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The present work should not surprise anyone. Perhaps they have read John Michell's Who Wrote Shakespeare (1996) where Edward de Vere is considered the leading candidate for the authorship (of course, aside from William Shakespeare himself).
It is not the aim here to resurrect the "Oxfordian-Stratfordian" controversy about the authorship but, instead, to show the relationship between Edward de Vere and William Shakespeare, basing our hypotheses on an extensive genealogical study.
The conclusion is that these two candidates for authorship of "Shakespeare's" works were in some ways colleagues, and that they were in fact, distant cousins through the Trussel family. Also, that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was William Shakespeare's artistic patron; that Edward brought William out of Stratford-on-Avon, and that he introduced William to court.
Our investigation here proves substantially that Edward de Vere was the author of “Shakespeare’s” plays. But to prove this, we must try to understand, first of all, play-writing itself. The ingredients are as follows: the author needs a source for his story, either one already at hand, or he must construct one out of his imagination, or a combination of both is at hand. Secondly, the author must know how to stage a history. Edward de Vere had some knowledge of this – he inherited from his father a company of players and he sent these players around the country on tours. Thirdly, the author must pen the déroulement of the plot in poetic form assisted, of course, by his own “muse”. It is a fact that Edward de Vere was a voracious reader since his studies at Cambridge. Also, his uncle, Henry Howard, was a well-known poet. Another uncle (on his mother’s side), Arthur Golding, was a poet and a translator of poetry (namely, Ovid’s Metamorphosis). Edward created his own poetry as a young person and later, experimenting with John Lyly and the “Euphuists”, he wrote comic plays. His literary colleagues cooperated in the construction of these plays, and probably wrote much of the verse. His son-in-law the Earl of Derby, William Stanley, was among these. Some of Edward’s early poems exist in print as published by Thomas Looney. From an early age Edward showed ability with iambic pentameter.
A good playwright also needs an inner ambition in his construction of plots and characters – in order to demonstrate something important to the world – he needs ideology. Finally, it is evident that he must understand his prospective audiences and how they will respond to the play. He must know his “public”.
William Shakespeare,, indeed, had certain of these qualities after he became an actor. But obviously he would not have had the time or leisure to read much, especially from relevant archives. Certainly such archives and Holinshed’s Chronicles were the source of all ‘Shakespeare’s’ History Plays. But much of the materials lying as background to these Plays was not in English but in Latin or French - neither of which William had mastered. As for staging the plays, he certainly had experience, but was it superior to that of Edward de Vere, surrounded as the latter was with teams of actors, a team of intellectuals and friendly with many literary geniuses? Shakespeare, with a limited amount of Stratford grammar school education, could hardly be expected to peruse Latin, Italian and French sources or to manipulate the English language at a high level as is shown in the ‘Shakespeare’ Folio Edition of 1623. Did William possess any “ideology” (‘Renaissance’, ‘anti-Catholic’ or ‘common English’) which he might wish to share with the general public? It is possible he had some opinions but up to now these have remained hidden. There is no available Shakespeare correspondence whereas for Edward de Vere there is a considerable extant corpus of personal writings, the replies of others and general public comments on his life, activities and abilities. William Shakespeare’s life, as we know it, illustrated no particular political position and, although it is true he inevitably had experiences of the ‘common man’ and could, theoretically, write some comic, popular scenes, was he actually recorded by contemporaries as doing so? He was known to his contemporaries as an actor, circulating rather as a newcomer at court, as a minor subscriber to the Globe Theatre and, after leaving the stage and as a citizen of Stratford, an important house owner and a dealer in malt.
There are individual qualities necessary for writing diverse types of literature, most of which William Shakespeare did not possess. As regards Histories, the author needed to interpret historical events in a way interesting to a theatre-goer of both the noble class and of the poorer classes. The de Vere family archives at Headingham castle, those at William Cecil’s house on the Strand in London (including a copy of Holinshed’s Chronicles, and those at Cambridge and Oxford, and those among the “Euphuists” and other intellectuals, were available to Edward de Vere. These could supplement the generally available written histories of England and histories of other countries. Edward had an intellectual background which could enable him to interpret historical events in a popular way but also in a way which could exalt the monarch or provide clear impressions of certain historical personalities.
Writing Comedies, the author must show a flair - penning the repartee between nobility, the commoners, in pubs, and among women, etc. This involves not only the characterization in general but also conversations between the characters accepted and understood by the listening public – all of these must bring laughter or tears in the audience. Showing the comic side of life requires a technique of presenting the events as well as a mastery of the language describing these events. Shakespeare may have been able to write some of the comic scenes, but would he have been able to knit such scenes together with the developed plots which the plays in ‘his corpus’ illustrate? Moreover, William Shakespeare’s knowledge of foreign countries and places was meager – no record of any trip outside England has been recorded. He had not traveled on the Continent as Edward had done, and we must not forget that virtually all of “Shakespeare’s” Comedies take place in Italy, Sicily, France, ‘Illyria’ or Mediterranean lands.
