'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.