'fhe Shakespeare

:7Vewsletter Vo 1.35:no.4 "L et me study so, to know the thing I am fo rbid to know" Winter 2000

Shakespeare's Society opens its library, "Bad Law" establishes an EndowlTIent A journey through Two long-standing goals becon1e realities the history of through the generosity of our supporters the argUl1'lents notiler major step has been taken in the Shakespeare Oxford Society's By MarkAndreAlexander Aadvancement of Oxfordian author­ n Shakespeare, IN FA CT (1994), Irvin ship research. Leigh Matus attempts to dispose of any With several significant grantsand do­ notions that Shakespeare had a fo rmal nations already received this year, we have legalI education and used legal terms accu­ been able to take major steps within the past several months in fulfillmentof several long­ rately: standing goals of the Society: a permanent Shakespeare Oxford Society Endowment The question of his legal knowledge has Fund has been established, and the Society been most recently [sic] tackled by O. Hood has rented (in Malden, MA) space to house Phillips, aj urist, legal scholar and educator, in its library, archives and office. The library Shakespeare and the Lawyers. In the chapter, consists of book collections donated to the "Did Shakespeare have a Legal Training?" he Society over the years, with the gathered and summarized the varying opin­ CheJyle Sims, one of the Directors of the centerpiece being the Victor Crichton ions that have been handed down. The most Gertrude C. Ford Foundation, addressed Collection. reliable assessment oftheplay wright' s knowl­ For many years it had been a goal ofthe the Conference at the Saturday luncheon, edge of law, in his opinion, is that of P. S. Society's leaders to establish a national sp eaking about the life and times of Mrs. Clarkson and C. T. Warren, whose reading of office, library and archives. In 1996, the Ford and about the Ford Foundation. See Elizabethan drama revealed that about half of Board of Trustees, under the leadership of the stOJ)! on page 4. (Photo by George Shakespeare's fellows employed on the aver­ Charles Burford, adopted a long range plan age more legalisms than he did, and some of Anderson) to promote the Earl ofOxford 's authorship of them a great many more. Most of them also the Shakespeare Canon. Part of that plan exceed Shakespeare in the detail and complex­ Inside: included opening a library dedicated to ity of their legal problems and allusions, and Oxfordian research. "To Our English Terence ... " with few exceptions display a degree of accu­ racy at least no lower than his. Page 3 The Crichton Collection Clarkson and Warren's verdict is that Later in 1996, in a fundraising campaign Shakespeare's references "must be explained President's Letter coordinated by trustees Lydia Bronte and on some grounds other than that he was a Page 5 Betty Sears, the Board was able to raise the lawyer, or an apprentice, or a student of the $18,000 necessary to purchase the Victor law." (272) Crichton collection. Victor Crichton, a mem­ Pericles and the First Folio ber of the Board when he died suddenly in Though he advances an implied argu­ Page 6 1993, had served fo r many years as the ment that Shakespeare is guilty of "bad law," Chairman ofthe Membership Committee. As Mr. Matus fails to give examples, merely an Oxfordian for many years, he had col­ "Ophelia's Difference" relying on the authority ofMr. Phillips. In­ lected many fine and important works on the deed, that authority is secondhand since Mr. Page 17 authorship issue, plus numerous other works (Continued on page 9) (Continued on page 4) page 2 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Oxfordians winning Public libraries welcotne Oxfordians the public debate Interest in the authorship debate runs high everywhere Public libraries continue to welcome branch ofthe New York Public Library. His Th e Shakespeare Qllarter�y, the journal Oxfordians who want to lecture, give classes subject was "the elusive identity of the of the Stratfordian establishment, has ad­ or lead discussion groups on the Shake­ Bard," and Th e NelV Yorker magazine car­ mitted that the Oxfordians are winning the speare authorship controversy. Invariably, ried a item on it in its upcoming events public debate. Oxfordians are surprised and gratifiedby the section. The startling admission was probably number of people who show up fo r such Other Oxfordians who have lectured or prompted by recent aliicles in Time, Hmper 's events. Shakespeare is a powerful draw. led discussion groups at public libraries Magazine and the Washington Post. Wash­ Last November PeterDick son, an Oxfor­ include Katherine Chiljin of San Francisco, ington, DC is the home of the quarterly, dian and book reviewer for Th e Washingto11 CA, Grace Cali ofPeterborough, NH, Chuck which is published by the Folger Shake­ Post, gave his lecture "Unmasking the Bard" Berneyof Watertown, MA, Isabel Holden speare Library and George Washington attheArlington Public Library in Virginia. of Northampton, MA, Richard Whalen of Nearly 60 attended the lechlre, and the lively Truro, MA,Ken Kaplan ofPerkasie , PA (see University. Question & Anwser session afterwards ex­ the entry under "Pennsylvania" in Oxford­ It came in a long, thoughtful review of tended the event to about two hours. ian News, page 14, for more about Kaplan), Joseph Sobran's book, Alias Shakespeare, Dickson had library copies of pertinent and Tina Hamilton of Brielle, NJ (see her in which the reviewer admitted that the books on display and distributed a bibliog­ letter on page 21). establishment "is losing the public debate raphy of key works. Dickson has also lec­ Oxfordians who think they might like to over the authorship question." The journal's tured at the Library of Congress. talk at a public library can call or write any editor agreed in her comment page, adding In January Oxfordian Paul Streitz of of the above or the newsletter editor for that she finds it "infuriating." Darien, CT, spoke at the mid-Manhattan ideas on how to set up a successful event. The reviewer was Professor Alan H. Nelson ofthe University ofCal ifornia-Ber­ Obituaries keley, a generally genial critic ofthe Oxfor­ dian view who is not shy about debating the Howard Bloch Tal Wilson question in person and on the Internet. 1937-2000 1919-2000 Predictably, he finds much to fault in Sobran's argument for the 17th Earl of Ox­ Howard W. Bloch, ofFailfaxStation, VA, Talmadge Gartley Wilson, of Bodega ford as the true author. And as usual, he a professor of economics at George Mason Bay, CA, a long-time member ofthe Shake­ skirts the core issues to dwell on details, University and co-author of an article in the speare Oxford Society and the Shakespeare chapter by chapter, even to the point of current Oxfordian journal, died on January Authorship Roundtable in Los Angeles, counting typographical errors. 25th at the age of 63. A member of the died in March at age 80. In the course of his critique he also Shakespeare Oxford Society for several years, lt was 17 years ago that Wilson encoun­ lapses into the usual Stratfordian hedging he used his expertise in statistics to help tered the authorship theory, after reading with "perhaps or perhaps not," "it is not analyze the conventional dating of Charlton Ogburn's Merrill 's MallI"Gliders impossible," "he may have been but then he Shakespeare's plays. and then exploring Ogburn's other writing. After much reading and research on his may not have been." All to defend the Born in Germany, Bloch graduated from Duke University andreceived his Ph.D from own, Wilson settled on a dual theory of the supposed credentials of the Stratford man. Princeton University in 1964. authorship (Oxford and his son-in-law the From his doggedly Stratfordian point of Bloch and Winston C. Chow, Ph.D, a Earl ofDerby). view, Nelson finds much to criticize in statistician with the U.S. Naval Space Com­ In the course of his authorship shldies Sobran's book, and at times his frustration mand, assisted W. Ron Hess ofTemple Hills, over these years, Wilson translated two is evident. Nevertheless, he praises Sobran MD, in the writing of "Shakespeare'sDates: French books on Derby (by Lambin and as "a first-rate communicator" skillful with Their Effects on Stylistic Analysis" in the LeFranc). He was a regular at all the SOS a "deft turn of phrase," who in chapter five 1999 Oxfordian. conferences and Roundtable events, up wrote "one of the more readable ofpartisan Hess said that while Bloch was not sure until the 1999 SOS Conference in Boston, biographies." who the author of Shakespeare was he was where his absence was noted by other Nelson knows the case for Oxford better quite sure that he was not the man from conference regulars. than most Shakespeare professors, so Ox­ Stratford. Wilson, a native of Hawaii, served in fordians can be encouraged that he thinks "He was gravitating more and more to­ WWII as a pilot in theArmy Air Corps, and the Oxfordians are winning the public de­ ward our Oxfordian cause," said Hess, "so was a prisoner ofwar in the German camps. bate. An analysis of Nelson's review, much so that he and I developed a number of He held a BA and MA in English from Sobran's reply to it, and some fu rther obser­ collaborative efforts, but the firstwas fated Claremont-Pomona College. vations on Prof. Nelson will be featured in to be our last. He will be missed by his fa mily He is survived by his children, Kathy, the Spring 2000 newsletter. and friends." Kim and Kirk, and fivegrandchildren. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 3

"To OUf English Terence ... " By RichardF. Whalen he poem that John Davies addressed author had not "in sport," i.e. injest for his Davies is indulging in wordplay, and in "To our English Terence, Mr. amusement, stooped to the level of rogues Elizabethan times "honesty" could also mean Will. Shake-speare" continues to and vagabonds to act the role of kings on "generosity" or "liberality." Shakespeare puzzle traditional scholarship. E. K. Cham­ stage he could have been the monarch's used it in that sense in Timon ofAt he11s. In bers in 1930and S. Schoenbaumin 1977 both companion. (Nicely, too, companion and that play a greedy, ungrateful lord says mock­ referred to it as "cryptic." Last fa ll the count both derive from the Latin "comes," ingly he has told the prodigal Timon many Stratfordian Shakespeare times to spend less. "Every Newsletter challenged its man has his fault," he says, readers with the question Epigram 159 from The Scourge ofFolly (no date) "and honesty is his." "What does it mean?" by John Davies of Hereford. (ill.i.21 -8) Dorothy and Charlton Davies is saying the aris­ (Entered in the Stationers' Register October 1610.) Ogburn, in This Star of En­ tocratic author's honesty­ gland (1952), sawthepoem's that is, his liberality with great significance for Oxford­ To Our English Terence, Mr. Will. Shake-speare. money and gifts-increases ians. They went through it the wealth of those who re­ line by line (p. 1102) explain­ ceive his largess. They reap Some say (good Will), which I, in sport, do sing, ing the allusions, although the rewards ofthe aristocrat's regarding the meaning of the Had' st thou not plaid some Kingly parts in spOli, prodigality and keep it to in­ final couplet they were not Thou hadst bin a companion for a King;, crease their "Stocke," or entirely clear. A bit of addi­ And, beene a King among the meaner sort. wealth. tional research now provides As it happens, the 17th Some others raile, but, raile as they thinke fit, new meaning for the coup let, Earl of Oxford, like Timon, was which refers to sowing hon­ Thouhastno rayling, but, a raigningwit: notorious for his improvident, esty, a puzzling allusion. And honesty thou Sow' st, which they do reape; extravagant spending. And The title is the key to the So, to increase their Stocke which they do keepe. Davies, whose "pupils were poem, published circa 1610. It drawn from the noblestfami- refers to the practice of aristo- lies," probably knew Oxford's crats writing plays under names not their and a count in England is an earl.) In this daughters and sons-in-law for he dedicated own. In ancient Rome two aristocrats (Scipio interpretation Davies presumes that his writings to them. and Laelius) were suspected of being the readers understand that the aristocratic On the other hand ... there may just be true authors of the plays that appeared author had fa llen out offa vor with the royal another wh ole perspective here th at has under the name "Terence," a freed court. Davies adds that the aristocratic earl never been noted before. Carthaginian slave (This Star ofE11gla11d, p. would also have maintained his eminent John Davies addresses his poem "To 1102n); the allegation is even mentioned position in the eyes of"the meaner sort" of Our English Terence,Mr. Will. Shake-speare," in the prologue to one of Terence's plays, people. referring to the former Roman slave whose Th e Brothers. Others rail or complain about the aristo­ name was on the plays that people suspected In Elizabethan England Terence was crat, Davies continues, but no matter how he did not write. Davies thus may be seen as well-known, and the notion that he was not much they rail he does not reply in kind. He addressing his poem to a "Shakspere/Shake­ the true author of all he wrote was also has the "reigning wit" ofsovereign nobility speare" whose name was on plays he did not extant. For example, Charlton Ogburn,Jr. in that is above simple jeering and sneering. write-that is, the Stratford man. Nowhere in TM WS (p. 257) cites the fact that Elizabethan As the Ogburns put it, he "lord(s) it over the poem does Davies suggest that he is scholar Roger Ascham-among others­ them through inherent superiority." addressing a playwright, only an actor. believed that some of Terence's comedies In the finalcouplet the word "honesty" In this take on the poem Davies-who were actually written by Scipio. is used in a strange way; one does not protests that he's not serious, that he's The hyphen used by Davies in "sow" or "reap" honestyin its usual sense. writing playfully "in sport"-says that ifthe "Shake-speare" extends this conceit nicely, What does it mean? The Ogburns said the Stratford man-a wannabe actor-had not since in general a hyphen indicated a finalcouplet "is a statement ofthe point we tried in sport-as a joke-to act the role of made-up name. Without his saying so, have made that Shakespeare furnished the kings with the King's Men, he could have Davies's readers would understand from source ofthe playwrights' material." They continued to be their companion in the the­ the title that his poem was about an aristo­ do not expand on their point. ater company. And could have maintained crat writing under th e pseudonym A better answer may be that "honesty" some stature as a would-be "king among the "Shake-speare. " also had a horticultural meaning-it was meaner sort," their audiences. But, says As the Ogburnsexplain, Davies begins the name of a flower (LunariaBi ennis). So Davies, he did not and so he lost his chance. his poem by noting that if this aristocratic "honesty," indeed, could be sown. (Continued 011 page 22) page 4 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxfo rd Newsletter

