Peter R. Moore “The Rival Poet of Shake-speare’s Sonnets” lifetime, such as Henslowe, Alleyn, Nashe, The Rival Poet of Spenser, Bacon, Peacham, or Jonson himself! Shakespeare’s Sonnets 7) Shakespeare himself is silent on any “liter- ary activities,” even in his Last Will and Testa- ment; 8) indeed, the only clear-cut identifica- by Peter R. Moore tion of the Stratford man with the authorship is made seven years after his death, in the First HAKE-SPEARES SONNETS appeared in Folio; 9) The First Folio testimony is inconsis- 1609, apparently published without the tent with all the other evidence before us, lead- Sauthor’s consent, and probably quickly ing anti-Stratfordians to suspect that docu- suppressed by the authorities as they were not ment’s trustworthiness; and 10), if a nobleman republished until 1640. There are 154 sonnets; had written these works (a possibility deduced the first 126 address a young aristocrat, com- from the internal evidence of the plays them- monly called the Fair Youth, with whom selves), he would have been unable––owing to Shakespeare was infatuated (though whether the social opprobrium afforded poets and play- the motivation was sexual is quite unclear––I wrights of the nobility––to publish them under join the majority who believe it was not). The his own name, and would have been obliged, next twenty-six describe Shakespeare’s rela- therefore, to either use a nom de plume or to tions with his unfaithful mistress, the Dark work out an agreement with someone to loan Lady. These sonnets were apparently written his name for this purpose. during rather than after the Fair Youth series, With this last hypothesis, all of the items and so Sonnet 126 may be taken as the closing enumerated are consistent, which is not, of poem. Sonnets 78 to 86 concern a Rival Poet course, to argue its certainty, but goes a long who competed with Shakespeare for the affec- way to establishing its probability––at least as tions of the Fair Youth. Sonnets 153 and 154 against the Stratfordian inference that Shak- are an unrelated finial. spere “somehow” overcame these objections, The principal questions about the Sonnets “because he was a genius!” are the identities of the Fair Youth, Dark Lady, and Rival Poet, the dates of their composition, • N • the problem of whether their 1609 order is cor- Works Cited rect, and what, if any, topical allusions are Fischer, David Hackett. Historians’ Fallacies: found in them. This article supports the con- Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. New sensus that the Fair Youth was Henry Wriothe- York: Harper Collins, 1970. sley, thirrd Earl of Southampton, a vain and Giroux, Robert. “Letter.” New York Times Book reckless young man who, following a treason Review. May 19, 1985. conviction and two years of imprisonment, Marder, Louis. Shakespeare Newsletter. Summer matured into a model husband, a courageous (1985): 22. champion of Parliamentary rights, and a hard- Ogburn, Charleton. The Mysterious William Shakespeare. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1984. working patron and director of the Virginia Schoenbaum, Samuel. Shakespeare’s Lives. Oxford: colony. He was born in 1573 and died on cam- Clarendon Press, 1970. paign in the Netherlands in 1624. Shake- Evans, Gwynne and Harry Levin. “Was Shakespeare speare’s only dedications (of Venus and Shakespeare?” Harvard Magazine. Feb (1975): 42. Adonis in 1593 and The Rape of Lucrece in

