THE SHAKESPEARE FELLOWSHIP JAN 29 1946 SEATTLE, WASH INC.TON The Shakespeare Fellowship was founded i,, London in 1922 under the presidency of Sir George Greenwo94~. VOL. VI OCTOBER, 194.5 NO. 4 Oxford-Shakespeare Case Loses Brilliant Advocate Bernard Mordaunt Ward (1893-1945), Author of The Seventeenth Earl oJ Oxjord Friends and admirers of Captain Bernard M. searching out the original records at great pains and Ward will be saddened to learn of his death, which expense. He took as his guiding principle in the occurred quite suddenly at his home, Lemsford Cot­ accomplishment of this task the following text of Itage, Lemsford, Hertfordshire, England, on October Edmund Lodge in Illustrations of Br,tish History 2, 1945. (17911: Captain Ward's untimely demise--due to over• "For genuine illustration of history, biography exertion in the war-removes the last of a distin• and manners, we must chiefly rely on ancient orig­ guished family of British soldier-scholars. He was inal papers. To them we must return for the correc• one of the founders of The Shakespeare Fellowship tion of past errors; for a supply of future materials; in 1922, and for several years prior to his return to and for proof of what hath already been delivered the British Army in 1940, served as Honorary Sec­ unto us." retary of The Ft-llowship. As author of The Seven• In order to keep the size of his book within reason• teentk Earl o/ Oxford, the authoritative biography able bounds, Captain Ward did not attempt to in­ o( Edward de Vere, based upon contemporary doc· troduce detailed Shakespearean arguments into The uments, and published by John Murray of London Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, being content to leave in 1928, Captain Ward will always occupy the place to others the rewarding task of making apparent the of honor next to the late J. Thomas Looney as one all-revealing parallels between the authentic rec­ of the two most important ad•,ocates in establishing ords of Edward de Vere's remarkable career as the case for the poet Earl as "Shakespeare." courtier, soldier, scholar, poet, dramatist, literary Born in 1893, Bernard M. Ward was the only patron and theatrical entrepreneur, and the other• child of Colonel Bernard Rowland Ward and his wise mystifying creative background of the Shakes• wife, Jeanie, daughter of John Milner Duffield of the pearean works. As one of the oldest and most con­ British Civil Government of Gibraltar, He was edu• servative publishing houses in London, the John cated at Winchester and the Royal Military Colle~e Murray editorial opinion was also against bringing at Sandhurst, leaving the latter to enter military out the Shakespeare parall'els as part of the biog• service during World War I. Later in life, Captain raphy. In this connection, ·it is only fair to admit Ward took special courses in Elizabethan literature that to have done so would have entailed the issu­ under Prof. Charles J. Sisson of the University of ance of at least a two-volume study. London, author of Thomas Lodge and O·her Eliza. Previous lo the publication of The Seventeenth bethans, a man generally recognized by the cogno• Earl of Oxford, Captain Ward iu 1926 edited a re• '<en!i as the abkst and most stimulating teacher in print of the I 57:l edition of A Hundreth Sundrie field. this Plowres, long held to be the "first edition" of the In gathering the materials for his Seventeellth poems of George Gascoigne. But Captain Ward was Earl of Oxford, Captain Ward spent some five years the first to argue that the book is really an anlhol- 50 QUARTERLY ogy, that it was edited by Lord Oxford during Gas• was the author of Uegimenlnl Rhymes, 189:~; Man• coigne's absence from England, and that some ual of Military Ballooning. 1896; Notes 011 Fortift­ sixteen of the poems were contributed hy Oxford calim,s, 1902; aud Tlie School of Military Engi­ himself. Ward's contention that A llumlre:h S1111- neering, 1908. He also edited J>as/,,y's Military drie Plowres is a collection of verses by various Policy in 1914. During Wodd War I, Colonel Ward hands instead of being entirely the work of Gas• was entrusted with the aerial defense of London. coigne met with the usual academic opposition. For his accomplifhments in this branch of the serv­ Prof. C. T. Prouty of the English Department of the ice, he was awarded high honors, among them .the University of Missouri in 1942 set about demolish­ order of Compa!lion of SL Michael and St. George. ing the Ward hypothesis. But in a review of Prouty 's From the beginning of their joint interest in Oxford­ edition of the Plowres, contributed to the NEWS· Shakespeare research and publication, Colonel LETTER of August, 194,3, Mrs. Eva Turner Clark Ward was an enthusiastic encourager of his