'the Shakeseeare
]Vewsletter
Vo1.36:no.2 "Let me study so, to know the thing I am forbid to knoyv" SlUnmer 2000
An emerging The not ...too- hidden l(ey "crypto-Catholic" to Minerva Britanna theory challenges The Latin phrase ({by the mind 7' Stratfordians shall be seen" may mean just that By Peter W. Dickson By Roger Stritmatter till unbeknownst to many Oxfordians, the Stratfordians are increasingly per Na mes are divine notes, and plexed as to how to salvage the incum divine notes do 1I0tifiejilfure even ts; bent Bard in the face ofthe growing popular so that evellts consequently must ity of the thesis that he was a secret Roman lurk ill names, which only can be Catholic, at least prior to his arrival in Lon plyed into by this mysteIJI ... don, and perhaps to the end of his life, William Camden; "Anagrams" consistent with Richard Davies observation in Remaills ConcerningBritannia in the 1670s, that "he dyed a papist." The mere willingness to explore the evi inerva Britanna, the 1612 dence fo r the Shakspere family's religious emblem book written and orientation was strongly discouraged or sup M·llustrated by Henry pressed for centuries for one simple and Peacham, has long been consid quite powerfulreason: the works of Shake The title page to Hemy Peacham's Minerva Britanna ered the most sophisticated exem speare had become-along with the King (1612) has become one of the more intriguing-and plar of the emblem book tradition James'VersionoftheBible-amajorcultural controversial-artifacts in the authorship mystely. everpublished in England. As Rose force for a nation which was strongly com Why does a hand write a message (Mente.Videbor - mary Freemanwrote ofthe author in mitted to the Protestant faith and to the "By the mind I shall be seen")ji-om behind a curtain? 1948: "exceptional ism" of the British people in Has the hand finished writing? Is the message an anagram identifYing the hidden writer as de Vere? comparison to the political and religious Peacham was a man of consid Roger Stritmatter 's 1999 Society Conference presen erable versatility of mind and his traditions on the Continent. tation on these questions presents new arguments in wide range of accomplishments Thus, the idea that the Bard might have support of an anagram solution. were ofa kind peculiarly well suited been a crypto-Catholic at any time in his life to the writing of emblems. Conse has been totally repugnant to Shakespeare Inside: quently his emblem books are much scholars for eons-from Nicholas Rowe to more fully an expression of his News fromthe Folger Edmond Malone to Sir Sidney Lee. Lee, espe personality than are those of any cially, for example-given his delicate situa Shakespeare Library other emblem writer: for the most tion as a British Jew-took a hard line in the Page 4 part, the fashion provided a casual 1890s against any attempts to explore the occupation; for Peacham it was long-taboo Catholic Question, as he also did almost a profession.(69) regarding the homosexual issue, which had Nero Caesar- a book published in surfaced atthattime when Oscar Wilde cited 1623 by special command of James I Minerva, however, remains an the Sonnets as part ofhis defense in a trial fo r PageS enigma. Alan Young (1998) states committing sodomy. that the book "has little intrinsic These were the facts of life in terms of unity as an emblem collection, apart Book Review: Dissing culture, politics, and religious traditions Elizabeth from its generally sustained tone of which only the bravest of British scholars Page 18 moral didacticism"-a circum- (Continued 011 page 6) (Continued on page 9) page 2 Summer2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Reviews of Journals Recent articles cover sculptor Giulio Romano, the 3rd Earl of Southampton as the Queen's son, and Will Shaksper's children By Richard F. Whalen The De Vere Society Newsletter the rich House ofSouthampton lawfully lays loose, his interpretations so sweeping, and claim to as one of its own." (Rollett's trans his hedgings so evasive that it's hard to Giulio Romano's influence on Shake lation of the Latin lines.) take him seriously, much less grasp what he speare and allusions to the 3rd Earl of South Rollett concludes that the citations show really thinks as he proposes questionable ampton as the son of Queen Elizabeth are that SOlithampton was considered by con influencesfr om Will Shakspere' s life in the described in two major article in The De Vere temporaries to have a status equal to that of plays of Shakespeare. Newsletter (July 2000). a son of Queen Elizabeth. In the same issue, Professor Roy In an extensive review of Giulio Flannagan of Ohio State writes a breezy Romano's life and works, Noemi Magri ar The Shakespeare Quarterly review of Park Honan's Shakespeare: A gues that Shakespeare's mention of him in Life that alludes to the authorship contro The Winter's Tale as a sculptor reveals far The lead article and the final book review versy and tries to discernthe Stratford man more than a simple awareness ofthe Italian in The Shakespeare Quarterly (Summer in Shakespeare's plays. Honan, he says, is artist. She describes Giulio' s eminence as a 2000) together suggest that the Stratfordian not a Baconian or an Oxfordian. Honan's painter, sculptor and architect in Mantua establishment might be thinking about re Shakespeare is "not someone other than and finds that the playwright appreciated viving claims that the works of Shakespeare someone named William Shakespeare." And not only Giulio's art but his striving fo r reflect the life of the Stratfo rd man---claims he notes that in Honan's biography (as in all realism and his "impetuous view oflife." that non-Stratfordians and Oxfordians find Stratfordian biographies) "Elizabeth really "The few lines in The Winter's Tale," insubstantial and forced. didn't seem to know that Shakespeare ex she says, "are more than a simple mention of In a cautiously worded, if not ambigu isted." Given the man he thinks was the an artist's name which Shakespeare 'may ous, article, Professor Richard P. Wheeler of poet/dramatist, it'sno wonderhe's puzzled. have picked up ...fr om the talk of his traveled the University of Illinois, ever mindful of his Flannagan says Honan "does much to friends [as one critic contends].' The pas colleagues' skepticism in some quarters, ward putting the human being back into the sage shows that the dramatist was fa miliar nevertheless suggests that the deaths of concept ofShakespeare. "He finds"little in with Giulio Romano's works and was well Will Shakspere's son and fa ther influenced jokes" in the plays for the benefitoff amily, aware ofthe basic principle ofGiulio' s art Shakespeare's plays. hometown and fe llow players. Family names painting had to be true to reality, so verisimilar He finds parallels of emotion in plays like Joan, Hamnet-Hamletand Edmund "re as to deceive the eye." dated after Hamnet's death in 1596-trag verberate" throughout the plays. The knowledge ofGiulio shown in The edies, histories and even comedies-and Shakespeare, concludes Flannagan, was Winter's Tale suggests to Magri thatthe 17th evocations ofShakspere's father's death in a decent, well-educated, working-class man Earl ofOxf ord may well have visited Mantua, 1601 in TwelfthNight and Hamlet. "Ifhe is who, according to Honan, is the "quiet, where Giulio worked fo r two decades. not already grieving his father's death when unassuming, unobtrusive, careful, cautious, In his article in the UK society newslet he writes Hamlet, Shakespeare is watching conservative" playwright in the "disrepu ter, John M. Rollett cites three witnesses to that death approach," says Wheeler. table, morally suspect" theater in London. support the theory that the yd Earl of South At another point, in a typically hedged In his view, Honan discerns"recurring motifs ampton was the son of Queen Elizabeth. At passage, he says, "I am not hying to claim of fiscalresponsibility, moderation, coop the outset, he argues that the acceptance in King John as a direct expression of eration, and tcamwork." Apparently, nei Spain, even by the king, that Arthur Dudley Shakespeare's grief for the dead Hamnet, ther author nor reviewer sees the inherent was the son of the Earl of Leicester and [but] ...the play dramatizes a cluster of emo contradictions in their view ofthe Stratford Queen Elizabeth indicates that unacknowl tions consistent with those one might expect man's character versus the aristocratic edged royal births were accepted. in a father in circumstances resembling world-view of pride and passion found in His three witnesses are Arthur Gawdy, Shakespeare's [i.e. Shakspere's] in 1 596 when the poems and plays of Shakespeare. George Peele, and John Sanford. Gawdy Hamnetdied." Regarding their astonishingly dull wrote in a letter that Southampton was nomi The allegedly post-l 596 histOlY plays, Stratfordian portrait of a "j ovial actor and nated to be a Knight ofthe Garter at age 19, Wheeler says, are plays about sons. "[They] manager," Ralph Waldo Emerson once said unprecedented outside the royal family for are marked by a group of situations in which succinctly: "I cannot marry the fact to his someone so youthful. George Peele's poem a beloved son's or a young boy's death verse." Many others have agreed with that mentions Southampton as sharing immor produces a volatile mix of parental grief, verdict, which the Stratfordians-faced with tality with the queen, an "extraordinary com guilt, distraction, helplessness, recrimina the many specific parallels between Oxford pliment," says Rollett. tion, rage." And he speculates thatthe com and Shakespeare's works-may be trying Finally, John Sanford, chaplain of edies "remember the dead boy in their comic to reverse in order to rehabilitate their Magdalen College, describes Southamp actions." candidate. ton, still a teenager, as "a hereditary Prince Critics of all stripes may shrink fr om of illustrious lineage, whom as a great hero Wheeler's speculations. His criteria are so Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer 2000 page 3
Media Notes US News and World Report fe atures the Shakespeare mystery; some recent authorship encounters with William F. Buckley "The Real Shake did." Paster lamented in the Fall 1999 issue conference on the authorship. speare" is promised oftheShakespeare Quarterly that the Strat Last July Buckley'S National Review by the cover line on fo rdians were losing the public debate, a published Cusick's letter in which he chided u.s. News & World development she fo und tiresome and frus Buckley for having written earlier that "Shake Report, and the ar trating. Now she apparently does not feel speare wrote Shakespeare's plays." Cusick ticle by Michael obliged to offer any evidence that the Strat stated in closing that, "conventional wisdom Satchell fu lfills the ford man was the author; it suffices that has it that William Shake-speare was Edward promise with a solid, somehow he could have. de Vere, 1 7th Earl ofOxford. " persuasive aJiicle fo r The u.s. News article summarized Buckley's response to this (printed di the 17th Earl of Ox- Oxford's qualifications as the true author, rectly under the letter) was that "conven ford as the true author of Shakespeare's but omitted mention of the other major tional wisdom" never heard of Edward de works. argument fo r Oxford's authorship-the Vere. Cusick wrote in again, citing a number The article was one of many in the many direct and specific references to his of recent sources (e.g. The Columbia Ency magazine's double issue of July 24-3 1 that life and concel11S that are found in the plays clopedia) that have entries for De Vere that explored "Mysteries ofHistOlY," including and poems. The only significant lapse in include mentions of his possible authorship Stone-henge, King Arthur, Pope Joan and the article confused three earls: The First of the Shakespeare canon. To this Buckley Beethoven's Love. Illustrating the article Folio was dedicated to the earls of Pem wrote back directly to Cusick, saying "You was the Welbeck pOlirait of Oxford, which broke and Montgomery, not the earl of make a nice case nicely," but said no more took up almost a qUaJier page. Southampton. Venus and Adonis and The about Edward de Vere or Shakespeare. Satchell drew on the expertise ofCharles Rape ofLucrece were dedicated to South In another media encounter with Buckley Vere Lord Burford, fo rmer president of the ampton. and the authorship question Society Presi Shakespeare Oxford Society, and cited Pro dent AaronTatum saw a listing for a Buckley fessor Daniel Wright, director ofthe Edward William F. Bucldey appearance on C-SP AN, phoned in and de Vere Studies Conference at Concordia after onehour on hold-was able to ask him University in Portland, Oregon. A quote Another interesting story this year in a question. Naturally, Tatum wentrightto the fromDr. Wright concluded the article: "These volved some exchanges between Society matter of Shakespeare and Edward de Vere. works are the mature achievements of a members John Cusick of Arizona, Aaron Tatum noted in his initial remarks that worldly and urbane litterateur who could Tatum of Tennessee, and William F. Buckley had mentioned the case for Oxford not tell the world his name." Buckley, editor of The National Review. in some of his writings, and that he had once As older Society members know, Buck (Continued on page 24) Oxfordian leanings ley has been involved Writing from London, Satchell makes a with the au The 5th Annual Edward de Vere strong case for Oxford. He spells the Strat thorship Studies Conference ford man's name "Shakspere" throughout, story sev April 5th to 8th, 2001 distinguishing between the Stratford man eral times and the author whose byline was "Shake overthepast Robert Detobel, Editor ofthe Neues Shake-speare speare." He calls Shakspere the "supposed" 15years, be Journal, headlines a listof over 20 scholars. actor and notes that there's not a "scrap" of ginning with documentation that the "Warwickshire mer his Firing The Concordia University Theatre Department will chant" ever wrote anything. And he men Line inter also present the premiere of the Tim Hill play, The BubbleReputation, tions the discrepancy between the near of view on the opening night of the conference. contemporary Hollar engraving ofthe grain Charlton merchant and the Trinity church monument Ogburn in Registration: $75(conf erence onl)v or $110 (includes Awards Banquet). depicting a writer. No mention is made of 1984, pub Registrations limited to first 180 (conference) andfirst 100 (AwardsBanquet) Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe as lishing Jo Send registrations to: candidates. seph Sobran Dr. Daniel L. Wright Surprisingly, Gail Kel11 Paster, editor of on the issue Edward de Vere Studies Conference the Shakespeare Quarterly, the joul11al of later in the (www.deverestudies.org) Concordia University the establishment, is quoted as arguing that 80s, and par Portland OR 97211-6099 "the only proof necessaJY is that Shake ticipating in speare [i.e. the Stratford man] could have the 1992 Even ifyou 're not able to attend, write ill to be placed on ouryear-rolll1d mailing list. wtitten the plays and Sonnets, not that he GTE video page 4 Summer2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
