Exploring the evidence that the works of Shakespeare were written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Exploring the evidence that the works of Shakespeare were written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford
Oxford AccoladesOn the personal character of Edward de Vere
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was well liked, if not deeply loved, by a wide variety of people. Numerous dedications, descriptions and remembrances of him attest to that fact. Most of these testimonials offer a combination of respect due to a genius and affection due to a friend. Had Oxford not been well-rounded and approachable, he might have commanded respect, but he would not have engendered such affection.
Few of the published addresses to Oxford can be dismissed as mere groveling to a prospective patron. On the contrary, “Unlike the majority of dedications to patrons, the comments to Oxford are genuine and heartfelt” (Whittemore 102).
The following statements cover 1564 to 1637, a period of 73 years. Italics have been added to highlight pertinent passages.
Arthur Golding 1564
In May 1564, Oxford’s maternal uncle, Arthur Golding, who resided with him at Cecil House, wrote a stunning summary of Oxford’s talent and potential in the dedication of his book, Trogus Pompeius:
For (to omit other things, wherof this tyme and matter serveth not to speake) it is not unknowen to others, and I have had experience therof myself, howe earnest a desire your honor hath naturally graffed in you, to read, peruse, and communicate with others, as well the Histories of auncient tyme, and thynges done long ago, as also of the present estate of thinges in oure dayes, and that not without a certayne pregnancie of witte and rypenesse of understandyng.
The following year, Golding’s name appeared on one of Oxford’s compositions, the first part of Ovids Metamorphoses, which in 1564 may have already been underway. One wonders if the matter about which Golding was “not to speake” had to do with such projects, with which “I have had experience therof myself.” Golding continues,
[Your skills of “communication”] do not only now rejoyse the hartes of all such as beare faithfull affection to thonorable house of your auncestours, but also stirre up a greate hope and expectation of such wysedome, and experience in you in time to come, as is mete and besemyng for so noble a race. [O]f the valiant Epaminondas Prince of Thebe…it was a wonder to se[e] howe a man bredde, and broght up in Philosophy, should come by such knowledge in feates of Armes, or howe a man accustomed to the licentious libertie of the Campe, should reteyne suche exquisite knowledge in Philosophie, with unspotted innocencie of lyvynge and conversacion: whose fortune was suche (by the consente of all wryters) that the strength, the glory, and the renowne of his countrie, dyd bothe ryse with him and dye with him.
That is just what happened. Oxford scored triumphs both in tournaments of arms and in the application of letters. His literary creations uplifted hearts to a degree beyond even the lofty hopes and expectations expressed by Golding when Oxford was but thirteen years of age. Golding’s example of a prince whose virtue was so great that an entire society rose and fell with it proved apropos. The cultural glory of England rose with the Earl of Oxford’s activities and died with him.
George Coryate 1566
In 1566, George Coryate addressed Oxford in Latin during the graduation ceremony at Cambridge. The address demonstrates that Oxford had become known for an exceptional mind and a slew of accomplishments before reaching the age of sixteen. Alexander Waugh provided the following English translation:
Brilliant earl, highest adornment of an ancient clan and, above all, great pillar of our English realm, forgive the thin strain of these verses, which are unable to invoke the noblest sounding words. Your fame commends you as do your celebrated virtues and the mighty deeds of your exceptional person. You seek neither external wealth nor praise in poetry (yet he who loves poetry is he whose deeds are worthy of a poem); however, Noble Guest, arriving here with the Queen, you shall be praised with our verses, and since you attract so great a love of the Muses, one such chirps in your ears with these lines. As you accepted poems last night, so shall you receive ours on this day too. (Waugh 2016a 9)
That Oxford did not “seek…praise in poetry” fits George Puttenham’s declaration (quoted below) that Oxford wrote poems clandestinely. Coryate reveals that Oxford began this practice at a very young age.
Queen Elizabeth 1569
In 1569, when “the Earl of Oxford…was asking permission to join in a revolution against the King of France,” Queen Elizabeth replied,
I cannot wish that a man of such note among my people should find himself on the side of one who is fighting against his King. (Chamberlain 153)
Thomas Underdowne 1569
In 1569, Thomas Underdowne, in “The Epistle Dedicatory” to An Aetheopian Historie, had no qualms about lecturing the youthful earl to avoid becoming “altogether Bookishe.” So, we may take as wholly genuine his ensuing words:
For such vertues be in your Honour, so hautie [elevated] courage joined with great skill, suche sufficiency in learning, so good nature, and common sense, that in your Honour is, I thinke, expressed the right patterne of a Noble Gentelman, which in my head I have conceived.
That is an enviable, if not unique, list of positive character traits.
French Ambassador 1570
On February 15, 1570, the French ambassador to England, Bertrand Fenelon, reported home on the affairs of the English court. He wrote,
I have recently heard that the Earl of Oxford, a young lord well esteemed in this court, who has desired to see war, and importuned the Queen for permission to go...(Nelson 52)
George Delves 1571
On May 14 and June 24, 1571, George Delves wrote to the Earl of Rutland,
Lord Oxford has performed his challenge at tilt, tournay, and barriers, far above expectation of the world… There is no man of life and agility in every respect in the Court but the Earl of Oxford. (Nelson 70)
That was Oxford: a man of life.
Lord St. John 1571
At the time, Oxford was “the most eligible bachelor in England” (Nelson 71), the catch of the court, esteemed by countless young ladies. On July 28, 1571, following the announcement of his engagement to Anne Cecil, Oliver St. John, Baron of Bletso, wrote to the Earl of Rutland,
Th’Earl of Oxenforde hathe gotten hym a wyffe — or at the leste a wyffe hathe caught hym — that is M[ist]r[e]s Anne Cycille; wheareunto the Queen hathe gyven her consent, and the which hathe causyd great wypping [weeping], waling, and sorowful chere, of those [ladies] that hoped to have hade that golden daye. Thus you may see whylst that some triumphe with oliphe [olive] branchis, other folowe the chariot with [weeping-]wyllowe garlands. (Nelson 71)
In other words, news of his engagement was received with as much distress from “disappointed young ladies” (Nelson 71) as Elvis Presley’s and Paul McCartney’s respective hitchings did nearly four centuries later. Oxford’s charisma was on that level.
William Cecil, Lord Burghley 1571
On August 15, 1571, Lord Burghley wrote to the Earl of Rutland. He said of Oxford, “I do honour him so dearly from my heart as I do my own son” (Nelson 72).
Thomas Bedingfield 1572
Thomas Bedingfield, in his dedication to Oxford dated January 1, 1572 and printed in Cardanus Comforte the following year, credits Oxford with encouraging him in his endeavor and refers to him affectionately:
MY GOOD LORDE, I can geeve nothinge more agreable to your minde, and my fortune then the willinge performance of sutch service as it shall please you to commaunde me unto: And therefore rather to obeye then boast of my cunninge, and as a newe signe of myne olde devotion, I doe present the booke your lordeship so longe desired…because most faithfully I honour and love you. A nedelesse thinge I knowe it is to comforte you, whom nature and fortune hath not onely not injured, but rather upon whom they have bountifully bestowed their grace: notwithstandinge sith you delight to see others acquited of cares, your L[ordship] shall not do amisse to reade some part of Cardanus counsell: wherein consideringe the manyfolde miseries of others, you may the rather esteeme your own happy estate wyth encrease of those noble and rare vertues which I know and rejoyce to be in you.
That Oxford delighted in seeing others “acquited of cares” suggests a kind and empathetic nature.