Libl'ClIJI (Cont'dji'om page 1) as soon as possible, with a listing on Shakespeare and the Elizabe­ 2000 Annual Giving Campaign made available later this summer. than era in general; the Society Help build the Society Endowment Also, since the library can be was fortunate to obtain the col­ open to the public, we can seek lection, which numbers approxi­ In keeping with the resolutions made at the April 6, 2000 special library status under Mas­ mately 1,875 items (books and Board Meeting in Portland (OR), the Society is embarking on a sachusetts law, a statlis that per­ pamphlets). campaign to raise $20,000 for the Shakespeare Oxford Society mits the library to participate in The Society has long been Endowment Fund this year. For the next 3 months, your gifts to interlibrary loans and provide pursuing the goal of a Society the Endowment Fund will be doubled in value because they will other library research services. libralY. In 1993-94, fo rmer trustee be matched dollar for dollar up to $10,000. Your contributions to Chuck Berney, Chairman of the Betty Sears graciously located the Endowment Fund are also tax deductible. If your employer Board's Library Committee, will the Shakespeare Oxford Society has a matching gifts program, please obtain the matching gift head a study of ways to begin LibralY and Archives in her apart­ form from your personnel office and send it with your gift. implementing the libraly's re­ If you wish to make your giftby check, please make your ment in Watertown, MA. Unfor­ search capability. check payable to: The Shakespeare Oxford Society Endowment tunately, the IibralY had to be The Society hopes to build Fund. placed in storage when Mrs. Sears the Libraly's holdings through If you prefer to make your gift by credit card, photocopy this moved in 1994. acquisitions and donations, and page and complete the following information: Again in 1997, afterthe Soci­ wiII also pursue grants to acquire ety had acquired the Crichton access to such on-line services I am making a gift of$ by: Amex�Visa�MC� collection, Mrs. Sears housed the for our members as the Oxford library at a condominium in English DictionGl), and Th e Dic­ Cambridge, MA, where she then tionGl)' of National Biography, lived. When she moved to Ver­ in addition to other tools neces­ mont in 1999, the books were smyfor Elizabethanresearch, such placed in storage. as Th e Short Title Catalogue. Since the Society Library is Mail your checks or credit card information to: The goal is for the Shake­ now located in its new commer­ Shakespeare Oxford Society speare Oxford LibralYto be amajor cial space, the books are out of Endowment Fund Shakespearean research libralY storage, have already been PO Box 263 providing students and research­ shelved, and will be catalogued Somerville, MA 02143 ers with access�in a major aca-

Gertrude C. Ford: a pioneer Oxfordian

One of the highlights at the 23rd Annual humorous and heartfelt, delivered by someone remains an emotional flash-pointfor many within Conference was a talk given at the Saturday who became Mrs. Ford's closest friend and the Oxfordian movement. luncheon by Cheryle Sims, one of the Directors companion in her final years. When they first In concluding her talk, Sims described the of the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation, about Mrs. met in 1979, Sims said, "our hearts touched." Foundation that Mrs. Ford had left behind as her Ford, her life and her legacy. The Ford Founda­ She continued that, through her 17-year legacy. She listed the numerous projects already tion has awarded grants to the Society each year association with Mrs. Ford, she was now a funded in recent years, and the fact that the since 1998. convert to the Oxfordian thesis, curious to learn Foundation is literally inundated with requests. Gertrude C. Ford was firmin her Oxfordian more and contribute to the cause. Among the causes that Mrs. Ford had directed beliefs throughout her life, dating back to her Sims then moved on to describe Mrs. Ford, that the Ford F oundation support�at the discre­ school days, and had written a book (A Rose by her life and career. While her stories and vi­ tion of the Foundation Directors-was "the Shake­ Any Name, 1964)andascreenplay(Shakespeal'e gnettes about life with Mrs. Ford were quite speare Oxford authorship question." and Elizabeth Un masked, adapted fora briefnm entertaining-and a few times most amusing­ As Sims noted, supporting research about the on Broadway in 1968) to promote public aware­ it was her portrait of Mrs. Ford's frequent authorship question-unlike many other activi­ ness of the issue. reflections about how she had oftenbeen-as ties that the Foundation supports---{;alls for spe­ In the 1960sand 70s shewasa memberofthe one of the earliest Oxfordians- "criticized, cial expertise about the authorship issue itself, and Shakespeare Oxford Society. Over the years she ostracized and socially alienated from her the Shakespeare Oxford Society (of which was friends with a number of Society members, friends," that gave the Oxfordians gathered in Gertrude C. Ford was once a member) is an including Ruth Loyd and Judge Minos Miller, Newton pause to reflect. "All this rejection and organization that can provide such expertise. and more recently Joe Sobran, Betty Sears, Hank alienation devastated her," Sims related. The Ford Foundation has, therefore, had the Whittemore and Sandy Hochberg. Mr. Francis T. And Mrs. Ford was not just an Oxfordian, pleasure of awarding grants to the Society in both Carmody, the Society President in the 1960s, but an Oxfordian who openly, actively pro­ 1998 and 1999 in suppOli of its annual conference wrote the Introduction to A Rose by Any Na1lle. moted the Southampton "royal heir" theOlY as and related activities, and both the Foundation and Inher last years she was again working on a book the truth behind the authorship mystery. The the Board hope to continue this relationship. about the issue. theory was integral to her 1964 book on the Sims concluded her talk with thanks to all the Sims' talk was designed to be an introduction authorship, and herwork-in-progress in the late Oxfordians she has met and worked with over the to this most remarkable woman, and she suc­ 1980s was also focused on this theory. And as past year, and received a warm, sustained round ceeded admirably in a presentation that was both we today all know, the Southampton issue of applause from her audience. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 5

demic center-to a substantial collection of materials and publications on the Shake­ President's Letter speare Authorship Question. From Society President Aaron Tatum The Shakespeare Oxford Library collec­ tion ultimately will also include many books Dear Fellow Oxfordians: collection. and manuscripts fo cused on the Shake­ 2. The Board voted to establish a Shake­ I offer my apologies for being unable to speare works in the context of the Elizabe­ speare Oxford Society Endowment Fund attend the Birthday Celebration this year, than Renaissance-covering Shake­ fo r the purpose ofultimately supporting the but it is crucial that I be with my wife in her spearean scholarship, Elizabethan literature, librmy and the Society's publications, schol­ serious health condition as many of you history and culture. Such a collection will arships, research grants, and other promo­ know. I know all ofyou arehaving a wonder­ enhance the understanding of the Shake­ tional activities. The Endowment Fund has fu l evening enjoying this great Oxfordian speare works as well as enhancing the un­ been established using $5,000 ofthis year's tradition which Charles Boyle initiated a derstanding of the factors which enabled $35,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. number of years ago. Edward de Vere to produce those literary Donations to the Endowment wi II be held in I am delighted to report to you of the masterpieces. perpetuity, and on an interim basis the �n­ Society'S progress in the past year in So that the Librmy can also serve as an come will be allowed to accumulate to budd several areas: archive for manuscripts, documents, and the Endowment. First, we are solvent and completely research materials donated by researchers, 3. The Board has voted to begin building debt-free. We have a new Treasurer in Joe writers and members, the Society is now the Endowment Fund this year by inaugu­ C. Peel of Nashville, TN, and a Financial accepting donations of books and manu­ rating an Annual GiftsProgram. Our Goal for Oversight Committee that includes Peel, scripts to be added to the library'S holdings 2000 is $20,000, consisting of $10,000 in Grant Giffo rd of Los Angeles, CA, and our and made available to other researchers matching grants and $10,000 from members. fr iend Jim Hardigg from Conway, MA. through the library. Contact Chuck Berney 4. The Board also voted to consider Secondly, we have received a signifi­ at(6 I 7)926-4552. plans fo r substantially increasing the En­ cant grant from the Gertrude C. Ford Foun­ dowment Fund by the year 2004, as well as dation fo r the current year, in the amount of EndowmentFund raising the funds necessary to purchase or $35,000. This grant will underwrite both the build a fa cility to house the Shakespeare 2000 Conference in Stratford, Ontario and The Society Board has also established Oxford Library and Archives. The Society other Society activities. While we received The Shakespeare Oxford Society Endow­ Library would also include a lecture hall this grant only a few weeks ago, we are ment Fund to support the Library as well as suitable for performances of plays, librmy profoundly grateful fo r this support and the the educational activities of the Society in offices, and Society offices. increase over last year. This grant, along promoting research and a greater under­ with the generosity of others-such as Jim Our 2000 Conference in the home ofthe standing of the significance of Oxford's Hardigg-will allow us to take important Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, authorship. The Society Endowment Fund, steps towards our mutual objectives. is scheduled for October 26-29, and prom­ a pennanent endowment in which dona­ As many of you may recall the Board of ises to be a fabulous conference. Sue tions will remain in perpetuity, has been Trustees adopted in 1996 a long range plan Sybersma is doing an excellent job with the established with an initial balance of$5,000 to fu lfill our mission. This plan was the arrangements. Two plays-Hamlet and As generously contributed by the Gertrude C. vision and work of many of our members, YOll Like It-are being performed during the Ford Foundation. Since the recent including Betty Sears and Charles Boyle, as conference andHam let is included as part of announcement of the establishment of the well as many others. Many steps in that plan the program. Since Stratford's Shakespeare Endowment Fund, additional contributions have been achieved, such as the successful Festival is world famous for its theatrical of$900 have already been added to the Fund inauguration in the last two years of our productions, the Hallllettickets are limited, from members ofthe Society. academic journal, The Oxfordian. and you should sign up for the conference Only the income derived from the prin­ At this time, I am pleased to report that soon to assure that you can get seats. Dr. cipal amount ofthe donations to the Endow­ the Society is now positioned to implement Jack Shuttleworth, Chair of the Program ment Fund will ever be available for use in the ultimate objective of that Long Range Committee, and others are putting together supporting the Librmy and other Society Plan: to facilitate and promote Oxfordian an exciting program of speakers and events activities. To accumulate principal as quickly research through the establishment of the which I am sure you will enjoy. as possible, the Board has voted that for the Shakespeare Oxford Library and Archives. Finally, I know that all ofyou are enjoy­ present, the income shall accumulate. At their recent meeting in Portland, OR, ing the Banquet this evening and I miss The Board of Trustees further voted at earlier this month (April 6), the Board of being there with you. This is an exciting time its April meeting to launch a fundraising Trustees voted to take the following four for the Society and we have some bright campaign to increase the endowment to steps to achieve this goal: horizons ahead in our fu hlre. I know that I $25,000 this year (see the box on page four speak for the entire Board of Trustees for details regarding cash donations to the I. The Board voted to open the Society when I say that I appreciate your Endowment Fund this year). Library and Officeson an interim basis in a continuing support and participation. Donations of stock or other property to rented fa cility. The Crichton Collection of the Endowment Fund can be made by con­ approximately 2,000 volumes will be placed (Th is letter \Vasread by Society Board member tacting Joe Peel, Treasurer, Shakespeare on the shelves and made available to the Gerit Quealy at the Oxford Day Ballquet ill Oxford Society, Inc., at: (6 I 5) 385-0437, or by members, and we will work to build the Cambridge, MA Oil April 21) [email protected]. -JP/JSIWB page 6 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Why Pericles was not included in the First Folio

((The play s absence ... is notable" (F D. Hoenigel; Pericles, Arden edition) By Charles Boyle ericles first appeared in the tos of Pericles were derived from this first of the compositors collaborated on evelY Stationers' Register in 1608, regis­ Quarto copy, still without any recourse to outer and inner fonTI,which is a very awk­ P tered by Edward Blount. From the the manuscript copy. Even today all we have ward method. Steevens (an 18th centmy expression used in the entry (a book called for the text of Pericles is this 1609 quarto. scholar also cited by Hoeniger) believed the "book of Pericles") it can be reasonably there was some familiarity with the text but inferred that the copy was the play's prompt The Text attributed its many gross errors to its "fate­ book. Edward Blount, a reputable printer, ful copy of frequent early transcription in likewise entered Antony and Cleopatra on One of the most pronounced and bewil­ the Playhouse." the same day. But he never seems to have dering features of Pericles is the extreme Edwards had also written in 1952 that printed either play. unevenness in the literary quality of the text. "the latter half of the manuscript was pre­ The following yearPericles was printed, paredby a different hand from whoever was without any authorized transfer of the print­ THE Lll T responsible for the firsthalf." Reporter "A" ing rights, in what is nowadays referred to as And much admired Play, (responsible for acts One and Two) remem­ the first Quarto of Pericles. The title page C,lled bered his scenes so badly that he was often reads as follows: driven to glue fragments of the original into verses of his own making. Reporter "B" (in The late, andmuch admired play, Called charge of acts Three through Five) was a Pericles, Prince ofTyre. With the true Rela­ Wi:!' the tru,Rtbtion of th whole Hinor'e; much better reporter but apparently had the tion of the whole Historie, adventures, and 3due:i;:urcs};Jnd[onunCj ortlle f..:;id Prir.ce: worst handwriting, thus causing the com­ fortunes of the said Prince: as also, The no 1\s,llo, positors to make more mistakes of their own Ie sse strange, and worthy accidents, in the The l�O !ei:e nr:1nge):1nd wOrihy acci2cn(5� in IncEirlh a:1d Ufe,of his Daughter in transcribing him. Lastly, Edwards sug­ Birth and Life, of his daughter Mariana, As c'J,{AR1ANA. gests that "the different aptitudes of the two it hath been divers and sundry times acted by Ai i( l1�tb ban dille:! :md Clmdrl tfr.e ;.[td Ly his Majesties Servants, and at the Globe on J:i.l :-.\::ictlioSnu:mt5,:J.tthe'G!obcon . reporters [may be] the sole cause of the the Bjnck:fidc•. the Bank-side. By William Shakespeare. difference in literary value between the two Imprinted in London for Henry Gosson halves of the play." Based on such texhlal analysis, the con­ Henry Oosson was a minor publisher sensus of scholars today is that two differ­ who mainly published pamphlets and bal­ ent men saw this play in performance and lads, not plays. He appears to have printed copied out these different parts. Yet, unlike Pericles because it had been staged the year bad quartos of Hamlet and Romeo and before and because Shakespeare's name Juliet, no good quartos ever appeared later. Th e 1609 quarto of Pericles is the F or this reason most scholars of Elizabethan was on the cover. Indeed it was so success­ sole source of all later published fu l that it was reprinted that same year. versions (quarto and Folio). dramatic text have shrunk from a detailed Why Edward B10ml1 did not publish the analysis of Pericles. play first is the first of many problems. He The stiffness of the verse in 111 0St of the Pericles was so popular that it was re­ had the prompt book copy yet did not pro­ scenes in Acts One and Two, and in some of printed in 161 1, 1619, 1630and 1635. Yetit ceed with the printing. He did the same thing the later scenes, afford no parallels any­ was not included in either the First or Sec­ with Antony and Cleopatra, which was not where else in Shakespeare. On the other ond Folio, which, Hoeniger remarks, "is published until 1623 in the First Folio. In hand, in some parts of Acts Three and Four notable." It was finally published in the any event no copy of Pericles was ever the poetly is of the highest quality. second impression of the Third Folio, along printed from the prompt book copy or from F. D. Hoeniger's introductory essay in with other plays that were loosely associ­ a manuscript copy. Interestingly, what was the Arden edition of Pericles gives an excel­ ated with Shakespeare. Nicholas Rowe in­ published in 1608 was a novel which on its lent overview of these textual problems, cluded it in his 1709 and later collections of Title Page says it is the "True History of the particularly drawing on the work of P. Shakespeare, but other compilers in the 1 8th play of Pericles." Edwards (Shakespeare Survey 5 1 952, p. 25- Century leftit out, and it cannot be said to Thus it seems probable that Henry 49). Edwards, for example, had found that be permanently in the Shakespeare Canon Gosson's copy, or a large part of it, was this text was assembled without "reference until the late 18th CenhllY. Sowhywas aplay obtained in a round-about manner sepa­ to an authorized manuscript," and that at this popular not included in the First Folio, rately from whatever text Blount was con­ least three compositors shared in the print­ and why was it so long before it finally sidering to publish. The fact is that all quar- ing of the quarto. This also means that two became "officially"part of the Canon. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 7

