Written Matter," Ellglish Illstitllte In short, it may be that Shakespeare was dential Discovel}\ LitercII ), Reasoning, Allllllal - 1942, N.Y. , 1943, Columbia routinely reading from the 17th Earl of & Historical Consequence, Northamp­ U. Press. ton, MA, 200 I, Oxenford Press. Oxford's personal library, annotating with - Day, Angel, Th e Ell glish SecretQ/ )' (1586), eccentric glee. And now that Oxford's vast Menston, Engl., 1967, Scolar Press.

Join the Shakespeare Oxford Society Become part of the Oxfordiall Movemellt by j oillillg the Shakespeare OxfOld Society, fOllllded ill 1957. Members receive both the qllarterly Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter alld the allllllal jOllrnal, The Oxfordian. COlltributory members also receive special ball us gifts. Please call tact aliI' office for additiollal illformation. YOII call sigll lip throllgh aliI' website atwww.shakespeare-m!ord.com. or by selldillg a copy of th e completed form beloll' (check, Visa, MasterCQ/d, Americall Express accepted) to: The Shakespeare Oxford Society· P.O. Box 1854, Silver Spring, MD 20902· Tel: (301) 946-8333 Fax (301) 946-1313 The SOS is a Il OIl-profit, tax-exempt orgallizatioll. DOllatiolls alld memberships are tax dedllctible (IRS 110. 13-6105314). 2007 Membership Dues (Check one) Name: ______o Regular ($501 $60 overseas) 0 Family ($751 $85 overseas) Address: ______o Student (Regular) ($301$40 overseas) School: ______

City:______~State: ___Z IP:______Contributory Memberships 0 Sponsor ($ 100) o Contributor ($250) 0 Patron ($500) 0 Benefactor ($ 1000) o Check enclosed or: Credit Card: o American Express o MasterCard 0 Visa Special Student Rate: o Student (Nell's /eller Oil/V) ($ 151 $25 overseas) Name exactly as it appears on card : o Student (Regular) ($301$40 overseas) School: ______Card No.: ______Exp. date: _ _ _ _ Member Directory: 0 Yes, include my li stin g Signature: o No, do not include my li sting Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 29 SOS and SF Joint Conference November 9-12, 2006 in Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Ann Arbor Authorship Conference, Dr. Tom Hunter: "Shylock: Jew and Hampton Inn South (734-665-5000): jointly sponsored by the Shakespeare Ox­ No Jew" $89 ford Society and the Shakespeare Fellow­ Lynne Kositsky: Four Points Sheraton (734-996-0600): ship, will be held Thursday tlu'ough Sunday, Alex McNeil: "Oxford Jeopardy" $92. There is a complimentary shuttle bus November 9-12, at the Dahlmann Campus Professor Tom Regnier: "Disclaiming service for guests to get to campus. Inn, on the campus of the University of Shakespeare's Legal Knowledge" Courtyard by Marriott (734-995-5900): Michigan in Ann Arbor. This will coincide Dr. Earl Showerman: "All In the Family: $89 with the last week of a three-week "resi­ Gods and Greeks in The Winter's Tale" Fairfield Inn by Marriott (734-995- dency" ofTheRoyal Shakespeare Company. Professor Roger Stritmatter: 5200): $72 Tickets will be available for all interested Tom Townsend: "Shakespeare and the For information on the RSC visit to Ann registrants for the RSC performances of Essential Common Man Theory" Arbor, including ticket sales, go to www. The Tempest (Friday night) and Antony Richard Whalen: "Shakespeare's Plays ums.org. and Cleopatra (Saturday night), both star­ WrittenAfter 1604: Not Proven, and Here's If you are interested in presenting a paper ring Patrick Stewart. A limited number of Why" at the Conference, please send a title and tickets to the Thursday night performance Hank Whitmore: "The Subject of the one-paragraph abstract to either John Hamill of Julius Caesar are also available. Each Sonnets is ...The Sonnets" ([email protected]) or Lynne Kositsky registrant may purchase two additional ([email protected]). tickets to each performance. The closest major airport to Ann Arbor Be sure to register early! Theater tick­ The following are the speakers: is Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Air­ ets may be limited. If available, up to two Dr. Paul Altrocchi: "Ideational Change: port, about 25 miles away. This airport is a extra theater tickets may be purchased Why Is It So Difficult?" hub for Northwest Airlines and also serves with your registration. A registration Dr. Peter Austin-Zacharias: "The Boar other airlines such as American, America form is enclosed with this newsletter. Among flowers: A Closer Look at 'The West, Continental, Delta, Southwest, Spirit, Send it in today! Adventures Passed by F.J.'" United and US Airways. Possible travel ar­ Barbara Burris: "The Provenance of the rangements to Ann Arbor will be provided Ashbourne Portrait of Shake-speare upon receipt of Conference registration. Matthew Cossolotto: "Oxfordian Speak­ Accommodations: ers Bureau" A very limited number of discounted Dr. Richard Desper: "Stars or Suns: The rooms are being