en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Vere,_17th_Earl_of_Oxford
In order to pay for his debts, the will of the 16th Earl bequeathed to its executor's the principal estates of his earldom. These executors were: Margery ("my righte Loving and and welbeloued Wief"), his son Edward, the 17th Earl, and four retainers, relatives, and servants.
Trogus Pompeius, collected and written in the Latin tongue by the famous historiographer Justin: "It is not unknown to others, and I have had experience thereof myself, how earnest a desire Your Honor hath naturally graffed in you to read, peruse, and communicate with others, as well as the histories of ancient times and things done long ago, as also the present estate of things in our days, and that not without a certain pregnancy of wit and ripeness of understanding."
edit Court years Oxford entered the Royal Court in the late 1560s, upon which one contemporary wrote that he would have surpassed all other courtiers in the Queen's favour, were it not for his "fickle head".
Stratfordian Alan Nelson, an Oxford biographer, claims that Oxford's university degrees were "unearned" and that "no academic accomplishment or desert is to be imputed to any recipient" who was so-honored at the foregoing commencements, although most Oxford biographers disagree with that assessment and point to what John Brooke had to say of Oxford in his dedicatory epistle of The Staff of Christian Faith, published in 1577: "For if in the opinion of all men, there can be found no one more fitte, for patronage and defence of learning, then the skilfull: for that he is both wyse and able to iudge and discerne truly thereof. I vnderstanding righte well that your honor hathe continually, euen from your tender yeares, bestowed your time and trauayle towards the attayning of the same, as also the vniuersitie of Cambridge hath acknowledged in graunting and giuing vnto you such commendation and prayse thereof, as verily by righte was due vnto your excellent vertue and rare learning. Wherin verily Cambridge the mother of learning, and learned men, hath openly confessed: and in this hir confessing made knowen vnto al men, that your honor being learned and able to iudge as a safe harbor and defence of learning, and therefore one most fitte to whose honorable patronage I might safely commit this my poore and simple labours."
Anne Cecil -- a surprising choice since Oxford was of the oldest nobility in the kingdom whereas Anne was not originally of noble birth, her father having only been raised to the peerage that year by Queen Elizabeth to enable the marriage of social inequals. At the age of twenty-one, Oxford regained control of some of his ancestral lands. His marriage produced five children, including three daughters who survived infancy.
pirates, who stripped him naked, apparently with the intention of murdering him, until they were made aware of his noble status, upon which he was allowed to go free, albeit without most of his possessions.
Sir Thomas Knyvett, her uncle, resulting in three deaths and several other injuries. Oxford himself was seriously wounded in one of the duels, possibly leading to the "lameness" mentioned later in several of his letters. The imbroglio was put to an end when the Queen threatened to jail all those involved. By Christmas of 1581, Oxford had reconciled with Anne Cecil and once again cohabited with her.
King James I It has been suggested that the annuity may also have been granted for his services in maintaining a group of writers and a company of actors (from 1580), and that the obscurity of his later life is to be explained by his immersion in literary and dramatic pursuits.
George Puttenham, observed: "So as I know very many notable gentlemen in the Court that have written commendably and suppressed it agayne, or els sufred it to be publisht without their own names to it, as it were a discredit for a gentleman, to seeme learned, and to show himselfe amorous of any good Art." Further along in the book, the author continued: "And in her Majesties time that now is are sprong up an other crew of Courtly makers Noble men and Gentlemen of her Majesties owne servauntes, who have written excellently well as it would appeare if their doings could be found out and made publicke with the rest, of which number is first that noble Gentleman Edward Earle of Oxford" (STC 20519).
Palladis Tamia (1598) Oxford is listed among "the best for comedy" (STC 17834). Only a small corpus of Oxford's poems and songs are extant under his own name, the dates of which (and, in some cases, the authorship) are uncertain;
"beinge joyned by agreement togeather in on Companie (to whom, upon noteice of her Maiesties pleasure at the suit of the Earl of Oxford, tolleracion hath ben thought meete to be graunted, notwithstandinge the restraint of our said former Orders), doe no tye them selfs to one certaine place and howse, but do chainge their place at there owne disposition, which is as disorderly and offensive as the former offence of many howses, and as the other Companies that are allowed . be appointed there certine howses and one and no more to each Company. Soe we do straighly require that this third Companie be likewise to one place and because we are informed the house called the Bores head is the place they have especially used and doe best like of, we doe pray and require yow that the said howse . may be assigned to them, and that they be very straightlie Charged to use and exercise there plays in no other but that howse, as they looke to have that tolleracion continued and avoid farther displeasure."
The latter book, published at Oxford's command, has sometimes been cited by scholars as "Hamlet's book" (possibly the same book where Hamlet found "words, words, words") due to several close verbal parallels between it and Shakespeare's play, particularly a passage on the unsavoriness of old men's company, to which Hamlet seems to refer in his satirical banter with Polonius (re: plum-tree gum, plentiful lack of wit, most weak hams, etc), as well a passage with remarkable similarities to Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy.
In 1920, J Thomas Looney advanced the hypothesis that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the actual author of Shakespeare's plays due to: Oxford's advanced education; knowledge of aristocratic life, the military and the law; and abundant similarities between Oxford's life and the plays.
Renaissance scholar Steven W May, to be incongruous with Elizabethan print histories, but which has been defended by both orthodox scholars ("Stratfordians", in the jargon of Oxfordians) and anti-Stratfordians (those who doubt the standard theory of Shakespeare authorship). Oxfordian researcher Diana Price states, "Many members on the top rungs of the Tudor aristocracy had outstanding reputations as poets. The earl of Surrey's attributed poems were published in miscellanies after his death.
seem to provide some of the clearest evidence for the Stratford Shakespeare's status as a reputed poet. Oxfordians respond that modern research shows that not one of Shakespeare's plays has a proven source published after 1604.
All of the primary candidates (except Shakespeare of Stratford) were known to each other and traveled in the same circles, and are also mentioned as members of a "group" that may have been responsible for the Shakespearean canon.
edit Sample poems by Oxford " (Untitled) Were I a king I might command content; Were I obscure unknown should be my cares, And were I dead no thoughts should me torment, Nor words, nor wrongs, nor love, nor hate, nor fears A doubtful choice for me of three things one to crave, A kingdom or a cottage or a grave. " " Love Thy Choice Who taught thee first to sigh, alas, my heart ? In constant truth to bide so firm and sure, To scorn the world regarding but thy friends ? With patient mind each passion to endure, In one desire to settle to the end ? Love then thy choice wherein such choice thou bind, As nought but death may ever change thy mind. " " Woman's Changeableness If women could be fair and yet not fond, Or that their love were firm not fickle, still, I would not marvel that they make men bond, By service long to purchase their good will; But w...
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