Students have sensed Shakespeare's generosity as a way of disguising his true' darker a mystelY who cannot be depicted with any hand not only in the most moving passages purpose,' which is to freeze Cordelia in per­ certainty. She died the same year as her of dramatic poetry but in the velY design and petual childhood, so that the beloved girl he husband, 1539, soon afterher boy (George) underlying thought of the whole play. Most cannot possess will go to no other. (76) and girl (Anne Boleyn) were both executed. people are moved by the end when father It is said that she looked kindly on the young and daughter are reunited. Taylor also makes the interesting obser­ Hemy when he was Prince of W ales. It is not But what I want to consider in this paper vation that there are only three instances in impossible that as a young matron she'd are the serious and sinister suggestions in Shakespeare where the break between a appealed to Henry. She cannot have been the opening scenes of Pericles. What is the father and daughter does not involve matri­ much older than the future king. nature of the incestuous lust between the mony: these are Leontes inA Winter's Ta le, In 1501 Elizabeth Howard and Thomas King and his Princess? Lear in Leal', and Pericles in Pericles. Boleyn were married. Thereafter, despite In fact, as Taylor further notes, there are Elizabeth's annual laying in for the next 10 a number of similarities between the Pericles­ Hamlet and Lear years, only three of her children survived. Marina and Lear-Cordelia relationships that They were George, Anne and Mary, In Hamlet it is obvious that a relation­ supposedly born in 1503, 1507 and 1508 ship exists between Hamlet and his Queen "Pericles was so (respectively), though there appears to be that is more than we think. She seems to be popular that it was no firm evidence about these dates. Schol­ ars are not even sure whether Mary or Anne not only Queen and mother, but also lover. reprinted ill 1611, The lover part is the most obscure. It is not was born first, and they aren't sure if the right out there, but it is obviously there. This 1619, 1630 and 1635. years of birth are right. aspect of the play has been noted for de­ Yet it was not To make a long stOlY short, Prince Henry would have been 15 in 1507 and th ere are cades by many scholars, particularly in the included in either Bedroom scene. some who believe that it is he (and not In Monarchy and Incest in Renaissance the First or Thomas, Earl of Wiltshire) who is the father of Anne Boleyn. In a footnote in his He11l)! England, Bruce Thomas Boehrer (who is Second Folio ... " Eighth (p. 151) A.F. Pollard notes that his­ not an Oxfordian) says: torian Nicolas Sanders, whose work became can lead one back from the known incestu­ the basis for the Roman Catholic histories of ...it is at least possible that sovereignty ous sub-text of the relationship in Pericles inheres in the female and that Gertrude has the English Renaissance, gave currency to to a possible reading of the problematic chosen to wed Claudius, rather than vice the story, and further that there are "some versa. From this latter perspective, Hamlet Lear-Cordelia relationship in Lear. modern writers who prefer [his] veracity to is claiming that the throne would only be F oxe' s" [a 1 6'h century Protestant historian]. Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and history implemented through incestuous mother­ In 1589, in response to the execution of son union-that is, by literalizing the com­ Queen Mmy, Adam Blackwood wrote a Sixteenth-century historian Nicolas pound metaphor implicit in Elizabeth's claim vicious attack on Elizabeth from the conti­ of 'marriage' to her subjects ....it under­ Sanders' report on "The descent of Henry nent in which he said, scores the fact that the single most stable the Eighth's Queens" gives a table showing political figure in Hamlet's Elsinore is the the degree of consanguinity of each of his woman Gertrude, and not any one of the men ... the marriage between the king and six wives. Catherine of Aragon was a fifth Anne Boleyn could not stand by any law in around her. (66) cousin, Anne Boleyn was a eighth cousin, the world, that same Anne being his natural Jane Seymour was a fifth cousin, Anne of daughter, and ... since whenhe married her he And he further says that: Cleves was a seventh cousin twice removed, had another wife conjoined on him. (Boehrer, Catherine Howard was a eighth cousin and 47) ...Hamlet's treatment of royal affinity Catherine Parr was a third cousin once re­ pursues a Henrician rather than an Elizabe­ moved. But let's look a little more closely at During Anne Boleyn's trial she was than agenda---onethat demands a son, and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. accused of intercourse with five different holds no real place for Elizabeth at all. (72) Her father Thomas (as described by lovers. One of these accusations was a case Francis Hackett in Hel11:V the Eighth, p. 154- of incest with her brother George. While that InLear such a relationship is even harder 5) was a "serious and dutiful man" who charge was not true, it did show Henry's to find, but it is there, and it has been became Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond. He interest in the subject. commented upon in existing scholarship. was a man with "a cold face" and eyes with On the other hand Anne's relationship Mark Taylor (also not an Oxfordian), in a "direct but stony expression [as if looking] with Mark Smeaton might have been more Shakespeare 's Darker Purpose: A Ques­ towards a master." In short, writes Hackett, real. Even on the scaffold he repeated his tion a/Incest, says that Lear he was the sort of man "as necessary to claim, "Masters, I pray you all prayed for me, diplomacy as door-knobs are to doors." for I have deserved this death." ... involves [Goneril and Regan] 111 his Anne's mother, Elizabeth Howard, was (Continued 0/1 page 8) page 8 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Pericles (Contilllledji'olll page 7) this point-the perception of the Shake­ incest, and if it does, what conclusions speare plays as being true commentaries about Shakespeare's life and times can we Edward de Vere and history about the Courtof Elizabeth-that brings us draw from such a fact. Incest is clearly in the to one possible reason that Pericles seemed background of plays like Hamlet and King Once one accepts Edward de Vere as to be disowned by those assembling the Lear, among others, but nowhere is it so Shakespeare, as Oxfordians have found, the First Folio, and then remained in "official" obvious as in Pericles. Here the father/ name of the game is to come to new under­ limbo for another 150 years. That reason is, daughter relationship is not only obvious, standings of the Shakespeare works through of course, the possible validation-in the it is at the center of the play, and it is between the prism of de Vere's life-the inevitable eyes of some observers-of the numerous a king and his daughter. and oft-maligned "biographical" debate. rumours of incest that were never far from So, once we know who Shakespeare There are, without a doubt, some strange the Tudor dynasty, especially during its really was (as Oxfordians do today), it be­ circumstances about de Vere' s life that may beginnings under Hemy VIII. comes clem' why it would have been impos­ have some bearing in understanding Bruce Boehrer, for example, says in sible to have included this play in his First Shakespeare's interest in incest. Monarchy and incest, Folio. It doesn't matter that his name was on Simply stated, there are a minority of the 1609 quarto. It doesn't matter that the Oxfordians who have for decades consid­ play was so popular. This play just simply "... the 1534 Succession Act ered the possibility that de Vere himself is cannot be seen in the First Folio, even under not the child of John de Vere and Margery makes wonderful fiction, the penname Shakespeare. The strange his­ Golding, but rather that he is the product of tory of its publication and its absence from and illustrates what all the much rumored pregnancy of Elizabeth the Folio would seem to indicate that there herself in 1548, and is in fact the son of important role the were those who'd just as soon not have Thomas Seymour and Elizabeth (the first of Pericles associated with Shakespeare at all. literary imagination may several children perhaps born to the "non­ F or what all this is really about, I believe, Virgin" Queen). Ifthis theory is correct, and play ill the development is this: the incestthemes in the Shakespeare the theories about Southampton being the plays may indeed be coming straight from of National politics. " son of Elizabeth and Oxford are also correct the author's own life and experiences, and ...well, then, you can see where it all leads. from his knowledge of the "truths"-or at One bit of historical fact that lends some least the "perceived truths"-of life during credence to such a theory is that there are no In some basic way the English Renais­ sance is about incest (5) the Tudor regime. records of either birth orbaptism in 1550 for If that is so, then Pericles is the one play Edward de Vere. His birth date, in fact, comes and a little further on he continues, that makes it all crystal clear, and might lead to us from a diary entry made by Lord people to consider (if they didn't already Burghley in April 1576 in the midst of the ... the higher one moves in the Renais­ suspect and/or know) that-possibly- in­ crisis over Oxford's rej ecting Elizabeth Vere sance England Social Register, the more dis­ cestuous behavior at the highest levels of as his own child. turbing the problem becomes. (6) Tudor society dated all the way back to the It is unusual for someone born into the behavior of He my VIII, and may have con­ station of life that Oxford was (the premier And, when we are talking about the king tinued right on into the re gime of Elizabeth Earl of the realm) to have 110 records at all of England, the problem becomes paramount. I and her "Shakespeare." left behind about either his birth or his As Boe/u'er also notes: baptism. In fact, one of the few records we Sources: do have about the Stratford man is his From this standpoint, the 1534 Succes­ baptism record (and, later on, the records of sion Act makes wonderful fiction, and illus­ Boehrer, Bruce Thomas. J\/onarchy and In­ trates what an important role the literaty his childrens' baptisms). And, as I pointed cest in Renaissance England. (University of imagination may play in the development of Pennsylvania Press, 1992) out earlier in this paper, there are no records National politics. (2) Hackett, Francis. Helll)) the Eighth. (Horace (birth or baptism) for any of the children of Liveright,I929) Elizabeth Howard. Mark Taylor, in Shakespeare '.I' Darker Pollard, A. F. Henry Eighth. (Harper and Purpose, makes note of. .. Row, 1966) Shakespeare and history Taylor, Mark. Shakespeare's Darker Pur­ pose: A Question olIncest. (A MS Press, 1982) T. S. Eliot's description ofthe enormous One of the key questions that rages Shakespeare, William. Pericles. Arden Edi­ difficulty involvedin perceiving 'the pattern among those in the Oxfordian movement at tion. F. D. Hoeniger, ed. (1963,1998) in Shakespeare's carpet' [which 1 assumes this point in time (a question that has, of Smith, Lacey Baldwin. Henry Eighth, Th e none the less that the works are in fact woven Mask o{Royalty. (Houghton MifflinCo., 1971) course, been around for ages) is to what together into a single carpet. (xi) extent the Shakespeare plays are Warnicke, Retha M. The Rise and Fall of contemporay accounts of the life of the So then, the question before us is simply AmleBoleVIl. (Cambridge University Press, 1989) author and the Court of Elizabeth. For it is whether that "single carpet" includes Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 9