15 The Shakespeare Oxford Society’s 50th Anniversary Anthology Newsletter Fall 1989

1594) were written to Southampton. No sub- best friend and hero of the youthful 3rd Earl of stantial candidate has emerged for the role of Southampton. He was also a poet whose talent the Dark Lady. The most often proposed Rival was admired by his contemporaries. Poets are George Chapman and Christopher Essex exerted a major gravitational force Marlowe, but the arguments for them are thin; on his age, and he influenced William Shake- even weaker cases have been offered for virtu- speare, who praised Essex in Henry V. Con- ally every other contemporary professional temporaries also saw a resemblance, intended poet. The conventional wisdom is that the or not, between Essex and Bolingbroke in Sonnets were begun in the early of mid 1590s Richard II. It has plausibly been suggested and continue past the death of Queen Elizabeth that Love’s Labour’s Lost had something to do and the advent of King James in 1603 (which with Essex’s circle, that the description of events are referred to in Sonnet 107). This Cawdor’s execution in Macbeth evokes the series of articles will argue that the conven- death of Essex, and that “The Phoenix and the tional wisdom is correct. As has been indicat- Turtle” glorifies Essex’s love for Elizabeth. ed, I also feel that with the two subseries Above all, Essex appears in books about (Sonnets 1 to 126 and 127 to 154) the Sonnets Shakespeare as the hero of Southampton, are in the right order. Shakespeare’s sole dedicatee. There are over And now to the the Rival Poet. ten good reasons for proposing Essex as the Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, Rival of the Sonnets, and, in Ben Jonson’s was the brilliant but flawed star of the late words, “I therefore will begin.” Eliza-bethan firmament. He was the Queen’s First, Sonnets 78 to 86 describe a man most illustrious (though not her best) military who was Shakespeare’s rival for the affections and naval commander during the 1590s; he of Southampton during the 1590s. The man was her last great favorite, and he attempted to who is known to have had Southampton’s take over her government from the astute and affection during that period was the heroic and cautious dynasty of Sir William Cecil, Lord charismatic Earl of Essex. Southampton at- Burghley and his son Sir Robert. Desperation tempted to serve under Essex in the Cadiz ex- and mental instability led him into a botched pedition of 1596, but was forbidden by the coup that cost him his head in February 1601. Queen; he did serve under and was knighted by He was intelligent, handsome, athletic, impro- Essex on the Azores expedition of 1597. Sou- vident, charming, a generous patron of writers, thampton sought Essex’s counsel when in a commander of real talent, a confirmed wom- financial difficulties, agreed to marry his pen- anizer, a devout Protestant who leaned toward niless cousin (whom he had gotten with child) Puritanism, a ditherer on several critical occa- in 1598, and named his own daughter after his sions, and a dangerously unstable egotist who hero’s sister. During the failed Irish campaign finally lost touch with reality. He was also the of 1599, Essex made Southampton his General of the Horse and was furious when Queen Reprinted from the 1989 Fall Shakespeare Oxford Elizabeth vetoed his decision. Newsletter, as the first in a series of three articles. In December 1599, Essex was near death The second, “Dating Shakespeare’s Sonnets 78- with fever and wrote Southampton a moving 100,” was published in the Winter 1990 issue. The letter of counsel. This letter, published in third, “Every Word doth almost tell my Name,” was published in the Spring 1990 issue. Thomas Birch’s Memoirs of the Reign of 16 Peter R. Moore “The Rival Poet of Shake-speare’s Sonnets”