News from the Folger Shakespeare Library Ashbourne portrait now on public display; tour f!:uides e�plain the library s neutral position on the authorshIp questIon list August it was brought to Georgianna Ziegler (Ph.D.) con our attention by Society mem firming this fact. Ziegler wrote: er John Hamill, of San Fran cisco, that some interesting changes Thanks fo r writing to clarify the have taken place in how the Folger Folger's position on the authorship question. The docent was correct in Shakespeare LibraIY now presents saying that we don't take a position. As the authorship issue to the public. a library open to scholars, we support Hamill wrote to the newsletter about freedom of inquiry on any topic. Our his visit to the LibraIY in Washing collections include a large number of volumes from the nineteenth century ton, DC, last August, and in particu onward dealing with the so-called au lar about one ofthe regularly sched thorship controversy. While much at uled tours that he took there on tention has been paid in recent years to August 4th. thc Earl of Oxford as a contender, we During this tour, Hamill tells us, have books about Bacon, Derby, Dyer, Marlowe, Nugent, etc. as well. the docent (the tour guide) was enu merating the research that the Li More recently the newsletter brary regularly undertakes. Hamill at The Folger Shakespeare Librm), has been one of the bastions of orthodoxy on the authorship question throughout the 2?th made some calls to the Folger to one point asked if they did any re centlll)" with the nadir of its position on the question call ling inquire about their current policy on search on the authorship issue. The in the 1950s and 60s when Director Louis B. Wright wrote the authorship question, and also docent replied that the LibraIY does blistering broadsides on the topic for newspapers, magazines, to inquire about the Ashbourne not have a position on the author and the lib I'm)''s own publications. portrait. ship issue which, Hamill said, took Head Reference librarian Ziegler him aback. confirmedher email statements to Hamill, The docent continued by stating that but also emphasized that this neutral posi the library's current research on the tion by the Folger was not new to her; she authorship question had eliminated all con had been with the libraIY for eight years, and tenders except the Earl of Oxford, but that said that this is how she has always re they still thought that Shakespeare�i,e. garded questions on the debate, and how William ofStratford�was the likely author. she answers any questions about it. She The docent then continued to talk about could not speak, she said, for the Folger's the authorship issue by noting that several past policies, nor pinpoint any recent mo prominent actors such as Sir John Gielgud ment when the policy had changed from the and Sir Derek Jacobi were Oxfordians. In more strident Stratfordian days of the past. relating this infonnation, the docent empha Librarian Richard Kuhta spoke to us sized again that the Library has no position about the Ashbourneportrait, which indeed on the authorship issue. is now available to the public inthe Founders' On the tour that Hamill took, he said Room, where it was hung just last spring, about 15 others seemed to be aware of the fo llowing the renovation of the room. There controversy, even knowing that Edward de is space for three porh'aits in the room; the Vere was the Earl of Oxford. others now hung there are the Gower portrait The tour then continued into another By permission, Folger Shakespeare Library of Elizabeth, and a MacBeth painting. room�the Founders' Room�where the Th e Ashbolll'11e Portrait Kuhta said the Ashbourne, which un AshbournePortrait is now on display. Hamill derwent a cleaning in preparation fo r its new again found himself surprised, since this Nobody on the tour seemed to have known public appearance, had been hanging in most fa mous putative Shakespeare-Oxford about the overpainting, or that some of the non-public portions of the library since at portrait had�he thought-been in storage evidence seemed to point to Oxford as the least 1989. He is still investigating where in fo r many years. original sitter. the library it had been before then. When questioned by Hamill, the docent Later in August, in an email exchange The Ashbourne is identified by the was not aware of the controversy over the with the Folger, Hamill asked ifit was true Folger as a portrait of London mayor Hugh painting, so Hamill then related to the tour that the famous Shakespeare libralY took no Hammersley. group the findings of the 1940 Scientific position on the authorship debate. He re Forsomefilrtherthoughts 011 both the Folger and American article by Charles Wisner Barrell. ceived an answer from Reference Librarian the Ashbolll'l7e, see From the Editor (p.20). Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter SUlTImer2000 page 5
Coilimll The Paradigm Shift Mark K.Anderson Nero Caesar: The First Folio's Straight-Man n previous Shakespeare Oxford News Works were published in 1616, the same be endured-an attempt to remind the letters, Peter Dickson's work on the year as Ben Jonson's. anti-marriage agitators who really runs the Iso-called Spanish Marriage Crisis has As it happens, one of James' primalY show. been highlighted-uncovering an elabo pieces of propaganda in the Spanish mar Indeed, it appears that the choice of rate political chess game behind the produc riage also views ancient Rome as an allegori- Rome's most famous tyrantfor the subject tion of the Shake-speare First Folio (I623) of Bolton's book came from on high. "Nor and involving the 1 8th Earl ofOxf ord along was there cause to trouble your sacred with the Earls of Southampton, Pembroke Majesty with any but only Nero," Bolton and Montgomery. Roger Stritmatter has writes in his introduction to James. "For he further argued that the placement of is the man whom your most Princely detes C:vmbeline as the last play in the Folio was tation of his manners noted out unto me, an overtly political act, concluding a strongly with the proper word of his merits, Villain. protestant book with a drama that finds the Yet he notwithstanding (for the great ad Romans being run out of Brita in and a peace vantage of truth) will teach this precious defined on British terms. secret: No Prince is so bad as /lot to make This, in fact, is what Southampton, Pem monarchy seem the best form of govern broke and MontgomelY wanted. Briefly, for ment." [Italics in original] several years leading up to the 1623 climax, Second, Nero Caesar applies the same King James had vied to many his son Charles transformative logic as did the Folio editors off to the Spanish Princess Maria and who made Cymbeline their polemical coda. thereby create a Catholic hegemony in As Stuart historian Malcolm Smuts points England that could have spelled political out, Nero diverges at critical moments from doom fo r protestant fa ctions both at court the Roman historian who best chronicled and in the countlyside. For his strident the period, Tacitus. opposition to the maniage, the 1 8th Earl was "A subplot in Bolton's book dealt with rewarded with a 1 6-month stay in the Tower the British story of Boadice a's rebellion," of London, complete with the Spanish Am The title page to Nero Caesar Smuts writes in his 1993 study bassador threatening to chop off his head. "Court-Centered Politics and The Uses of Noting no doubt that their do-or-die cal stand-in fo r Spain. This court-spon Roman Historians." He continues, moment had come, Henry, Lord Oxford's, sored publication, in contrast to the works anti-Spanish marriage allies rushed a project being published by the Anglican earls, ar Here the author's sympathies lay un into production that had been waiting fo r gues fo r the merits of the Spanish political equivocally with the Romans. Before the Roman conquest, Britain was filled with nearly 20 years. They undertook to publish alliance. petty, warring states whose 'endless iniqui the complete dramatic works of Hemy On Apri I 21, 1623,SirEdwardCOlmeway ties' and conflicts caused the inhabitants 'to Oxenford's father, Edward de Vere, a.k.a. registered "A Booke ofthe life ofNERO" in fly under foreign guards to avoid oppres "William Shake-speare." And they did so the Stationer's Register. In an unusual move sions at home.' The Romans brought peace with their own propagandistic motives. that only draws fu rther attention to the and civilization, benefitswhich greatly out weighed the loss of a liberty that had bred The Folio's "Incomparable Pair ofBreth book, Conneway stated that NERO was disorder. Tacitus, by contrast, stated in Th e ren" had an ideal fo rum to argue for a sov being brought into print "by his Maiesties Agricola that Roman civilization had cor ereign England, independent ofPopish con speciall command." ruptedthe ancient Britons, leading to 'provo federations or political mergers with their This text by the courtly sycophant cations of vices, to sumptuous galleries and dreaded Roman Catholic enemy. And they Edmund Bolton, which eventually came out baths, and exquisite banquetings; which things the ignorant termed civi, lity, being indeed a didn't squander it. under the title Nero Caesar, or lv/onarchie point oftheir bondage. , , [Italics in original.] By the end ofl 623, the King's plans had Depraved, purports to inform the British ended in fa ilure, the First Folio had been citizenry about life under the titular Roman In detailing "The fo rtune ofour Contrey published and an imprisoned Earl ofOxford, tyrant. Of course, Bolton's as well as the under NERO," in other words, Bolton re once supposed as forfeit to a confineddoom, King's propagandistic purpose was not to writes history to persuade his readers how was released from the Tower. enlighten British subjects about a distant beneficial an alliance with Rome-i.e. However, historians have overlooked era of the past. Rather, it had two very Spain-would be. the other side of the propaganda war. King current objectives. Bolton also rails against writers who James valued the propagandistic value of First, it reiterates the royalist mantra that have aired the crown's dirtylaund ry, an all the printed word too-his own Complete even the mostreprehensible monarchs must (Continued on page 24) page 6 Summer 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Dicksoll (Colltilllledji-olllpage 1) come admissible in scholarly circles? And have been a recusant or secret Catholic. would dare challenge when looking fo r the why has it become in the 1 990s a fa shionable These efforts were never very convincing, deeper roots ofthe figure's literary genius. issue among Shakespeare biographers still and Roland Frye and Professor Schoenbaum Scholars fo und it easier to see Shakespeare operating within the framework of the in the 1960s and 1970s were largcly able to as an example of a Renaissance-secular Stratfordian Orthodoxy? dismiss them as "special pleading." humanist and more nanowly a Tudor Propa Prior to ErnstHonigmaml 'swork Shake Honigmann's work in 1985 reopened the gandist or English nationalist in celiain plays speare: the "lost years" in 1985, efforts to issue when he revisited evidence that a such as Hel1lJl V and Henry VJJI. explore the Catholic Question were very young "William Shakeshaft" had been hired This secular perspective was so strong infrequent or episodic. Mostly, they cen- in the early 1580s to serve as a tutor in the that mainstream scholars such households of certain aristo- as Lee, Chambers, Rowse, and cratic Catholic families named Schoenbaum declined even to Excerptsfrom John Andrews ' Houghton and Hesketh. This explore the Christian dimension evidence was tempting because of Shake-speare 's litermy works review of William Shakespeare: these fa milies had connections generally, let alone exploring the The Man Behind the Genius with Fernando Stanley, later Earl possible "crypto-Catholicism" of Derby, who had an acting ofthe author. Even Roy Betten company. Thus, some Stratfor house-a Catholic himself "Holden comes across as a bold, adventurous spirit. He displays dians became intrigued with who edited a SOD-page anthol no reluctance to speculate about how The Mall Behilld the Genius Honigmann's idea ofplacing the ogy of essays entitled found expression in the dramas posterityhas ascribed to him. And Stratford man during his youth Shakespeare's Christian Di in a nanative that offers intriguing conjectures on the poet's in these Catholic households in mension (1992) down-played the relationships with key figuresin the Jesuit underground-a shad- the North Country as a conve sensitive secret Catholic issue owy, perilous realm for zealots whose religious convictions could nientway to fillin the "lost years." in his introduction. not be professed openly during the turbulent reigns of Elizabeth and Then the connection to S tanl ey' s Roland Frye's landmark James-he raises issues that are sure to be examined by more acting company would provide work, Shakespeare and Chris rigorous sleuths who can be depended upon to follow in his a path to get him eventually into
tian Doctrine (1963), remains wake . . ... We are still in quest of a perspective that will allow us to the London theatrical world. In the best summ31Y of the Estab assess the information now coming to light about the years an short, the Catholic theory, espe lish-ment's view and its strong adolescent Shakespeare appears to have spentata Lancashire estate cially with this Lancastrian twist, preference for a secular Bard. notorious for its cOmlection with dissenters who risked, and often offered a convenient way fo r Frye underscored the fact that sacrificed, their lives for a faith which the Anglican establishment traditional scholars to overcome Elizabethan and Jacobean dra was anxious to suppress. Were Shakespeare's parents recusants? the sparse bio graphical data and matists did not have the freedom Was their son, too, a clandestine Roman Catholic? And would he enable them to add some flesh to use plays as vehicles for cer have remained so once he anived in London and secured his and blood to a bare skeleton. tain theological or religious livelihood as a professional who benefited from royal patronage? In the 15 years since Honig statements. Although Shake mann's work appeared, there has If so, how does one account for the anti-papal ideology that seems speare had a deep appreciation been a rising tide of articles and so integral to the stlUcture ofKillg John, not to mention the echoes and knowledge of the Bible and books devoted to one aspect or ofRefornlationdoctrine that many ofus hearinHamlet, Hem)' Christian doctrine, he only drew VIII, another of the secret Catholic Measure for A1easlIre, and other plays? upon that subject matlerfor back theory, culminating in July 1999 ground material and to add his These are but a few of the queries that linger for a pelUsal of with a major international con torical realism to his dramas. Holden's lively, if finally less than satisfying, attempt to discern ference devoted to the topic in Christian themes of redemption the personality behind a corpus that continues to defyany effort Lancashire. Those behind this or salvation were never the core to pluck out the heart of the mystery." conference, Professor Richard of the dramatic action in any of Wilson of the University of his plays. FUlihermore, the great Lancashire and local entrepre- tragedies and the Bard's empathy toward tered around the efforts of a few American neurs who are restoring Houghton Castle, figures who committed suicidc place him Catholics and British Jesuits to explore the openly admit that they are seeking to break totally outside the parameters of traditional last testament ofthe Stratford man's father, the London-Stratford monopoly on the lu Christian doctrine, whether Protestant or John Shakespeare, which seemed to con crative tourism business within England Catholic. fo rm to the guidelines for a Catholic-style associated with Shakespeare. will as fo rmulated by Saint Carlos Boromeo Furthermore, the zeal of many scholars The Revival ofthe Catholic Question earlier in the sixteenth-century. After the fo r the secret Catholic theory expressed at Second World War, a few British scholars the Lancashire conference imparted the air Given the fo rmidable nature of the such as Christopher Devlin and Peter W. of a religious revival to the proceedings, as Establishment's opposition to exploring the Milward tried to find passages here and described by UC-Berkeley Professor Alan Bard's religious orientation, when and why there in the Iitermy works that might give Nelson to this writer. However, the did the long-taboo Catholic Question be- support to the view that the author might Lancastrian version of the Catholic theory Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer2000 page 7