Shakespeare's Bad La1V (COllt'd ji'OI11page 1) law, lavishly as he propounds it, there can disposed ofthis subject in a recent book.( 149) Phillips only presents the authority of neither be demurrer nor bill of exceptions, Messrs. Clarkson and Warren and quotes nor writ of error. (132-4) There is then a 1 3-year gap until the 1 942 none oftheirexamples (I 59-161,1 91). publication of Clarkson and Warren's Th e More recently, in Th e Elizabethan Re­ In Th e Law in Shake�peare Senator Law oj Property in Shakespeare, in which view (Autumn 1997, Vol. 5, No. 2), the co­ Cushman K. Davis explores how once again the idea is raised that Shake­ editor of the Internet's "Shakespeare Au­ speare erred in such a way that excludes the thorship Page," David Kathman, Ph.D., claims ... this legal learning is accurately sus­ possibility of his having legal training. But that, "Paul Clarkson and Clyde Warren, in an tained in many passages with cumulative and let us return now to the beginnings of this exhaustive study oflegalisms in the work of progressive application. The word employed debate and William Devecmon. seventeen Elizabethan playwrights (The becomes suggestive of other words, or of a Law ojProp er(v in Shakespeare and Eliza­ legal principle, and these are at once used so Greenwood on Devecmon bethan Drama), found that Shakespeare fully that their powers are exhausted. (16) was average at best in the number and In 1899, Devecmon attacked both Lord accuracy of his legal allusions." (22) The Such sweeping declarations invite op­ Campbell and Senator Davis. 1M. Robertson concept of "average accuracy" is found posing arguments and examples. The first later supported these attacks. Greenwood nowhere in the source text, indicating that such major salvo was launched in 1899 by spent much space in his books refutingboth Dr. Kathman has not closely read either William C. Devecmon in his IN RE Robertson and Devecl110n(and lesser crit­ Shakespeare & the Lawyers or Th e Law oj Shake�pe([re's "Legal Acquirements": ics), but as Robertson follows Devecmon, 4 Property in Shakespeare. I Notes by an Unbeliever Th erein. Thus offering no "errors" ofhis own, Greenwood's Before we examine some examples of began a 21-year debate over Shakespeare's refutations of Devecmon will suffi ce. Shakespeare's "inaccuracies" in Th e Law oj legal knowledge, one proposition being, Devecmon listed 13 examples6 of Shake­ Property in Shakespeare-a text that in "Shakespeare made mistakes using legal speare's "gross errors" in using legal terms. many other respects is excellent� let's first tenns." Four of these reveal Devecmon's literal­ take a closer look at the history of the The major debaters were Devecmon: mindedness. He claims that "Well ratified" arguments. Pro�J. M. Robertson: Pro, in Did Shake­ and "replication" in Hamlet (I.i.90 and sp eare Wr ite Titus Androniclls? (1905) and IV.ii.l l), "challenge" in Hemy VIII(II.iv.7S), The Early Debaters Th e Baconian Heresy (l913)�A rthur and "indenture" in Pericles (l.iii.8) are all Underhill: Pro, in the essay "Law" in misused. Those relying solely on Matus would Shakespeare's England (1916)�and Sir But the OED�unavailable to remain unaware ofthe nearly I 50-year his­ George Greenwood: Con, in Th e Shake­ Devecmon�reveals that each term had a tory ofarguments over Shakespeare's legal .speare Problem Restated (1908),1s Th ere a history of figurative and alternate usage knowledge in over 35 books and numerous Shakespeare Problem? (1916), Shake­ that fitsthe passages cited. Ofthose remain­ articles. The 19th century saw a GoldenAge sp eare's Law and Latin (1916), and ing, Greenwood refutes five (four in Th e of books supporting the proposition that Shakespeare's Law (1920). Shakespeare Problem Restated and one in Shakespeare possessed an extensive and Greenwood was the most reasoned and Shake�peare 's Law). unerring knowledge of the law. methodical of those debaters favoring These five refutations by Greenwood Although the first mention was made by Shakespeare's legal knowledge. Among a are:7 lawyer and Shakespeare editor Edmund sea of Baconians, he stood apart not only as Malone in 17782, itwas notuntil 1858-1859 a critic of the orthodox authorship attribu­ 1) "Demise" Richard III(IV.iv.247-8): that the idea began to take hold with the tion, but also as an agnostic who patiently publication oftwo books: William Rushton's awaited a reasonable alternative. When Eliz. Tell me what state, what dignity, Shakespeare a Lawyer, and Lord ChiefJus­ Looney published Shakespeare Idel1tified, whathonor tice John Campbell's Shakespeare 's Legal he found the case for Oxford persuasive.s Canstthou demise to any child of mine? Acquirements Considered. 3 After this 21-year debate, a nine-year These two works were fo llowed by sev­ gap ensued until Sir Dunbar Plunket Barton Devecl110n simply states that dignities eral others, one listing 312 examples of came out with Links Behveen Shake�peare and honors cannot be demised and cites Shakespeare's use of legal terms. Lord and the Law (1929). Barton came down on Comyn 's Digest in support. Greenwood Campbell, by far the most influential, gives the side of Greenwood: quotes Comyn's Digest, which states that his unequivocal opinion of Shakespeare's "a dignity or nobility cannot be aliened or use oflegal terms: Some critics have gone to the opposite transferred to another." extreme, and have dwelt upon what they call "Nota very unreasonable proposition!" I am amazed, not only by their number, 'the bad law' in the plays of Shakespeare. says Greenwood. He then continues, but by the accuracy and propriety with He, like other dramatists, probably cared which they areunifol111ly introduced .... While very little whether the law was strictly If the king grants a title or 'dignity' to a Novelists and Dramatists are constantly accurate, so long as it helped the plot or the subject, it is natural enough that the grantee making mistakes as to the law ofmarriage, of dialogue. Sir George Greenwood, with whom should not have the power to assign it away wills, and of inheritance, -to Shakespeare's the present writer does not always agree, has (Contillued all page 10) page 10 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Shakespeare's Bad Law (Collt'dFom page 9) 175n). But amazingly, though heclaims that 5) "Single bond." Merchant o/ Venice to another (perhaps for a round sum down), Greenwood's refutations hold no weight, (I.iii.140-6) : or to put it up to auction. Therefore the Robertson hides behind vague generalities Queen is right, prima facie at any rate, when and fa ils to explicitly refute even a single Shy. Go with me to a notary; seal me she suggests to Richard that he has no power one. there to 'demise' any dignity or honour to a child Your single bond, andin a merry sport of hers. Where is the legal error here? But 4) "Testament." He lllY V(I.i.9-11): If you replay me noton such a day, there is this further observation to be made. In such a place, such a sum as are It was possible for Richard to 'demise' such Callt. For all the temporallands, which Expressed in the condition, let the for dignities or honours, inasmuch as he was men devout feit king, and even a subject could make a grant By testament have given to the church, Be nominated for an equal pound of such things 'with the king's licence.' Would they strip from us. Of your fair flesh... (Comyn 's Dig., ad loc.) Therefore the error is entirely on the side of Mr. Devecmon. Devecmon claims that "testament" is Devecmon says, "It is hardly conceiv­ (Restated 399-400) able that any lawyer, or anyone who had spentconsiderable time in a lawyer's office, 2) "Common/Several." Love's Labour's "Greenwood was the in Shakespeare's age,could have been guilty Lost (II.i.221-223) ofthe egregious error ofca lling a bond with most reasoned and a collateral condition a 'single bond.'" Boyet. So you grant pasture fo r me. In Shakespeare 's Law Greenwood Kath. Not so, gentle beast; methol/ical of those quotes both the Encyclopaedia of the Laws My lips no common are, though several o.fEngl and and Stephens COlllmentaries to they be. debaters fa voring point out that single bonds include those where people are bound to pay at a certain Devecmon admits that "Shakespeare Shakespeare's time and place with a penaltyattached in the doubtless knew that one cannot at the same event offailure to pay. Payment of a pound time hold a thing in common and in sever­ legal knowledge." of flesh is the "penalty" and not a "condi­ alty, and ifso, he here sacrifices his knowl­ tion."(24-26) edge for a mere play on words, which I fancy In other words, Devecl110n sees that a professional pride, ifhe had had any legal used incorrectly since it bequeaths per­ Shakespeare has used the words "Expressed training, would not have permitted him to sonal property. A "will" is used for devising in the condition" and wants to immediately do." Greenwood relies on a note of William real estate. Greenwood responds: translate that as a conditional bond in the Hazlitt's to Sir Jo hn Oldcastle (I.iii.l) to legal sense. It is not. The bond is properly explain the usage, but Clarkson and Warren 'How absolute the knave is! We must defined as a single bond. Once again, the do a better job while criticizing Devecmon spcak by the card!' Must the Archbishop error lies with Devecmon. for being so over-literal. (Sh. Law 88) speak by the card too, or thc writer be set down as no lawyer? But really this is but Literal-minded vs.literary "Statutes." Love 's Labour's Lost 3) another example in support of the proposi­ (1.i.15-19): Now let's examine four more "Devecmon tion that a little learningis a dangerous thing. errors" that Greenwood did not address in 'A testament is the true declaration of our last Killg. You three, Berowne,Dumain, and his books, but which are quite similar to Longaville, Will; of that wee would to be done after our those five hedid address, having in common Have sworn for three years' term to live death,' says the learned author of that fa­ the one errorthat Devecmon himselfmakes with me, mous old book Termes de la Ley. A 'testa­ over and over-he simply cannot conceive My fellow-scholars, and to keep those ment' includes a 'will,' said the Court in ofthe "literary" use oflegal terms. statutes Fullerv. Hooper(2Vescy Senior242). Nay, That are recorded in this schedule here: more, Littleton, the great and learned 1) "Moiety." 1 Helll), IV (III.i.66-9, Your oaths are pass'd; and now Littleton, uses 'testament' as applicable to 91-2): subscribe your names a devise oflands and tenements; and all Coke has to say about it is that 'in law most G1end. Come, here's the map; shall we Devecmon thinks "statutes" is misused divide our right? commonly "ultima voluntas in scriptis" is here to mean merely "articles ofagrcement," According to our threefold order ta' en? used where lands or tenements are devised, since there is no such meaning in law. Ac­ Mort. The archdeacon hath divided it testamentum when it concerneth chattels.' cording to Greenwood, Shakespeare uses Into three limites very equally. But we know that 'testator' is used of a man "statutes" in the sense of "ordinances," as [ ... ] is usual in a college. (Restated 404) In this who has made a will, whether it be of lands Hot. Methinks my moiety, north from one case, Mr. Robertson explicitly agrees or of personal property. So that again Mr. Burton here, with Greenwood (The Baconian Heresy Devecmon's attempt fails. (Restated 402) In quantity equals not one of yours. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 11

Devecmon points out that "moiety" commit. As we shall see, Clarkson and Warren ing that this play was not Shakespeare's. means a half, not a third. However, he fa ils criticize Devecmon fo r over-literalizing this Once again, we have an instance where the to point out that Shakespeare does use it speech. literal-minded lawyer assumes that only the correctly both legally and figuratively in strict legal definition was in common usage. All 's We ll That Ends We ll (I1I.ii.66), Th e 3) "On the case." Th e Comedy of Errors A quick check of the OED reveals that both Winter 's Tale (III.ii.39), Hel1l)i V(V.ii.21 2), (IV.ii,41-2): Davis and Devecmon err. According to the Richard JlJ(I.ii.254; and II.2.60), Hel1l)i VJlJ OED "entail" was used apart from its strict (I.ii. 12),Antony and Cleopatra (V.i. 19), and Adr. Why, man, what is the matter? legal usage: "2. transf. and fig. To bestow or Cy mbe!ine (I.iv. l 05). Dro. S. I do not know the matter: he is confer as if by entail; to cause to descend to In several other plays he uses the term 'rested on the case. a designated series of possessors; to be­ figuratively to mean simply "a portion" rather stow as an inalienable possession." than "a half." But it may be objected that in Devecmon points out that there are two Thus, in 1513 Sir Thomas More in Ed­ the case ofHots pur, the strict legal usage is kinds of civil actions: those growing out of ward V writes, "The Crowne ofthe Realme called for. A close reading reveals that in fact breach of contract and those fo r the recov- [was] entayled to the Duke ofYorke and his Hotspur uses the term correctly. Devecmon Heires." (OED) Perhaps Shakespeare was and other critics want to yoke Hotpsur's fo llowing Sir Thomas in this usage of ap­ "moiety" reference to the tripartite division ..... Underhill knew that pointing an hereditary possessor, but Shake­ mentioned over 20 lines earlier. speare uses "entail" in its stricter legal us­ In fact Hotspur is speaking, not of his Shakespeare knew. ageinAll's Well Th at Ends Well(IV.iii.270), third, as compared to the other two men, but showing that he understood both defini­ a smaller section of his third, which he is One must wonder tions precisely. comparing to a smaller section belonging to Mortimer only. IfHotspurwere comparing ifUn derhill has Arthur Underhill's "Bad Law" his third to the two other men's, he would be speaking of the whole compared to the been intentionally Let us now turn our attention to another whole of theirs. He does not. His land bor­ of the early debunkers of Shakespeare's ders Mortimer's, and the argument center's knowledge of the law. In Shakespeare 's deceptive. " around a pOliion "north fi'omBUlion." Shake­ England: An Account ofthe Life & Manners speare uses the legal term correctly. ofh is Age (l916)R, Arthur Underhill lets the ery of wrongs independent of a contract. reader know exactly where he stands by 2) "Jointress." Hamlet (I.ii.8-9): "On the case" applies to the fonner, but the opening the section on "The Law" with the statement here applies to the latter. How­ statement, Claud. Therefore our sometime sister, ever, Devecmon neglects to notice that this now our queen, is a comedy with comedic characters who Despite Shakespeare's frequent use of The imperial jointress to this wadil{e will, like Dogberry in Much Ado AboutNo th­ legal phrases and allusions his knowlcdge of . State. ing, mix their legal terms. Dromio is mixing up law was neither profound nor accurate. (1.381) the usage. Devecmon cites Co. Lift. 46 to define In a paper presented at the 20th Annual jointress as "a woman who has an estate 4) "Entail." 3 Hem)' VI (I.i.200-3): Conference of the Shakespeare Oxford So­ settled on her by her husband." Referencing ciety (Minneapolis, 1996), entitled "Recent Blake 's Commentaries he states that a King H. I here entail Developments in the Case for Oxford as 'jointure" was used for barring dower, and The crown to thee, and to thine heirs Shakespeare," Peter Moore deftly refutes that "Gertrude could have neither a dower forever; the three instances where Underhill accuses norajointure in Denmark." But it takes little Conditionally that thou here take an Shakespeare of using legal terms incor­ imagination to recognize that Shakespeare oath rectly.9 is using the term in a royal context that To cease this civil war ... Two of these are easily refuted: enlarges its meaning (a common Shake­ Underhill's resurrection ofDevecmon' s claim spearean practice, which is responsible for Devecmon quotes Senator Davis: that in Love 's Labour 's Lost Shakespeare giving us our flexible language). The two incorrectly uses "comnlOn" and "several," havejust married, and Shakespeare plays on The use of the word 'entail' herc seems (discussed earlier in this article), and his the idea of that royal joining. to be inaccurate, for, though the use of the criticism of Hamlet' s graveyard remarks on The context also suggests irony, in that word ' heirs' is necessary to create a fee, so buying land in Hamlet (V.i. I 01-110), where such a marriage should barthe King's brother the word 'body' or somc other words of he dashes off almost a dozen legal terms, from the "dower" ofthe kingdom. Deveemon procreation are necessary to make it a fee tail. including "statutes and recognizances." fa ils once again to look at the literary con­ A gift to a man and his heirs, male or female, Moore accurately points out that "any text, assuming that every use that appears to is an estate in fee simple and not in fee tail. annotated, university-level edition of Ham­ deviate from strict legal usage represents an let, such as Arden, Oxford, or Cambridge, elTor that no one trained in the law would Greenwood avoids this one also, believ- (Continued 011 pC/ge 12) page 12 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Shakespeare's Bad Law (Cont'd ii'olll page 11) Clarkson and Warren's "Bad Law" It has been pointed out that such an will explain exactly what statutes and recog­ instrument would be quite inoperative to nizances had to do with buying land." Now, we should finally turn to Clarkson transfer after-acquired property; only that Underhill's third error is quite interest­ and Warren's 1942 book Th e Law ofProp­ which was in esse at the time the deed was ing. TurningtoAll 's Well That Ends Wellhe erty in Shakespeare and the Elizabethan delivered would pass. This observation, accomplishes what can only be described Drama, yet another oft-quoted (see Irv however, seems largely beside the point Matus's Sh akespeare IN FA CT) debunk­ as an intentional misrepresentation. because this deed was not intended at the First, Underhill states that "the King of ing of Shakespeare's knowledge ofthe law time of delivery to pass even the property France insists upon his highborn ward that comes up short upon closer analysis. which was in esse. (183) Bertrammanying Helena, a poorphysician 's The authors labored long and hard to daughter, who was of inferior rank to him." cross-catalog all of the legal references to He then quotes a passage (ILiii.52-3) where property law used by 17 Elizabethan play­ The authors also criticize Charles Allen the King has Helena choose a husband. wrights. They claim that the others "with for erroneously pointing out errors in Underhill then informs us that "when few exceptions display a degree ofaccuracy Shakespeare's use oflegal terms in his 1900 Bertram, whom Helena chooses, protests," book No tes on the Bacon-Shakespeare the King informs him peremptorily that Question (219, 224, 246). They even use "Once again Greenwood's Shakespeare 's Law, refer­ It is in us to plant thine honour where enced in a single footnote (246), as a counter We please to have it grow. Check thy the critics of to one of Allen's claims. J J Th e Law of Property in Shakespeare contempt: Shakespeare 's law Obey our will, which travails in thy good. appears to contain only three examples of are themselves Shakespeare's inaccurate use oflegal terms. First, the authors repeat Devecmon's dis­ Underhill skips over 100 lines to quote proven to be this passage (II.iii.156-8). He then quotes a covery of a "technical error" in passage from 10nson's Bartholomew Fail', the ones Shakespeare's use of"entail" in 3 HenlY VI. (59) They repeat Devecmon's mistake in which he says alludes "to the condition that ill error. " the spouse must be of equal rank with the assuming that the term has only a technical ward, which Shakespeare has ignored." usage. Second, they cite the Host in Th e Yet, between the two passages that at least no lower than his." (285) Meny Wi ves of Windsor (II.i.206-7) for mis­ Underhill quotes, is this (II.iii. 1 12-21): This statement, ofcourse, could be con­ using "egress" and "regress." (70) There is strued to mean that Shakespeare had 1 00% little point in belaboring the obvious-that Ber. But follows it, my lord, to bring me accuracy. Using the index, a researcher is to quote such a character in such a play as down hard-pressed to discover Shakespeare's an example ofShakespeare 's error is beyond Must answer for your raising? I know her alleged inaccuracies. Butunder Devecmon' s highly questionable. well: name there are two listings-with three ac­ Clarkson and Warren's third error is She had her breeding atmy father's charge­ tual mentions in the text-all criticizing different, and may actually promise to be a A poor physician's daughter my wife! Devecmon for erring in his criticism ofShake­ significantdisco very. They begin their sec­ Disdain speare. Two of these have already been ond chapter of Part III by setting the stage Rather corrupt me ever! examined as part ofDevecmon's 13 "gross for a discussion ofthe use ofthe term "heir," King. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, errors." particularly in "heir apparent" and "heir the which presumptive," noting that there is an impor­ I can build up. Strange it is that our bloods, The first is Devecmon's criticism of tant distinction between the two (197-9). Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all Claudius's use of "j ointress." The authors The heir apparent's succession was con­ together, quote Middleton's, "That's my Soul'sjoin­ tingent only upon his outliving his ances­ Would quite confound distinction, yet stands ture" in No Wit, No Help Like a Woman 's off (l.ii.23), and then say, "One can only wonder tor, such as an eldest son. This is the only In differences so mighty. what inaccuracies Devecmon would have circumstance that could deprive him of his fo und in this metaphorical usage." (84) inheritance. Thus, the heir apparent is in the Bertram directly addresses the The second is Devecmon's criticism of direct line of succession. The heir presump­ unequalness in rank between him and Hel­ Boyet and Katherine's "common" and "sev­ tive, on the other hand, would be like a ena. The King responds that hecan raise her eral." The authors' comparative research brother to a King, one whose succession inrank, and then proceeds to reflect on how shows both words are commonly used to could be displaced by the birth of a child to strange it is that people can in every other refer, "not to the right of pasture but to the the King. respect be the same, yet so different in rank. place where the right is exercised." (86) Thus, Clarkson and Warren reveal In Peter Moore's words, "Shakespeare Thus, they conclude that Devecmon's criti­ Shakespeare's error: was perfectly well aware of the require­ cism is not valid. (88-9) ment." And Underhill knew that Shakespeare The third is Devecmon' s criticism of "a Shakespeare uses the phrase 'heir ap­ knew. One must wonder if Underhill has deed of gift" in Th e Merchant of Ven ice parent' incorrectly when Cardinal Beaufort been intentionally deceptive. (V.i.292): 10 says of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 13