Queen Elizabeth, holds several points of inter- have regarded him as a rival, but this objection est. Like Shake-speare’s Sonnets 2 and 4, it ignores the fact that the rivalry lay in the eyes addresses Sou-thampton in terms of the of Southampton and not in the views of literary Parable of the Talents. It also contains the fol- critics. Any poetic praise from his hero was lowing passage, which confirms that on some bound to make Southampton ecstatic. This is a previous occasion Essex eulogized sufficient answer to the objection, but two less- Southampton: er points may be added. First, Shake-speare’s What I think of your natural gifts . . . to Sonnets contain criticism that may not have give glory to God, and to win honour to been welcome to Southampton, e.g. “thou dost yourself . . . I will not now tell you. It suf- common grow” (Sonnet 69, line 14). Next, ficeth, that when I was farthest of all Southampton was quite an active young man in times from dissembling, I spoke freely, the 1590s: jouster, athlete, gambler, patron, and had witnesses enough. (xx) womanizer, brawler, and above all, a would-be warrior who finally got his chance and distin- Southampton was Essex’s right-hand man guished himself on the Azores voyage. But during the 1601 uprising. When they failed, Shakespeare’s praise is all of passive qualities Essex did what he could to protect his friend. such as being fair and beauteous. His poetics Kissing hands and embracing at the start of the may endlessly fascinate, but his subject matter trial, they were tried and sentenced together. can be tedious. Praise of Southampton’s mar- Though both were adjudged to die, Southamp- tial prowess by the great Essex might have ton’s life was eventually spared, though minus been more agreeable.1 titles, estates, and liberty. Third, the Rival is said to be “learned” (78, Second, Essex was rated a gifted poet by 7); it is implied that he knew the art of rhetoric, his contemporaries and was admired as a writer a major academic subject in those days (82, by Ben Jonson (who called him “noble and 10); and he had a “polished form of well- high”) and as a critic by Gabriel Harvey. Es- refined pen” (85, 8). Essex received his MA sex’s friend and sometime secretary Sir Henry from Cambridge in his midteens, maintained a Wotten wrote that it was “his common way . . . lifelong interest in intellectual matters, and sur- to evaporate his thoughts in a Sonnet.” Essex rounded himself with educated men. wrote poems only for specific occasions. Fourth and fifth, the Rival was “of tall Rather than out of any dedication to poetry, he building and of goodly pride” (80, 12), and his penned his verses only for his own circle and pride is further alluded to in Sonnet 86. the Queen, so very little of his poetry survives. Several contemporaries recorded that Essex Thus the puzzling disappearance of the poems was notably tall. His pride was inordinate even of Shakespeare’s Rival is quite understandable by the standards of Elizabethan nobility––it if Essex wrote them. Rival Poems by a profes- consumed and finally destroyed him. sional like Chapman should have survived. Sixth, Shakespeare contrasts himself to his Essex’s verse is hardly in a class with mighty Rival with much nautical metaphor in Shakespeare’s, nor is it close, but it is techni- Sonnets 80 and 86. Shakespeare is a “saucy cally accomplished, sincere, and moving. It bark” (80, 7), while the Rival is “the proudest may be protested that Essex’s talent was so sail” (80, 6) whose “great verse” is called “the slender that Shakespeare could not possibly proud full sail” (86, 1). So we may suppose

17 The Shakespeare Oxford Society’s 50th Anniversary Anthology Newsletter Fall 1989

that the Rival was something of a sailor. Essex ing, including his personal secretary Henry distinguished himself on the Lisbon voyage of Cuffe, an occasional poet and former professor 1589, won further glory as a co-commander of of Greek, Anthony Bacon, who is known to the 1596 Cadiz expedition, and was sole com- have written some sonnets, and Lord Henry mander of the ill-managed Azores venture of Howard (later Earl of Northampton), a part- 1597. (Essex unjustly placed the blame on his time consultant of Essex’s. It is perfectly pos- Rear Admiral, Sir Walter Raleigh2). sible that Essex received aid from the profes- Seventh, Sonnet 86 says that the Rival has sional poets he patronized, including George an “affable familiar ghost / Which nightly gulls Chapman, in which case some of the other him with intelligence” (11.9-10). Seekers of Rival Poet theories would be part right. But the Rival Poet always take this passage as indi- there is one poet who is known to have ghost cating occult practices and try to show that written serious essays and also a masque for their candidates were up to such activities. The Essex: Anthony Bacon’s brother Francis. task is not difficult as almost everyone back Ninth, we can find support for the new the- then was more or less superstitious by modern ory of the Bacons as The Rival Poet’s ghost standards, but a far more mundane explanation writers by considering some word play in the is available. Essex maintained his own inter- passage “affable familiar ghost / Which night- national intelligence service as part of his rival- ly gulls him with intelligence.” Ghost and ry with the Cecils, who commanded the offi- gulls are linked by alliteration, but also by the cial intelligence agency. It was Essex’s aim to superstition (prevalent then and now) that gulls be better informed than the government and to are inhabited by the ghosts of drowned sailors. be the first to tell the Queen of foreign events. Gulls is thus a bridge between the two sets on Essex’s chief of intelligence was the erudite imagery, nautical and ghostly, used in Sonnet Anthony Bacon, who had friends all over Eu- 86. But these words also harbor an appropriate rope, and who lived In Essex’s mansion in the Latin pun (all the principals mentioned in this Strand from 1595 to 1600. article were fluent in Latin). As any crossword Thus without conjuring up necromancers puzzle fan knows, the Latin for familiar ghost and astrologers, we find the “affable familiar is Lar or Laris, usually encountered in its plur- ghost”: an intelligence director whose greatest al form Lares: the Latin for ghost or specter is asset was his legion of overseas friends (hence, larva. The Latin for gull is larus; the modern “affable”), and who lived as part of Essex’s scientific name for the gull family is Laridae. household (a familiar in the old-fashioned The Latin for bacon is variously laridum, lar- sense). Ghost is appropriate for a man who dum or larida. It may be added that making was active behind the scenes, but who suffered puns, anagrams, and acrostics on names was a from so many ailments (dying in 1601), that he popular sport in that age. became a virtual recluse after moving to Essex Tenth comes the following passage on the House and was forced to decline invitations Rival: “He lends thee virtue, and he stole that from the Queen to present himself at Court. word / From thy behavior” (79, 9-10). Essex’s Eighth, the Rival was a “spirit, by spirits mottoes were Virtutis Com Invidia (literally taught to write” (86, 5), and had friends “virtue with envy” or, more loosely “manliness “Giving him aid” (86, 8). Various people are draws envy”) and Basis Virtutum Constantia believed to have assisted Essex with his writ- (“loyalty [is] the basis of virtue or manliness”).