remains highly questionable. There were Dennis Kay, and Katherine Duncan-Jones quer" (Autumn 1 984), andF.W. Brownlow's many "Shakeshafts" living in Lancashire. are other mainstream scholars who support aliicle, "John Shakespeare's Recuscancy: There is no certainty that the Stratford man the Lee-Chambers-Frye-Rowse-Schoen New Light on an Old Document" in the in his youth was the same young man who baum opposition to the "Bard as secret Summer 1989 issue. No serious scholar to was the tutor for the Houghtons and Hesketh Catholic" theory. day will contest that the incumbent Bard's families-a point which Chambers, However, a strategy of denial is becom parents were hard-core Catholics as op Schoenbaum, and other mainstream schol ing increasingly difficult to sustain. A posed to those who merely conformed out ars underscore. younger generation ofNew Historicist schol wardly, the so-called Church Papists. The Be that as it may, Harvard professor and ars-who show no fear that their research evidence that ties the Shakespeare family to New Historicist guru Stephen Greenblatt might have downside implications in the the Catholic underground in Warwickshire has been sympathetic to the exploration of authorship debate-continue to "dig and then in London, with the Stratford man's the Catholic connection, and Gary Taylor deeper" into the Stratford records which late purchase in 1613 of what Ian Wilson embraced a non-Lancastrian version of the show that the Shakespeare family was in calls "the most notoriously Catholic prop crypto-Catholic theory in 1994, just as-a deed part of a large web of crypto-Catholics erty in London," the Blackfriar' s Gatehouse, year later-Eric Sams did in his work The in the Warwickshire region. is too strong to ignore anymore. Real Shakespeare: Retrieving the Early Some ofthis scholarship has been pub In response, Park Honan in his biogra Years, 1564-1594. Greenblatt and Taylor lished in the Shakespeare Quarterly, most phy, Shakespeare A Life (1998), tries to both attended the 1999 Lancastrian Shake notably: the D.L. Thomas and N.E. Evans reformulate a position for fence-sitters on speare Conference at Lancaster University. essay, "John Shakespeare in the Exche- (Continued all page 8) However, the scholar who has given the biggest boost to the Catholic theory in the 1990s is Ian Wilson who-though he feels Exchange of letters between John Andrews the Lancastrian connection unproven-has provided in his work Shakespeare The Evi and Peter Dickson over the Catholic issue dence (1994) at least 14pieces ofbiograph i cal evidence to bolster the case that the Peter Dickson's letter to Th e Washington Post when, and why behind the successful deception Stratford man came fioma family ofstaunch was published on August 6th, 2000 in response strategy that made Shakespeare's identity so Catholics, and that he retained an affinity to Andrews' review of Holden ' s William Shake secret. for the Catholic faith to the end of his life. sp eare: the Mall Behind the Genius: The impact of Wilson's book-now Andrews' reply to Dickson in Th e Washing available in paperback-cannot be under A Secret Catholic? ton Post (August 27th, 2000): estimated. Schoenbaum, fearing the poten tial impact of the Catholic theory, roundly John Andrews' review of Anthony Holden's Living on Bard Time trashed Wilson as largely a worthless ama William Shakespeare is a watershed moment in teur in a book review in the TimesLitermy the I 50-year old debate about the Bard's true In a letter that depicts my review of Anthony Supplement. Schoenbaum even implied identity. Like many mainstream scholars since Holden's William Shakespeare as a "watershed that Wilson was a closet anti-semite be the mid-1980s, Holden adds to the growing moment in the 150-year old debate about the cause he did not place quotation marks mountain of evidence that the incumbent Bard Bard's true identity," Peter W. Dickson suggests about the phrase "the Lopez conspiracy." was actually a recusant (crypto-Catholic) like his that the questions I raise about Holden's por Still, Schoenbaum never even hinted to the parents who had close ties to many notorious and trayal of Shakespeare as a secret Catholic are reader that Wilson had tried to make the case executed Catholics from Warwickshire (Edward "very close to an official confession" of "the that the incumbent Bard was a secret Catho Arden, John Somerville). Andrews poses tough yawning chasm between the Stratford man and lic. Nor did he bother to point out that questions: how could the Stratford man, who the real Bard." Wilson had failed to show how the literary bought the headquarters of the Catholic under Hardly. Like others, I've yet to discernany works prove convincing evidence that the ground (the Blackfriar' s Gatehouse) three years coherence in the hypothesis that the man who author was a crypto-Papist. before his death in 1616 and who "dyed a papist" gave us Hel1lY VI, King Jo hn, Hamlet, andHemy Essentially, Schoenbaum-who was according to a 17th-century commentator, have VIll was a crypto-Papist. To me, this notion is well aware of the growing threat posed by been the same Bard who championed English almost as unconvincing as the conspiracy theory the Oxfordian theory--did not wish to em nationalism values during the Counter Reforma that attributes to Dickson's putative author, brace the notion that the Stratford man was tion, who used Calvin's Bible almost exclusively, Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, such leading a double life involving concealment and who as a tragedian pushed beyond Christian masterpieces as Coriolallus, Macbeth, and Th e and deception. He apparently so much traditions on such sensitive matters as suicide? Tempest, all of which display unmistakable evi fe ared-in this writer's view-opening up Andrews' review is very close to an official dence of having been composed long after any debate with Wilson in 1994 that he confession that continued pursuit of the long Oxford's death in 1604. Itwill require a "success gamb led that a curt dismissal would suffice taboo issue of crypto-Catholicism will probably ful deception strategy" indeed to show how and buy more time to defend the Stratfordian further widen the yawning chasm between the Dickson's candidate for the actual Shakespeare orthodoxy that the Bard was genuinely com Stratford man and the real Bard. Resolution will could have written these or any of the playwright's mitted to the Anglican faith. Stanley Wells, only come when someone exposes the who, how, other works. page 8 Summer2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Dickson (c ontinlledji'oll1page 7) short because he knows in his heart that it denies that his review of Holden's work this explosive issue: namely, that the in is a hard sell when you turn to the literary amounts to an "officialconf ession" that the triguing Lancastrian connection is not texts themselves. Also, Holden probably Catholic issue presents a major systemic proven, but the parents were Catholic and knows it is risky to push this theory given problem for the Establishment. He then de that their son might have had a soft spot in the sensitivities within the Shakespeare flectsattention from the topic by attacking his heart for Ye Olde Faith, which he kept Establishment, especially in Britain, and also this author as a proponent of the conspira under wraps as part of a general effo rt to in terms ofthe need to sustain unity against torial Oxfordian theory, and by engaging in conform to the Anglican Church for political the anti-Stratfordians, especially Oxford the old "dating" game, i.e. citing supposed reasons and to avoid any sectarian issues in ians. post-1 604 composition dates for some plays his dramas. Strong evidence ofthe Establishment's (thus eliminating Oxford, who died in 1604); growing unease can be seen in the pro- but this is a two-edge sword as far as the From Honigmann to Holden (1985-2000) authorship dispute is concemed, since some mainstream scholars have re-dated other Since the appearance of Park Honan's "Given the formidable Shakespeare plays into the l580s, which is Shakespeare biography and then the major fatal for the Stratford man. conference in Lancashire last year, there nature of the The other development that demon have been several noteworthy developments Establishment's opposition strates that the crisis in the Shakespeare conceming the debate over the Catholic Establishment is festering is the publication Question. First, Anthony Holden's biogra ... when and why did earlier this year of Velma Bourgeois phy, William Shakespeare: the Man Be Richmond'sShakespeare, Catholicism, and the long-taboo Catholic hind the Genius (2000), represents the apo Romance (Continuum Books). Although theosis of Honigmann' s thesis conceming Question become she remarks that definitive proof that the the Lancastrian-Catholic Connection. Bard was a secret Catholic may never be Holden is a Lancastrian himselfand is fully admissible in fo und, Richmond is quite convinced that his behind the effort there to re-link the Bard to scholarly circles?" staunch Catholic fa mily background gave his supposed roots in the North Country. him a "Catholic habit of mind" which he But Holden's emphasis on the Catholic *** never abandoned as a playwright. Rich dimension of the traditional Shakespeare mond argues that this "Catholic habit of appears strangely uneven upon closer ex "Andrews' review mind" can be seen most clearly in the themes amination. He makes even less of an effOli and passages of certain comedies which than Ian Wilson did in 1994 to argue that the amounts to an draw upon the medieval traditions of court litermy works contain strong passages or romance and chivahy which she maintains astonishing admission allusions that show a distinctly Catholic are more reflectiveof Catholic mentality or worldview. Even more surprising, Holden that further pursuit worldview than a Protestant outlook. In suggests that after the defeat of the Spanish particular, she devotes considerable em Annada in the fall ofl588, the Stratford man of the Catholic theory phasis on the important role offemale char saw the hand-writing on the wall, and drifted is quite risky acters in the comedies and also the tragic away from the staunch, though still secret, role of Desdemona in Othello. Catholicism of his parents. because of the conflict Richmond, however, totally ignores the Thus, Holden sees the incumbent Bard with so many of the history plays and the existentialist, almost as a serious secret Catholic through barely nihilistic elements in some ofthe great trag halfthe period known as the "lost years." He Shakespearean dramas. " edies which suggest Shakespeare's greater refers to him as a "furtive papist" or as a affinity for the pagan or Greek dramatists "lapsed Catholic" who was willing to give compared to Christian traditions, to say voice finally to the name "Jesus" in the foundly ambivalent review which Holden nothing more about Roman Catholicism. crude inscription on his own gravestone. received in The Washington Post (July 9th, In conclusion, it seems fair to state that Simply put, Holden does not have the 2000) from John Andrews, President ofthe Richmond has attempted to "backfit" as courage to pursue the Catholic theory be Shakespeare Guild and editor of the much of the canon as possible to make it yond a certain point. He makes only a pass EVel)l/IlQn Shakespeare. Andrews' book consistent with the secret Catholic theory. ing reference to Susan Shakespeare's ap review and also the texts of an ongoing We can expect more such effOlis as long as pearance on the recusancy list shortly after exchange of letters in this newspaper be the advocates ofthe Catholic theory remain the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Like main tween Andrews and this writer are provided intent on becoming the New Orthodoxy stream scholars, Holden describes the late for our readers (see the boxes pages 6-7). within the Shakespeare Establishment, and purchase ofthe large Blackfriar' s Gatehouse Andrews' review amounts to an aston as long as others fail to show them the in March 1613 as purely a business transac ishing admission that further pursuit of the downside of this research for the ongoing tion and the need fo r a place to live. Catholic theOlY is quite risky because of the dispute with anti-Stratfordians and Oxford Why does Holden back offin his pursuit conflictwith so many ofthe Shakespearean ians over the Bard's true identity. ofthe Catholic theory? We believe he stops dramas. In his exchange ofletters, Andrews ©Copyright 2000, Peter W. Dickson Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer 2000 page 9
Stritlllatter (c ontinued/i'olll page 1) toasts Edward de Vere in his 1578 Audley Pallas is reiterated in the collection of the stance radically at odds with Peacham's End encomium with the phrase "vulhls tela anonymous mythological poems included practice inhis three Basilikon Doran manu vibrat"-"thy countenance shakes a in the curious 1 640 edition ofShake-Speare 's scripts, which "followed the tripartite divi speare," the context is Minervan; three lines Poems, in which the poet exhorts the bard sion of lames's book to provide a clearly earlier Minerva is described as "in dextra "in thy hand the Spear of Pallas shake" defined structural basis" (xiv). Mason Tung latitat"-concealed in de Vere' s right hand. (Ogburn19 84 238). (1997), analyzing Peacham's appropriation A year later in the Shephearde 's Calendar Finally, the image of Minerva's spear of traditional emblem materials from other Spenser's exegete E.K., in a fo otnote on even feahlres prominently in Peacham's writers, discovers a persistent habit of "in Bellona, further emphasizes the proverbial, introductOlY Latin verses dedicating his dicating 'apparent' sources yet concealing and indeed etymological, association be emblem book to Hemy Stuart(1595-1612): the 'real' ones" and wonders "what moti tween Pallas and "spear shaking" in his "Undique fraxineam dum dextra viriliter vates [Peacham] to play a game of ' hide hastam/Torquet, et incerto circum aera and seek' with his reader?" (187). verberat ichl./She spins (torquet) every The search for complex coherence in where her ashen spear in her virile right this puzzling work might begin with the hand, and all around the air reverberates question of why Peacham chose the title with mis-aimed blow(s )." Minerva Britanna. 1 A rich Medieval and For Stuart mythographers such as Renaissance emblematic tradition, rooted Francis Bacon, as in the Renaissance in the popular etymology of the name emblem book tradition, Minerva, and by Pallas (from the Greek participle [insert implication her "spear-shaking," were here "pallas, pallentis" in Greek font] associated with doctrines of political meaning to "shake" or "brandish" and circumspection-ofthe political theatre the mythological traditions ofthe ancient indulged in by monarchs to retain the world, associates the Goddess Pallas/ loyalty ofthe populace. Indeed, in hisDe Minerva2 with the action of "shaking" Sapientia Veterull1, Bacon declares that (vibrans) a spear. the myth of Minerva leaping from the An abundance of evidence testifies brow of Zeus "seems to contain a great to the prominence of this association in secret of state (sensus arcanum imperii the artistic traditions which informed the continere viderur)" (Spedding 1 860 XIII construction of Peacham's work; em 62). Does Peacham's naming ofhis book blems reproduced by Henkel and Schone afterMin erva reflect a similar emphasis in their encyclopedic survey ElI1blell1- on her traditional association with the lI1ata (1953) depict Minerva as the per arcana governing proper conduct in sonification of political cunning ex statecraft? pressed in art. In this capacity she is Printed il' Shoe-bne at the ifgne The possibility that Peacham's of the F.1ulconbyWa, Dight. typically portrayed with her spear-in Minerva might comment on the "Shake fact, 12 out of 15 emblems illustrate her speare" question-that great arcanum Figure 1. Title page a/Minerva Britanna (1612) with spear in hand; paired with Ulysseus, showing a hand reaching out ji'01l1 behind a cur of the Elizabethan and Stuart monar she guides him, spear in hand, through tain, writing the phrase MENTE. VIDEBOR. Note chies-was discussed as early as 1937 means of her "providence"; paired with the continuing action a/the pen as it appears to be by Eva Turner Clarke in her book, The Mars her spear of"art" contrasts to his of starting to /o rll1 the diacritic dot on a small letter Man Who Was Shakespeare, although "war"; for Achilles her spear prudently i. The position a/the pen rules out any chance that Clarke was apparently not aware of the prevents his killing ofAgamemnon; with a period is being written. image of Minerva "spinning" her spear Bellona, spear in hand, she defeats her in Peacham's Latin verses. Clarke in- war-like cousin, who paradoxically comes to recapitulation of the stOlY of Minerva's stead drew attention to the curious title page the battle armed only with a fool's theatrical bilth: ofMinerva, which illustrates a hand coming mask. out from behind a theatrical cmtain covering 3 In numerous mythographic contexts Pallas, which may therefore wei be called a "discovery space." The hand is in the act Minerva's spear-symbolizing the activity queint fo r that (as Lucian saith) when Iupiter of writing on a scroll the words "MENTE. of the mind in art and philosophy-is the her fa ther was in traveile of her, he caused his VIDEBOR"-"by the mind I shall be seen" definingattribute of her emblematic figure sonne Vulcane with his axe to hew his head. (figure 1). Clarke alleged-incorrectly ittran and the primary means of expressing her Out of which leaped forth lustely a valiant spires-that this Latin legend spelled an 4 5 divine will. One pregnant testimony to the damsell armed at all poynts, whom seeing anagram, "TIBI NOM. DE VERE "-"thy prominence of the allegorical association Vulcan so fa ire & comely, lightly leaping to name is de Vere." It is my intention in this between Minerva and "spearshaking" even her, proferred her some cortesie, which the article to pursue certain implications ofMs. speaks of her "vibrandae .... hastae"-her Lady disdeigning, shaked her speare at him, Clarke's theory which have previously es "needing to be brandished spear" (Henkel and threatned his sauciness. (October 186- caped notice by her critics, yet deserve the & Schone 1953 1736). 