[2 Hem)! VI (Li.150- 1)], Conclusion "Prolegomena" to The Life of William Shake­ sp eare, he states that Shakespeare's "knowledge and application oflegal terms, seems to me not Consider, lords, he is the next of blood In 1 899, William Devecmon wrote, merely such as might have been acquired by And heir apparent to the English crown. Though the frequent use oflegal terms, casual observation of his all-comprehending with their proper technical meanings, has a mind; it has the appearance oftechnical skill; and Gloucester was not Henry VI's eldest cumulative effect, and tends strongly to he is so fond ofdisplaying it on all occasions, that son, of course, but his uncle, and therefore prove a legal training; yet a velY few eITors there is, I think, some ground fo r supposing that heir presumptive. Shakespeare did not adopt in such use, if glaring and gross, would he was early initiated in at least the forms of this language from Holinshed, and did not absolutely nullifythat effect and proof. (33) law." (II, 107-9) have here the excuse ofmetric requirements, 3) Rushton claims in Shakespeare's Testa­ mentmy Language that Lord Campbell relied since either word fits the iambic pentameter In other words, according to more on his research than on his own readings. equally well. We have here just another Devecmon, if it can be shown that Shake­ 4) Published by The Shakespeare Society of examplc of Shakespeare's being interested speare continually uses legal terms aptly New York (No. 12). One minor criticism was and free of error, then that fact strongly not so much in correctly stating a legal made in 1863 by R. F. Fuller, "Shakespeare as a proves he had legal training. proposition, as in putting into the mouth of Lawyer," (Upp er Canada Law Journal, p. 95). his character words which to the laymen­ This essay, I believe, provides proof Also, Edward James Castle alleges somc legal that no critic of Shakespeare 's "bad law" groundling sounded like good law, and at any errors in his 1897 Shakespeare, Bacon, Jonson & has yet given even a single valid example. In ratc conveyed the desired information. This Greene, but Devecmon himself states that "I every case where a critic provides an ex­ is, of course, the cssence of good theatre. have fa iled to discover a single instance given by ample it can be shown that it is the critic, and him of any real blunder in the use oflegal terms." (199) not Shakespeare, who errs. This, then-to (30) use Devecmon's own words-is strong 5) Sir George Greenwood and 1. Thomas If this is an error, it indeed qualifies as proof of Shakespeare's legal training. Looney fo unded the Shakespeare Fellowship in one that a man trained in law would not In the end, when someone claims, with­ Hackney on November 6, 1922. Greenwood was commit. Clarkson and Warren then proceed out giving examples-as do Dr. Kathman, elected President, and Looney one of several to give examples of contemporary play­ Mr. Matus, and Mr. Phillips-that Shake­ Vice-Presidents. Col. B. R. Ward was elected wrights who display a knowledge of the speare used legal terms inaccurately, one Hon. Secretary and Treasurer. The Fellowship distinction-and these examples present a must demand specifics.And when someone was not confined to Oxfordians, although it was problem: they contain only the concept of gives such specific examples-as do fo unded as a direct result of Looney's book. the distinction, not the use of the phrase Devecmon, Underhill, and Messrs. Clarkson Looney drew many of the criteria of his search "heir presumptive." and Warren-one must examine them from Greenwood's books. (See Th e Shakespeare A quick check ofa concordance reveals closely. Authorship Review, No. 8, Autumn 1962.) that Shakespeare never used "heir presump­ Lord Campbell and Sir George Green­ 6) Actually 14. I postpone discussion ofthis tive" or even "presumptive." A quick check wood were right. Shakespeare uses legal last example until my discussion of Clarkson and of the OED reveals that the firstpublic use terms accurately. To date, his critics have a Warren's "Bad Law." of "presumptive" occurs in 1609, and that history ofprofound ignorance, error, and, in 7) All citations are from Th e Arden Shake­ "heir presumptive" is not used until 1628. the case of Underhill, possible deception. sp eare. Couldthis mean thatthe term was not in use 8) Although Shakespeare's England was during Shakespeare's time? Yes! Under the published in 1916, Underhill only shows knowl­ Footnotes: third listing under "presumptive" the OED edge ofthe some of the arguments through 1 900. provides this example: He lists only Campbell, Davis, and Allen in his I) Kathman is plainly wrong in claiming that bibliography, and neglects to mention Devecmon. Clarkson and Warren's book is "an exhaustive 1683 Brit. Spec. 272. Apparent (or ac­ Perhaps the essay was already out of date when study oflegalisms." The book's title confines the it was published. cording to the new-coyned Distinction, Pre­ scope to "The Law ofProperty," and the authors 9) Moore's paper is available online: sumptive) Heir of the Crown is His Royal admit the need to narrow the scope: "Long ago we http://www.everreader.com/progresl .htm Highness James[et c.]. realized that the subject of the law in the drama 10) This is Devecmon's 14th example of was so broad that it had best be treated in Shakcspeare's bad law. In other words, "heir presumptive" was installments. References will be noted through­ II) Phillips also holds up Allen as an author­ regarded as a newly-coined term in the late out this book to later treatises on the law pertain­ ity of Shakespeare's "bad law," but he cites only 17th century, and that "heir apparent" was ing to Equity, Marriage and Divorce, Criminal one cxample (135) and that only to shoot it down commonly used for both distinctions! Law, etc." (xxvi) In almost 60 years, the authors with a reference to Greenwood! This use of Once again, the critics of Shakespeare 's have yet to deliver the promised installments. Greenwood as a supporting authority is strangely law are themselves proven to be the ones in Mr. Phillips actually points much of this out in typical of almost every critic of Shakespeare's error. As to Shakespeare's use oflegal ten11s, Shakespeare & the Lawyers. law and of evelY Oxfordian critic, including it can still be truly said, over 140 years later, 2) Edmond Malone, "Essay on the Chrono­ Schoenbaum in Shakespeare's Lives, and MahlS. that "there can neither be demurrer nor bill logical Order of Shakespeare ' s Plays," in a fo ot­ of exceptions, nor writ of error." note to Hamlet. Two years later in his page 14 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Oxfordian News New Oxfordian group fo rmed in Chicago; authorship question surfaces at Harvard; 2nd Annual Shakespeare Festival in Vennont this August

Illinois was fa r from a thorough airing of the Oxfordians in Chicago held the first principal arguments. The way the alumni meeting of the newly formed Chicago asked questions about Oxford indicated ' Oxford Society (an independent organi­ that they had read the Hmper ,I,' articles, zation) on April 29th. Their inaugural although their questions were quite gen­ meeting began with a letter ofcongratu­ eral and Garber handled them easily. Nev­ lations from Shakespeare Oxford Society eliheless, 300 Harvard/Radcliffe alumni­ President Aaron Tatum being read. doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors­ The keynote speaker was Dr. Ren heard a leading Shakespearean scholar Draya 'of Blackburn College, whose raise the authorship question for discus­ speech "How Oxford Won Me Over" sion on the Harvard campus. was well received by an audience of27, Garber's marathon performances at the podium-more than six hours ofdis­ several ofwhom are current members of Th efirstme eting ofthe Chicago Oxford Society was cussion and Q&A each Saturday and the Shakespeare Oxford Society, but most held at the Grace Place Church last April 29th. Co­ ofwhom were newcomers to the author­ fo under William Farina (left) welcomed local Oxfo r­ Sunday-were almost totally devoted to ship debate. Dr. Draya is also a trustee of diclI1s, 1Vhile Dr. Ren Draya (righ t) of Blackburn interpretation of the plays. From time to the Shakespeare Oxford Society. College (JL) sp oke on Oxford as Shakespeare and time she came up with insights ofinterest Co-founders of the COS, Bill Farina the rising interest in the authorship issue. Draya is to Oxfordians, usually as brief asides. In and Marion Buckley, reported that at also a trustee of the Shakespeare Oxfo rd Society. Hamlet, for example, (the most autobio- least one Stratfordian who attended graphical of the plays) the play's hero spoke with them afterwards, and left the articles argued for Oxford as the true author, and the play's jester are merged in the meeting converted. The Society is sponsor­ five for the Stratford man, one ofwhich was character Hamlet-the only time that such ing a second meeting this July 20th at the by Garber. Although she was writing for the merging occurs in Shakespeare; Claudius is NewbUlY Library, and has arranged for Ox­ Stratford side, her article was neutral to never named by anyone in the play; the fo rdian editor Stephanie Hughes to speak positive for Oxford. politics of the play center on Polonius as on "Shakespeare's Dark Lady." For her two-day seminars Garber thus Burghley (Oxford's guardian and father­ Chicago-area Oxfordians interested in chose to explicitly raise the authorship issue in-law). learning more aboutthe COS should contact rather than simply review the life of the Some other interesting insights from co-directors Marion Buckley or William Stratford man and tIy to make some connec­ Prof. Garber included her emphasis on the Farina at (3 12)922-403 I. tions to the poems and plays of Shake­ Shakespeare plays being fullof double mean­ speare. After the second seminar, she said ings, doubleness, and ambiguity ( ego sexual Massachusetts that she did so because the question always "death" and actual death), that the songs in "Who Was Shakespeare?" was part of comes up whenever she talks about Shake­ the plays-far from being merely entertain­ the discussions at two weekend seminars speare to a general audience. ments-are "deeply significant," and that on the Harvard U Diversitycampus in Cam­ In the 45-minute authorship segment Pro spero in Th e Tempest is not the author: bridge (in March and April) given fo r 300 Garber covered the origins of and reasons he enslaves Ariel as well as Caliban and Harvard University alumni by Harvard Pro­ for the doubts about the Stratford man and manipulates his daughter's marriage. fessor Mmjorie Garber, a leading Shake­ Bardolatry. She said little about the case for She also noted that actors were very low speare scholar, author and culture critic. Oxford, noting that a "persistent minority of class and as such dangerous. Clothes in Among those who attended one of the two scholars" continues to question the Strat­ Elizabethan England designated social sta­ sessions were fo rtner Society trustees Elliott ford man's authorship. She praised Charlton tus, so an actor who put on a king's costume Stone of Boston and Richard Whalen of Ogburn's Th e My sterious Wi lliam Shake­ in effect violated the social and legal codes. Truro, MA, and also Roger Stritmatter, an speare: the My th and the Reality as a "very -Richard Whalen Oxfordian scholar fr om Northampton, MA. good book." If it were proven that Oxford Pennsylvania Not only did Garber put the authorship was the author, she said, it would not change controversy on the agenda, but she se­ her interpretation of the plays. At least In the Philadelphia area Oxford has lected as advance reading material a single twice, she prefaced comments with: "Who­ been making waves as a result of the efforts item-a reprint of the Ha rper 's lvlagazine ever the author was ... " of Society member Ken Kaplan. articles of April 1999. In that issue five As might be expected, her performance Kaplan organized several talks in Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 15