Lucas de Heere 1572
Dutch Artist Lucas de Heere (1534-1584) composed poetic addresses in French to several prominent Englishmen. His fourteen-line poem to Oxford, which is preserved in a manuscript dated 1572, reads (translated) as follows:
Instead of over-providing me with those worldly goods that everyone adores, God has, at this time, granted me with as many fine friends as a man can have; for although the strife prevents me from enjoying these things in my own land (as all good is swallowed up over there), you, honoured Lord, have provided me with rich and powerful friends and your courteous generosity (how I appreciate the favour of so perfect a lord!) is worth much more to me than all that the Spanish rage has taken from me — a rage which is mistaken to suppose me much worse off by compelling me to flee and to remove myself to the desirable safe-haven of your good grace. (Waugh 2018 25)
De Heere not only confirms Oxford’s generosity to men of the arts but also confirms him as a fine friend.
Thomas Twyne 1573
Thomas Twyne’s second publication, a translation of Humphrey Llwyd’s Commentarioli Britannnicae (1572) titled The Breviary of Britayne (1573), is dedicated to Oxford. Twyne’s description expresses both admiration and personal liking while amplifying Arthur Golding’s lofty expectations:
Nobilitie [and] Vertue…The uniting of which two most noble graces, with al other furniture of Nature, & Fortune with in your person, right honorable, and my very good Lord, hath so bent my judgement, and brought me into such likyng, & admiration therof: that I have rested no smale time, not only not satisfied in being one of the admiratours: but also desierus to be one of the participatours of those your honours most laudable dispositions, wherunto I do now humbly submit my selfe. And in token of my dutiful meaning herein: am so hardi, as to present your honour with this simple traveyle…. Regarding your honour to be amongst the rest: a very fit patrone for it, in consideration, that beynge, as yet, but in your flower, and tender age, and generally hoped, and accompted of in time, to become the cheefest stay of this your commonwealth, and country… Here on, when your honour shalbe at leasure to looke, bestowynge suche regard as you are accustomed to doo on bookes of Geographie, Histories, and other good lernynge, wherin I am privy your honour taketh singular delight: … As your honour beynge already perfectly instructed: is not now to learne at my hande. But…accept this smale present, or rather therein my harty good wyl, which…shall never cease to pray to God, that he would alwayes direct you in the commendable race of vertue, and learnynge which you have begun, augment your honour with many degrees and in the end: reward you with immortall felicitie.
Dr. George Baker 1574
In 1574, Dr. George Baker, a family physician who was “attached to the household of the Earl of Oxford” (Alexander) and later surgeon to Queen Elizabeth, dedicated his Oleum Magistrale to Oxford. The Epistle Dedicatory to Edward de Vere is rendered with intimate knowledge and genuine feeling:
Yet doo I not wright these things to your honor by the way of exhortation: but rather as a testimony of that which is already apparent to all men, namely to your honors study carefully to joyne the commendation of vertue with your nobilitie of blood and lineage, whose desire it is (with noble Themistocles) so to advaunce the glory of your cuntrey (wherby your owne honor is the more excellent)…. this is one of your honours heroicall minde, that is in courage, activitie and Chivalry, you your self seek to expresse Achilles and other noble personages, so also your honor doth hartely imbrace all suche as excel in any worthy vertue, whether it be to commend & adorne her with her semly coulours as Homer, &c or to attend like handmaids on her as Hipocrates or Galen with their needful art of Chirgiry, neither dooth your honor suffer them to passe unrewarded…. I was fully purposed to consecrate and dedicate the same unto your name, not that…anything shold be added to that huge hepe of your heroycal vertues, but…because the renown of your honours name might obtaine grace for my boldnesse, and bring credit to my labours. [My] work is superfluous to your honour, who can bothe read and understand the same in the first tungs wherein the Authors have written:
The comparisons to the Greek general Themistocles and poet Homer indicate Oxford’s twin mastery of arms and letters. Baker notes Oxford’s magnanimity in embracing virtuous people. He knows that Oxford’s goal is “to advaunce the glory of your cuntrey,” at which he gloriously succeeded. He testifies that Oxford understood the authors’ “first tungs,” i.e. Spanish and Greek.
Queen Elizabeth 1575
On January 24, 1575 (1574 by the old calendar), Queen Elizabeth wrote two letters in Latin, one to European monarchs and the other to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, introducing them to Oxford. The letters were designed to give Oxford access to the courts of Europe during his travels of 1575-1576. Thanks to a translation by Alexander Waugh and two fellow Latin scholars, we can now reliably quote from them, respectively, in English. Here are the key passages:
An illustrious and highly accomplished young man, our beloved cousin, Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, Viscount Bulbeck, Lord of Scales and Badelsmore, Great Chamberlain of England, plans (with our good grace) to travel overseas… We [hope to] see your friendship and benevolence towards us reflected in your treatment of this most noble earl, our kinsman (whom we favour not in the ordinary way, but in all sincerity, on account of his outstanding intellect and virtue).
[This] illustrious young man, greatly adorned with many virtues — Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford…is endowed, by his very nature, with manners, virtue and learning. We therefore earnestly desire your Imperial Majesty to protect this young nobleman by your authority, to grant him your favour, to help him with recommendations, and to favour him with all kindness, so that he may understand that our greatest recommendation holds weight with your Imperial Majesty. Nothing else could give us greater joy.
Waugh analyzed the degree of sincerity in the Queen’s message and addressed a Stratfordian scholar’s dismissal of it:
Alan Nelson (p.119) mentions two letters by Queen Elizabeth concerning Oxford as he was setting out on his foreign travels. Needless to say he tries to dismiss them as standard letters prepared by a clerk for the Queen to sign off. He ignores one letter entirely (addressed to European monarchs) and in the few lines of translation of the other…he avoids the Latin word “ingenio” entirely, because he does not want Oxford to be credited with any natural talent or genius… The key to understanding why the first of these letters is not an “off-the-shelf” typical recommendation…is to be found in the bracketed sentence: “cui propter praestantes animi virtutis ex animo non vulgariter favemus” [meaning] “whom we favour, not in the ordinary way, but in all sincerity on account of his outstanding intellect and virtue.” “We” of course is the royal “we” meaning “I” Queen of England. The Queen writes that she is promoting or recommending Oxford “non vulgariter” — not in the normal, usual, standard or common way; i.e. she is not sending an off the peg letter drafted by a clerk but is writing “ex animo” which means “sincerely”, “from the heart” or “from the soul” in recommending Oxford as “praestans” (“outstanding” or “pre-eminent”) in mind and virtue. …I would be very surprised if back-room clerks were permitted to compose letters to foreign monarchs on behalf of Queen Elizabeth expressing what she was feeling “from her heart” or “from her soul”. I have been very scrupulous in my translation to avoid Oxfordian bias and to prevent too much Stratfordian counter-suggestion. “Ingenium” for instance can be translated as “innate or natural talent, ability, disposition or genius”. I put “by his very nature”, for while “by his innate genius” would be a perfectly legitimate translation, I felt it would be taking things a step too far. (Waugh 2016b)
Everything in Shakespeare’s canon justifies Elizabeth’s use of ingenio to mean just what it suggests in English. “Nothing else could give us greater joy,” moreover, has a deep ring of affection.