94; emphasis added) thoughtful attention of all researchers with This association between Minerva and a sincere interest in Hemy Peacham's re her spear is also very evident in Elizabethan Sixty-two years later, the association markable and enigmatic work. and Shl31t sources. When Gabriel Harvey between Shakespeare and the spearshaker (Continued on page 10) page 10 Summer2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Stritmatter (Continuedji-ol11page 9) other manuscripts such as Basi !ikon DorOil fa ils to mention Shakespeare. It does, on the Problems with Ms. Clarke's theory, by or Emblemata Varia (c. 1622).9 The thun other hand, prominently mention Oxford, as now well known among Oxfordian circles, dering implication of this Titus manuscript the first ofthe great poets ofthe Elizabethan go back to the initial publication of Clarke's should not be overlooked: if any Elizabe age. As Dickson's research has shown, book, in which the word MENTE was mis than had reason to know Shakespeare's moreover, this arrangement was not altered spelled MENTI, a mistake which required an identity, that person was Hemy Peacham. or disturbed in successive editions (1627, erratum slip to be placed in Clarke's book. A As Peter Dickson has recently argued 1634, 1661) of this popular Stuart book: more serious-some have thought fa "This glaring omission of Shakespeare 's tal---Dbjection to Clarke's anagram solu name from Peacham's list is astounding" tion did not surface in public until Noemi concludes Dickson, "and in all likelihood Magri's May 1999De Vere SocietyNews was a deliberate exclusion because letter article, although discussed among Peacham knew that Oxford and Shake- Oxfordians in private before that time. speare were the same person" (1999 8). Many concluded from this article that the When Peacham notonly fails to mention alleged anagram had been demolished. ; - ; Shakespeare in his list of great Elizabe One irate reader informed Phaeton (the than poets, but places the name "Earl of Oxfordian Internet discussion group): Oxford" where one expects to see the "The alleged anagram, 'tibinom. de Vere,' Bard's own name, this is prima facie has been shown to be without fo unda grounds to consider his views on "Shake tion, wishfu l thinking, illusory, mythical speare," whether overt or covert, with and ludicrous." carefulcircumsp ection. In my November 1999 SOS Confer ence lecture, "The Key to Minerva Tib Nom. de Vere Britanna," I urged researchers to adopt a more open-minded position towards this Eva TurnerClar ke's solution to the fascinating book and the alleged ana title page enigma, as I observed in my gram (see below). Although Magri's cri November lecture, fails because the tique is undoubtedly correct it does not, printed phrase "MENTEVIDEBOR" lacks in my opinion, finally settle the issue of the additional "i" required to spell the whether there is an anagram spelling the word "TIB" in the anagram's solution phrase "TIB NOM. DE VERE" in " .:: ; '� f '- (figure 3). In hying to accommodate for Peacham's book. But before examining this fact, Clarke's enthusiastic epigone, some reasons why the alleged anagram the noted English classical scholar John may in fact still exist, let us consider some Astley-Cox, committed a terrible blunder further reasons why Henry Peacham's Figure 2. Henry Peacham 's transcript of Titus in the technical area ofpassive Latin verb testimony is highly relevant, in a more Andronicus, dated 1595. forms. The fo rm VIDEBORinPeacham's generic sense, to the authorship ques inscription means "I shall be seen." It tion. MENTE.VIDEBOR = TIB [i) NOM DEVERE completes the ablative case of MENTE; the The only extant sixteenth century manu Letters available Letters required inscription declares that "by the mind" script of a canonical Shakespeare play is in that is not merely with the eyes-"I shall be Henry Peacham's handwriting (figure 2). £=3 £=3 seen. " This Longleat library manuscript6 includes M=] M= ] Apparently, however, the pen in some forty lines from scene I.i of Titus /= ] /=2 Peacham's drawing is in the process of N= ] N= ] Androniclls, in which Tamora pleads before writing a diacritic dot on a small i after the R T=] T=] Titus to spare her first-born son. A sketch, in VIDEBOR. Astley-Cox accordingly pro 7 V= ] V=] apparently of this same scene, appears at B=] B=] posed that the hand was completing the the heading ofthe document. The document 0= ] 0= ] wordVIDEBORl[S),meaning-hethought is in Hemy Peacham's holograph-that is, R=] R=] "thou shalt be seen." Unfortunately, the it includes a dated signature, "Henricus verb form which Astley-Cox proposed sim Peacham," as well as lines of text and the ply does not exist. The second person sin II ]2 drawing. Schoenbaum diffidentlyconcedes gular of a second declension passive Latin that "the signature in the lower-left hand Figure 3. Prooffo r thefa ilure of the Clarke verb requires a thematic vowel shift from an " " margin suggests that a Hemy Peacham tran Astley-Cox solution of the anagram. The 0 to an "e"-i.e. from "videbor" to scribed the forty lines of verse and perhaps phrase MENTE. vIDEBOR lacks an "i" to "videberis." Hence, Astley-Cox' s proposed made the drawing too" (1975 123). In fact, all complete the solution emendation to Ms. Clarke'ssolution is gram things considered, the case for Peacham's matically impossible. In pointing out the transcription of the document is beyond (1998), it is therefore surprising that Henry nature of this error in a recent article pub serious doubt; although the paleographical Peacham's memorial to the great writers of lished in theDe Vere Society Newsletter (3 :3 analysis to prove the point has yet to be the Elizabethan era in The Complete Gentle 5-6),Dr. Noemi Magri emphasized her con undertaken, both the hand andthe character man, published in 1622 while the 1623 viction that other elements ofthe title page, of the drawing are matched in Peacham's "Shakespeare" first fo lio was in production, specifically thecontent ofthe motto which Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer2000 page II
accompanies the two burning candles at the duction: upper left and right hand corners of the title r:ji.�:' behold } ;md \� ('t nIH ,1 \1 ,dike t The true use [of emblems] from time to d{'k:t�', borh Meill dw eic� page, and the nature ofthe motto and image ohie..:1;!,J ln(\: the de dOlh!1rikc, time onely hath been, Utile dulci miscere, to of the hand extending fr om the discovelY Tb inH;:;in.Hion nrJ!�ht\'i�'l.ic<,doth impl!..:: feede at once both the minde, and eie, by �h(ll'e� lor wh;j[ ..:If-ethe." ohh;-d- doth prdent , space, lent strong credence to the hypoth Vll..'.Jkcror ilrol1Scr, ;1� tIlt: fight i� lwur. expressing mistically and doubtfully, our esis that Peacham's book is concernedwit h disposition, either to Love, Hatred, Vlithin the Dlludct\'/O eie':>there arc h�llC fiGht > Edward de Vere: "ro.iud�;c ot"thio? p; intcrit)[}fhJ. {J'ngftnct'� Clemencie, Iustice, Pietie, our Victories, Mis fon:Jlgllt laud bilghtJ ladgn1cnt rn,�ke5 th em bright� fo rtunes, Griefes, and the like: which per �nd mortpel [l: it UOtlS throuv;hintd!i�tncc . On a semantic basis, the Latin mottoes l·orefight� IOlCk('thl'urnw) ) th.)t 111i1y ('nfue � haps could not have beene openly, butto our IIiC�ht 1 duth ycikt to rc.l!'<')!1 \Vh:H i) due. with their corroborating visual representa praejudice revealed. And in truth the bearer !fr aN rilE AJI"illOP'R . tion of the theatre curtain might lead one to heerein doth but as the Travailer, that 'n1cn let not men tlt;emc allwith corp rJ:llcifne, the identification of Lord Oxford. It is unmis fic.$lfVlY ddlld..:-d be by I.Jft'iHufil)lh ; changeth his Silver into Gold, carry about his he p.trti.lll j fiejight 0.,.1)' llcdinc takable that the concepts expressed in the ,or by :tbuiwns . affection in a narrow roome, andmore safely; . inscriptions can rightly be applied to his life: the valew rather bettered then abated. the prohibition on publishing his works VVithourw.1rd ei 'ne flrfi vieW 1311d. nurkc this Dooke t under his own name, the concealed identity, V.lriC'tj'uf obrc
Minerva Britanna displays a dazzling Minerva's Eyes preoccupation with word puzzles of various kinds�amongthem, prominently, anagrams. Readers of Segar's poem will be struck Richard Kennedy 's listing ofanagrams from by the repeated emphasis on the eye as the the book (as posted on the Internetdiscus organ ofvision and by the implied English sion group Phaeton) isolates at least 12 language pun in which "i" and "eye" are �and this includes merely the more obvi homophones. This identity is often acti ous examples. Thus, the proposition that va ted in Peac ham's boo k, as ifto emp hasize the title page invokes an anagram�the so that not only "eyes"�which are needed for lution ofwhich will come about through the seeing emblems�and "minds"�which are Figure 5. Peacham #142 showing application ofthe reader's mind attempting the pervasive eye/i/1 pUll. needed for understanding them�but also to discernthe identity of the person behind "i's"�a small and apparently innocuous the curtain�is in itself hardly objection esoteric�Renaissance genre, of which lit letter ofthe alphabet�are needed fo r com able. Anagrams, as any student of the Re erally hundreds oftitles were published, in prehending Peacham's message. naissance is aware, were a popular method all the European vemaculars. In emblem The pun is made explicit in Peacham's of expressing esoteric knowledge. books, visual symbols were endowed with emblem #142 (figure 5), which pictures a The second point to bear in mind is that hermetic or secret significance, often of a weeping eye accompanied by the motto Peacham's text is the most sophisticated political as well as a moral orreligious nature. "Hei mihi quod vidi"I "0 woe is me because English example ofa popular�intrinsically As Hemy Peacham himself says in his intro- (Continued on page 12) page 12 Summer2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Stritmatter (Continuedji-om page 11) abbreviates the common Latin phrase, I see"-in which the fivefold iteration "id est"-an established medieval/Re of the small letter "i" in Latin and the naissance abbreviation (Capelli 1961, OCCUITence ofthe first person pronoun 168). Curiously, however, Peacham's "I" in English both fu nction as pointed source does not provide a precedent reminder of the subject under discus for this abbreviation. In his commen sion. And in case any reader is tempted tmy on the emblem, which he dedicates to miss the point, the same pun is re to Solimanus Sultanus Ottomanus, peated in the English verses below: "so Typotius clarifiesthe translation of the I, poore Eie, while coldestsOlTOwfills .... " Turkish legend pictured in the emblem With this background in mind it is with the fo llowing phrase: "& inscribunt intriguing to returnto the title page of Turcica lingua, Alia vere, id est. Deus Minerva Britanna and to Ms. Clarke's dabit. ..." "And they write, in the Turk alleged anagram: the letter which is miss ish tongue, 'Allah Vere'-that is to say, ing from the legend to complete the 'God will give'" (see the detail in phrase "TIB NOM. DE VERE" is this figure 7). same letter "i," about which so much At first glancethis discovelY might has been made by Peacham as well as by seem to cast doubt on the interpreta Minervan collaborators such as Herald tion that the phrase "i. Deus dab it" can Segar. Furthermore, this letter fonns a be translated as "God will give the i." In homophone for the organ of sight; and fa ct, it strengthens the original suppo . the legend tells us that the man behind sition in favor of this reading: the curtain will be seen not by the literal Peacham's abbreviation of "id est" to eye, but by the mind-that is, by exer "i." his only significant deviation cising the powers of insight and fore from Typotius-in fact underscores the sight praised by Herald Segar in his Figure 6. Peacham #66, showing the curious subscript arbitrary and premeditated character of poem. Are we being instructed to search Hi. Delis dabit. " at the top of the page. the "i". Why didn't Peacham just fo llow fo r an "i"-which would complete the Typotius and spell out the phrase, "id anagram and reveal the identity ofthe man est?" Surely this would have been the most behind the cmtain---elsewhere in Peacham 's natural and unambiguous thing to do. There book? is plenty of room on the page. Yet Peacham My November SOS lecture suggested did not fo llow this obvious course and the that the answer to this question was per alert reader must wonder why. haps "yes"; I drew attention to emblem #66, I propose that Peacham modified which contains two curious Latin phrases, Typotius precisely because he needed the one in italics and the other in Roman type: "i."- he needed it to create a piece of word "Allah vere"/truly, Allah and "i. Deus dabit"/ magic, linking the "Allah vere" emblem to God will give the 'i' (figure6). It should be the title page of Minerva Britanlla and noted that the conjunction ofthe italic motto completing the otherwise imperfect ana 1 "Allah vere" with the Roman type "i. Deus gram. 2 Strong contextual support for this dab it" is peculiar. Other emblems in interpretation is provided by the phrase Peacham's book which pair these two type "Allah vere" itself, which could ofcourse be faces in the superscription, as if to provide translated into English as "Lord Vere." an additional clue to the superabundance of Another feature linking emblem #66 to anagrammatical meaning in Peacham 's text the title page is the motif ofthe four candles, all form anagrams of the names of their the impresa of Solimanus Ottomanus bor respective dedicatees. In twelve such ex rowed from Typotius's book. In his title Figure 7. The source of Peacham #66 (taken 13 ampleslO the anagrammatic motto appears page motto-"ut alijs me consumo" fi'OIn Typotius ' Symbola, Vol. I, table 26, in Italic type and the name "mystically sig Peacham offers one possible symbolic inter page 58) with excelpt fi'om Latin prose pretation of the candle: it is a thing which nified"is itself given in Roman. #66 stands commentm)l on the Arabic. unique11 in Peacham's entire book-be consumes itself in the service of others; it cause the relation of Italic and Roman shines to provide light, and in doing so is phrases is not, at least in any self-evident critical points which must be considered in itself consumed away to nothing. Hiero sense, anagrammatic-although it is so ev evaluating the hypothesis ofthe intentional glyphically the candle might also be under elY other case in the book. Instead ofprovid relation of the motto "i. Deus dabit" to the stood to denote the small-letter i, which it ing an anagram of a Roman typeface name, Minerva title page. Mason Tung has iden closely resembles in fo rm. In this case, the italics here translate the Turkish phrase tified the source of this emblem #66 in the Peacham's title page motto-"ut alijs me pictured in the emblem below with the four 1601-03 emblem book of Jacob Typotius, consumo"-could be applied also to the candles. Symbola Divina & Human Pontificorull1 missing letter "i" in the legend MENTE. Since my Novemberpresentation, how Imperatorull1 Regum (figure7). Tung sug VIDEBORbelowit. Dr. Magri translates this ever, further research has clarifiedcertain gests, fu rthermore, that Peacham's letter "i" motto: "Likewise I consume myselffo r oth- Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer2000 page 13