March-in a bookstore and at a library­ Research No tes and garnered some prominent pUblicity Love's Labor's Lost: What Happened at when the A&E section of Th e Philadelphia inquirer gave feature coverage to his up­ the Stationers' Register [r oln 1571-1576? coming talk at the Doylestown Public ByRoger Stritmatter Library. Thirty-six people attended the li­ bralY talk. Later in the month Kaplan spoke In the early days of the existence of the entries from cash-receipts to official sanc­ before 13 people at a Borders Bookstore. Company of Stationers of London, fo llow­ tion, fo r he states that "this change in their Kaplan tells us that at both talks interest ing the beginning ofthe recorded practice in nature would seem to have occurred in the ran high, and virtually no one left early. He 1558, Book Entries occupied a "subordinate period 1571-76, now intervening between position" to other forms of corporate ac­ Registers A and B" (I xvii). emphasizes the political aspects of the au­ counts, such as receipts and charges laid This circumstance prompts some nahI­ thorship story in his presentation, and says out by the wardens ofthe Company. Before ral curiosity fo r shIdents of Bibliography. that this is what really holds people's atten­ 1571, Book Entries were considered a form of Why should the accounts of book entries in tion, especially those new to the debate. cash receipt testifying that the publisher the Stationers' Register be missing during had discharged his obligation to pay a fee to the most critical period in the development Vermont his own guild in exchange for rights to of English censorship? One may scan the The Second Annual Shakespeare Festi­ publish a given title. In the introduction to historical continuum ofthe published docu­ val will be held in Killington from August his transcript of the Stationers' Record, ments ofthe Stationers' Register, from the 18th to 20th. This Festival is managed by Edward Arber describes how, over time, day on which book registrations began on Book Entries grew to become "a Permission, July 101558, at least up until 1708, at which fo rmer Society trustees Elisabeth Sears and an Imprimatur, rather than a cash-receipt" (I date Eyre and Livingston's three volume Mildred Sexton, and drew an audience of xvii). This transition marks the development sequel to Arger's transcript ends, and dis­ more than 100 to its initial sessions last of a system of systematic review and cen­ cover no comparable lacunae. summer. sorship by Ecclesiastical authority of all How long have leaves recording book This year Hank Whittemore will rehIrn registered publications and was occasioned, registrations from 1571-76 been missing? to speak on "The Sonnets," Sexton will Arber hypothesizes, by Ecclesiastical "self­ The lettering ofthe six existing volumes of speak on "Allegory in Shakespeare's Plays," defense against the secret printing presses the Stationers' Register up to the Long and a special appearance will be made by of the Puritans" (I xvii), which were velY Parliament (1640) provides an important clue, actor Michael York, performing in the busy in the first six years fo llowing the 1 570 according to Arber: reading ofa new play, "Will and I." issuing ofthe papal bull against Elizabeth 1. F orfurther inf ol1nation, phone Elisabeth By this means, declares Arber, the An­ ...the idea oflettering the Registers came glican hierarchy was able to exercise a late. It certainly occurred after the loss ofthe Sears at 802-422-503 1, or email her at: "greater authority over unborn books than 'Clerk's Book' of 1571-76 had been inves­ mommom 1 [email protected] their Romish predecessors had hitherto con­ tigated and recognized as inevitable: other­ tinually exercised" (I xvii). The grip ofEccle­ wise the present register B would have been England siastical control, once established, contin­ lettered C; in the hope ofthe missing volume As reported in the May 2000 De Vere ued to tighten about the neck of the Statio­ tuming up. We may well believe-until evi­ Society Newsletter, a special Winter meet­ ners' Guild for the next 65 years, evenh13ting dence appears to the contrary-that this ing of the De Vere Society was held at the in the dreaded Star Chamber decree of 163 7. decision and the consequent existing letter­ Globe Theatre in London on February 26th. One of the more curious historical facts ing occurred some time after the Fire of to emerge from Arber's monumental five London in 1666; by which time six volumes, Among the attendees was Society Trustee volume transcription ofthe Stationers' Reg­ now letter A to F, had accumulated. (I xvii­ Gerit Quealy ofN ew York City. ister is the existence of a lacunae of five iii) The meeting was held to view the Exhi­ years of book entries, covering the period bition on Shakespeare's Life, which now from July 22, 1571 unti1 July 17, 1576, pre­ Despite Arber's mention ofthe Fire of includes materials on the authorship ques­ cisely the period during which this shiftin London it is clear from other somewhat tion (with Oxfordians, Marlovians and social practice-transforming a business elliptical comments in his transcript that he Baconians given equal opportunity to transaction into a political event-took does not believe that the loss of the missing present theircases), and to hear a talk by one place. This lacunae appears between the "Clerk's Book" can be attributed to natural ofthe Globe's actors. The De Vere Society closing date ofthe so-called Register A and causes. It seems that, coincident with the has handout materials available to visitors the so-called Register B (vols. I and II re­ missing papers, the Company fo r the first as part of the Oxfordian exhibition. spectively in Arber's transcript). The divi­ time appointed a salaried Clerk, George Other major news from the DVS is the sion into Registers A-F, Arber shows, took Wapull, who served in this capacity from place "subsequent to the time when the September29, 1571 to May30, 1575. Arber appointment of Daphne Pearson as the new Register was in daily use" (II 3 I). writes, somewhat laconically, "it is prob­ editor of the Society's newsletter. Former It is particularly striking to note that this ably to this change that we are indebted for newsletter editor Christopher Dams will now lacunae occurs in the precise period during the loss ofthe fiveyear ofthe Book Entries" be spending most of his time directing the which Arber notes the occurrence of the (I 460). Society's project on the dating ofthe plays. transition in the significance of the book Indebted, indeed. page 16 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Bool( Reviews:

Shakespeare fo r Dummies by John "X' in it and quotation marks to remind you there, like the 1 7th earl of Oxford, would have Doyle and Ray Lischner(IDG Books World­ that he reaches his own goal, commits known about it and mentioned it in his dra­ wide, 1999) suicide with poison and utters a fa mous matic writings. quotation. ByRichardF. Whalen The authors of Shakespeare fo r Dum­ How this matrix is supposed to enhance mies also seize upon the simplistic argument he temptation to wax sarcastic about the reader's or playgoer' s appreciation of a that Oxford could not have been the author T a Dummies book on Shakespeare is Shakespeare play is left to the imagination. because a dozen of the plays were written difficult to resist when the authors The authors offer no explanation beyond after he died in 1604. Although this is a velY misrepresent the evidence for Oxford as the that of simply keeping track ofwhich char­ popular anti-Oxford argument, it's incredible greatpoetldramatist, but the temptation must acters do what in which scenes. that anyone would take it seriously. Ifit were be resisted. Dummies books on how to use The authors devote two of their three true, support for Oxford would immediately computers have won a tremendous follow­ pages on biography to an attempt to refute evaporate, whereas more and more eminent ing, and like a computer virus the fo lksy, the evidence fo r Oxford, perhaps a back­ writers, jurists and theater people continue jokester message, "you can do it, dummies! handed tribute to the strength of the case to vote for Oxford as the author. "has spread to antiquing, birding, camping, for him as the true author. They focus on Oxfordians can be finnin theirrebuttal of sewing, yoga, Shakespeare and all manner two typical arguments, and both are wrong. this "chronology argument," since alI ofthe of human endeavor. Four hundred different First they cite Shakespeare's alleged igno­ plays that Stratfordians date after1 604 could Dummies titles are in print. rance of the geography ofItaly. easily have all been written before Oxford The authors of Shakespeare fo r Dum­ In Th e Tempest Shakespeare indicates died. There is no historical evidence to date mies are not major figures in the Shake­ that Milan is a port fo r shipping; Pro spero the composition of any play in any given speare establishment. John Doyle, a Scots­ and Miranda board a bark there and are year, much less after 1604. man, is a play director and has been artistic taken "some leagues to the sea." (Lii.144) S tra tfordian post-16 04 da tes ofcomposi­ director ofseveral regional theaters in Great Shakespeare, say the authors, could never tion are inferred and conj ectured. They are Britain. Ray Lischner, an amateur actor, has have visited Milan or known much about it based on firstperf ormance dates, firstregis­ taught computer science at Oregon State since "Milan is far from the sea, a maj or trations or firstprintings after Oxford died in University. Mostly they reflect current think - river, or anywhere a bark or other ship could 1 604. But posthumous publication or perfor­ ing about the conventional Shakespeare, land." Therefore, they say, Shakespeare mance is not unusual fo r any author, and but besides providing three-page summa­ could not be the educated Earl of Oxford, Oxford could have died leaving many plays ries of 38 plays they also propose a most who did visit Italy. unperfonned, unregistered and unpublished. bizarre way to appreciate Shakespeare­ As always, ofcourse, Shakespeare was A close rcview ofthe Stratfordians' own scorecards to keep track of characters and correct about Italian cities. Noemi Magri, arguments for the dozen plays they want to plot. who lives in Italy, wrote an article fo rtheDe date after 1604 shows their evidence and They score a Shakespeare play like a Vere Society Newsletter (May 1998) de­ reasoning to be faulty and spurious. The baseball game. Instead of innings and play­ scribing how the many rivers and canals on Stratfordian dating that fo llows is taken from ers on a scorecard there are scenes across the Lombardy plain were used for shipping Th e Riverside Shakespeare (S4-6), which the top of the scorecard and characters and traveling during the 16th cenhllY gives "the most commonly accepted" dates, down the side. Symbols describe what any "Milan-bound ships," she writes, "once according to Editor G. Blakemore Evans, a given character does in any given scene. A they had reached the Po (River), sailed up Harvard professor, who also concedes that diamond with a "4" in it, for example, is a the Po, then up the Adda, a tributaIY ofthe dating the plays is "beset with hazards and home run; someone gets married. An "X" Po, and reached Milan along a canal called uncertainties. " (ej ected from game) means the character the Martezana, a waterway built in the First of all, they date three ofthe plays­ dies. "K" is rejected in love. A smiling face second half of the ISth century on a project Othello, Measure fo r A1easure and King is victory in battle. There are no less than 4 7 drawn up by Leonardo da Vinci." Lear-in 1604 and 160S, close enough for symbols to remember. Blank scorecards are She cites Franz Schott (Scotto), a Ger­ them to accept, perhaps reluctantly, that the provided for all the plays. man traveler and chronicler, who wrote in three plays could have been written before Romeo and Juliet, in the authors' ex­ his Itinerarium Italiae (c. IS99): "Even if mid-1 604, when Oxford died. ample, has 384 boxes (24 scenes times 16 there is no river in Milan, the town is very That leaves nine plays. characters) to be filled with one or more commercial. Two canals flowinginto it, the Their dates for Ma cbeth (1606) and The symbols. So on the line for Juliet you put a one from the river Adda, the other fr om the Tempest(1611), which are the mostearnestIy diamond-4 in the column headed act 2 scene river Ticinio, bring the town everything it argued, have been shown to be unfounded 6. That's a simple one. Where the line for needs." Shakespeare knew all about travel­ and untenable in articles in this newsletter Romeo, the unlucky No. 13character, inter­ ing by boat in northern Italy, as shown in and Th e Elizabethan Review by Peter sects with the column fo r act S scene 3, you Th e Tempest and also in Two Gentlemen Moore, Richard Roe and others. None of the put a skull and crossbones, a circle with an fi'0I71 Verona. Only someone who had been (Continued on page 23) Shakespeare Oxford Newslett€r Winter 2000 page 17

Co IIIm 11 The Paradigm Shift MarkK. Anderson Ophelia's difference, or, "To catch the conscience ofthe counselor" ave you a daughter?There' s a seem­ on which word it derives from. In his 1861 tragic and brieflife, however, Ophelia comes ingly simple question. No matter study Der Hamlet, Prof. A Gerth claims that to transcend her circumstances, with her Hwhom one poses these words to, it's a transcription of the Greek noun "madness" only liberating her to speak the the ultimate reply will always be either a CO

Andersoll (Continued/i'om page 17) Hamlet claims, why does he imply that it about pregnancy to Polonius? Pleading ding. For starters, we know that whatever would not be a blessing as Ophelia might Hamlet's supposed insanity in this case, his reasons fo r such a course of action, conceive? That is, Hamlet's exchange pro­ perhaps the only other explanation, strikes Oxford-likeAll 's Well 's Beliram withHel­ vokes a question: What kind of pregnancy this writer as a cop-out.) As Richard Grant ena-wed but apparently refused to bed his would not be a blessed event? White wrote, proper morays prevented him young wife. By the time of his continental The closest parallel in Shake-speare to from expounding fu rther on the nahlre of travels in 1 575-76, this simple fac t began to this riddle is the one another prince-of Hamlet's disclosure: "The thought [is] one portend ominous things fo r the state of Tyre, in this case-faces in Pericles: which [Hamlet's] madness, real or affected, Oxford's marriage. It's hardly unheard of may excuse, but upon which it is not pleas­ that nobles annulled or otherwise tried to I am no viper, yet I fe ed I On mother's ant to dwell, much less to expatiate." escape their marriages if the unions did not flesh which did me breed. I I sought a hus- Hamlet later continues that Polonius produce an heir. (Wasn't there a famous "should be as old as I [i.e. Hamlet] am, iflike English king who had such a problem? .. ) a crab you could go backward." (1I.ii.202) Could his marriage to Anne Cecil have been "If conception is Here it's claimed that the old counselor issueless for so long because Oxford was should be Hamlet's age-for something he vying for an annulment? Future Oxfordian indeed a blessing, has done that is more in line with other men research, I hope, will tackle this sticky ques­ of Hamlet's age?-and is then compared to the parasitic crustacean known for its dwell­ tion. as Hamlet claims, In any case, when he was traveling on ing in the fo rmer haunts of other creatures. the continent in 1575, Oxford learned ofhis Hamlet telling Guildenstern that he why does he imply wife's pregnancy. According to two letters knows a "hawk from a handsaw"-that he to his father-in-Iaw-the first from Paris can see through phony pretenses-is also before she gave birth and the second from that it would not be Polonius' entrance cue. In this same ex­ Venice afterwards-he expressed his plea­ change, Hamlet then launches into Polonius sure upon hearing ofthe pregnancy and the a blessing as Ophelia with his famous exclamation "0, Jepthah, birth, although one wonders if he wasn't judge oflsrael, what a treasure hadstthou!" also muttering a few curses under his breath. might conceive?" This line, alluding to the Bible's archetypal However, by the time he rehlrned to act ofchild- sacrifice,is doubly revealing fo r England inApril ofl57 6, Oxford hadchanged the sexual connotation of "treasure. " (That's his song. He had become convinced that the band, in which labor I ! found that kindness· also a meaning Polonius apparently latches child was not his, although so far as we can in a father. I He's father, son and husband onto, since his next question is to clarify tell, he never specified who he suspected mild;/!mother, wife and yet his child: IHow what kind of "treasure" Hamlet means!) As had fathered his wife's newborn daughter, they may live, and yet in two, I As you will Mark Taylor writes in his bookShakespeare 's Elizabeth. According to Morant and live, resolve it you. (I.i.65-72) Darker PlIll)OSe, "Hamlet, through a spe­ Wright's History of Essex, Oxford's wife cies of bawdy synecdoche (treasure va­ evenhlally won him back with the extremely The answer, as Pericles finds out, is gina), makes the daughter an emphatically unusual story-a la All 's Well Th at Ends perhaps the central taboo in any human sexual possession of the father." (119) Well and A1easure fo r Measure-that she civilization: Incest. It's also, I assert, the When Hamlet instructs Ophelia to get to had tricked him into impregnating her by crucial unspokcn factor that motivates the a nunnery, the question of his motive arises. making him think he had slept with another action in Hamlet. WhywouldHamlethavehergotoawoman's woman. Consider the wealth of veiled allusions refuge fo r enforced chastity? Is it simply Oxford remained married to Anne Cecil pointing to an inceshlOus union between because Hamlet's fe igned madness leads until she died from complications fromchild­ Polonius and Ophelia, akin to the explicit him to such rampant paranoia? He asks birth in 1588. During Anne's briefand tragic and acknowledged incest between the Ophelia why she would be a "breeder of life, Elizabeth Vere was born, then eight Polonius-like fi gure Antiochus and his sinners." He tells her to let the doors be shut years later, in 1583, the two had a son (the daughter in Shakespeare's Pericles. upon her fa ther so "that he may play the fo ol infant Lord Bulbeck died soon after birth) The "maggots in a dead dog" exchange no where but in's own house." He notes that fo llowed by three other daughters, two of between Hamlet and Polonius certainly be­ his dowry for her wedding is that even if whom survived to adulthood. speaks an unnahll'al conception. Ifthe com­ she's "chaste as ice, as pure as snow," she Here's where we pick up the story in parison holds true, then the sun, source of still won't escape calumny (i.e. slander; Hamlet-and ponder a possible parallel all life-including a dog' s-also breeds with malicious statements). If she marries, he narrative thread in Pericles. the thing it has created. The sun, remember, adds, she should marry a fool (note his Starting with the prince's baiting of is what Hamlet also tells Polonius to make previous reference to Polonius as playing Polonius, quoted above, the language of sure Ophelia avoids. All of this suggests the "fool" in his own house), since a wise conception and childbirth haunts Hamlet's Polonius as sire fa r more than it suggests man would quickly learn the true story. "God discourse over Ophelia. Yet, the words are Hamlet. (Plus, if Hamlet were the father of has given you one face," he concludes, oftencloaked in a cryptic, riddle-like tenor. Ophelia's hypothesized child, what would "and you make yourselves another." If conception is indeed a blessing, as Hamlet's motive be for vindictively railing The simplest explanation fo r all these Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 19