Valentine Dale 1575
In March 1575, Oxford was 25 years old and away from his guardians on a sojourn to Paris, a type of adventure that might tempt a young man to live loosely. Yet upon inquiry, on March 18, 1575 (new calendar), the English ambassador to France, Valentine Dale, wrote to Lord Burghley from Paris, saying of “my Lord Oxford,”
he was well liked of, and governed himself very honourably while he was here.
On March 23, he added,
I will assure your Lordship unfeignedly my Lord of Oxford used himself as orderly and moderately as might be desired, and with great commendation, neither is there any appearance of the likelihood of any other. (Nelson 125)
Council of Ten 1575
On June 27, 1575, Oxford appealed to the Council of Ten in Venice to allow him into “the chambers of arms…and the places of sanctuary,” sites inaccessible to the public in which great works of art resided. Each council member was allowed two votes (allowing for a net-neutral position). In 2015, two Oxfordians discovered the archival document in Venice that recorded the votes. They reported,
The Earl of Oxford is apparently so awesome that he received unanimous approval in the form of twenty votes from a council of ten! (Delahoyde 31)
Sir Thomas Smith 1576
On April 25, 1576, Sir Thomas Smith sent a letter to Lord Burghley about the falling out between Oxford and his wife. Smith wrote, “it grieveth me for the love I bear him, because he was brought up in my house” (Anderson 2005 114-5). Others knew of Smith’s fond feelings. Two years earlier, on August 3, 1574, Lord Burghley had written to Walsingham, “I dout not but Mr secretary Smith will remembre his old love towardes the Erle whan he was his scollar” (Nelson 115).
John Brooke 1577
In 1577, John Brooke in The Staffe of Christian Faith praises Oxford for his “patronage and defence of learning,” adding, “your honor hathe continually, even from your tender yeares, bestowed your time and travayle towardes the attayning of the same, as also the universitie of Cambridge hath acknowledged in graunting and giving unto you such commendation and prayse thereof, as verily by righte was due unto your excellent vertue and rare learning.”
Orazio Cuoco 1577
On August 27, 1577, the Venetian Inquisition interrogated Oxford’s page, Orazio Cuoco, to find out if the Earl of Oxford had tried to covert him to Anglicanism. He replied, “Sirs, no. He let each person live in his own way” (Nelson 157).
Dutchess Katherine Bertie 1577
On December 15, 1577, the Duchess Katherine Bertie wrote that she had told Mary Vere, “I wish to your brother as much good as to my own son.” (Nelson 177)
Geoffrey Gates 1579
In 1579, Geoffrey Gates, a member of Parliament, dedicated The Defence of Militarie profession to Oxford. Gates seems to have enjoyed making his dedicatee’s acquaintance:
And finally, the experience of the high noblenes & honour of you, my singular good Lord, doth enbolden me (in the love of a faithful hart, to your renouned vertues) most humbly to commend this litle work to your honorable protection…
Anthony Munday 1579
Also in 1579, Anthony Munday wrote a dedicatory verse to Oxford in his book, The Mirrour of Mutabilitie. In one portion, the first letters of each line spell EDWARD DE VERE. Munday’s text is formal and overblown, but his repeated references to martial expertise seem to be borne of Oxford’s successes at tilt:
Vertue hath aye adornd your valiant hart,
Exampled by your deeds of lasting fame:
Regarding such as take God Mars his parte
Eche where by proofe, in Honnor and in name.
…this valiant Brittayne brave…
For valliantnes beholde young Caesar heere,
Or Hanniball loe Hercules in place…
Anthony Munday 1580
In the dedication in Zelauto (1580) — whose title page equates Oxford and Euphues — Munday addresses him more genuinely:
So my simple selfe (Right Honourable) having sufficiently seene the rare vertues of your noble minde, the heroycall quallities of your prudent person…my little labours containe so much faithfull zeale to your welfare… your Honour to please, is the cheefe of my choise, your good will to gaine is my wished reward: which shalbe more welcome then Cressus aboundaunce, and more hartily accepted then any worldly wealth.
Within Munday’s novel, the hero Zelauto, whom scholars have identified as representing the author, praises the “magnaminitie of minde, and valure of courage” of an unnamed “certayne Noble Lorde in the English court,” who is “a second Caesar, to the view of all that know him.” Because Zelauto’s verse “in the prayse of” this lord uses language nearly identical to that in the dedication, scholars have recognized the fictional Lord as representing Munday’s patron and employer, Oxford. The tribute is rarely quoted, but it is notable for, along with its ver words, its heartfelt expression of the love and friendship that Oxford extended to him:
If ever Casar had such a gallant Fame,
or Hanniball, whose martiall lyfe we read:
Then in your Honour, I esteeme the same,
as perfect proofe in vertue and in deede.
My pen unable is your prayse to paynt:
With Vertues rare, that dooth your minde acquaint.
…with loove you dyd respect my case.
And such great loove dyd in your heart abound:
That straunge it is the friendship I have found.
…And all your deedes may proove so fortunate,
that never you doo taste one jot of stryfe.
Zelauto’s companion, Astraepho, remarks, “Surely, belyke Zelauto you have found great freendshippe at that noble Gentlemans handes.” Zelauto then adds a bit of personal information about the nobleman: “Truly he was so farre in love with the Countrey, they I could not get him from thence when I departed.”
John Hester 1580
In A Short Discours…uppon Chirurgerie (1580), John Hester says to his dedicatee Oxford, “I most humbly crave your Honorable patronage, that according to your name and poesie, your name and propertie may be to protect the truth.” Context indicates that the word poesie here means posy, referring to Oxford’s family motto, “Nothing truer than truth,” not his poetry.
Tournament Audience 1581
Oxford’s electrifying performance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sunne at a tournament held on January 22, 1581 made him “the object of such popular acclaim that his Sun-Tree and tent were torn to shreds by souvenir-hunters” (Nelson 265). Obviously, the charisma evident in 1571 remained fully intact a decade later.
Thomas Watson 1582
Thomas Watson’s dedication to Oxford in Hekatompathia (1582) credits Oxford’s endorsement of his work for its popularity and adds, “I fitlie compare your Honors person with Alexanders, for excellencie.” He wishes for “continuall increase of your Lordships honour, with abundance of true Friends, reconciliation of all Foes, and what good soever tendeth unto perfect happiness.” Watson’s Latin address to his own book contains lines translated as follows: “you have been shown to Vere, a man who deserves great things for his virtue and true nobility. …Then as a servant you will accompany Vere to the golden roofed house of Apollo” (Malim 144).
Johannes Sturm 1584
“In March 1584, the German scholar Sturmius — under whom de Vere had studied during his continental travels in 1575 — wrote to Elizabeth pleading for an English force to be sent to the Netherlands, led by ‘some faithful and zealous personage such as the earl of Oxford, the earl of Leicester, or Philip Sidney’” (Anderson 2005 201). Requesting Oxford’s leadership as a first choice shows that Sturm considered Oxford responsible and talented enough to handle the post.
John Soowthern 1584
In 1584, John Soowthern (likely a pseudonym of Morris Denys) highlighted Oxford’s abilities in literary and musical composition to such a degree as to render him the one and only “ornament of England”:
As Dever is both wise and vertuous…
Dever, that had given him in parte:
The Love, the Warre, Honour, and Arte.
And with them an eternall Fame.
…Amongst all our well renowned men,
Dever merits a sylver pen,
Eternally to write his honour…
I could take an entyre Iliade,
Of onelie his noble antiquitie.
…his infinitie of vertues…
I [Aye] for who marketh better than hee,
The seven turning flames of the Skie:
Or hath read more of the antique.