ers." The ut�likewise�signifies that, his puzzle aesthetically coherent�and contrary to appearances, the speaker of "small," or rather discerning, eyes are the motto is not, in fa ct, the candle. It is 1 needed to perceive its alternative loca another who, like the candle, consumes tion. himself in labor on behalf of others. The As it tums out, intriguing analogies speaker could be the author Henry to this alleged practice may be found Peacham, but it could also be the implied right in Peacham's own book. Let us "i" in the legend below, which consumes consider, for example, the curious dedi itselfforthe sake ofmaintaining the gram cation to Henry Stuart (figure 8). We matical correctness of the surface string notice here that the motto of the Prince MENTE. VIDEBOR; this "i."retums only of Wales, ICH DIEN (I serve), is given as a "gift of God" in emblem #66. both in German (as it customarily was) On this understanding, then, the Latin and also in Latin�Servio. These two phrase "i. Deus dabit" can serve at least versions of the motto are linked by the two complementalyfunctions:it clarifies small letter" .i."� which is preceded and the meaning of the ambiguous Turkish fo llowed by a full stop. Here, as in em phrase, Allah Vere�"id est, Deus blem #66, the most obvious reading is dabit"�and it also provides a mystical that the ".i." represents an abbreviation " link to the title page, supplying the "i."� for "id est. 16 It could be argued, fu rther the consumed candle�which is missing £pigrmIllJJ/t/i l!tborts . more, that here�unlike emblem #66� to fo rm the anagram "TIBI[i] NOM. de the abbreviation is required in order to Vere.'>l4 In isolation the interpretation Sf dicit Se;<)1um modo patre Jupcljlite 1) ril1- set the entire passage in a single line of may seem absurd. In view of the numer aps, type. ous other Minervan symbols and word liiN PrimltJ at Imperio Sn'VltJ (b) HIe, I According to this conservative puzzles which seem to invoke the "Shake .". DE regit . premise we might then transcribe the line speare" question and Edward de Vere in as "ICH DIEN; that is (in German), 'I ,,, this book, it may seem less so. Figure 8. Peacham 's dedication to Hem), Stuart, serve. But, once more, alternativein Some readers have objected to the with small letter ". i. " as an abbreviation fo r id est. terpretations, inspired by the curious fact that the other letters in Peacham's typography of the ".i." placed strategi title page scroll are incapital letters, while cally between the two verb forms and the embryonic diacritic mark�and the two fu ll stops, suggest themselves to an small letter "i." in the legend to emblem alert reader. Another way to decode this #66�imply a lower case "i," inconsis "i" is as the firstperson singular English tent with the rest ofthe legend. One can pronoun, I. Ifwe do this, Peacham's line speculate why Peacham may have wished yields three variants on the phrase "ICH to alter the anagram in this manner, but DIEN": it states the concept firstin Ger the alteration in no way effects the plau man, then in Latin, and finallystates�in sibility ofthe alleged solution. Only by the English homophonic construction� using the small-letter "i" could Peacham "I Serv-e-o." Is this, possibly, another make use ofthe diacritic mark to imply the instance of Peacham ' s own stated intent presence of a letter not fu lly present on to "express mystically and doubtfully" the page and meant to be "imported," as his affection for a man whose published 15 it were, from another place in the book. initials were "E. 0." (see, for this practice, Furthennore, as Christopher Paul Edwards 1576,e.g. Fol. 15)? I 11 neither art , hy hirth , flor fo rtllnebien , Harper has insisted on the Phaeton dis " With meanes mliue ,or an !\\'Cre thy ddlre , cussion group, the diminutive character With checreft,l\ heart, 01\ labour Jer thy rell: , Tv bnng to pille the thing thou doli require , The "key" to Millerva 's Cipher of the letter "i" underscores the moral For lot, orhbonr,multonr calling giue , fo und in emblem #57, that objects ofvery And find theword ,that all doc fe ekc , TO /, /1"'£ . Emblem # 180 (figure9) inPeacham's slight weight or, in this case, dimension, Though thollfands Ilauo beel1c mired by their frendes , book depicts a cipher wheel�a state -of By death , by dowries , even whcnleall they thought , can have profound consequence. Tbe Lord il blcffillg , Hill to bholtr (e ndes , the-art encoding device, much like a mod Finally, convincing evidence for the \
Stritmatter (continuedji-om page 13) tion ciphers. They caution that "even when realize the intellectual seriousness of the known. What should be noticed, however, the anagram has only a few letters, there may authorship question, and acknowledge the even on a casual reading, is that Peacham be more than one 'solution'; and when it has weight of the already known evidence sup literally "gives away" a key to be used with many letters there can be many ' solutions' porting the attribution ofthe "Shakespeare" this cipher wheel; furthermore the key con all equally valid" (19). Their criteria fo r a works to Edward de Vere. Given that the tains the name "Vere ." The Latin for phrase TIB NOM. DE VERE "the word that all do seek, TO LNE"? evidently comments on the emblem on Peacham's title page, identify VNERE.17 ing by name the person obscured behind the stage curtain, the re Ifwe bracket momentarily the vised version of Clarke's solution vexing question ofPeacham 's rea proposed in this article satisfiesthe sons for including an image of a criterion of relevance "in spades. "20 cipher wheel in his book, we may now turn back to the "Allah vere" "Tandem Divu)ganda" emblem #66 andnoticeyeta third deeply intriguing-possible inter "The denser the medium, the pretation of the phrase "i. Deus more impOltant the message," re dabit." The Turkish letter tran marked Manhattan theatre pro scribed as the letter "v" in the phrase ducer Ted Story after my Confer "Allah vere" is in fact a waw. This ence Minerva lecture. Whatever letter could be transcribed into the else one can say about Minerva Latin alphabet as v, u or w.1S Thus Britanna, this book isan extraordi we might transcribe the Turkish as naIY instance of a nanative told in the letters "v, v, e,r, e" (in which the a dense medium. Consider our final "double u" in the English word emblem, #38 (figure 10)21 : an image "were" has been broken down into of a winged key with the motto its two component parts). Now, let "tandem divulganda"-"finally, us consider what will happen if these things must be revealed." "God will give the i" to this variant The nature of "these things" are transcription: it will spell "vivere" elaborated in the English subscript: -the cipher key stated in emblem # 180! Is this is a mere coincidence? Figllre J O. Peacham 's Tandem divulganda- "f inally, these The waightie counsels, and affaires Perhaps so. I offer it, like other things must be revealed. " of state, interpretations of Peacham's word The wiser mannadge, with such puzzles, in a spirit of speculative collabora cunning skill, tion with both friends and critics. valid anagram is as fo llows: "in order to be Though long lockt up, at last abide 'perfect' an anagram should not only in the fate, Recapitulation volve a reaITangement of letters without Of common censure, either good additions or deletions; the resulting word or or ill: A brief recapitulation is in order. In this words should in some way comment upon And greatest secrets, though they essay I have argued that A1inerva Britanna the original" (92). hidden lie, cleverly incorporates an interlocking struc Critics of my solution will of course Abroad at last, with swiftest wing ture of emblematic knowledge which com argue that it requires the "addition" of a they flie. pletes the alleged anagram, TIB NOM. "missing" letter-that itty-bitty "i." which DE VERE-which is only implied inthe title is omitted from the title page-to complete Ifwe had any doubt that Peacham has on page motto MENTE. VIDEBOR-when the the anagram. Hemy Peacham, they will say, his mind "weighty counsels and affairs of entire book is taken into consideration. The would never have been as clever or devious state," such as those Francis Bacon assures two complementaIY elements in this inter as the solution of discovering this "i" on us are symbolized in the Minervan tradition, locking schema-emblems#66 and # 1 80--- another page of the book implies. Such this emblem should remove those doubts. interlock with one another as well as with the critics, of course, state a beliefand not a fa ct; The image of the key, endowed with wings title page and contain references to such "de there is obviously no point in arguing with so that it can fly"abroad" to safety, where Vere" phrases as "Allah Vere" (Lord Vere) them. It must be conceded, on the other "hidden" it can await discovelY by explorers and "Vivere" (to live).19 hand, that the solution I propose possesses of a fu ture century, furthermore, reminds us In considering this solution, itshould be the quality of intrinsic coherence which is once more ofthe "key" to Minerva Britanna: emphasized that anagrams-like the sym the defining attribute ofall significant scien Vivere. This realization should affirm the bolism ofmottoes or images-are an elusive tific theorems. conclusion cunning readers may already and intrinsically subjective fo rm ofevidence. As for the second criterion proposed by have reached on their own accord: There is Friedman and Friedman, in their classic work the Friedmans, it seems to me that the solu much more remaining to be discovered on cryptology in the Shakespeare question, tion could not possibly be more satisfying, and written-about this enigmatic and bril classify anagrams as un-keyed transposi- at least to readers advanced enough to liant literary work. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer 2000 page 15
On the title page we were told, VIVITUR quired to abbreviate "NOMEN" as "NOM.". 8) Rawlinson 146; Harleian 6855, Art 13; INGENIO�by wit he lives. Who is this 4) It should be noted that objection has been Royal 12A LXVI. person who shall live?�And by whose wit registered to the fa ct that the fo rm "DE VERE" is 9) Folger V.b.45. shall he do so? I believe a preponderance of not Latin, while the rest of the construction is. This 10) Emblems illustrating this design pattern evidence continues to support the view that objection will strike students of linguistic history include #13 dedicated to Anne of Britain, #14 to this person is, in fact, Edward de Vere, the familiar with the rich macaronic traditions of Elisabeth Stuart, # 15 to Henry IV of France # 17 to 1 7th Earl of Oxford, and that the witto which early-modern Europe as bordering on the absurd. Prince Henry, #19 to Robert Cecil, #35 to Thomas Peacham appeals is, ultimately, yours 6) Harley papers, i f. 159. ChaloneI', #42 to Edmund Ashfield, #92 to Mabella and mine. Colarde, #125 to Thomas Ridgeway, #166 to Nicholas White, #175 to Anna Dudley, #177 ©Copyright 2000, Roger Stritmatter to Henry Peacham. Th ewriterwolild like to acknowledge the II) The one possible exception to this sp ecial assistance of two dedicated research rule, emblem # 130, appears to be intentionally ers, Richard Kennedy�known to some fo r connected in various ways to #66. This em stories such as Amy's Eyes and "The Rise blem, "Ad Jesum Christum opt: Max:" (to the and Fall of Ben Gizzard" as one of the best highest lord Jesus Christ), which depicts a American stOl}'tellers--and Christopher Paul sacrificial lamb being slaughtered, includes Hwper. an anagram in Greek of the name: IEO'OUG Dr. Reginald Foster of the Gregorian (J e sus) :.2:u 11 OIG ( thou art that sheep). Here Institute of Latin also offered his kind assis Peacham prints out the English translation of tance and commentary on previous drafts of the Greek anagram in Roman letters, just as he this essay. prints the translation fo r Allah vere as deus dabit in #66. Several elements of design are however worth commenting upon. First, the Notes: expression of religious devotion to Jesus seems intentionally juxtaposed to the diatribe against I) Minerva is the Latin name of the Islam fo und in #66. The legend of emblem originally Greek Pallas Athena, patron God #130 translates a Greek phrase into its English dess of Athens. Edward de Vere was regarded by equivalent, but that of #66 translates a Turkish more than one contemporary as possessing a phrase first into literal but apparently highly "Minervan" purpose. Verses ascribed to I. L. misleading English and then, for clarification, recall de Vere's participation in the 1588 into Latin. Comparison with emblem #130 victory over the Spanish annada with the lines: prompts the question of why Peacham does not just translate the Turkish directly into the His tusked boar 'gan fo am fo r inward ire, English phrase in #66: "that is, 'God will While Pallas filled his breast with warlike give'." This would certainly be the most eco fi re. nomical practice. Nor does Peacham find need to provide an explanatOlY id est or an i. for the 2) Liddell and Scott (1889, 1980 588) PLATE 25. FRONTISPIECE OF 'rIlE wr rs, OR SPORT reader of emblem #130. Finally, the presence UPON SPOR 'I', ,661 declare that the name is "commonly deriv. of the anagram in emblem #130 actually rein An improvised stage Q<; cd fo r Drnlls ;-\ (tcr the closingof the from Pallo [use Greek fo nt here], either as playhouses in t()42 fo rces the conviction of the possibility of an Brandisher of the spear: �but prob. it is an old anagram associated with emblem #66: although word pallas=vEo:vIO'. " It is needless to point out Figure 1 1. Restoration theatre engraving, with the emblem varies the pattern noted above, in that the actual derivation of the word is irrel "Changeling " entering through a curtain cover which all emblems with both Roman and Italic evant to the disposition of the questions raised ing the Discovery Space. Such Discovery Spaces, legends involve anagrams, it does not contra by this inquilY; what matters is that the fo rmer oft en covered by curtains allowing fo r swift en dict it. etymology was widely believed in ancient and trance or exit, are well attested in English theatre 12) Christopher Paul Harper, who is un Renaissance times. by the late 16th centlll)l (A dams, ji'om whom the dertaking an exhaustive but as-yet uncom 3) Peacham's title page emblem imitates abovefigure is excerpted, supplies an abundance of pleted inventory of the variations made by the curtains used to conceal the interior of evidence supporting this conclusion); it was prob Peacham on his received sources, tells me that "discovery spaces" on 17th century stages � ably !i'O/n behind such a curtain that Polonius changes like this one appear to be invariably which did not nse a curtain to cover a projecting eavesdropped in Hamlet 3.4 intentional on Peacham's part and to be re proscenium as their modern counterparts do. lated to the overall purpose and design of For an early representation of an analogous 7) June Schlueter (for a synopsis see Heller 1999) Minerva Britanna. curtain, see Figure li on this page. has recently contested this common-sense interpreta 13) The typographical variant j for i is very " " 4) Clarke took the word /lom. as a legitimate tion, asserting that the image more closely resembles common in medieval Latin since the letters are, in medieval/Renaissance abbreviation for what Ed a scene from the German play, A VelY Lamentable fact, identical in the Latin alphabet. ward de Vere was missing � his name or nomen, and Tragedy of Titus Andronicus and the Haughty Em 14) As Art Nuendorffe r has recently observed, she took tibi as a dative of respect or ethical dative; press. Unfortunately for adherents to the official view the phrase MENTE VIDEBOR, exploiting the these inferences were grammatically and histori of Shakespeare, this interpretation fa ils to disassociate semantic potentials of translation fr om Latin to cally sound. For nom. as an abbreviation of nomen the manuscript fr om Shakespeare, since the scene English, fo rms a pun which confirms the presence see Capelli (1961 239). Note, fu rthermore, that copied below in Peacham's hand is manifestly fr om of the unseen "i" needed to the complete the the fullstop included in the printed legend "MENTE. the Shakespeare play printed in the 1 623 fo lio as by the anagram: "by the mind [the] 'I' shall be seen." VIDEBOR" supplies the punctuation strictly re- bard. (Continued all page 17) page 16 SUl11mer2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Oxfordian News Michael Yo rk entertains at Ve nnont Renaissance Festival; Royal Shakespeare COlnpany 's artistic director "wonders" about Shakespeare