18 Peter R. Moore “The Rival Poet of Shake-speare’s Sonnets”

The remaining items of evidence concern during the summer of 1596. During the latter not only the identity of the Rival, but also the part of 1597, Essex should have been bronzed question of the dates of the Rival Poet sonnets. by his voyage to the Azores. However, the My hypothesis is that Sonnets 78 to 86 were standing portrait shows Essex with a ghastly written soon after Essex and Southampton pallor; his face has obviously been painted returned from the Azores in late October 1597. white, and his lips have probably been Eleventh: despite objections by William carmined as well. The head and shoulders por- Shakespeare, cosmetics were used by men as trait shows him with lips of a bright, artificial well as women in the Elizabethan Age. Jud- red, unquestionably carmined, and face that is ging by contemporary poetry, the fashionable not quite as pallid as in the other portrait, but complexion consisted of a face as white as that is far too pale for a man who had been lilies, a touch of roses in the cheeks, and lips making summer voyages to the latitude of like rubies (teeth were usually compared to southern Spain. pearls). Those not blessed by nature with such But Essex had another link to cosmetics at an appearance could paint their faces with that time. At the beginning of 1598 the Queen white lead and redden their lips and cheeks gave him all of the available stock of cochi- with rouge. Sonnets 82 (“And their gross neal, partly as an outright gift and partly by painting might be better used / Where cheeks selling it to him at a reduced price. She then need blood; in thee it is abus’d,” 11, 13-14) and banned any further imports of the stuff for two 83 (“I never saw that you did painting need,” 1, years; the total profit to Essex was reportedly 1) disparagingly associate the Rival with the the immense sum of 40,000 pounds. Cochi- use of cosmetics. neal is a bright red dye used then for textiles There are two portraits of Essex in the but also for painting the lips and cheeks. The National Portrait Gallery in London, both two portraits of Essex are of around 1597, and believed to have been painted around 1597. In the Elizabethan year 1597 was, by modern any event, they are later than August 1596, as reckoning, April 4, 1597 to April 3, 1598, so Essex is wearing the beard grown on the Cadiz the two portraits may show Essex wearing his voyage. One is full length portrait of Essex own product. In short, Shakespeare simultane- standing in the robes of a Knight of the Garter; ously complains about the Rival Poet and face it is reproduced in color in National Portrait paint, while Essex used cosmetics and had a Gallery in Colour, edited by Richard Ormand, monopoly on rouge. who dates the portrait circa 1597. The other is Twelfth is Shakespeare’s assertion in the a head and shoulders portrait of Essex in a nautical Sonnet 80 (3-4, 11) that his Rival white satin doublet (he wears the same garment “spends all his might /. . . speaking of your in the standing portrait), with a ruff over a [Southampton’s] fame.” Hyperbolic praise was transparent collar over a wide blue ribbon that common in Elizabethan poetry, but the first suspends his St. George medal; it is reproduced incident in Southampton’s career that would in color in The Horizon Book of the Eliza- reasonably justify lauding his fame was his bethan World, by Lacey Baldwin Smith and return from the Azores in late October 1597 bears the date 1597. During the early part of with a knighthood and the spoils from one of that year, Essex should have had something of the few prizes taken on that voyage. a tan left over from his several months a sea We also know that Southampton’s success