strange utterances is that Ophelia is hiding she replies with another riddle: "They say tance for wrongdoing was a familiar usage in a scandalous secret about her and her fa ­ the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we 16th century English. If she means to rue ther. And Hamlet knows-and wants no know what we are, but know not what we with her rue, then what was her transgres­ part of it. may be." (IV.vAl) Here, as Francis Douce sion? During Th e "Mouse-trap , Hamlet and points out, she alludes to a vulgar Rue was also known to the Greeks and Ophelia exchange words that again hint at a Gloucestershire tale of a father-daughter Romans as an abortive. In his book Contra­ third party in their bed. "I could interpret relationship in which the father, a baker, ception and Abortion ji'01l1 the Ancient between you and your love," Hamlet ob­ puts dough in the oven. The daughter tries Wo rld to the Middle Ages (Harvard Univer­ serves, "If! could see the puppets dallying." to remove it, but some ofthe dough remains sity Press, 1992), John Riddle cites more She praises his keen wit, and Hamlet in the oven and ends up swelling to enor­ than 20 instances of ancient writers-in­ replies with the bawdy pun "It would cost mous size. This anecdote of Ophelia's, the cluding Soranus, Dioscorides, Pliny the EI­ you a groaning to take off my edge." (i.e. der, Oribasius and Quinhls Serenus-ad­ Were it not for one "groaning" of hers, he vocating the use of rue to induce abortions could speak without needing nuance, or an "Wearing rue with or menstrual discharge. "edge," to convey his point.) So when Ophelia calls rue an "herb of ' She responds that his words are "Still a difference ... would be grace 0 Sundays," she's speaking with better, and worse." symbolically equivalent grave irony. She tells her brother Laertes To this, Hamlet delivers the punchline: and the King and Queen, that they must "So you mistake your husbands." That's to simultaneously weartheir "rue with a difference." (IV.v. 178). husbands with an "s"-written as a plural in killing off (i.e. aborting) "Difference," according to the OED, is a both the 1604 "good" quarto of Hamlet as heraldic term for an "alteration or addition to well as the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare. and heraldically a coat of arms used to distinguish a junior ("Mistake," which also appears in both the member or branch of a family from the chief 1604 quarto and Folio, is often changed by acknowledging line." Wearing rue with a difference, as the modern editors, unable to make sense of it, a junior branch above suggests, would be symbolically to "must take.") I would translate this quip equivalent to simultaneously killing off(i.e. to: You are sadly mistaken to consider both of the fa mily." aborting) and heraldically acknowledging a ofyour "husbands"-Hamlet and Polonius, junior branch ofa family. in this reading-on equal fo oting, as both Ophelia's two final herbs are daisies and having their better and worse points. King remarks, is a "conceit upon her father." violets. The daisy, Robert Greene notes, is Polonius' death causes Ophelia to turn Ophelia then politely tries to change the often used to warn"lig ht-of-Iove wenches mad north-north-west. (It may be important subject by instructing that "When they ask not to trust every fa ire promise that such to note that it's only after Hamlet is sent to you what it [her words about her father] amorous bachelors make them." The violet England to be killed that Ophelia is seen to means, say you this." She then sings a St. is, according to the 16th cenhlry book A have taken fu ll leave of her senses. That is, Valentine's Day love song which begins Ha ndfitll of Pleasant Defites, for fa ithful­ if this reading is correct, then only when innocently ("All in the morningbetime, and ness. However, there's one catch: "I would Hamlet is gone has she lost both the sire of I a maid at your window to be your Valen­ give you some violets," Ophelia laments, her unborn child (Polonius) and the man tine ... ") but nevertheless quickly descends "but they withered all when my father died." (Hamlet) that she may have been hoping to into a vulgar tale of sexual conquest: "Then Curiously, despite all the cues in the text, claim was the father of her child.) Thus is up he rose and donn'd his clothes, / And no one that I can find has ever published an Ophelia reduced to her "distracted" state­ dupp'd the chamber door; / Let in the maid, exposition, such as the above, of Polon ius' brought about, perhaps, from the that out a maid / Never departed more . ... incestuous relations with Ophelia, culmi­ unresolvable paradox that she's ovel]oyed Quoth she, before you tumbled me, / You nating in her pregnancy-along with, ifthe to see the incestuous breeder dead but promised me to wed. / He answers: So would rue scene is to be believed, a possible at­ she's broken-hearted to see her dearly.be­ I ha' done, by yonder SUll, / And thou hadst tempt at abortion-and eventual death. loved father dead. (As she later says of her not come to my bed." (Whether that death was an accident or a conflicted emotional state, "We must be Ophelia's pharmacopoeia of herbs, by suicide-as the gravediggers' banter in Act patient; but I cannot choose but weep, to itself, almost tells her whole story. In Act 4, 5, Scene 1 could be argued to suggest-is thinkthey should lay him i' the cold ground." Scene 5, she gives out three herbs to clear left as an open question.) In his 1982 book (IV.v.65)) the thoughts and senses: rosemary (to help Shakespeare 's DarkerPlIlpose, Mark Tay­ Using copulatory language that sug­ remember), pansies (to help think) and fen­ lor argues that the play suggests an unreal­ gests a deceased sexual partner, Ophelia nel (to help see). She hands out columbines, ized incestuous love between Polonius and mourns her father's death with bawdy songs: which according to Stephen Weston was an Ophelia. But even Taylor-whose thesis "Young men will do't if they come to't; By emblem of cuckolds. Then she gives out centers around incest in the Shakespeare cock they are to blame. ... And will he not some ru e and keeps some for herself-the canon-asserts that Ophelia dies "knowing come again? No, no he is dead. Go to thy only herb she allots a portion for herself. As no man." (1 19) deathbed. He never will come again." the OED points out, punning references to Perhaps this is because, once again, the When the King greets the mad Ophelia, rue the medicinal and rue the state ofrep en- (Continued on page 24) page 20 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fron1 the Editor: Published quarterly by the Shakespeare Oxford Society P.O. Box 263 The Shakespeare Oxford Library Somerville, MA 02 143 As our page one story proclaims, we around the countly and around the world. have finally established the Society's While this new space, inMalden, Massa­ ISSN 1525-6863 library in the Boston area in commercial chusetts (a community bordering Somerville)

Editor: William Boyle office space rented just fo r that purpose. is on the small side, it is nonetheless suffi­ Editorial Board: So, for the firsttime in its 43-year history, cient to handle the entire library collection, Mark Anderson, Charles Boyle, the Society has a business address that is plus various other filesand Society archives, Stephanie Hughes, Elisabeth Sears /lot someone else's home or home office, and still leave room fo r several desks and a

Phone: (6 17) 628-34 11 or a back room in someone else's business small work area. Phone/Fax: (617) 628-4258 offices. Having such a central location fo r books, email: [email protected] This is, we are sure, the beginning of journals and other reference and research

All contents copyright ©2000 greater things to come, as the authorship materials related to the authorship debate Shakespeare Oxford Society issue continues to grow in the public con­ can only help us in fu lfilling our mission to sciousness, and our Society continues to tell the world that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl The newsletter welcomes articles, essays, commentary, book reviews, letters and news items. Contributions grow with increases in membership from of Oxford, was the true Shakespeare. should be reasonably concise and, when appropriate, validated by peer review. The views expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect those of 24th Annual Conference the Society as a literary and educational organization. The 24th Annual Conference in Strat­ being sold out fo r the whole 2000 season Board of Trustees fo rd, Ontario is shaping up to be a memo­ (which extends into early November). But Shakespeare Oxford Society rable one. As of May 30 Oxfordians have there are, of course, six other plays on stage already registered, no doubt looking to be during the conference week (including As Lifetime Honorary Trustees: sure that they are among the first 100 reg­ YOli Like It), so everyone should be able to istrants and will therefore be assured of finda ticket to something Friday night. Dr. Gordon Cyr Hamlet tickets. If these early registrations Also, fo r those considering presenting are a harbinger, this conference could be a paper this year: there is still time to apply. 1999-2000 one of the best attended ever, so we en­ Send your inquiries or proposals to: Board of Trustees courage all our members to consider sign­ ing up early rather than later. Dr. Jack Shuttleworth Program Committee Chair President Local organizer Susan Sybersma tells Aaron Tatum 7770 Delmonico Drive us that the reviews for Hamlet have been Colorado Springs, CO 809 I 9 First Vice-President raves, and the play is well on its way to Email: [email protected] Joe C. Peel A new nalne fo r the society? Second Vice-President Dr. Jack Shuttleworth Among the decisions and initiatives decades ofactivism in promoting the author­ approved at the spring Board meeting in ship issue and Edward de Vere. Third Vice-President Charles Boyle Portland this year was a resolution to con­ In any event, the Board would like to hear sider changing the name of the Shake­ from our members about such a change, and Recording Secretary speare Oxford Society. so we are mentioning it here to let members Dr. Ren Oraya This is an idea that has been around for know that such an idea is under consider­ years, emanating mainly from the beliefthat ation. If there appears to be sufficientinterest Membership Secretary Susan Sybersma the initials "SOS" give a negative connota­ the topic will be placed on the agenda at tion about us to some (i.e. that we are in the Annual General Meeting this fall fo r Treasurer distress, cryingout"SOS"). Even Charlton discussion. Joe C. Peel Ogburn, 11'. was known on occasion to say Any members with thoughts and/or sug­ that he was not fond of the "SOS" appella­ gestions on how--{}rwhether-the Society's Robert Barrett William Boyle tion, and he himself never used it. name should be changed are requested to Katherine Chiljan Many others, however, fe el there is no pass them on to: Dr. Daniel Wright (c/o the Michael Forster Pisapia real issue about the name, and we should Dept. of Humanities, 2811N. E. Holman St., Gerit Quealy leave it alone and enjoy the name recogni­ Concordia University, Portland, OR 97211. Dr. Daniel L. Wright tion which we have built up over four Email: [email protected]). Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Winter 2000 page 21

the sides. How easy a leap fo r a fertile fa irs. The protestation by the French Ambr. Letters: subconscious to open up its hidden trea­ Pieure De Venn'e, was in French wh of the original is extant signed by the Amb in To the Editor: sures in that setting! Cotton Library, fr om which I did take a This winter (January and February) I Copy. I did want to tell you that I too speak for have two more library dates. So while I am Oxford. I have undertaken to tell as many not at leisure to spend 24/7 doing research, These cryptic comments were followed local groups, schools, libraries, etc. the Ox­ I do all I can, [and] will continue to do so, for by a further annotated note, in a different ford story, with most emphasis being placed the Earl. hand: on the close link between Oxford's life and Well, that's the news. I don't know why This was the Earl of Oxfords book and the the content of the works. I'm writing [to the newsletter] about it, but above his hand writing. Recently I have talked before a private sometimes I fe el very alone and exposed out here! school English class. The kids were so in­ This enigmatic annotation is initialed credibly excited, and headed straight for the "R.R." There is no indication as to the iden­ Yours for E.Vere Internet when I finished. Many kept me after tity ofthis particular "R.R.," nor which Earl TinaN. Hamilton hours to keep talking. ofOxford is being referred to (the holograph Brielle,NJ I am [also] getting a lot of interest from does not appear to be that of [the 17th Earl]. 9 January 2000 local schools and libraries. Last September It could possibly be that of Aubrey de V ere, I gave a two-hour program at the Wall (NJ) 20th Earl ofOxf ord. Public Library. I asked the arts editor ofthe To the Editor: Neither is there any evidence that the local weekly to come; she phoned me, then French Ambassador, Pieure de Veure, was wrote the whole conversation up in a huge Apropos the fine article "What author related to Edward de Vere. article. Lots of ink (though much of it inac­ would conceal his name?" by James curately reported!), but I'm still getting the Fitzgerald (Shakespeare Oxford Newslet­ Derran Charlton issue Ollt there, and the name Oxford, out ter, Fall I999)-based upon the diligent and Dodworth, South Yorkshire there. astute scholarship ofthe omniscient Robert England More recently I sat down and talked to Detobel-I would like to add a note about 17 January 2000 a librarian at a large county library, and she Fitzgerald's prompting reference " ...the bi­ immediately booked me to speak. zarre-anywhere eulogy ofR.R. (almost cer­ (The[ollowing letter app eared in The New I have even made a trip to England to see tainly by Johnson)." York Times, Arts and Leisure Section, the Castle, Burghley House, and the new This reference reminded me that a few Ja nllCll:V 2, 2000) Globe. [At the Globe] we saw Antony and years ago at the Duke Humphrey Library, Cleopatra starring Mark Rylance as the Bodleian, Oxford, I examined an untitled To the Editor: Cleopatra. A bit too beefy for beliefwas my quarto-sized book in dark-brown calf, edged original opinion, but by the end, he was in gilt, written in Latin, dated Anno Domini Isn't it time that serious students of the Cleopatra, and I was sobbing. M.D.LX (reference number: 4 Z 35 Jur), Elizabethan drama ceased perpetuating the What struck me immediately [about the annotated as fo llows: myth that William ShaksperofStratford was Globe] was the similarity ofthe layout for the the author of the greatest works in the great hall at Hedingham: center hall, galler­ This is a very rare book, it relates to Q. English language ("It's a wonder he had ies for musicians, rooms offthe back and to Elizabeth's medling [sic] with Scottish af- time to become Shakespeare," December 26th, 1999)?