California 20th, was a great success as hun dreds hlrned out to enjoy the SatLlr The Shakespeare Authorship day "Day at the Faire" held in the Roundtable begins its 2000-2001 Pico Ski Area�feahlring such var season with a talk ("Shakespeare's ied events as fencing, falconry, the Science and Italian Art") by Scott requisite fo ol, and numerous lords Fanning on September 23rd at the and ladies dressed in period cos Beverly Hills Public Library. Their hunes. schedule fo r the rest of the year is: On Sunday night nearly 300 -Dr. Daniel L. Wright on turned out to enjoy British actor "Shakespeare's Treatment of the Michael York's one-man show Will Earls ofOxford" and Andrew W elih and I, in which he recounts his life on "Why Academia is Taking De time's experiences acting Shake Vere Seriously" (both talks on speare on stage and in film. The December2nd). performance was wonderful,fu ll of -Richard Roe on "Shakespeare anecdotes and insights, and York and Italy" (January 27th). British actor Michael York, on hand in Vel'mont fo r the 2nd did squeeze in a mention or two Annual Renaissance Festival, presents a signed copy of his -Jean Seehof on "Undressing about Oxford, and the Oxfordians in Shakespeare" (March 24th). book, A Shakespearean Actor Prepares, to Festival co-orga nizer BettySears as Society member Ron Destro looks on. the audience. The proceeds from -Stephanie Hughes on "Emilia York's appearance were contributed Bassano Lanier: New Light on the to The Friends of the Oxford Li Dark Lady" (June 9th). brary, managed by Betty Sears. Contact either Alisa Beaton Other Shakespeare events dur (3 1 0)452-72640rCarole Sue Lipman ing the weekend included several (541 )488-2475 fo rinfonnation. Oxfordian lectures held at the Illinois Killington Public Library, where Hank Whittemore and fonner Soci On July 20th, the Chicago Ox ety trustee Pidge Sexton both pre fo rd Society held its second meet sented lectures on the authorship ing at the Newberry Library in Chi question and Edward de Vere as cago. The keynote speaker was The Shakespeare. And fi nally, two Oxfordian editor Stephanie plays�MacBeth and Much Ado Hopkins Hughes, whose speech About Nothing, presented by stu "New Light on Shakespeare's Dark denttheatre companies fromschools Lady" was well received by an audi in Pennsylvania and New York� ence of27 people, which included rounded out the schedule. many who had not been at the inau For Oxfordians attending the gural meeting in April. Stephanie Hughes (right) poses with Chicago Oxford Society event there was ample opporhmity Following the presentation, fo unders Marion Buckley and William Farina. to meet and talk with York, who has which included a slide show, there been a Society member since 1996. was a lively and extended Q&A session in tendees was Ms. Constance Charles, a Among those on hand were Stephen Aucella, which Ms. Hughes was called on to defend long-time member of the Shakespeare Ox Bill Boyle, Charles Boyle, Roger Stritmatter her theory that the Dark Lady was the Jaco fo rd Society who�to the best ofour knowl and Isabel Holden from Massachusetts, beanpoetess Aemilia Basano Lanier, which edge�has seniority over all Oxfordians in Ron Destro from Connecticut, Lynne she ably did. Lanier had originally been put the Chicago area. Kositsky, author ofA Question of Will (who fo rth as the Dark Lady by none other than And, once again, several Stratfordians will be at the 24th Annual Conference) from the late Stratfordian scholar and Oxfordian in attendance afterwards expressed interest Canada, and�all the way from Virginia� nemesis, Alfred Leslie Rowse. in attending future COS events. Mary Louise Hammersmith. Lutenist Joel Span, who recently per fo rmed at the Lyric Opera in Handel'sAlcina, Vermont England entertained the group before the lecture, concluding with a rousing version of "My The Second Annual Renaissance Festi Twice referring to the "myth," Adrian Lord of Oxenfo rd's Mask." One of the at- val, held in Killington from August 1 8th to Noble, artistic director of the Royal Shake- Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer2000 page 17
speare Company in London, may be joining Stritmatter (col1til1uedfi'ompage 15) sis of Ci)ptographic Systems Us ed as Evidence that Mark Rylance, artistic director ofthe Globe 15) Notably, those who claim that the legend Some Author Other than Wi lliam Shakespeare Wrote the Plays Common�)' Attributed to Him. Theatre, in doubting that William Shake does not contain, or rather imply, an anagram, are (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1958). fo rced to suppress consciousness of the diacritic speare was really the man from Sh'atford-on Heller, Scott "A Fresh Look at a Cryptic mark, or to pretend that it represents a period, Avon. Drawing Puts 'Titus Andronicus' in a New Light," which it manifestly does not (see figure I; the mark Noble intimated his doubts in an article Ch ronicle of' Higher Education (June 4 1999) A19. for The New Yo rk Times on April 23rd, the is level with the topmost point on the capital letter Henkel, Von Arthur & Albrecht Schone R preceding it, a most peculiar position fo r a supposed birthday of the poet/dramatist. In Emblemata: Handbuch Zur Sinnbildkunst Des period). XVI. Und XVII Jahrhunderts. (Stuttgart: J.B. the firstparagraph he notes that the Strat 16) For another example of this abbreviation Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1953). fo rd man died on the same day of the month in Minerva see emblem #30. Liddell, G. H. An Intermediate Greek-English as his birthday "as if aware of how essential 17) I am indebted to Richard Kennedy for this Lexicon Founded Up on the Seventh Edition of Liddell and Scott 's Greek-English Lexicon. (Ox a myth he would be." insight (personal communication to the author, fo rd: At the Clarandon Press, 1980). He goes on to say that "the man and October 8, 1990). Magri, Noemi "The Latin Mottoes on the myth pale when compared to the legacy of 18) These letters are also substitutable in Title-Page of H. Peacham's Nfinerva Britanna," Peacham's anagram method: see #166 in which the his plays." Noble wonders about the mean Th e De Vere Society Newsletter 3:3 (May 1999), ing of the plays and says that his wonder name "Nicholas · White" spells the motto "In vos 5-6. only increases when he considers the biog hie valet." Ogburn, Charlton Th e Mys terious William raphy of "this Elizabethan jobbing actor." 19) Other solutions to the alleged anagram Shakespeare (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1984). Summing up, he uses the favorite phrase of have been proposed in ephemeral contexts such as Peacham, Henry Minerva Britanna Or a Gar den of Heroical Devises, jill'nished, and Adorned agnostics: "Whoever he was, there is no the on-line Usenet HLAS authorship discussion group. None, however, takes into consideration with Em blemes and Impresas of SundlY Natures, doubt in my mind that he wrote all the plays Newly devised, Moralized, and Published (Lon the unique problems posed by the "Allah vere" attributed to him and had a hand in a few don: Wa: Dight 1612). emblem and its possible connection to the diacritic Schoenbaum, Samuel William Shakespeare: A lllore." mark in the title page legend. Noble may have picked up his doubts Docllmentmy Life . (New York: Oxford University 20) The theOlY recently proposed in certain Press, 1975). about the Stratford man from the Internet, quarters that Henry Peacham is the man behind the Spedding, James Et al. The Work of Francis for the main point of his article seems to be: curtain on the title page of a book which promi Bacon, Baron Venilam, Viscount St. Albans, and "As a Shakespeare play raises our expecta nently bears his name as author and states the Lord High Chancellor of England. (Boston: Brown tions and empowers us through enhancing motto MENTE VIDEBOR should be regarded as & Taggard, 1860). our understanding of the world around us, one of the most implausibly laughable theories ever Tung, Mason "From Mirror to Emblem: A Shldy of Peacham's Use of Microkosmos in Minerva proposed by partisans of the orthodox view of so the [Internet] Web embodies the same Bl'itanna." Word and Image: A Journal of Verbal/ Shakespeare. experience for the individual within the con Visual Inquil)l. 5 (1989): 326-332. 21) For this emblem's antecedent, see text of a freely communicating global vil "From Personifications to Emblems: A Study Peacham's Harleian 3.5 (Young 1998 118). lage." of Peacham's Use of Ripa's Iconologia in Minerva His colleague Mark Rylance has not Britanna." Th e English Emblem and the Continen Bibliography tal Tradition. hedged his doubts. He has stated publicly Ed. By Peter M. Daly New York: AMS, 1988. 109-150. that he no longer believes the Stratford man Adams, John Cranford. Th e Globe Playhouse. "From Impresa to Emblem: Peacham's Use of was the author of the works of Shakespeare. (New York: Bames & Noble, 1961). Typotius's Symbola and other Impresa Collections IfNoble hasjoinedhim, then the two leading Capelli, Adriano Dizionario De Abbreviature in Nfillerva Britanna." Emblematica: An Interdis directors of Shakespeare in England are Latine Ed Italiane (1961). ciplinwy Jo urnal of Emblem Studies. 3 (1988) 79- agnostics on the authorship issue (and per Camden, William Remains Concerning Brit 100. "Fables in Emblems: A Study of Peacham's haps even latent Oxfordians?). ain. (London: John Russel Smith, 1870 reprint of the 1674 edition). Use of Aesop and Aesopics in Minerva Britanna." Another interesting news note comes Clarke, Eva Tumer Th e Man Wh o Was Shake Studies in Iconography. 12 (1988): 43-60. out of Stratford-on-Avon. Last March 26th, sp eare. (New York: Richard R. Smith, 1937). "From Heraldry to Emblem: A study of the Sunday Telegraph reported on tourist Daley, Peter Th e English Emblem Tradition: Peacham's Use of Heraldic Arms in Minerva statistics for the last 15 years in Stratford, (5) Hel1lY Peacham's Manuscript Emblem Books. Britanna" Word and Image: A Journal of Verbal/ Visual Inquil)'. 3 (1987): 86-94. and the numbers are, in a word, startling. (Index Emblematicus. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998). "A List of Flora and Fauna in Peacham's The Telegraph story stated that in 1985 "Trends and Problems in the Study of Em Min erva Britanna and Acliati's Emblemata To 606,624 tourists visited Stratford. By 1987 blematic Literature," Mosaic (5:4), Summer 1972: gether with Possible Models in Contemporary that number had dropped to 578,540. How 53-68. Illustrations." Em blematica: An In terdisciplilwl)' ever, the figure for 1999 was a paltry Dickson, Peter "Henry Peacham on Oxford Jo urnal of' Studies I (1986) 345-357. 1 30,000-a decline ofnearly 80%! and Shakespeare," Th e Shakespeare Oxford News "From Theory to Practice: A Study of the letter Theoretical Bases of Peacham's Emblematic Art." The story further reported that this 34:3 (Fall 1999), I, 8-13). Edwards, Richard The Paradyse of Daynty Studies in Iconography. 18 (1997) 187-2 19. 130,000 annual figure is about the same as Devises. (London: Hel1lY Disle, 1576). T;potius, Ja cobus Sy mbola Divina Et Humana the number oftourists who visit Lord Byron's Estienne, Henri Th e Art of' Making Devises: Pontijicum Imperatol'llm Regum. (Prague: 1601- ancestral home Newstead Abbey, which is Treating of Heirog�)'phicks, Sy mboles, Emblemes, 03, in three volumes). (Reprinted by Akademische located several hours drive from London in Aenigmas, Sentences, Parables, Reverses of' Aled Druck, Verlagsanstalt Graz - Austria 1972). Young, Alan Th e English Emblem Tradition a remote cornerof Nottingham shire. als, Armes, Blazons, Cil/liers, C) JJhers and Rebus. (London: Richard Royston 1648). 5: Hem)' Peacham 's Manuscrip t Emblem Books. And so, apparently-while England Friedman, William F. & Elizebeth S. Friedman (University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1998). slept-the paradigm had already shifted. Th e Shakespearean Ciphers Examined: An Analy- page 18 Summer 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Book Reviews:
Dissing Elizabeth: Negative ofthe historical record, Cavanagh does not rival in England ofFran cois, Duke of Anjou Representations of Gloriana. Julia speculate on what may actually have gone (later Duke of Alenyon), who intended to M. Walker (ed.). (Duke University Press, on, though she does conclude "that there court the Queen. In it the author expresses 1998, 300pp., paperback) was excessive infOlmality between the pair." his objections to a proposed marriage be Historian Susan Doran addresses the tween the two. The pamphlet caused a huge by Alex McNeil question, "Why Did Elizabeth Not Many?" sensation; Elizabeth ordered all copies de Doran discards the psychological theories, stroyed. The author's identity was discov What Oxfordian would not be interested as well as the arguments that marriage ered-he was a lawyer, John Stubbs. His in a book titled Dissing Elizabeth? And might have jeopardized her authority as a right hand was cut offbythe authorities. Bell by and large-this book lives up to its female monarch. In Doran's view, during draws two conclusions from the publication promise. There is much fo od for thought the 1560s Elizabeth "well knew that mar of Gaping Gulf-a "deep-seated distlUst of here. riage and childbirth provided the best route female lUle," and an early example of the Dissing Elizabeth is a collection of 11 for resolving the thorny issue of the suc "nascent power of print to sway public opin essays by contemporary academicians on cession." Doran suggests that the "image ion and the political process." various aspects of, as Walker puts it, "the ofthe Virgin Queen" did not begin to take Peter McCullough examines an area contrasting rhetoric of dissent, criticism, shape before 1578, when Elizabeth was 45. which he regards as largely ignored today and disrespect which permeated all aspects Doran believes that ifthe Queen's advisers the sermon. In "Out of Egypt," he concludes of Elizabeth's life, reign, and posthumous had ever agreed upon a suitable husband that Richard Fletcher' s sermon, given at court representation." Although· the topics and for her, Elizabeth would have been hard shortly after the execution of Mary Queen of events described in the book have been pressed to spurntheir nominee. Scots, was intended as "a defense of the discussed elsewhere, they have usually been Christopher Highley offers a short es execution, a stiff rebuke ofthe queen's own viewed as isolated incidents; Walker's pur say on "The Royal Image in Elizabethan fo olish pity, and a call for herto pursue similar pose in compiling this book is to show that Ireland," which will probably not be of policies against all other Catholics." collective opposition to the Queen was "the much interest to Oxfordians. He demon That brings us to the third section ofthe dark side of the Cult of Elizabeth," and was strates that, in general, the Irish were able book: "The Power of the Poets." All three continuous. to get away with more "dis sing" of Eliza essays here are thought-provoking. In "The The 11contributors are mainstream aca beth than were the English. PornographicBlaz on 1558-1603," Hannah demics; seven are in college English depart Historian Carole Levin writes on "Gen Betts examines the "blazon," or "erotic com ments. Predictably, you won't find anything der, Monarchy, and the Power of Seditious pendium of the female body," as applied to . touching directly on the Shakespeare au Words." Comparing the nature of sedi Elizabeth during her reign. Betts's central thorship question here. Oxford is not men tious words uttered against Henry VIII with tenet is that the development of the blazon tioned at all, and William Shakespeare is those uttered against Elizabeth, Levin finds largely reflectsthe upwardly mobile aspira mentioned only twice. that the anti-Elizabeth slanders "often re tions of the (male) poets. The events discussed span an 80-year flectedconcern overthe lack of a king" and She writes: "In her creation of the role of period from the late 1540s, when Elizabeth that the "upset over Elizabeth's refusal to unmarried, female monarch, Elizabeth I en was a teenager, to the early 1620s, when she deal with problems ofthe succession mani couraged the dependent relationship be had been dead for two decades. They are fested itself as criticism of Elizabeth as a tween prince and subject to be played out as grouped in four sections: "History and woman lUler." Levin recites a lengthy cata a romantic courtship .... [T]he expression of Policy" (four essays), "Pamphlets and Ser log of anti-Elizabethan sentiments, includ desire for this body became an accepted mons" (two), "The Power of the Poets" ing one by Jeremy Vanhill, who opined in metaphor for articulating a variety offorms of (three), and " TheImageoftheQueen" (two). 1585 that he "woulde to god shee were dead social ambition." She thus interprets the Space does not permit extensive discussion that I might shytt on her face." Levin also imagery of the blazon as reflecting, espe of all il essays; this review will concentrate cites contemporaneous assertions that cially by the 1590s, "a hostile perception of on the latter two sections of the book. Elizabeth had children of her own, includ Elizabethan government." Before proceeding to them, here is a brief ing one claim that she had four by Leicester. Betts also discusses Puttenham's The summary of the topics covered in the first Implicitly, Levin gives no credence to such Arte of English Poesie (1589) extensively, two sections. Sheila Cavanagh leads off claims. observing that "[i[ts central conceit involves with "The Bad Seed: Princess Elizabeth and In "Soueraigne Lord of lordly Lady of the conflation between royal territorial do the Seymour Incident," a discussion of the this land," Ilona Bell presents a detailed minion and the queen' s own body," citing its events of 1547 -48, when lUmors circulated look at the pamphlet titled The Discoverie "striking imagery." Betts next discusses of inappropriate goings-on between Eliza of a Gaping Gulfwhereinto England is "the most famous blazon of Elizabeth," the beth and Thomas Seymour, who was mar Like to be Swallowed by an other French catalog of Belphoebe in Spenser's The Faerie ried to Henry VIII's widow, Catherine Parr marriage. A thousand copies ofthis anony Queene (1590), with its description of (the teenage princess was living in Parr's mous work were printed in mid-1579 and Belphoebe's genitalia. She also notes Lodge's household at the time). Noting the paucity were distributed immediately upon the ar- Scillaes Metal1101phosis (1589), with its Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer 2000 page 19