19 The Shakespeare Oxford Society’s 50th Anniversary Anthology Newsletter Winter 1994

was exaggerated. The prize that he looted and for several weeks, claiming to be ill. So abandoned was quite small, but one courtier Shake-speare would be quite justified in sent a friend the following information. “This implying that his Rival’s Muse is sick. morning my Lord Essex’s letters came to court Shake-speare’s Sonnets describe a rival of his safe landing in Plymouth. He had unfor- who was Southampton’s friend, a poet, learn- tunately missed the (Spanish) King’s own ed, tall, proud, probably a sailor, who had an ships with the Indian Treasure but fell on the affable familiar ghost who dealt in intelligence, merchant fleet. Four of them he hath taken, who received assistance in his writing from and sunk many more, my lord of Southampton friends whose name makes a plausible Latin fought with one of the king’s great Men of War, pun on “Bacon,” who was associated with the and sunk her.” So it appears that Essex was word virtue and with cosmetics, who boosted indeed puffing the fame of the Fair Youth. Southampton’s fame while being in his debt, Thirteenth, the theme of Sonnet 79 may be and who could be said to have a sick muse. stated as follows: “You [the Fair Youth] owe This is quite a detailed portrait, and Essex the Rival Poet no thanks for his praise, because matches it perfectly. he is simply repaying his debt to you.” A par- • N • tisan of Southampton’s who was resentful of Essex could very well make such an argument Endnotes in the wake of the Azores expedition, in which 1 The most recent and thorough analysis of the value of the loot was far less than the cost Essex’s surviving poems is in “The Poems of of the voyage. The five prizes taken kept the Edward DeVere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford and of expedition from being a total failure, and one Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex,” by Steven w. May, Studies in Philology, LXXVII, Early of them was seized by Southampton while his Winter 1980, No. 5. ship was detached from the fleet. So Shake- speare would feel justified in telling Sou- 2 If the arguments offered in this article in favor of Essex as the Rival are applied one by one to Sir thampton that Essex was simply giving him his Walter Raleigh, it will be seen that a surprisingly due by knighting and praising him. strong case can be made for him as the Rival Poet. Fourteenth, and rather tenuously, we may At any rate, the case for Raleigh is far superior to note Shakespeare’s remark in the same sonnet the arguments that have been offered in favor of that “my sick Muse doth give another place” Chapman, Marlowe, or any other professional poet. I mention this not to suggest Raleigh as a backup (79, 4). This line may be paraphrased in two candidate behind Essex, but to underscore the dere- ways, either “my sick Muse yields to another liction of orthodox Shakespeare scholars. The Muse,” or “my sick Muse yields to another courtier poets of the Elizabethan Age held high sick Muse.” It is impossible to be certain whe- prestige, while the leading candidates for the role of ther the pronoun another includes the adjec- Shakespeare’s Fair Youth (Southampton and the tive sick as well as the noun Muse, but such a Earl of Pembroke) were both courtiers. But it never occurred to the Shakespeare establishment that the reference would be highly appropriate. When Rival Poet might be a courtier. Essex returned from the Azores he found that the Queen blamed him for the expedition’s fail- ure and that two of his rivals at Court had stolen marches on him during his absence. He responded by shutting himself up in his house

20