Hath greater knowledge in the tongues:
Or understands sooner the sownes,
Of the learner to love Musique.
Or else who hath a fayrer grace,
In the Centauriane arte of Thrace [horsemanship]
…in England we cannot see,
Any thing like Dever, but hee.
…And heere I sweare Dever tis thee,
That art ornament of England.
Vaunting me again to this thing:
Which is, that I shall never sing,
A man so much honoured as thee,
And both of the Muses and mee.
…In meane while take this lyttle thing:
But as small as it is: Devere,
Vaunt us that never man before,
Now in England, knewe Pindars string.
Pindar was a composer of choral works in classical Greece. Soowthern may be suggesting that Oxford possessed a knowledge of music, as Farmer (see below) later confirmed.
Sir Francis Walsingham 1586
Sir Francis Walsingham figured prominently in Oxford’s life. He escorted Oxford back from the continent in 1574 (Ogburn 533); after Oxford was jailed in 1581 for Anne Vavasor’s pregnancy (Ogburn 646), Walsingham appealed to the Queen for his liberty; and in 1586, at Burghley’s request, Walsingham successfully interceded with the Queen to bring about Oxford’s £1000 annual stipend. Walsingham was the Queen’s Secretary of State, the state’s chief spymaster and no fool; he would never have entrusted a ne’er-do-well with his and the state’s support.
Queen Elizabeth 1586
In 1586, Queen Elizabeth granted Oxford a £1000 annual annuity. She directed the payments to go to “Our right trusty and well beloved Cousin the Earl of Oxford.” This language is part of the official record. We may draw from it no conclusions about Oxford’s character because this precise address (from “Our” through “Cousin”) was standard in such documents when referring to one whose rank was Earl.
William Webbe 1586
In 1586, William Webbe issued A Discourse of English Poetrie. In it, he asserts, “I may not omitte the deserved commendations of many honourable and noble Lordes, and Gentlemen, in Her Majesties Courte, which in the rare devises of Poetry, have beene and yet are most excellent skylfull, among whom, the right honourable Earle of Oxford may challenge to him selfe the tytle of most excellent among the rest.” Webbe thus attests to Oxford’s superiority over all other courtiers in composing poetry.
Virginia Padoana 1587
On September 21, 1587, Sir Stephen Powle, the son-in-law of a “trusted servant of John de Vere” (Green) wrote from Venice to John Chamberlain more than a decade after Oxford’s visit to that city. He mentioned that Oxford’s next-door neighbor was “Virginia Padoana, that honoreth all our nation [England] for my Earl of Oxford’s sake.” Though Padoana was a courtesan, no untoward relationship is implied. She simply testified that she honored all of England because of her unforgettable impression of one man: the Earl of Oxford.
Andrew Trollop 1587
On October 5, 1587, Andrew Trollopp sent a letter to Lord Burghley from Dublin inquiring of a previous letter written to Oxford about Irish affairs. He took a detour to characterize Oxford based on his eleven years’ close experience:
From the 10th to the 21st year of Her Majesty [i.e. 1568 to 1579], I was deputy to Thomas Gent, esquire, then steward of the manors and lands of the Right Hon. the Earl of Oxford, and during all that time being privy not only of his public dealings, but also of his private doings and secret intents, found and knew him, indued with special piety, perfect integrity, great care to discharge all trust reposed in him, and no less desire to good in the commonwealth.” (Hamilton 424)
As Clark stressed, these are “lines from a deputy business agent no longer employed and voluntarily written, without hope or thought of recompense…” (Clark 1937 49). They are from someone who was privy to Oxford’s most intimate thoughts, plans and actions, and he found them, both private and public, to be of “perfect integrity.” That one testimony wipes out all the innuendo, inference and speculation that Oxford’s detractors have offered.
Anthony Munday 1588
In 1588, Anthony Munday dedicated a fifth book to Oxford, Palmerin d’Olivia. Munday had left Oxford’s employ by that time, so he was another person under no pressure to testify. He describes himself as “beeing once so happy as to serve a Maister so noble” and cites Oxford’s “precious vertues, which makes him generally beloved.” Munday tells us that his deep affection for Oxford was widely shared.
George Puttenham 1589
In 1589, George Puttenham in The Arte of English Poesie says that Oxford was #1 among courtiers who published poems “without their owne names” on them, the word owne suggesting that the poems were issued under pseudonyms or allonyms:
I know very many notable Gentlemen in the Court that have written commendably and suppressed it agayne, or els suffred it to be publisht without their owne names to it…of which number is first that noble gentleman Edward Earle of Oxford.
Puttenham’s list of the best poets in the realm reads as follows:
first that noble Gentleman Edward, Earl of Oxford. Thomas [Sackville] Lord of Bukhurst, when he was young, Henry Lord Paget, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Rawleigh, Master Edward Dyar, Maister Fulke Grevell, Gascon, Britton, Turbervile and a great many other learned Gentlemen….
Some critics have charged that Puttenham is merely being polite, given that “The names are listed in order of social rank: an earl outranks a lesser lord, who outranks a knight, who outranks a gentleman, who outranks a mere poet” (Ross). But Puttenham’s qualifier, “when he was young,” with respect to another lord reveals that his aim is critical accuracy. In discussing playwrights, Puttenham lists Oxford as best for comedy but not for tragedy, showing again that his aim was to give his opinion, not to be deferential to Oxford:
That for Tragedie, the Lord of Buckhurst, and Maister Edward Ferrys for such doings as I have sene of theirs do deserve the highest price [prize]: Th’Earl of Oxford and Maister Edwardes of Her Majesties Chapell for comedy and Enterlude.
So, Puttenham ranks “first” not only Oxford’s poetic abilities but also his talent in penning theatrical comedies. Where are all these excellent poems and plays? Oxfordians alone have located them.
Edmund Spenser 1590
In 1590, Edmund Spenser, Elizabethan England’s second-greatest poet (at a time when some considered him the best), issued The Faerie Queene, whose preface contains poetic salutations to seventeen prominent members of English nobility. His third dedicatory sonnet (coming immediately after sonnets to the Lord high Chancellor and the Lord high Treasurer of England) lauds “the Earle of Oxenford” thus:
the love, which thou doest beare
To th’ Heliconian ymps and they to thee;
They unto thee, and thou to them, most deare;
Deare as thou art unto thy selfe.
Helicon is the legendary abode of the Muses, who, Spenser says, prized Oxford, who prized them back, more dearly than anyone else. Spenser also praises
th’antique glory of thine ancestry…
And eke thine owne long living memory,
Succeeding them in true nobility.
In other words, Oxford is a nobler human being than any member of his ancestral line of 500 years! If Spenser was just blowing smoke, he surely would have stopped with the mention of Oxford’s ancestry. But his laud is compatible with others’ personal assessments.
Henry Lok 1590
Henry Lok was an employee and friend of Oxford’s from about 1570 until 1590. Oxford refers to Lok twice in extant letters. In a letter to Burghley dated November 6, 1590, Lok speaks of Oxford’s “sweet liberalitie” and adds,
The rather for that it is not unknown to yowr ho[no]r howe from my first enterans into the world (now almost twenty years sins) I have bent my self wholy to folowe the servis of the ho[nora]bl[e] Earl of Oxford. whos favor shew[n] sumtims so gratiusly vppon me that my yong years weare easely drawn therby to accownpt it, a[s] impossible that the bewty therof shold be eclipsed….” (National Archives)
That is a powerful and genuine statement of deep appreciation.