held at the Dahlmann Portrayal of the Earls of Oxford in Eliza­ Campus Inn. Regularly priced rooms at the bethan Drama". Campus Inn and at two other campus hotels JonathanDixon: "A Mirror Up To Nature: within walking distance of the Campus Inn Creativity, Psychology, and Universality in and the theater are also being held. Please Our Mission: Shakespeare's Playing (or This Disease is call the hotels directly and mention either Beyond MY Practice)" the SOS or the Shakespeare Fellowship. Founded in 1957, the Professor Ren Draya: Dahlmann Campus Inn (734-769-2200): Shakespeare Oxford Society Professor Michael Egan: "The Tragedy oJ Discounted rooms are $135/$157 (singlel Richard 1/, pm·tone: aNewly Authenticated double occupancy). Regular priced rooms is a non-profit, educational Play by William Shakespeare" are $201/$233 organization dedicated to Bill Farina: "The Puritan Politics and Bell Tower Hotel (734-769-3010): vary­ exploring the Shakespeare Geography Lessons: TheAuthorship Debate ing rates from $1391$161 to $216/$238 as an Educational Device" Inn At the Michigan League (734-764- authorship question and Professor Robin Fox: "Personal Reflec­ 3177): Singleoccupancyrate$130Thursday researching the evidence that tion on the Authorship Question and the night and $135 Friday and Saturday nights. Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl Grammar School Issue" Extra person $10 Ron Halstead: "Suffer a Sea-change: A larger number ofless expensive rooms of Oxford (1550 - 1604) Sources of the Alchemical Images of The are being held in several hotels located in is the true author of the Tempest in a Life of Crises of Edward a cluster (within walking distance of each poems and plays of "William DeVere" other) about 2-3 miles off campus (on the W. Ron Hess: "In 1635 Did Thomas way from the airport to the campus). Again, Shakespeare." Heywood Identify Will Shake- speare as call the hotels directly and mention SOS or an Imitator" SF to get the discounted rate. page 30 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Notes from the Field Reo Draya Quite often, Oxfordians ask me what persuaded to take on roles. Several students Then, in order, we tackled Macbeth, goes on in college classrooms these days. confessed to using Cliff Notes, (or the In­ Mllch Ado About Nothing, (because Wash­ What is the impact of the authorship question ternet equivalents), to which I said, "Fine, ington University mounted a lively produc­ on today's college students? Which plays anything that gets you past the language tion), The Winter 's Tale, (a big winner), A are favorites? With Spring Semester, 2006 barrier is a plus - the most difficult page Midsummer Night's Dream, (another live drawing to its close, I decided to jot down you'll ever read in Shakespeare is the very staging, this time by the St. Louis Shake­ a few observations and to describe some of first page you read." speare Company), Antony and Cleopatra, the attitudes and reactions I see in my work Except for one gal who had come down and Hel1l), V. I really should do the history as a professor of literature. with mono, everyone passed the test (a play earlier in the semester because end­ Of course, there's no pat answer; teaching series of quotations to identify and expli­ of-the-year fatigue does create a number of Shakespeare is always a joy, a challenge, cate). Some students wrote in their journals breaches in concentration and valor. a frustration, a treat. In Introduction to about actually loving the play! One student Yes, during the semester, I talk about Literature classes, those required catchall grumbled that returning to "regular litera­ the authorship question, about the various courses offered to everyone, many of the ture" was a let down after Othello. contenders, about my Oxfordian views and students hate to read, not just hate to read In the past, I've also had positive experi­ my experiences at the various authorship Shakespeare, but hate to read. So, any ences with Freshman Intro. classes studying conferences. Students, for the most part, response, any glimmer of interest, any The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, and are interested, but not surprised, that a chuckle or tear strikes me as a victory. This A MidslIlIlmerNight's Dream. Most college major "story" might just be a big lie. After past semester I had twenty freshmen in the students today have read some Shakespeare all , most of these students were born after Intro. class: three brave young men and in high school, invariably Romeo andiufiet, 1980. They have no trouble accepting the seventeen young women, (sometimes the occasionally Hamlet or illlills CaesG1: fact that politicians lie, that cover-ups are computer skews things). In the mix, were Ah, now I need to say a few things about common, that myths serve a purpose. three African-Americans, one