son's effectually substantiated Ward's argument that the work in the field. His death in the early I 9:30's was a book contains poems by others than Gascoigne by loss to our movement that is sharply recalled by the showing that the poem entitled A Lovi11g Lady &c. recent passing of his heir and namesake. and signed Sprreta tamen vivunt is almost word for Bernard M. Ward returned lo active military word the same as Thomas Watson's two sonnets, service shortly after the outbreak of the war in Nos. 47 and 48, as published in his posthumous 1939. Although his health was none too good, he Tears of Fa11cie. Watson was one of Oxford's best spent four years with the Royal Observer Corps and known proteges and literary associates. was among those present in the "D Day" invasion of Unfortunately, Ward's edition of A Hundreth ' Normandy. Mustered out early in 1945, Captain Ward--undoubt•:dly holding at that time some Sundrie flowres i& now entirely out of print and can be found only in the larger public libraries or pri• higher rank, although his characteristic modesty vale collections. avoided mention of the fact in his correspondence -retired lo a rural retreat in Hertford,hire in the In addition to the books that bear his name, Cap• neighborhood of Hatfield House, ancient seal of the lain Ward also contributed various essays of Cecil family, and the repository of the largest col, outstanding interest to students of Elizabethan lit­ lection of Lord Oxford's private papfrs tho! has erature to The Review of English Stndies, The survived the centuries. Hating war with a!I the in­ Shakespeare Pictorial and other British and French tensity of a born scholar who had had his life dis­ publications. He was the first Editor of The Shakes• rupted twice in one generation, Ward had settled peare Fellowship News-Letter, issued to members of down for a well-earned rest and was beginning lo the British Fellowship, beginning January, 1937. revive in1eresl in his Shakespeare studies. But the Captain Ward's father, Colonel B. R. Ward of final phases of the war had taken too big a toll. In the Royal Engineers, was a gentleman of versatile his death the Oxford-Shakespeare cause has lost one talent, being not only a master of certain branches of its most worthy pioneers. of military science, but distinctly gifted as a poet Members of the American fellowship will be and literary scholar. He was the actual organizer of heartened lo kuow, however, that despite the The Shakespeare Fellowship in 1922, the man who onerous duties of military service, Captain Ward interested Sir George Greenwood lo head the group, followed the work that was done in this country lo and, together with the late John Galsworthy, took keep the Oxford-Shakespeare evidence before the the leading part in publicizing Looney's "Shakes• public during the war period. Earlier this year he peare" Identified. Colonel Ward's own contribution wrote to express appreciation and to reiterate a to the Oxford-Shakespeare case, The Mystery of Mr. previous statement that both he and his father had W. H. (l 923 I, deserves more attention than it has looked to this country lo carry the case for Oxford received of late years, as it contains original re­ as Shakespeare to a successful conclusion. His lasl search material in solving the enigma of the surrep­ correspondence with our Secretary was concerned titious acquisition of the manuscript of Slwke­ with the transfer of all unsold copies of The Seve•· speare's Sonnets in 1608 by the London printer, teenth Earl of Oxford from London to our New William Hall, to whom many authorities have long York office. These, will now be made available for believed the Sonnets were dedicated by their pi• sale to members. The volume is the ,best of mouu• ralical publisher, Thomas Thorpe. ments to its talented and gallant author. May he In the field of military literature, Colonel Ward rest in peace. OCTOBER, ]945 51 LORD OXFORD'S LETTERS ECHOED IN SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS AN EARLY LEITER EXAMINED By EVA TURNER CLARK * * Part One * * With the excpption of a prefatory letter which A single letter does not pro\'ide a real test of a appeared in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of ma,rs vocahulary but, from the facility with which Cardanus' Comforte, 1572, and one to the Com­ he uses words in it, one may glean some informa­ missioners of the third Frobisher voyage, 1578, tion which indicates that he is not bound by the the only letters of the Earl of Oxford that are known limited number of words found there and is the to have survived the ravages of time are a number possessor of a !urge "treasure-chest"* on which he written to his father-in-law, Lord Burghley, and, can call at his need or pleasure.