Thomas Churchyard 1591
In 1591, Thomas Churchyard wrote a letter to his landlady, Juliana Penn, who was in search of back rent that Oxford had promised to pay on Churchyard’s behalf. The letter is preserved among the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum. Churchyard surely wrote to persuade two readers in case his landlady showed the note to Oxford. Still, his expressions of respect and duty were hardly required under the circumstances:
I have lovingly and truly dealt with you for the Earl of Oxford, a nobleman of such worth as I will employ all I have to honour his worthiness. So touching what bargain I made, and order taken from his Lordship’s own mouth for taking some rooms in your house. I stand to that bargain, knowing my good Lord so noble — and of such great consideration — that he will perform what I promised. I absolutely here, for the love and honour I owe to my Lord, bind myself and all I have in the world unto you, for the satisfying of you for the first quarter’s rent of the rooms my Lord did take. (modern English) (Barrell 1944)
Henry Chettle 1592
In 1592, Henry Chettle, in the preface to Kind-Harts Dreame, describes a playwright whom he had just met in person:
myselfe have seene his demeanor no lesse civil than he exclent in the qualitie he professes: besides, divers of worship have reported his uprightnes of dealing which argues his honesty, and his facetious [polished] grace in writing that approoves [displays] his art.
Many scholars have concluded that Chettle is addressing Shakespeare. One of them sensed that Chettle “may have been instantly disarmed by Shakespeare’s good-humour and his open, winning manners” (Quennell 64). He is right, except that the Earl Oxford would have been the person who won him over. Chettle seems pleasantly surprised with how much he liked the congenial earl once he met him. He even testifies that many other worthy people (“divers of worship”) had testified to his subject’s “uprightness in dealing,” a description that could not apply to Will Shakspser of Stratford but fits what we have been learning about the Earl of Oxford.
King Henri IV of France 1595
In 1595, “the French ambassador delivered a note addressed to Oxford from the French King Henri IV, written on 25 September (O.S.)” (Nelson 349). The King expressed his gratitude for “the satisfaction I feel for the good offices you have performed on my behalf in her [Queen Elizabeth’s] presence, which I beg you to continue and believe that I will always consider it a great pleasure to reciprocate in whatever might bring about your personal satisfaction….” Similar letters went only to men of the highest rank and influence, namely “to Burghley and the Lord Admiral, and [the Earl of] Essex…” (Nelson 349). Obviously, Oxford still had the ear of his Queen and the respect of the King of France, privileges of a man of substance.
Francis Meres 1598
Francis Meres, in his lengthy book, Palladis Tamia (1598), discusses playwrights. He begins his list of “the best for comedy amongst us” with the name, “Edward Earle of Oxenforde.” Yet as J. Thomas Looney pointed out, “Edward de Vere is the only dramatist in the long list compiled by Francis Meres (1598) of whose work no trace has been found” (Looney 1935 176). Jackson confirmed this observation: “We have at least some dramatic material from all twenty-nine authors, except…the courtier De Vere” (Jackson). This datum is inexplicable in the orthodox context, especially considering that Oxford was cited over a period of years as the best of the bunch. Again, Oxfordians have identified his plays.
John Farmer 1599
In the dedication of his 1591 book, One Playnsong, John Farmer cites Oxford’s “great affection to this noble science” of music. In his 1599 book, The First Set of English Madrigals, Farmer calls Oxford’s musicianship more accomplished than that of most professionals. The following excerpts are from the dedication and the preface “To the Reader,” respectively. Farmer’s choice of words in the second excerpt — which secondary sources have typically omitted — makes it clear that Farmer is talking not only about Oxford appreciating, subsidizing and playing music but also about his composing it:
Most Honorable Lord, it commeth not within the compasse of my power to expresse all the duty I owe, nor to pay the least part: so farre have your Honorable favours outstripped all means to manifest my humble affection that there is nothinge left but praying and wondering…. I have presumed to tender these Madrigales onlie as remembrances of my service and witnesses of your Lordships liberall hand, by which I have so long lived, and from your Honorable minde that so much have loved all liberall Sciences: in this I shall be most encouraged, if your Lordship vouchsafe the protection of my first fruites, for that both of your greatnes you best can, and for your judgement in Musicke best may: for without flattrie be it spoken, those that know your Lordship know this, that using this science as a recreation, your Lordship have overgone most of them that make it a profession. Right Honorable Lord, I hope it shall not be distastfull to number you heere among the favourers of Musicke, and the practisers, no more then Kings and Emperours that have beene desirous to be in the roll of Astronomers, that being but a starre faire, the other an Angels Quire.
I have thought good…to expose myself to the world, cloathing my infant in humility…as I take it, an honor for me to ascribe the little I deserve rather to the master that taught mee, then mine owne diligence that formed and fashioned my Muses.
Farmer is reporting first-hand that Oxford was a “master” who “fashioned my Muses,” meaning that he inspired or taught him composition. Because there is no publication under Oxford’s name in which he applies the science of music, Farmer’s revelation, along with his humility in comparison to Oxford’s talents, implies that Oxford was one of the realm’s most important and prolific musical composers. If so, he must have hidden his authorship of those works, just as he hid his playwriting.
Dr. George Baker 1599
In 1599, Dr. George Baker re-issued The new Jewell of Health — which he had dedicated to Lady Anne, Countess of Oxford, in 1576 — under a new title: The practise of the new and old phisicke. His new dedication is addressed “To the Right honorable Edwarde de Vere” and speaks warmly of him thus:
But I rejoice much more that it [this worke] is finished in the time of you my Honorable and good Lord, to whose learned vewe and favourable protection I offer this Booke, as a due testimonie of my serviceable heart, and…my loyaltie [and] in respect of my love….
Robert Bertie 1599
On March 3, 1599, Robert Bertie wrote a letter in French to his uncle Ned (Oxford). The translation speaks of the kindly treatment he had “always” received:
I desire greatly to reaffirm the great esteem I have for you, having always been well treated by you. …I do want to assure you of the eternal service I vow to you and your entire family, humbly imploring you, Sir, kindly to understand that I am ready to do your bidding with such devotion that I will all of my life be your humble servant and nephew. (Altrocchi)
John Lane 1599
Also in 1599 appeared a book titled The First Booke of the Preservation of King Henry the viii, published anonymously but probably written by Elizabeth Trentham’s cousin, John Lane. Lane writes, “Vere, Devereux, Talbot, three nobel principal howses,/ Ar to be greatly renoun’d, for their nobilitie peerelesse.” He includes this address: “And God graunt to that Earle of Oxford, mirror of highnes,/ Happines in this world.” This comment does not necessarily indicate a personal relationship with Oxford because Lane praises other high-level courtiers as well. He had recently become related by marriage to Oxford, and he admits to Elizabeth Trentham, “I am not knowne to thee Madame,” suggesting that he did not know his cousin, either. Regardless, he could have chosen not to offer such praise and a gentle wish for Oxford were he a social pariah, as detractors would have it.
John Clapham 1603
In 1603, John Clapham, who had been Burghley’s clerk, finished a short manuscript titled Certain observations concerning the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth. He records that Lord Burghley’s eldest daughter married “the Earl of Oxford, a man more noble than fortunate.” Although Clapham’s statement is brief, it does not say, for instance, “more dissolute than noble,” nor does it use the term noble in a cold way as if to refer only to birth status. The phrase, “more noble,” refers to Oxford’s high character. We can be sure of this conclusion, because in the same book, Clapham describes with breathtaking honesty both the positive and negative personal traits of the four men he says were the Queen’s favorites over the years: the Earl of Leicester, Christopher Hatton, Sir Walter Ralegh and the Earl of Essex. His assessment of Ralegh’s purported atheism is especially fearless. Had Clapham thought Oxford possessed negative traits, he would have said so. Clapham adds that Oxford’s daughters “married into honorable families beseeming their birth and education.”