Chicana, the students who like to read, especially I also include a Shakespeare play each fall three older women, ages 22, 35, and 48, those who eschew the economically driven in my British Literature I course (Beowulf, and half the women's softball team. and trendy majors such as Criminal Justice, Chaucer-all the good stuff with dragons In the eighth week, after short stories (Isn't that an ox ymoron ?), or accounting and and castles) and have assigned Twelfth and poetry, I plunged into Othello. It's a become literature majors. Yes, in this brave Night, Othello, As YOIl Like It and one or good play for freshmen: easy (enough) plot, new world of the twenty-first century, we two others in the past. Finally, I should note small cast, inter-racial love affair, plenty of do still have some bookworms! that several of the literature majors have passion and violence. We spent two class This spring's Shakespeare class was a chosen a topic in Shakespeare for their periods (an hour each) on Act One, then delight: one biology major, (there are always senior seminar. an entire class period for each of the next one or two, I'm never been sure why), two So, my "take" from the perspective of a acts. We did quite a bit of reading aloud: history majors, one psychology major, and liberal arts professor is simply that the plays "You have to wake Brabantio up! 'Let's the rest literature and/or secondary educa­ endure; Shakespeare's emotions, characters, hear you really yell, 'Thieves! Thieves! tion majors. We began with The Merchant and grand language are as relevant to today's Thieves! Look to your house ... '" Pretty of Venice, which no one had read before tattooed, cyber-savvy, i-podded kid as ever. soon, they handled the 'zounds and knaves and which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. As Vere might say, and green-eyed monsters with quite a bit of The new film with AI Pacino as Shylock The classroom is full of noises, enthusiasm. provided many fine excerpts, but mostly Sounds, and sweet airs, that give I used portions from the Kenneth we read aloud, worried about Antonio's delight and hurt not. Branagh/Laurence Fishburne film and depression, speculated about Shylock's iso­ placed the videotape on reserve for anyone lation, assessed Bassanio's worthiness, and wishing to see the entire film . I showed chuckled over the cheeky women. Everyone maps of Italy, and we noted the distance to memorized a short section (twelve to sixteen Cyprus. We argued about the components lines) and "delivered" their lines to us. of a good marriage ,(both in the Sixteenth We spent a day on the sonnets (not all Century and in today's world), about lago's 154 of them), with each student nominat­ motives, about the very moment Othello ing a particular sonnet to be inserted into can no longer see objectively. With one or Merchant. .. , explaining which character two exceptions, students became deeply would say the lines, which exact moment absorbed. Several of them dragged friends would work best, and why the ideas in the along to see the film. Two husbands were sonnet were appropriate. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fall 2006 page 31

President's Page (col1t'dfrolll p. 2) half completed at this time. I will provide articles published over the past ten years. golden PR and marketing opportunity. I a detail report on the library project at the That project is still under development. hope we will, among other things: Set an annual meeting on November 11,2006, in We have also been exploring the pub­ ambitious goal for expanding our member­ Ann Arbor. The database is necessary first lication of a series of short pamphlets that ship; Sponsor a series of authorship-related step in being able to decide just what we address specific "Hot Topics" in the Shake­ lectures and conferences; Issue a series of should do with the library, which is clearly speare authorship debate. I have received special authorship and Oxford-related "Hot an important asset of the society. We simply many great suggestions from SOS members Topics" publications; Establish an active haven't yet discovered how to leverage this about topics to include in this pamphlet Speakers Bureau to speak to local schools asset in a meaningful way. series. I regret that more progress has not and community groups; Seek funding from I want to spend a few moments on our been made on this Hot Topics project, but individuals and foundations to support our publications. The society continues to pub­ I am convinced now that this series of ongoing educational and outreach programs. lish the quarterly newsletter, now under the pamphlets will be an excellent project to This is only a partial list of activities and capable editorial direction of Lew Tate. Lew launch as we celebrate our 50,h anniversary goals for next year. Please share your ideas