Exploring the evidence that the works of Shakespeare were written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Ten Clues to the Identity of “Shakespeare” as Edward de Vere

Some characteristics of the author “Shakespeare” revealed in the poems and plays, identified by J. Thomas Looney in “Shakespeare” Identified in Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, with a comparison of these characteristics to the matching characteristics of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.

  1. Mature man of recognized genius. A lyric poet of recognized talent.

    Oxford was praised by the author of the Arte of English Poesie (1589) “for Comedy and Enterlude”; by William Webbe, A Discourse of English Poetry (1586): “the right honourable Earl of Oxford may challenge to himself the title of the most excellent among the rest”; and by Francis Meres, Palladis Tamia (1598): “The best for comedy among us [among others] be Edward Earl of Oxford.”

  2. Of pronounced and known literary taste.

    Oxford was the most prominent patron of writers in the 16th century. Among those literary figures who dedicated works to the Earl are Edmund Spenser, Robert Greene, Anthony Munday, John Lyly, Thomas Nashe, Arthur Golding, and many others. Oxford arranged for the publication of two important treatises, translated by Thomas Bedingfield (Cardano’s Comfort) and Bartholomew Clerke (Castiglione’s Courtier), and contributed dedicatory prefaces to each.

  3. An enthusiast in the world of drama.

    Oxford had lifelong connections to theatre. Judging from documented comments of contemporaries, he wrote and produced plays and masques (and may have acted in them as well), though none survive, at least under his own name. He was lease-holder of the Blackfriars Theatre during its critical first phase of operation during the 1580s. He operated his own theatrical company, Oxford’s Boys, as well. In 1580, players from the Earl of Warwick’s company transferred to Lord Oxford’s service. John Lyly, at that time Oxford’s private secretary, was probably also appointed manager of the company. Henry Evans, who operated the Blackfriars Theatre when it reopened in 1600, was another Oxford associate in this early phase in the development of the English theatre. Evans is satirized as the Welsh parson in Merry Wives of Windsor. Circumstantial evidence also connects Oxford to the flourishing Queen’s Men (1583-92). In several records, his secretary and close theatrical affiliate John Lyly appears as payee for this influential company, which a growing number of scholars regard as the origin of a number of plays supposed to be Shakespearean juvenilia. In 1602, the Earls of Oxford and Worcester amalgamated their companies and were licensed to play at the Boar’s Head, which is described in extant documents as their accustomed theatrical venue. A tavern of this name is of course the hangout of Hal and Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV.

  4. Of superior education.

    As a boy, Oxford was tutored in political philosophy by Sir Thomas Smith. Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian scholar who then owned the sole existing manuscript copy of Beowulf, apparently tutored him in languages. Shakespeares’s knowledge of the English language is enlarged by this versatile command of both Latin and (arguably) Anglo-Saxon, a language he could not have learned without the assistance of a specialized tutor such as Nowell. Oxford may have been tutored in Latin by his uncle Arthur Golding, the most talented Latin tutor in England, who dedicated three books to him. Golding’s translation of The Metamorphoses (1565, 1567) was completed during the years the young Earl was perfecting his Latin. Sir Sidney Lee says that “the phraseology of Golding’s translation so frequently appears in Shakespeare’s page, especially by way of subsidiary illustration, as almost to compel conviction that Shakespeare knew much of Golding’s book by heart” (1909, 119: emphasis added). Oxford attended St. Johns College at Cambridge University as a boy, and received an honorary degree from Oxford University at the age of 16. Queen Elizabeth visited both universities during these times and was lavishly entertained with dramatic productions. The year after his Oxford degree, Oxford was admitted to Gray’s Inn to study law. His extant letters display a precocious and sophisticated knowledge of law among other subjects. Many of the numerous legal terms which appear in the plays and poems of “Shakespeare” occur in his extant correspondence, as first documented by William Plumer Fowler.

    An early account book (1569-70) shows Oxford to be the possessor of a Geneva Bible, Amyot’s French translation of Plutarch, and Chaucer. Another account describes his purchase of works by Plato and Cicero, and “paper and nibs” for writing (Ward 1928, 32-33). Plutarch, Chaucer, and the Geneva Bible are three of the most important source works for Shakespeare. A fourth is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, translated by his uncle Arthur Golding.

  5. Of probable Catholic leanings but touched with skepticism.

    Contemporary documents kept by Catholic partisans describe Oxford as sympathetic to the Catholic faith. It seems likely that during his 1576 trip to Italy he was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church. However, in December 1580 he revealed the plot of his Catholic associates Henry Howard and Charles Arundel to murder Queen Elizabeth and establish Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. After this time, Oxford apparently made his peace with the Anglican settlement. Such loyalty to the Anglican cause may be inferred from the persistent Anglican bias of the Shakespearean history plays. Aesthetically and philosophically, Oxford remained under the influence of Catholic doctrines and beliefs, just as Hamlet (though schooled at Wittenberg where Luther published his theses on the cathedral door in 1517) is haunted by the splendor of a fading but romantic Catholic past.

  6. A man with feudal connections, a member of the higher aristocracy, and connected with Lancastrian supporters.

    Oxford was heir to one of the oldest earldoms in England’s history, originating in the Norman Conquest. The Vere family were strong supporters of the Lancastrian faction in the Wars of the Roses, and as every student of the plays knows, “Shakespeare” displays the same bias. Furthermore, as the late Professor Daniel Wright argued, the historical bias in the plays is actually even more specific. In many instances, the author displays a bias in favor of certain aristocratic families, among them the houses of Vere and Stanley. Peter Saccio, in his very fine book on the history plays, wonders why the author did not memorialize the successful Yorkist King Edward IV. The answer may lie in fact that Edward IV preserved his power by executing two earls of Oxford.

  7. An enthusiast for Italy.

    Oxford travelled to Italy in the mid-1570s, after earlier trying to make the trip surreptitiously when Queen Elizabeth initially denied him permission. He later became notorious as the most Italianate courtier of his generation. Ten Shakespeare plays are set in Italy, displaying meticulously accurate knowledge of Italian geography, history, culture, art, and customs.

  8. A follower of sport, including falconry.

    Oxford was a champion jouster who won several tournaments (see, e.g., Anderson 2005, 46-47, 169-72, 199). Some of his early verse has images drawn from falconry, which is echoed in the Shakespearean plays and poems.

  9. Lover of music.

    Composer John Farmer in his dedication to Oxford of The First Set of English Madrigals (1599), says “that using this science [music] as a recreation your Lordship have overgone most of them that make it a profession.” The musical substratum of the plays is well known to scholars who have studied this question. It is impossible to think that the author of the Shakespearean canon was not a trained and skilled musician. (The will of Shakspere of Stratford contains no mention of any musical instruments or anything else suggesting any interest in music, art, or literature of any kind, for that matter.)

  10. Improvident in money matters and contemptuous of thrift.

    Oxford transferred many of his estates to his father-in-law, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, for which he has been criticized by some historians. As J. Thomas Looney (1920) was the first to note, Oxford’s legendary improvidence, for which he earned the nickname “Pierce Penniless” from Gabriel Harvey and Tom Nashe, is one of the strongest confirmations of his identity as Shakespeare. In the Shakespeare plays, as Looney noted (98), “almost every reference to money and purses is of the loosest description and, by implication, teaches an improvidence that would seem to involve any man’s financial affairs in complete chaos.” Professor Roger Stritmatter’s study of the many marked verses in Oxford’s Geneva Bible has confirmed the validity of Looney’s analysis.

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