King James 1603
King James loved and honored Oxford. Oxford participated in King James’ coronation dinner of July 1603. That summer, James renewed Oxford’s £1000 annual annuity and restored his long-sought hereditary stewardship and keepership of game for Havering and Waltham.
King James 1604
In January 1604, James summoned Oxford to his first parliament. In March 1604, Oxford’s wife marched “second among Queen Anne’s retinue…” (Nelson 424) in the royal couple’s parade through London. In that year’s Christmas revels, James hosted the production of eight Shakespeare plays, in honor, it seems, of Oxford’s passing.
Barnabe Rich 1604
In 1604, Barnabe Rich asked King James to show “gratious consideration” to one who was “wel deserving.” His description can refer to only one person:
England is made happy in him, whose name is alreadie consecrated to immortalitie, whose Magnificence equalled with Vertue, is able with Caesar, with one hand to holde the Speare in the rest, and with the other to hold the pen: whose Imperiall seate is no lesse renowned by Mars, then beautified by the Muses.
Rich goes on to say that he would like to tell us more about the man to whom he refers, but he must remain discreet.
King James 1604
In the summer of 1604, Lord Edmund Sheffield, Oxford’s first cousin once removed, petitioned King James for an annual pension greater than £1000. James wrote to Robert Cecil to explain why the amount was too large: “never greater gift of that nature was given in England. Great Oxford when his state was whole ruined got no more of the late Queen” (Historical Manuscripts Commission). Even in death, the highest authority of the land called him “Great Oxford.” Oxford must have been great for some reason — or many reasons.
Nathaniel Baxter 1606
In 1606, one N.B. — identified as Nathaniel Baxter — prefaced Sir Philip Sidney’s Ourania with verses to Susan Vere. He refers to Oxford as a “Valiant…Prince” and presents this portrait of him:
The first was Vera daughter to an Earle,
Whilom a Paragon of mickle might:
And worthily then termed Albions Pearle,
For bountie in expence, and force in fight
(Mee list to give so great a prince his right)
In all the Tryumphs held in Albion soyle
He never yet receiv’d disgrace or foyle.
Only some think he spent too much in vain,
That was his fault. But give his honor due;
Learned he was, just, affable, and plain,
No traitor but ever gracious and true.
’Gainst prince’s peace, a plot he never drew.
But as they be deceived that too much trust
So trusted he some men that prov’d unjust.
…His learning made him honourable then,
As trees their goodnesse by their fruites doe showe,
So we doe Princes by their vertues knowe.
In short, N.B. says that Oxford was a spendthrift and too trusting of knaves, but those were his only faults. He was valiant, learned, just, affable, gracious, plain dealing and true. Echoing John Soowthern’s assertion in 1584 that Oxford was — above everyone else — the “ornament of England,” N.B. confirms 22 years later that other people had called Oxford — above everyone else — “Albions Pearle.” Possibly cryptically, he was also a prince due “his right.” Most important, Oxford was one whose learning bore good fruit. The fruit of learning is literary works: books, poems and plays. Where have they been all these years?
King James 1607
In 1607, King James knighted Oxford’s 26-year-old illegitimate son, who was thereafter titled Sir Edward Vere. The new king found not only Oxford and his Countess worthy of his grace but also his bastard son.
George Chapman 1608
A character in George Chapman’s Revenge of Bussy d’Ambois (registered in 1612 and published in 1613 but whose composition is generally dated to 1608) describes the Earl of Oxford at 25 years of age in 1576 as displaying what E.T. Clark called “the highest moral integrity and purity of purpose” (Clark 1974 702).The lines spoken by Clermont are so moving as to make them worth reading in full:
I over-tooke, comming from Italie,
In Germanie a great and famous Earle
Of England, the most goodly fashion’d man
I ever saw; from head to foote in forme
Rare and most absolute; hee had a face
Like one of the most ancient honour’d Romanes
From whence his noblest familie was deriv’d;
He was beside of spirit passing great,
Valiant, and learn’d, and liberall as the sunne,
Spoke and writ sweetly, or of learned subjects,
Or of the discipline of publike weales;
And t’was the Earle of Oxford: and being offer’d
At that time, by Duke Cassimere, the view
Of his right royall armie then in field,
Refus’d it, and no foote was mov’d to stirre
Out of his owne free fore-determin’d course.
I, wondring at it, askt for it his reason,
It being an offer so much for his honour.
Hee, all acknowledging, said t’was not fit
To take those honours that one cannot [re]quit[e].
And yet he cast it onely in the way,
To stay and serve the world. Nor did it fit
His owne true estimate how much it waigh’d;
For hee despis’d it, and esteem’d it freer
To keepe his owne way straight, and swore that hee
Had rather make away his whole estate
In things that crost the vulgar then he would
Be frozen up stiffe (like a Sir John Smith,
His countrey-man) in common Nobles fashions;
Affecting, as’t [as if] the end of noblesse were,
[To undertake] Those servile observations.
As Detobel (Detobel 104) explained, Sir John Smith — like many of his peers — behaved as if attention to military matters was the only true mark of an aristocrat. Oxford was at the vanguard of the view that knowledge of letters was at least equally laudatory and was disinterested in being sidetracked with empty honors for show. The event to which Chapman alludes was not an isolated incidence of pique but an example of a steadfast point of view regarding Oxford’s chosen role in social life. It shows up in other reports. Two years later, in 1578, Queen Elizabeth requested that Oxford show off his dancing for French ambassadors. His response is recorded among the state papers in a letter penned by Spanish diplomat Bernardino de Mendoza to Gabriel de Zayas that year on August 14:
The next day the Queen sent twice to tell the earl of Oxford, who is a very gallant lad, to dance before the ambassadors, whereupon he replied that he hoped her Majesty would not order him to do so as he did not want to entertain Frenchmen. When the Lord Steward took him the message the second time, he replied that he would not give pleasure to Frenchmen, nor listen to such a message, and with that he left the room. (Anderson online)
When Elizabeth tried to assuage Oxford’s desire for a lofty post by suggesting he serve a minor potentate, he revealed yet again his steadfast, elevated self-image. Mendoza reported the event:
He is a lad who has a great following in the country, and has requested permission to go and serve his Highness, which the Queen refused, and asked him why he did not go and serve the Archduke Mathias; to which he replied that he would not serve another sovereign than his own, unless it were a very great one, such as the king of Spain. (Anderson online)
Chapman’s story, then, is compatible with Oxford’s personality, self-image and values.
Some scholars have considered Chapman’s report fanciful because he was only sixteen years old when Oxford was traveling. Although Chapman would not have been on the scene, the incident he describes almost surely occurred in real life. “Duke Casimir, the Earl of Oxford, and Sir John Smith were all in France in 1576 when Oxford was on his way home from Italy” (Whalen 122). Hess (Hess) theorized that Chapman got his description from Nathaniel Baxter, who traveled to meet Oxford on the continent in 1575. Baxter mentioned Oxford’s trip in his poem to Susan Vere prefacing his book, Sir Philip Sidney’s Ourania, which was published in 1606, shortly before Chapman composed his play. Perhaps Chapman conferred with him on his travels with the Earl and incorporated some of his recollections in Clermont’s speech.