has done a terrific job with the newsletter in 2007. So you can certainly expect to see with us! and we all owe him a great debt of gratitude, the publication of a series of Hot Topics That's about all the space I have for this along with Frank Davis and other members pamphlets next year. report. It's been an honor serving as your of the publications committee. Finally, in my last President's Page mes­ president this past year. If I am re-elected Our annual flagship publication, The sage, I mentioned several specific ideas for to the Board in November and if the new Oxfordiall, continues to flourish under the celebrating our "Golden" 50,h anniversary Board decides to re-elect me as president, guidance of Stephanie Hopkins Hughes. next year. This is such an important event I look forward to working with all of you Many thanks to Stephanie for her editorial in the history of the society, that I want to next year as we celebrate our 50'h anniversary leadership and steadfast dedication. As I reiterate those ideas here again and to ask and make continued progress on a host of mentioned last year, we'd like to celebrate for YOUI'active involvement next year. I hope programs. the Tenth Anniversary of The 040rdiall we will all take an opportunity in 2007 to Sincerely, with an anthology publication of the best Think Big so we make the most what is a Matthew Cossolotto 914-245-9721, [email protected] Book Review More Shakespeare Names By Derran Charlton

Pseudonymous Shakespeare: writers in the Sidney coterie: punning, The Black Prince is the title adopted by Rioting Language ill the Sidney Circle often across languages; repeated-insistence the author of a detailed account of Queen Ashgate Publishing Limited, on a sound, or hiding two persons "under Elizabeth I's visit to Kenilworth Castle in www.ashgate.com. one hood"; disingenuous juxtaposition; 1575. The author also describes himself as evocation of original context; differential 'R.L.' also known as Robert Langham - the Pseudonymous Shakespeare by Dr. Pen­ spelling (intended and significant). Cogent quarry pursued throughout Dr. McCarthy's ny McCarthy, is an exhilaration of detailed references are made to Nashe, Barnfield, fine book. She then demonstrates why it is study and presentation. The bibliography, Thomas Watson, George Gascoigne, Lyly, highly unlikely that Robert Langham had alone, refers to 374 writers/publications. Munday, Greene, Breton, Harvey without anything to do with the work: positing that Among McCarthy's solidly underpinned any appropriate descriptions of their close his name was simply purloined by William conclusions are: "Shakespeare used the links to Edward de Vere. Likewise, the nick­ Shakspere, (at that time, he was aged only pseudonym "R.L." among other pseud­ names Will Monox, Martin Mar-prelate, eleven), who, according to McCarthy, was onyms; one,'William Smith', was also his Maister Apis Lapis. employed as a page by the Earl ofLeicester's alias in life; Shakespeare was at the heart of Dr. McCarthy in taking a leaf from the protestant household. the Sidney circle, whose literary program book of William Shakespeare, who played Dr. McCarthy is intrigued by the spell­ was hostile to Elizabeth I; and his work, with two incompatible but identically ing - odd even by Elizabethan standards composed mainly from the late 1570s to the worded versions of his chosen motto 'Non - used in the Langham Letter: the cock­ early 1590s, occasionally embedded in the Sanz Draict ('Not without justification') sure air, the energy, both of language and work of others, was covertly all uded to more and Non. Sanz Draict (No! Without jus­ character, the ease of the syntax, the natu­ often than has been recognized". tification') chooses as her impressa "Not ral-sounding alliteration (,franklyJriendly. In the course of unmasking 'R.L', Mc­ without a pinch of salt", or alternatively full y') and the ex traordi nary adoption of the Carthy scrutinizes devices employed by "No! Without a pinch of salt"; that is, "All title 'the Black Prince'. is true". page 32 Fall 2006 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Unfortunately for Oxfordians, McCar­ the way." McCarthy then relates revision. But I remain suspicious thy makes no reference to the fact that the to the ' miserable stolne story of the 'stylometricians' findings, adopted title The Black Prince was the term of Macdoel, or Macdobeth, or blasphemous though this sounds used to describe Edward, the son of Edward Macsomewhat: for I am sure a in the present climate of their Mac it was' . ascendancy. Again, it is partly my III. A cogent fact that would have not been antedating that challenges their lost to Edward de Vere. She also places an early version of findings; though it is always open to Dr. McCarthy and ' identifies' other Cymbelille to the late 1570's (pp 187-9), and