Subscriptions to the Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter are included in membership dues in the Garry O'Connor's book [ William Shake­ Shakespeare Oxford Society, which arc $35 a year, or $50 a year for a sustaining membership. Dues sp eare: A Popular Life], from which the are $15 a year for students and teachers. Dues and requests for membership should be sent to: article was drawn, is simply one more tome, replete with fa nciful invention to prop up the Shakespeare Oxford Society P.O. Box 263 flimsy evidence in support of the Stratford Somerville, MA 02 143 Man. The true author deserves better from Phone: (617)628-341 1 our academics, who long ago should have Phone/Fax: (6 1 7)628-4258 set about a scholarly investigation in search

The purpose of the Shakespeare Oxford Society is to establish Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of of the true "William Shake-speare." Oxford (1550-1604) as the true author of the Shakespeare works, to encourage a high level of scholarly research and publication, and to fo ster an enhanced appreciation and enjoyment of the Edgar Lansbury poems and plays. New York, NY The Society was founded and incorporated in 1957 in the State of New York and was chartered under the membership corporation laws of that state as a non-profit, educational organization. The writer is a Broadway producer Dues, grants and contributions arc tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law: (and, we might add, a long-time member of IRS No. 13-61053 14; New York 07 182 the Shakespeare Oxfo rd Society -Ed). page 22 Winter 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter

"English Terence... " (Continlledji-olllpage 3) It was about this time (1610) that Will The Blue Boor Shakspere went into semi -retirement at S h·at­ Books and Publications Shakesp eare Ox.f{JI'd Society Newslellers. ford, according to Stratfordian lore. Per­ (1965-1995). 2 Volumes, 1270 pages, soft-cover, plastic spiral binding. Photocopy edition of the haps he had a fa lling out with the King's Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Liter­ first thirty years of the Society's newsletters. Item Men. my AI),stel), {!( All Time. By Joseph Sobran. Item SP 23. $105.00 (Price includes P&H). SP7. $25.00 Davies continues that others would rail Shakespeare: Who Was He ? Th e Orford Chal­ The Anglicall Shakespeare: Elizabethan Or­ and complain at being put down but not our leuge to the Bard af Avoll. By Richard Whalen. thodoxy in the Great Histories. By Prof. Daniel L. theater buff.Unfazed, he remains irrepress­ Item 123. $19.95 Wright. Item SP I I. $19.95 To Catch the COllsciellce af the Killg. Leslie ibly jaunty with his rampant, reigning wit. A Hawk ./i'om a Ha ndsaw. A Student's Guide HOll'ard alld the 17th Earl of Oxford. By Charles Being put down is no problem for him. to the Authorship Debate. By Rollin De Vcrc. Item Boyle. Item SP 16. $5.00 SP13. $12.00 "Honesty" in the final couplet could at Who Were Shakespeare ? The ultimate who­ Hedingham Castle Guide Book. A brief his­ that time mean not only "liberality/ generos­ dUll-it. By Ron Allen. Item SP I5. $14.95 tory of the Castle and some of the more fa mous ity" butalso "decency/decorum." The Strat­ members of the Earls of Oxford. Item SP 24. $3.50 Video fo rd man stays cool and maintains his aplomb Letters and Poems o( Edward, Earl of Oxfo rd. despite the put-downs, thus sowing "good Edited by Katherine Chiljan. A new edition that Firillg Lille illterview with Charltoll Ogbu/'l1, Jr. brings together the poems and the letters with will." How can you not like the guy? But he (J2/1 1/84). William F. Buckley, host; Prof. Maurice updated notes about original sources, provenance, does not reap the benefit; the King's Men Charney (Rutgers) represents the Stratfordian side. etc. item SP22. $22.00 do. They reap the benefit of his easy I hour, VHS. Rarely seen interview with Ogburn The Man Wh o Was Shakespeare. By Charlton upon publication of TMWS in 1984. Item SP 27. going nature and his liberal investments in Ogburn, Jr. (94-pp summary of Th e iV�l'sterious $35.00 their "Stocke, which they do keep." William Shakespeare) Item SP5. $5.95 Then again, maybe Davies intended The A'�l'sterious William Shakespeare: The Mvth Gift Items both readings. Poets of the day were fla­ and the Reality. Revised 2nd Edition. By Charlton Ogburn, Jr. Item 121. $37.50 Coffee Mug. Imported from Hedingham Castle. grant practitioners ofpunning and allusive Oxford and Byron. By Stephanie Hopkins Blue on white, with a wrap-around sketch of the wordplay. His ambition to be clever, how­ Hughes. Item SP20. $8.00 Castle and its environs and "Hedingham Castle" ever, might not have been matched by his Th e Oxfordian: AllI1ual .loumal of the Shake­ printed around the bottom. Item SP 25. $12.00 skill in execution. He addresses the poem to sp ewe Oxford Societl'. Back issues fr om 1998 and Refrigerator magnet. Importcd from Hedingham the "English Terence," which must be the 1999 available, $20.00 each. Item SP30. Castlc. A 2 112 inches by 2 112 inches color 3- Th e Relevance o( Robert Greene to the Oxfor­ dimcnsional rendition of the Castle. Itcm SP 26. Stratford man, but calls him by the name of dian Thesis. By Stephanie Hopkins Hughes. Item $6.00 the London literary pseudonym, "Shake­ SP21. $10.00 T-Shirts. All cotton, beige, with Oxford shield (in speare." This may represent some slippage "Shakespeare " identified in Edward de Ve re, color), quill pcn, and "Shakespeare Oxford Soci­ in his cleverness. Seventeenth Earl o( Oxji) rd. By J. Thomas Looney. ety" imprintcd. Sizes L, XL only (remainders fr om In any case the coupling of Terence Paperback fa csimile reprint of the 1920 edition. 1998 confercncc). Itcms SP29-L, SP29-XL. $10.00 each with "Shake-speare" in the title-as the Item SP4. $20.00 Ogburns may have been the firstto recog­ nize-makes it impossible to escape the Item Price Name: ______impression that Davies had in mind aristo­ _ cratic authors, such as Oxford, whose works Address: ______came out under names other than their own, ______such as "William Shakespeare." City: ______State: __ Sources: Check enclosed: Credit Card: MC Visa Subtotal : Dictiollary of Natiollal Biography (NY, 10% member London, 1908-09) Card number:______Duckworth, George. Complete Romall Drama. discount: (New York, Random House, 1942)

____ Exp. date: _ Eucyclopedia Britalluica (Chicago, Encyclo­ Subtotal: pedia Britannica, etc.) P&H, books Luce, James (ed). Alldellt Writers. (NY, Signature: ______Scribners, I 982) ($1 .00 each): Matus, Irvin. Shakespeare, III Fact. (Ncw Mail to: P&H (per order): $ 2.50 York, Continuum, 1994) Shakespeare Oxford Society, Blue Boar, Norwood, Gilbert. Plautus aud Terrellce. (New York, Cooper Square, 1963) PO Box 263, Somerville MA 02143 Grand Total: Ogburn, Charlton Jr. Th e Ml'sterious William Shakespeare. (McLcan, VA., EPM, 1992) Ogburn, Charlton and Dorothy. This Star of Ellglalld. (New York, Coward-McCann, 1952) Th e Oxfordiall "'\ {S hakespeare Oxfo rd Society Newsletters' Oxford Classical Dictiollary (Oxford, Vol. 1 (1998) & Vol. 2 (1999) 1965 to 1995 (2 bound volumes, 1270 pages) Clarendon, 1966) Both back issues are available from A vailable from the Blue Boar Oxford Ellg/ish Dictiollary (Oxford; NY. the Blue Boar for $20 each for $105.00 (includes P&H) Clarendon; Oxford Univ. Prcss, 1989) ,,'------� " ./ Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Wintcr 2000 page 23

Book Reviews (col1lil1uedfi'olll page 16) 8) was not included in the First Folio of1623, Antony and Cleopatra could also have purportedly topical allusions-Bermuda the authorized canon. After registration in been written four to five years earlier. shipwreck, equivocation, etc.-is at all 1608 a "bad quarto" was published in 1609. In summation, the Stratfordians have no unique to the post-1604 years. The play shows signs of collaboration or of hard evidence-or any persuasive evidence That leaves seven. someone fi nishing what someone else at all-that any of the plays were written They date the composition of started. Stratfordians suggest, as they unre­ after 1604. They date a dozen or so plays Coriolanus (1607-8) and Timon of Athens alistically do for some-but not all-other after 1604-opinions differ even among (1607-8) not by historical evidence or topi­ plays, that it was written shortly before it Stratfordian scholars on just how many cal allusions-for which they findnone­ was registered, but there's no proof of that. plays are post-1 604-even though they but only on stylistic interpretation, which is Oxfordians can just as easily suggest that know the dating evidence is very flimsy. very subjective and weak evidence. (See Oxford left it unfinished when he died. "The dates of composition of most of W. Ron Hess, et al in Vol. I (1998) and Vol. Hem)! VlII is dated 1612-13 because a the works are highly uncertain," writes Pro­ 2 (1999) of The Oxfordian.) play of that name, also called AllIs True­ fe ssor Sylvan Barnet in the Signet editions That leaves five. author unspecified-was being performed ofthe plays. Chambers identified the ratio­ Cymbeline (1609-1 0) and The Winter 's in the Globe in June 1613 on the night the nale fo r the Stratfordian dating when he Ta le (161 0-11)are dated solely on the basis theater burned down. Whether it was the wrote of "fitting this order [ofthe plays] into of performance dates in Simon Forman's Shakespeare's play included in the First the time allowed by the span of "Notes," which were allegedly "discov­ Folio is not certain. Two ofthe most eminent Shakespeare's career," that is, into the de­ ered" by John Payne Collier but were actu­ Stratfordian scholars, Edmund Malone and cade post-1604 but short of the Stratford ally forgeries by him. A highly qualified EX. Chambers, were skeptical thattheir Will man's conjectured "retirement years" pre­ scholar, Collier was also an expert and no­ Shakspere, aging and semi-retired in Strat­ ceding his death in 1616. torious forger. The documents were proven fo rd, would revert to a history play about the This dating of plays into the post-1604 to be forgeries by none other than a leading late Queen Elizabeth and do it during the years was done before the case for Oxford as Stratfordian scholar, Dr. Samuel A. reign of her successor, James 1. Chambers the author had gained much notice and Tannenbaum, a founder ofthe Shakespeare cited a 1 593 play as a possible early version. support. Nowadays, however, more and Association of America and editor of its So fi nally, that leaves Antony and more Stratfordians try to conjure up allu­ journal. Cleopatra with a purported composition sions and references that might date the That leaves three. date of 1 606-7, based solely on a Stationers' plays post- 1604. Faulty as it is, this argu­ Two of these remaining three have Register entry of 1608. In the Stratfordian ment was seized upon by the authors of troubled histories, and even Stratfordian dating scheme, however, four other plays Shakespeare fo r Dummies as they tried to scholars have argued fo r dates of composi­ are supposed to have been written four to argue against Oxford as the author. tion that come before 1604. Pericles (1607- five years before registration. Therefore, But it doesn't work.

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Anderson (COl1lillUedfi'olll page 19) Anne himself? itself. If a reading or historical theory helps blinders of Shaxperotics prevent a reader And that's where one needs to remem­ one appreciate the, at times, opaque lan­ fr om apprehending what Shake-speare al­ ber that ultimately the Shake-speare canon guage and endows the tragic, romantic, ludes to, no matter how many times he says is still portraying Shake-speare's dramatic comic and dramatic moments with more it�even when it's explicitly part ofthe plot, perspective. He may have suspected dirty poignancy, then coincidence becomes a fa r as it is in Pericles. deeds in Anne's 1575 pregnancy, but it's less likely explanation. Historically, the motives for Anne/ also possible that he had his own host of As Oxford wrote to Burghley on April Ophelia's possible pregnancy by Burghley/ reasons for amping up his suspicions of 27, 1576, when the young courtier was still Polonius can be coaxed out, however grue­ infidelity into suspicions of incest. Asselt­ white-hot with rage over the disputed par­ some and Machiavellian they may be. It's ing that Shake-speare accuses Polonius/ entage of his wife's daughter, "Until I can safe to assume Lord Burghley wanted to Burghley of impregnating Ophelia/Anne is better satisfy or advertise myself of some retain his title and his prominent standing not the same as saying that this actually ever mislikes, I am not determined, as touching and influence at court, so he would have had happened. my wife, to accompany her. What they are� every reason to do all he could to ensure his Perhaps it did. Perhaps it didn't. At this because some are not to be spoken of or daughter remained the Countess of Oxford point, though, lacking any substantial data written upon as imperfections�1 will not (i.e. that his daughter produced an heir). about the historical figures in question, it's deal withal. Some that otherwise discon­ Furthermore, we Imowthat Oxford ques­ impossible to address the fachlal question tented me I will not blaze or publish until it tioned Elizabeth Vere's paternity after she that this reading of Hamlet raises: Was the please me." was born�and judging from the references revered Lord Burghley guilty ofthe sin that Perhaps it's best that Lord Burghley to and jokes about daughters of doubtful is never spoken of? never lived to see the "mislikes" in Hamlet legitimacy throughout the Shake-speare Even if historians take Richard Grant ever "blazed or published." (Burghley died canon (in such works as MidsummerNigh t 's White's approach and deny expatiating such in 1598, while the first printed edition of Dream, Th e Tempest, A Winter 's Ta le,lvJlIch unpleasantries, the dramatic genie is al­ Hamlet came out five years later.) Herbal Ado About Nothing and Th e Rape of ready out of the bottle: I assert that other­ connotations aside, one could probably Llicrece), Oxford may have never fu lly re­ wise murky passages from Hamlet make far summarize the entire play of Ha mlet as a solved the conundrum. more sense with the Polonius-Ophelia in­ rue ... with a difference. The overriding question, then, becomes cest subtext than without. And delving into (R oger Stritmatter and Tekastiaks con­ one of "Why Incest?" Even if Burghley the heart and core ofthese immortal works tributed to this report.) wanted to make sure the marriage wasn't is what, I hope, everyone is in this game for. annulled, why would he have impregnated My ultimate benchmark is the drama

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Library op ened, Endowment established: pages 1,4-5 Sh ake:..peare 's "Bad Law": pages 1,9-13 "To Our English Terence... ": pages 3,22 Pericles and the First Folio: pages 6-8 Op helia 's difference: pages 17-19,24 Oxfordian News: pages 14-15 Book Reviews: pages 16,23