Cyril Tourneur 1609
In 1609, Cyril Tourneur composed A Funerall Poem. Upon the Death of the Most Worthie And True Souldier; Sir Francis Vere, Knight, for whom he had served as a military secretary in the Netherlands. His elegy declares that Francis “ascends to the inherent honour of the horoyque hope of nobilitie, the Earle of Oxford…” adding that “Immortal Vere…shall never dye.” Tourneur could not have been referring to Henry de Vere, the 18th Earl of Oxford, because the lad was only sixteen years old at the time and had no heroics to his name. The 17th earl’s death was only five years past, and he would have been the Earl of Oxford most on readers’ minds. Why was Vere immortal? Why would he “never dye”? Men live on through their literary works.
George Chapman 1611
In 1609, George Chapman issued a translation titled Homer Prince of Poets: Translated according to the Greeke, in Twelve Bookes of his Iliads. At the end of the 1611 edition, Chapman added sonnets praising sixteen highly ranked people, including Oxford’s daughter Susan Vere, whom he addresses as “THE GREAT AND VER-/ tuous, the Countesse of Montgomerie.” The poem concludes with one of Oxford’s self-identifying words: “Meane-time, take Homer for my wants supply:/ To whom adjoyn’d, your Name shall never die.” In some printings, the poem is tagged with a note on a specially inserted page that reads,
By the long-since admirer of your matchless Father’s virtues; and now of your excellent Ladyship’s. Geo. Chapman
Chapman’s decision to add this note is unique in the collection. “None of the other sonnets, with their various prescripts and postscripts, makes any mention of the parents of the subject” (Moore 231). Only Oxford is so selected, because, says Chapman, his virtues made him “matchless.”
Elizabeth Trentham 1612
In 1612, Elizabeth Trentham, Oxford’s second wife, refers to him in her will as “my said dear and noble Lord and husband.” This loving line hardly suggests that Oxford was a lout or sexual adventurer as his detractors would have it. Contrast this feeling with the miserable marital sentiment expressed in the will of William Shaksper, who was a lout.
Percival Golding 1618
Circa 1618, Percival Golding, Arthur Golding’s son and therefore Oxford’s half-cousin, produced an undated manuscript titled The Armes, Honours, Matches and Issues of the Ancient and Illustrious family of Veer. He wrote of Edward de Vere,
I will only speak what all men’s voices confirm: he was a man in mind and body absolutely accomplished with honorable endowments.” (Ogburn & Ogburn)
Some scholars, unable to imagine anyone liking and respecting the Earl of Oxford, have charged that Percival’s motive was little more than an “attempt to curry favor with the new head of the Vere family” (Golding 146). It is amazing — and disgusting, frankly — that people have been motivated time after time, by no rational impulses, to invent reasons to pollute perfectly plain expressions of affection toward Oxford with such offhand dismissals. If their charge were true, and if Oxford had been a despicable person, Percival never would have risked being hooted down for declaring that his assessment of Oxford’s mind as honorable is one that “all men’s voices confirm.” The only responsible conclusion is that Percival told the truth.
Anthony Munday 1619
In 1619, Anthony Munday dedicated Primaleon of Greece to Oxford’s son, Henry de Vere. Writing fifteen years after Oxford’s death, Munday lets his emotions show:
For, you being the true heire to your honourable Fathers matchlesse vertues, and succeeding him in place of degree, and eminency, who should inherit the Fathers Trophies, Monuments and ancient memories, but his truely Noble, hopefull, and vertuous Sonne? In whom, old Lord Edward is still living, and cannot die, so long as you breathe.
Munday must have admired Chapman’s line to Susan of “your matchless Father’s virtues” from a decade earlier.
George Buc <1622
George Buc’s papers were mostly destroyed by fire, but bits remain. Barrell arranged to have as much text as possible deciphered from one of Buc’s nearly ruined papers, in which he writes extensively — at least three pages — about Oxford. The date is unknown but is probably shortly after Oxford’s death and pre-dates 1622, when Buc died. Only a few phrases remain legible, but they reveal Buc’s warm feelings for his then-deceased friend:
…great & stately…the opulent & friendly patro[n]…for certainly the erl was a…magnificent & a very…learned & religious…& so worthy in every way, as I have heard some grave & [d]iscret & honorable persons who knew the erl from his y[outh] & could very well judge…in a word he was…in deed as in name — Vere nobilis…& truly noble, & a most noble Vere. I spea(k)…what I know, for he vouchsafed me his familiar ac[quaintance]. (Barrell 1948)
Henry Peacham 1622
Eighteen years after Oxford died, when flattery had no purpose, Henry Peacham in The Compleat Gentleman (1622) still listed Oxford first among the poets of the Golden Age:
In the time of our Queen Elizabeth, which was truly a Golden Age…above others who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice…were Edward, Earl of Oxford, the Lord Buckhurst, Henry Lord Paget, our phoenix the noble Sir Philip Sidney, M. Edward Dyer, M. Edmund Spenser, M. Samuel Daniel, with sundry others.
The man he cites first “above others” must have written extraordinary poetry to maintain this top ranking.
Gervase Markham 1624
Gervase Markham’s book, Honour in His Perfection (1624), lists the house of Vere first among the four noble lines that he prepares to acclaim. He asks,
What is the most memorablest and most glorious Sun which ever gave light or shine to Nobility? Our Veres…never let their feet slip from the path of nobility, never knew a true eclipse from glory, never found declination from virtue, never forsook their country being wounded, or their lawful King distressed, never were attainted, never blemished….
All those nevers mean that Oxford fully upheld the tradition of the “most glorious” house in England in all the ways Markam cites. The body of his essay paints the soldier as a noble soul who among other virtues serves to “pull Truth from darkenesse; and his Thoughts which (being ever busie in Heaven) must keepe the Earth in forme and true order.” He speaks of the line of
Veres, as good, as excellent as Caesar, but by many degrees much more fortunate; for though Caesar were never so Noble by his Birth, never so happy in his Conquests, never so much beloved for particular Vertues. …in every page, in every action, Vere cannot be omitted.
Although Markham’s focus is to celebrate the Fighting Veres, the word page suggests he had their literary cousin in mind as well.
When speaking of John de Vere, the 15th Earl of Oxford, Markham praises his children and grandchildren: “Lastly, he was blest in his posteritie, for he left an Issue behind him, which were then as hopefull, and proved after as fortunate, and of this Issue Time hath yet never found an end; neither do I thinke it ever shall while Vertue ruleth.”
Markham finally speaks directly of Edward de Vere, offering this remarkable passage:
this Nobleman breakes off his Gyves [fetters], and both in Italie, France, and other Nations, did more Honour to this Kingdome then all that have travelled since he tooke his journey to heaven. It were infinite to speake of his infinite expence, the infinite number of his attendants, or the infinite house he kept to feede all people…. [H]e was upright and honest in all his dealings the few debts left behinde him to clog his survivours were safe pledges; and that hee was holy and Religious the Chapels and Churches he did frequent, and from whence no occasion could draw him; the almes he gave (which at this day would not only feede the poore, but the great mans family also) and the bountie which Religion and Learning daily tooke from him, are Trumpets so loude, that all eares know them; so that I conclude, and say of him…that he was Honestus, Pietas, & Magnanimus.
Markham’s “upright and honest in all his dealings” echoes Henry Chettle’s words, “uprightnes of dealing which argues his honesty.”