"sexually explicit catalog." fu ll with wisdom. .. [who] taught princes how beth to marry and bear children, but it was In discussing Venus and Adonis, Betts their states to weld & their ambassadors not too late to offend her by suggesting that notes that "Venus is emphatically what to doe & say ... [but who 1 hath lost her she should have done so." Radigund, she nonvirginal," but concludes that the author maidenhead & daughters 3 to all the world opines, represents "sterility;" Villeponteaux was implying a "satirical shifting of the brought forthe." The other, written from the suggests that "the battle in canto 7 fore parameters for the language in which court point of view of her subjects, urges her to grounds the vexed issue of maternity that patronage was conducted." Betts also cites many: " ...but princes wife nor mother yet plagued Elizabeth's reign and her people's Barnabe Barnes's Parthenophil and thou wilt vouchsafe to be ! thoughe evelY imaginations." Parthenophe (1593), noting "the coital pre name of evelY wight is wished unto thee ... The two essays in the book's final sec occupation of the text" and its overt "hos .I But if thy constant virgins mynd such tion examine negative connotations in cer tility toward virginity," and a manuscript passing prayse fo rsake ! Yet at the least tain portraits of Elizabeth. In "Interpreting document, Nashe's Choise of Valentines regard the plaint thy pensive people make." Anti-Elizabethan Composite Portraiture," (1595), a work so explicit that it Rob Content notes that, as was sometimes known as early as 1563, Elizabeth, byway "Nashe's Dildo." Betts finds of a proclamation, expressed these latter works to be as much her displeasure at "errors and satirical as they are erotic or deformities" in some ofher un pornographic. Finally, Betts official portraiture. He exam notes that during Elizabeth's ines two examples ofcompos last years, with their visible in ite portraiture from Elizabeth's dications of"the queen's grow reign ("composite" portraiture
ing decrepitude," the authori or imagelY refers to the draw ties began to suppress satire of ing or description of mon all kinds, including "politically strous creatures). charged erotica" such as The first is Philip Sidney's Caltha Poetarul11 (1599), and IiteraJY description ofCupid as Marston's The MetamOlpho a "demonic composite" in his sis of Pygmalion 'slmage(l598). Old Arcadia, an unpublished In "Queen Elizabeth Com work written in 1580. There a piled," Marcy North examines portrait of this monstrous Cu the implications of anonymity pid is wornby the iconoclastic in her discussion of a little shepherd Dicus. known manuscript work, The second example is pic known as Henry Stanford's torial-a pen and ink drawing Anthology. It contains some This 1622 print, "Truth presents the Queen with a Lance, " is one of of a monstrous bird, appearing 338 poems and prose pieces, several images whose appearance in the early 1620s, Walker says, was in the manuscript of William and is believed to have been part of the propaganda war over the proposed marriage of Prince W odwall' s unpublished poem, compiled by Stanford during a Charles to the Spanish Princess Maria. " Queen Elizabeth Allegorized" 30-year period spanning the (usually dated to 1600). The end of Elizabeth's reign and the beginning After an extensive discussion of the drawing, combining plumes, annorial spikes, of James's. From Stanford's connections protections afforded by anonymity and by and cloth ruffs , depicts "a creature offash with the Paget and Carey families, North the private circulation ofwritings, and ofthe ion [and] ...a creature of formidably threat reasons that Stanford was able to compile role and motivations of the compiler, North ening weapons." "his anthology from the edge of an inner concludes that the "juxtaposition of anony The final essay, by the editor, Julia circle ofcourtiers and seemed to reach in and mous texts, whether Stanford intended it or Walker, is one of the most interesting. In out, having access to some close-kept texts not, renders ambiguous the anthology'S "Bones ofContent ion: Posthumous Images but relying just as often on a more public statements about Queen Elizabeth and al of Elizabeth and Stuart Politics," Walker transmission of materials." lows for the freer expression of a critical discusses two portraits of Elizabeth. Before According to North, Stanford was most perspective, though not without some sac examining them, however, Stuart observes interested in "Elizabeth's politics and in the rifice ofpolitical impact and individual politi that Elizabeth's popularity had waned by implications of her unmarried state." The cal perspective." the time of her death, and that several years Anthology contains works in praise of Eliza In "Spenser's Amazon Queen," Mary elapsed before she seems to have been beth as well as ones critical of her. Two V ilIeponteaux looks at the several represen remembered nostalgically by her subjects. poems stand out as highly charged, and tations of Elizabeth in The Faerie Queene, Stuart reminds us that James had her body would surely have gotten their anonymous with particular fo cus on Britomart and removed "from under the altar of the He111Y authors, and probably Stanford himself, in Radigund. In the character of Brito mart, she VII chapel in Westminster Abbey [to] ...the trouble if they had been published. One writes, Spenser drew attention "to Elizabeth's marginal space ofthe north side," next to her refers to a woman, unnamed but obviously refusalto play the role of wife and dynastic sister Mary-a place that Elizabeth would identifying Elizabeth, who "was thought so mother. In 1 590 itwas too late to urge Eliza- (Contillued 011 page 23) page 20 Summer 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Fr0111 the Editor: Published quarterly by the Shakespeare Oxford Society The Folger 's Authorship Policy P.O. Box 263 If our readers could have been looking since Charlton Ogburn's Mysteriolls Will Somerville, MA. 02 143 over our shoulders these past few months, iam Shake�peare fe atured more than a fe w ISSN 1525-6863 they would have been amazed at how many stories about the bad old days. And, accord different ways we considered reporting on ing to anecdotal evidence offered by some of Editor: William Boyle the Folger story in this issue. our friends, even Folger visits as recently as Editorial Board: From the moment member John Hamill the mid-1990s have proved problematic for Mark Anderson, Charles Boyle, Stephanie Hughes, Elisabeth Sears, firstwrote to us in August, and we talked some Oxfordian scholars. Roger Stritmatter, Richard Whalen with other Oxfordians about this matter, the But certainly that has now changed, and Dr. Daniel L. Wright story went fr om a paragraph under Oxford the Library is to be applauded fo r its forth ian News, to a half-page on page three, to right statement of taking no position on this Phone: (617) 628-34 11 Phone/Fax: (6 17) 628-4258 the lead story on page one, and then finally issue, even as it continues to affirm itsbelief email: [email protected] back to a full page story on page fo ur. that Shakespeare (i.e. Wi lliam of Stratford)
All contents copyright ©2000 Why? Well, the more we looked into the wrote Shakespeare. Shakespeare Oxford Society supposed "new" Folger policy of neutral Clearly, a cessation of the ad hominem
The newsletter welcomes articles, essays, cOllllllcntnry, ity on the authorship question, the more attacks on anti-Stratfordians that has marked book reviews, letters ano news items. Contributions unclear it became as to just when such a this issue for cenhlries is a major stepping should he reasonably concise and, when appropriate, validated by peer review. The views expressed by policy came into being, or whether it was stone toward achieving genuine coopera contributors do not necessarily reflect those of something that had just slowly evolved tion and muhlal understanding about the the Society as a literary and educational organization. among individual staff members over the Shakespeare phenomenon, and especially past decade or so. While there can be no toward arriving at an answer to one overrid Board of Trustees doubt what the policy had been several ing question�a question still unanswered Shakespeare Oxford Society decades ago (under Director Louis B. by anyone, Stratford ian, Oxfordian, or other: Wright inthe 1950s and 60s, fo r example), just exactly what did happen fo ur hundred Lifetime Honorary Trustees: the exact moment when the new "author years ago that turned one man into the eyes, ship neutral" Folger came into being was the ears, the heart and soul of his age, and of Dr. Gordon Cyr harder to track. Certainly not before 1984, ours?
1999-2000 The Ashboume Portrait Board of Trustees In addition to the story of the Folger's Quarterly published an article reaffirming cutTent "neutral position" on the author this conclusion, and the matter has rested President ship, the other interesting development there ever since, but with the Hammersley Aaron Tatum there this year is the re-appearance of the identification still unsatisfactOlY for many First Vice-President Ashbourne portrait, now on public display Oxfordians. Joe C. Peel after years of hanging in non-public por Butnow theFolger, in addition to making tions ofthe library. the portrait public again, has agreed to re Second Vice-President This venerable painting had already lease to researchers its own set of x-rays, Dr. Jack Shuttleworth been known since the 19th century as "pos taken some time in the 1940s fo llowing sibly" a portrait of Shakespeare when it was Barrell's article, but never made available to Third Vice-President Charles Boyle acquired by the library in the 1920s. It was any researchers since then. Even before the later identified by Charles Wisner Barrell news arrived this summer about the changes Recording SecretalY (in his 1940 Scientific American article) as atthe Folger, we had been working on a major Dr. Ren Draya an overpainting of a portrait ofOxford, and article on the Ashbourne, complete with its then in turn became the subject of a legal history and the pros and cons of the two Membership Secretary battle between the Folger and Barrell in the opposing views about its provenance and Susan Sybersma late 1940s over Folger Curator Giles just who the original sitter was beneath the Treasurer Dawson's remark in a letter that Barrell overpainting (all agree that there was an Joe C. Peel must have "doctored up" his findings. overpainting of someone, fo r some reason, In more recent years the portrait has with the resulting new image then touted as Robeli Barrett rarely been on public display. In 1979 the being "Shakespeare"). William Boyle Shakespeare Oxford Society played a key With the chance for us to view these x Katherine Chiljan role in publicizing the story that the portrait rays, we will therefore postpone this story Michael Forster Pisapia Gerit Quealy was an overpainting of an early 17th cen until next year, and provide as fullan analysis tury Mayor of London�Sir Hugh as possible of this intriguing chapter in the Hammersley. In 1993 the Shakespeare authorship story. Stay hmed. Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer2000 page 21
To the Editor: sage destroys, rather than substantiating, Letters: the Shakespeare party-line, were known To the Editor: Jonathan Dixon deserves congratula before Dixon's article, and anti-Stratford tions fo ra truly brilliant little exegesis (Shake ians have of course commented upon them. Stratfordians are fo nd ofleaping on any speare Oxford Newsletter, Spring 2000) of But Dixon's simple question, "what unproven proposition or minute error ad the fa mous "upstart crow" passage from about supposes?" placcs them in perspec vanced by Oxfordians, although they are Greene 's GroatslVorth of Wit. Dixon's es tive forthefirsttime. It also provides a telling willfullyblind to the egregious errors, laugh say did for me in a few sentences what pages witness to the conclusion, advanced else ably absurd conjectures and preposterous ofprevious commentary were never able to where in the Spring 2000 newsletter, that fictions advanced evelY day by members of do: I carefully returned to the passage in Shakespearean orthodoxy, fo r all its sound their own Stratfordian camp. question and discovered that Dixon's and fmy, really doesn't exist anymore. It therefore is with profound satisfac theory, namely that the upstart crow only tion that I read Mark Alexander's superb "supposes" he is able to bombast out blank Roger Stritmatter analysis of Shakespeare's legal acumen in verse (i.e. to write plays), supplies an under Northampton, Massachusetts the last issue of the newsletter standing of the entire passage that is 25 September 2000 breathtakingly clear and not coincidentally ("Shakespeare's Bad Law," Shakespeare To the Editor: Oxford Newsletter, Winter 2000). Mr. devastating to orthodox pretensions. Dixon's reading, fu rthermore, is sup Alexander's penetrating analysis of the ar Kudos to Charles Boyle and Mark gumentative bilge that has been pushed ported by an abundance of contextual clues not discussed in his own article. The entire Anderson fo r tackling the troubling subject down the public throat by those defenders of incest, and its importance in understand of Shakespeare orthodoxy regarding passage is pervaded by the imagery of de ceitwhichDixon discovers inhis philologi ing 1 6th century politics and Oxford's plays Shakespeare's supposed ignorance of the Winter cal examination ofthe word supposes. Con (S hakespeare Oxfo rd Newsletter, law exposes once again the shallow and 2000). grievously flawedcharacter of orthodoxy's sider briefly the implications ofthe fact that the Greene is warning fellow playwrights With respect to the possibility that claims for unschooled William ofStra tford Burghley impregnated his daughter, Anne about actors: "puppets ...that spake from as the author of the Shakespeare canon. Cecil, Charlton Ogburn made the mostinci our mouths ...anticks garnished in our sive comment that I've seen. After summa For the journeyis done and the summit colours." Greene's "shake-scene," in other words, is an actor, not a playwright-and he rizing Burghley's perceived necessity for attained, providing an Oxford heir in Oxford's ab is an actor with a "tiger's heart wrapped in And the barriers fall. sence, Ogburn writes, Though a battle to fight for the guerdon be a player's hide," "beautified in our feath ers," who only supposes that he is a play gained, ...explo iting his daughter's uncommon wright. The reward of it all. filial submissiveness, he overcame her com Moreover, the author repeatedly asso (from "Pros pice" by Robert Browning) punctions and resistance and brought her to ciates the actor "shake-scene" with the accept service by another male and one of Prof. Daniel Wright, Ph.D. imagelY and language of appropriation: he proved fertility. (Who the other was is be Depmtment ofHumanities is like the Crow in Aesop's fable who beau side the point but I imagine that ifthe choice Concordia University tified himselfwith the plumes ofother birds. was Burghley's it was govemed by two Portland, Oregon Such evidence that "shake-scene" does necessities. First, the absolute minimum 13 August 2000 refer to actor "Shakspere" and that the pas- number of persons must be in on the anange ments. Secondly, the offspring, since it could notresemble a Vere, must on no account look Subscriptions to the Shakespeare Oxfo rd News/eifel' are included in membership dues in the like anyone but a Cecil. I leave it to the reader Shakespeare Oxford Society, which are $35 a year, or $50 a year for a sustaining membership. Dues to take it from there). The Mysterious are $15 a year for students and teachers. Dues and requests for membership should be sent to: William Shakespeare, p. 575