them to say that they have theserial such aliases, incl uding 'Euphues': which denounces Straclley's letter as a source for of Shakespeare's perfected plays, she promptly rejects. This is puzzling to The Tempest (p.225): ifnot the decade of their composi­ Oxfordians, who know that Lyly dedicated Many critics are adamant that William tion, correct. However, (if, and only his Euphues and His England to Oxford. Strachey's account of the adventure of the it) my 'maturation' principle is allowed, and na'ive plays antedate Nonetheless, McCarthy's reasons are inter­ ship Sea Venture of 1609 is a source for mature ones, 'Senecan' antedate esting, as demonstrated by this quote: The Tempest. I would feel justified on the 'confident vernacular', even this Lyly's protagonist is not an ab­ sole basis of Nashe's parody in supposing claim of theirs will be weakened. stract personification of a quality. that Straclley echoed the play. Luckily the My principle is likely to be a good I believe: he is a real member of history of the Strachey publication supports one, if the author is not dead, but the coterie (i.e. the literary coterie this proposition, as does the odd literariness embodied in a historical person. round Sir Philip Sidney), one who of the historical account, and the fact that Allowing the possibility that the was naturally brilliant, but not Strachey was a sharer in a theatrical com­ poet could grow in technical skill university educated. If, as early pany, and presumably familiar with plays. implies, too, the possibility and as 1578, Lyly meant to allude His account was not published until 1625, utility for the critic evaluating a to the presence of Shakespeare though he wrote a private letter about it in work on aesthetic grounds. The in this coterie by 'anatomizing' strongest arguments for my case 1610. Supporters of Shakespeare's indebt­ Wit, this brings out a feature of against the conclusions of stylo­ edness to Straclley therefore have to pos­ the phenomenon of contemporary metrics in Shakespeare's case are reference to Shakespeare that I tulate that the letter was widely circulated less speculative. If R.L.'s corpus, have not sufficiently stressed. I and that Shakespeare saw it - the kind of have written that other writers argument they would never countenance William Smjth's works, three lyrics in allude to Shakespeare out of pure in an opponent challenging the consensus the Shepheardes Calender, some verse admiration for his work. But by date. Arthur Kinney in Modern Philosoph)\ in the Familiar Letters, Robert Chester's 1578, Shakespeare could not have like Kenneth Muir before him, has doubted Arthurian narrative, half of the Poetical achieved much that Lyly sincerely whether the Strachey letter has the slightest Rhapsody, Humprey King's work, and thought was superlative. (172) connection with The Tempest (161-177). A.W's immature Rel71edie are indeed to Dr. McCarthy antedates The Winter 's be added to the Shakespeare corpus, the Whilst Dr. McCarthy is so honest with Tale from its terminus ante quem of 1611 stylometricians' database for Shakespeare's theevidence, her Stratfordian logic prompts to before 1598 (207), contending that it practice has hitherto been woefully incom­ her to such conclusions. Neither does she antedates Mucedortls of that year, which plete. Conversely their database for Philip refer to the fact that Lyly was engaged as contains a parody of 'Exit pursued by a Sidney and Spencer has been contaminated a private secretary to the Earl of Oxford bear'. Similar beliefs are expressed in her by alien matter. (Charlton Ogburn, Jr., The Mysterious review of Two Noble Kinsmen and Hellry In summation, Pseudonymous Shake­ William Shakespeare, 44). However, Dr. VIII (220): speare proves to be both a delightful but McCarthy does not hesitate to disagree with frustrating read. Delightful in that Dr. Mc­ the Stratfordian dating of several plays to I do not rule out the possibility that Carthy doe"s not accept a lot of the CUtTent post-1604. Writing on p.31, she states: Shakespeare occasionally recast literary and historical dogma, witness her a play with the help of another, But Macbeth was not written in years after he had first written it. considered dating of certain of the plays: 1606. It was written before 1600. TlI'o Noble Kinsmen and Helll), frustrating because she fails to recognize For William Kemp undoubtedly VIII are obvious candidates. If the impossibility of Shakespeare being the refers to it in his Kemps Nine Days unmistakable traces of the hand II-year-old William Shaksper of Strat­ Wonder, an account of a nine-day of another are found in some of ford-upon-Avon, and does not consider the journey he made from London to the other plays, I shall suppose Oxfordian case for Edward de Vere. Norwich, jigging and dancing all likewise that this other helped in the