In speaking clandestinely of the 17th Earl a page later, Markham calls him “that most excellent Prince to whose Vertues I could willingly fall down & become a bond-slave; for the whole World must allow him a Souldier unparaleld, and a Prince of infinite merit.” That he is referring here to the recently deceased Earl is supported by the immediately succeeding line: “Lastly, thou shalt not neede to reade, but with thy finger point at the life of the now Earle of Oxford….”
Sir Ranulph Crewe 1626
In 1626, Sir Ranulph Crewe, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, reported, “I heard a great peer of this realm and a learned, say, when he lived there was no King in Christendom had such a subject as Oxford” (Waugh 2018 42). This posthumous tribute cannot be but genuine.
Ben Jonson <1637
Sometime before 1637 when he died, Ben Jonson penned a brief comment about Shakespeare titled “De Shakspeare nostrat,” which was printed in Explorata; or, Discoveries in 1641. Jonson’s portrait is the only authoritative, personal comment made about Shakespeare’s character, and it fits all the praises so far quoted for Oxford. In his address, Jonson faults Shakespeare, as was his wont with everyone, but he adds laudatory comments absent from his usual repertoire. He writes,
(for I lov’d the man, and doe honour his memory (on this side of Idolatry) as much as any.) Hee was (indeed) honest, and of an open, and free nature: had an excellent Phantsie; brave notions, and gentle expressions.
A key phrase here, generally unremarked, is “as much as any.” He is testifying that many people — as we have just demonstrated with so many quotations about the Earl of Oxford — idolized his friend “Shakespeare.”
Orthodoxy would have us believe that Jonson is talking about the country-bred man who died in 1616. How could that possibly be? Not a single person was ever recorded saying a loving or even a respectful word about Will Shaksper of Stratford, much less did they idolize him, and for good reason. As Greenwood accurately observed over a hundred years ago, Will Shaksper in his entire life performed “not a single creditable act” (Greenwood 277). On the contrary, some of his behavior was downright reprehensible. No one bothered to fete him when he died, again for good reason.
No, Jonson is not talking about the Stratford man. He is talking about the man he called the Soul of the Age.
Ben, like so many other men of letters, loved Oxford. He missed him, too.
That is the record, comprising more than 60 recorded statements (in words and/or action) issued over 73 years, beginning thirteen years after Oxford was born and ending 33 years after he died.
Why did Oxford have so many devoted friends and fans? Looney got to the heart of the matter: “All that Shakespeare has written, and every line of De Vere, bespeaks a man who, even in the lowest depths of pessimism, and in his moments of bitterest cynicism, had kept alive the highest faculties of his mind and heart” (Looney 1921 xxviii).
Notice
There are 37 published dedications to Oxford, 32 of which were composed by independent people. The collection above excludes the five dedications as well as two texts of praise that I have determined Oxford wrote to or about himself under the following pen names: Edmund Elviden, John Lyly, Angell Day, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, James Lea and Edward Webbe. For details, see the respective chapters in Oxford’s Voices (www.oxfordsvoices.com). If you believe that independent people wrote those texts, you can add seven more positive reviews to the above catalog.
References
Alexander, Mark, “George Baker 1540-1600,” The Shakespeare Authorship Sourcebook, 1997, http://home.earthlink.net/~mark_alex/Vere/Bios/baker.html.
Altrocchi, Paul H., “Searching for the Oxfordian ‘Smoking Gun’ in Elizabethan Letters,” Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/searching-elizabethan-letters/#fn2.
Anderson, Mark, “Oxford Chronology,” Shakespeare Authorship Sourcebook, www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook/Vere/1570.html.
Anderson, Mark, Shakespeare by Another Name, Gotham, New York, 2005.
Barrell, Charles Wisner, “‘In deed as in name—Vere nobilis for he was W…(?)’—Shakespearean Master of Revels Discusses the Oxford Mystery In Partly Burned Manuscript, Now Fully Transcribed,” The Shakespeare Fellowship Quarterly, Autumn 1948, http://www.sourcetext.com/sourcebook/library/barrell/21-40/41revels.htm.
Barrell, Charles Wisner, “The Dedication to Strange News (1592),” Shakespeare Fellowship Quarterly, October 1944, shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org.
Chamberlin, Frederick, The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, London, 1923, p.153, as qtd in Ogburn & Ogburn, Ch.7.
Clark, Eva Turner, Hidden Allusions in Shakespeare’s Plays, Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York, 1974.
Clark, Eva Turner, The Man Who Was Shakespeare, AMS Press, New York, 1937.
Delahoyde, Michael and Coleen Moriarty, “New Evidence of Oxford in Venice,” Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter, Vol.52, No.1, Winter 2016.
Detobel, Robert, “An Accident of Note,” Brief Chronicles, Vol.2, 2010.
Golding, Louis Thorn, An Elizabethan Puritan: Arthur Goldling, the Translator of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 1937, Richard R. Smith, New York.
Green, Nina, “Oxmyths,” oxford-shakespeare.com.
Greenwood, Sir Granville George, Is There a Shakespeare Problem? John Lane Co., New York, 1916.
Hamilton, Hans Claude, Ed., Calendar of the State Papers, Ireland, Elizabeth, Vol.3, 1586-1588, Longman & Co., London, 1877.
Hess, Ron, email to list, 11/10/08.
Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield House, 24 volumes, London, 1883-1976, as qtd in Paul, Christopher, “A Monument Without a Tomb: The Mystery of Oxford’s Death,” The Oxfordian, Vol. VII, 2004, p.32
Jackson, MacDonald, P., Determining the Shakespeare Canon, 2014.
Looney, J. Thomas, “Lord Oxford and the Shrew Plays, Part 1,” Shakespeare Pictorial, No.93, November 1935.
Looney, J. Thomas, The Poems of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Arthurs Press, Woodchester, England, 1921.
Malim, Richard, “The Mystery of Willy—Oxford, Spenser, and Theocritus’ Sixe Idillia,” The Oxfordian, Vol.19, 2017.
Moore, Peter, The Lame Storyteller, Poor and Despised, Verlag Uwe Laugwitz, Buchholz, Germany, 2009.
National Archives, nationalarchives.gov.uk, SP 12/234/6, ff. 8-9.
Nelson, Alan H. Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Liverpool University Press, 2003.
Ogburn, Charlton, The Mysterious William Shakespeare, EPM Publications, McLean, VA, 1984.
Ogburn, Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn, This Star of England, 1952, online.
Quennell, Peter, Shakespeare: A Biography, World Publishing, Cleveland, 1963, as qtd in Hoster, Jay, Tiger’s Heart, Ravine Books, Columbus OH, 1993, p.17.
Ross, Terry, “Oxford’s Literary Reputation,” shakespeareauthorship.com.
Waugh, Alexander, “Praise for Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford,” De Vere Society Newsletter, January 2018.
Waugh, Alexander, “Shakespeare’s Pole — Oxford, Burghley, Coryat and Polonius,” De Vere Society Newsletter, October 2016 [a].
Waugh, Alexander, “Two Letters from Queen Elizabeth About Oxford,” sent by email as “Shakespeare News” from Cheryl Eagan-Donovan of Controversy Films, August 11, 2016 [b].
Whalen, Richard F., “On Looking into Chapman’s Oxford,” The Oxfordian, Vol.5, 2002.
Whittemore, Hank, 100 Reasons Shak-speare was the Earl of Oxford, Forever Press, 2016.