Shakespeare Oxford Society Membership Office This is a controversial topic, and will be P.O. Box 504 much debated. Just as the proposition that AyeI', MA 01432 Southampton is the love child of Elizabeth Phone: (61 7)628-3411 and Oxford is referred to as the "Prince Phone/Fax: (617)628-4258 Tudor theOlY," it would be convenient to have a shorthand designation fo r the propo The purpose of the Shakespeare Oxford Society is to establish Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604) as the true author of the Shakespeare works, to encourage a high level of sition that Burghley impregnated his daugh scholarly research and publication, and to fo ster an enhanced appreciation and enjoyment of the ter. I propose thatitbe called the "Chinatown poems and plays. scenario," after the 1974 film in which the The Society was founded and incorporated in 1957 in the State of New York and was chartered character Noah Cross (played by under the membership corporation laws of that state as a non-profit, educational organization. Dues, grants and contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law: gray-bearded John Huston) is revealed to IRS No. 13-6105314; New York 07182 have fathered a daughter/granddaughter (Can tilllied allpage 22) page 22 Summer 2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Letters (C Oil till lIedji'oll1page 21) by his older daughter (played by Faye The Blue Boar Dunaway). When confronted with this fact Books and Publications Shakespeare O.\fo rd Society Newsletters. by the private detective played by Jack (1965-1995). 2 Volumes, 1270 pages, soft-cover, Nicholson, he says with no trace ofremorse, plastic spiral binding. Photocopy edition of the Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest LiteI' first thirty years of the Society's newsletters. item m)' My stelJ' of All Time. By Joseph Sobran. Item SP 23. $105.00 (Price includes P&H). You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never SP7. $25.00 Shakespeare: Who Was He ? Th e Oxford Chal have to face the fact that, at the right time and Th e Anglican Shakespeare: Elizabethan Or lenge to the Bard of' Avon. By Richard Whalen. thodoxy in the Great Histories. By Prof. Daniel L. the right place, they're capable of anything. item 123. $19.95 Wright. Item SP l!. $19.95 To Catch the Conscience of the King. Leslie A Hawk ji'om a Handsaw. A Student 's Guide Chuck Bemey Howard and the 17th Earl of Oxford. By Charles to the Authorship Debate. By Rollin De Vere. Item Boyle. Item SP I6. $5.00 Watertown, Massachusetts SP13. $12.00 Wh o Were Shakespeare? Th e ultimate who 22 July 2000 Hedingham Castle Guide Book. A brief his dun-it. By Ron Allen. item SP I5. $14.95 tory of the Castle and some of the more famous To the Editor: members of the Earls of Oxford. Item SP 24. $3.50 Video Letters and Poems of Edward, Earl of Oxford. Edited by Katherine Chiljan. A new edition that Firing Line interview with Ch arlton Oghul'll, Jr. Here in the Boston area two local brings together the poems and the letters with (J2/1 Jl84). William F. Buckley, host; Prof. Maurice updated notes about original sources, provenance, Shakespereans have just published a new Charney (Rutgers) represents the Stratfordian side. etc. Item SP22. $22.00 book (Power Plays: Shakespeare's Les 1 hour, VHS. Rarely seen interview with Ogburn Th e Man Who Was Shakespeare. By Charlton sons in Leadership and Management, by upon publication of TMWS in 1984. Item SP 27. Ogburn, Jr. (94-pp summary of Th e Mysterious Tina Packer and John Whitney). Packer $35.00 William Shakespeare) Item SP5. $5.95 heads the renowned Shakespeare and Co. in Th e Mys terious William Shakespeare: Th e My th Gift Items Lennox, Mass., while Whitney (a fOlmer and the Reality. Revised 2nd Edition. By Charlton president of Path mark Supelmarket) gives Ogburn, Jr. Item 12!. $37.50 Coffee Mug. Imported from Hedingham Castle. seminars each year to thousands of busi Oxford and Byron. By Stephanie Hopkins Blue on white, with a wrap-around sketch of the Hughes. Item SP20. $8.00 Castle and its environs and "Hedingham Castle" ness executives. Th e Oxfordian: Annual Jo ul'llal of the Shake printed around the bottom. Item SP 25. $12.00 In the promotions for this book we leam speare Oxford Society. Back issues from 1998 and Refrigerator magnet. Imported from Hedingham that "[the authors] convincingly and com 1999 available, $20.00 each. Item SP30. Castle. A 2 112 inches by 2 112 inches color 3- prehensively demonstrate that no one but Th e Relevance of Robert Greene to the Oxfor dimensional rendition of the Castle. item SP 26. the beloved Bard could ever penetrate the dian Th esis. By Stephanie Hopkins Hughes. Item $6.00 SP2 1. $10.00 T-Shirts. All cotton, beige, with Oxford shield (in secrets of leadership with such piercing "Shakespeare " Identified in Edward de Vere, color), quill pen, and "Shakespeare Oxford Soci brilliance and invaluable instmction." Seventeenth Earl of Oxford. By J. Thomas Looney. ety" imprinted. Sizes L, XL only (remainders from "How do you motivate people to give Paperback facsimile reprint of the 1920 edition. 1998 conference). Items SP29-L, SP29-XL. $10.00 their all for a cause? Ask Hemy V at Item SP4. $20.00 each Agincourt. Have you passed over someone who wanted to be promoted? Beware the Name: Item Plice lago syndrome. Facing a hostile audience? ______Take a cue from Mark Antony. How do you Address: ______firesomeone? Learnthe good and the bad from Henry IV." City: ______State: __ ZIP:___ _ Later, after reading their promotional material I happened to hear them on a radio Check enclosed: -- Credit Card: MC Visa talk show, where they expounded on the Subtotal: Card number: 10% member above quotes-at great length. ______discount: Well, no, there's no direct authorship Exp. date: story here, except my screaming at the radio _____ Subtotal: about the obvious point: how did the be Signature: P&H, books loved Bard come to these penetrating se ______($ 1 .00 each): crets of leadership, if not firsthand? Mail to: P&H (per order): $ 2.50 As a long-time Oxfordian I can't help but Shakespeare Oxford Society, Blue Boar, marvel-each time I encounter such PO Box 504, AyeI' MA 01432 Grand Total: books-that the underlying questions about how such timeless insights were acquired by the author are never given a thought. / The Oxfordian 'Shakespeare Oxford Society Newsletters Beverly Creasey Vol. 1 (1998), Vol. 2 (1999), Vol. 3 (2000) 1965-1995 (2 bound volumes, 1270 pages) Boston, Massachusetts All three issues available from Available from the Blue Boar I June 2000 the Blue Boar for $20.00 each for $105 (includes P&H) ,'------Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Summer2000 page 23
Book reviews (contil1l1edji-om page 19) didn't already know. Each essay is thor / ""\ hardly have envied. oughly fo otnoted, and a 1 6-page list of "Sec The Great Shakespeare Hoax The bulk of Stuart' s essay is devoted to ondary Works Cited" by the authors accom "A ll the whys ofthe great hoax " the two portraits thought to have been done panies the text. This specialized bibliogra by Randall Baron in 1622. Gheeraerts 's "Elizabeth with Time phy on Elizabeth and her era may lead inter (2 11 pgs .. $20.00) and Death" depicts an obviously old and ested Oxfordians to new areas ofinquilY and tired queen, her left hand "holding a ne research. Against This Rage glected book and the right holding her But at the same time it must be noted that "A new Oxfordian novel ... Shakespeare investigations in England ... lIIurder, drooping head." To Stuart it "is a deliberate there remains a "Gaping Gulf' betweenmain intrigue, new theories " revision" ofthepowerful 1 588 Armada por stream academicians and Oxfordians. This is by Robert D 'A rtagnan (R andall Baroll) trait, likely intended to fu rther the Stuart most strikingly evidenced, fo r example, in (5 63 pgs., $30.00) agenda by depicting Elizabeth "as unnatu the interpretations given to the reports that ral, alone, powerless and ingloriously dead." Elizabeth bore children. No mainstream aca Sharp. durable, trade paperbacks The second portrait discussed by Stuart demician seems to challenge the accepted is the more intriguing to Oxfordians. It is an beliefthat Elizabeth was childless; at most, Order either book /i'o/II: engraving by one Thomas Cecil, entitled they take the position that "there's no his Ralldal! Baro;1 of all things- "Truth Presents the Queen torical record of it, so we can't know." 2535 East Saratoga Street with a Lance"! To an Oxfordian, of course, Therefore, in discussing such reports, Gilbert AZ 85296 email: [email protected] additional questions immediately abound. they interpret them solely as reflecting anti cash, check, or money order Is there meant to be a connection between Protestant or anti-female points of view. In "Truth" and "Vere"? Is the object a "Lance" Oxfordian circles at least some are inclined to '� ======�/ ' or a "Spear"? Why was it made in 1622, a consider that these reports may have some /' On the Internet visit... year before the Folio came out, and right in basis in fa ct-that the Virgin Queen may the middle of the Spanish Marriage Crisis? have had children-with the most notable Sh akespeare OxfordSociety And who was Thomas Cecil-was he re example of such considerations being the Home Page lated to "the" Cecils? The answers to these Prince Tudor theory (i.e., that Elizabeth and www.shakespeare-oxford. com questions must await some fu rther research, Oxford were the parents of the 3rd Earl of most likely by Oxfordians. Stuart provides Southampton). The Ever Reader no comments or speculation of his own on In any event, Oxfordian readers of www.everreader. com this portrait being special in any way. Dissing Elizabeth can agree that as long as All these essays are well-researched, historians don't question who Shakespeare The Oxfordiall readable and quite informative; almost any really was, they'll never get the Elizabethan www.oxfordian.com reader will learn something that he or she or the Jacobean ages quite right.
Join the Shakespeare Oxford Society If this newsletter has found its way into your hands, and you're not already a member of our Society, why not consider joining us in this intriguing, exciting advenhlre in search of the true story behind the Shakespeare mystelY? While the Shakespeare Oxford Society is certainly committed to the proposition that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, is the true Shakespeare, there is much that remains to be learned about the whole secretive world of Elizabethan politics and about how the Shakespeare authorship ruse came into being, and even more importantly, what it means for us today in the 20th Century as we complete our fo urth century of living in a Western World that was created during the Elizabethan era. Memberships in the US and Canada are: Students, Regular ($ 1 5/$25 overseas); Students, Sustaining ($30/$40 overseas); Regular ($35/$45 overseas); Family or Sustaining ($50/$60 overseas). Regular members receive the quarterly Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter; Sustaining or Family members receive both the Newsletter and the annual journal, The Oxfordian. All members receive a 10% discount on books and other merchandise sold through The Blue Boar. Our Home Page on the World Wide Web is located at: http://www.shakespeare-oxford.colll We can accept payment by MasterCard, Visa or American Express in addition to checks. The Society is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Donations and memberships are tax-deductible (IRS no. 13-61053 14; New York no. 07 1 82). Clip or xerox this fo rm and mail to: The Shakespeare Oxford Society, Membership Office, P.O. Box 504, Ayer MA 01432. Phone: (617)628-34 11 Fax: (617)628-4258
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(For students: School______) page 24 Smnmer2000 Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter
Anderson (Continuedji-om page5) tions, it now appears, used Roman history Media Notes (c ontinuedfi'Oll1 page 3) too appropriate criticism given that the for allegorical moralizing about the righ interviewed Ogburn(Firin g Line, 1 984). So, Shake-speare First Folio will be the main teousness of their respective causes. asked Tatum, "What is your definitive printed text arguing the opposing point of In short: If the Folio delivers the position on the 17th Earl of Oxford?" view: punchline, think of Nero Caesar as the Buckley's response was: "For popular authors (with what good straight-man who sets up the gag. And mind to princedom I cannot say) have so since its pro-Spanish marriage moral proved I don't have a definitiveposition. I was busied themselves to lay open the private fu tile, the joke was ultimately on Bolton and very much influenced by Ogburn and very much influenced by Joe Sobran who also lives of princes in their vicious or scandal his royal benefactor. Unlike the life story of wrote a book on it. On the other hand, how ous qualities (which often times do not the 18th earl's father, this time it was the do you get around the eternalfact that Oxford concern the people in any point so much as monarch andnotthe allowed fo ol who ended died in, what '06 or '07, and King Leal', and I not to have them laid open) that the national up with a pie in the face. think, Romeo [and Ju liet] appeared ... two, three, or four years later, and Shakespeare and public history is almost thereby utterly died in 1616. Now, the Oxfordians have an lost and many weighty tmths have every References : elaborate explanation that he wrote these but where miscarried," Bolton writes. he stipulated they only be sort of eased out aftersort of a lull afterthe appearance of his Although it appears Nero Caesar never W. Boyle "Shakespeare's Son on Death [unintelligible]. However, the etymological saw print until after the marriage had fallen Row?" The Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter Sum case, the poetic case, is velY striking, by through, the book's epistle to James notes mer 1998, pp. 1, 4-7. which I mean that Oxford did write like that a manuscript had already been submit Alan T. Bradford "Stuart Absolutism and Shakespeare." the 'Utility' of Tacitus" ted to James in JanualY 1 623 (n.s.), halfway Hu ntington Libr{l/JI Quarterly 46:127-155 (1983). into the First Folio project. And only three There was no chance afforded for any Thomas Cogswell Th e Blessed Revolution: further dialogue with Buckley about his months later, James had registered it with his English Politics and the Coming of War, remarks, and the show moved on. own explicit blessings. (Why the book was 1621-1624 Cambridge University Press (1989). available only in manuscript for as many Malcolm Smuts "Court-Centered Politics For those who have noted Buckley's months as it was-apparently coming into and The Uses of Roman Historians: earlier involvement with the issue over the print only after its political currency had c.1590-1630." In Culture and Politics in Early years, the above remarks are interesting in Stuart England. Kevin Sharpe and Peter Lake, been superceded-is a question for future establishing where he stands today, 15years eds. Stanford University Press (1993). research.) after first getting involved. And where he Roger Stritmatter"Publish We This Peace ... " stands is, apparently, among those who still In the race to marry off the future King The Shakespeare Oxfo rd Newsletter Fall 1998, Charles I to Spain, both pro and con fac- pp. 16-17. need more evidence before they'll move.
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The not-tao-hidden key to Minerva Britanna: pages 1,9-15,1 7 Oypto-Catholic question looms over Stratford: pages 1,6-8 News fr om the Folger Shakespeare Library: page 4 Nero Caesar: The First Folio 's Straight Man: pages 5,24 Oxfordian News: pages 16-17 Book reviews: pages 18-19,23