Regarding Poems and Sonnets, an author must posses a particular sensitivity for phrasing and a wide vocabulary. Poetry in the Elizabethan era was read only by the educated classes. Could William Shakespeare speak the language of the educated classes? It is very doubtful, since his education was limited to an unfinished grammar school learning experience and some years on the stage. Moreover, regarding the Sonnets attributed to him, the “Stratfordians” have never succeeded in locating the young man for whom some of the Sonnets were written. On the other hand, the obvious objects of love for Edward de Vere included Henry, Earl of Southampton, his mistress Anne Vavasour (with whom he had the illegitimate child Edward Vere) and the Queen herself.
What are the main literary ingredients of such great Tragedies as Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth or King Lear? There needs to be good construction of the plot leading towards a tragic end which strongly affects people’s emotions. There is need of suspense. The characters must be defined so that their inner motivations, fears, desires etc. are illustrated clearly from the very beginning (those characters such as Hamlet, Iago, or Lear) and strong emotions of the public must be sustained in the course of the play. The author must be able to show how these personal and individual characters with the concomitant emotions “lead up to the tragedy” (as in King Lear or Macbeth) or how personages other than the tragic hero himself (e.g. Iago, Lady Macbeth, Cordelia’s sisters, etc.) contribute to the whole.
Another feature of tragedy is its presentation of a “blind struggle against evil”, for example as Hamlet struggles to “exorcise” his father’s death, or Lear’s struggles to understand ingratitude. Macbeth cannot reconcile his horror at murder with his desire for power. Romeo and Juliet cannot possibly overcome the effects of family rivalries. Othello cannot overcome his own jealousy, and in fact is completely dominated by it up to a tragic end. To be a tragedian requires a sense of the powers of evil active in the world and in ourselves. The dénouement of the drama provides a glimpse of how the author sees the outcome of a struggle against evil. A good tragedian will have tragedy within his own life experience, and will identify with the predicament of his created characters.
We cannot locate much “tragic experience” in the life of William Shakespeare. He never writes of it to any correspondent. Edward de Vere, on the other hand, had many problems with often tragic outcomes. His jealousy over a supposed lover of his wife Anne Cecil affected him for years and he lived separately from her for a time. For this later he was quite repentant. Edward fought several duels – in one case the opponent (his servant) died and in another Edward was wounded (Anne Vavasour’s relative Thomas Knyvett). Edward struggled with loneliness and rejection (some believed him to be a homo- or bi-sexual). He grappled with a father-in-law (William Cecil the Queen’s Treasurer) who constantly criticized his profligacy and Edward lost most of his family lands and wealth, presumably because of his literary and dramatic endeavors and travelling. Edward ignored “middle-class propriety”, and for this he suffered the taunts of others. Edward de Vere fought against “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (Hamlet) in many respects. And he was not able to pursue a military career which many expected from a man of his position as leader of the nobility.
Perhaps Edward’s writings of tragedy helped to exorcise such “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. Was there any sign in William Shakespeare’s life that he faced problems any greater than a lack of funds (early career) or perhaps a shrewish wife? Honan mentions the death of William’s son called Hamnet, but this tragedy is not elucidated or presented in any of “Shakespeare’s” writings.
We should recall the obvious fact that the upwardly-rising middle classes such as Shakespeare’s had little to lose in Elizabethan Protestant England, but the old noble families such as de Veres and Stanleys had much to lose. Their long-held privileges were certainly at stake.
We could, in a way, consider Edward de Vere a “modern” man in that he tried to express fully the “Elizabethan Renaissance”. In fact, his literary works stand at the turning-point where intellectuals trained in Medieval Europe’s thought-mode were promoting a new, modern European culture.
In this present work we must introduce various facts which indicate Edward de Vere’s authorship of the Shakespeare literary “corpus”. We must obviously delineate Edward’s classical education and his relations with the various literary figures of his time. We must trace his genealogical background and that of his in-laws and others related to his family. This will certainly shed light on certain personages presented in the Histories and Comedies. We should investigate how this genealogical material is related to historical events under the Plantagenet and Tudor sovereigns, and vis à vis certain important, well-known families. Moreover, we must present materials regarding Edward’s sexuality and his concept of love which figures strongly in the Comedies, and how he dealt with a supposed ‘bi-sexual nature’ in his literary productions. In this regard Edward was, in our opinion, searching for a concept of heterosexual love which perhaps found its highest expression in The Tempest.
As mentioned briefly, Edward de Vere lived in a “watershed” period which included the birth of the Modern Era. Yet his values were mainly a product of the Medieval Era. He faced revolutionary historical changes in an inimitable way, by a certain escape into medievalism. But these productions had a “modern” touch because Edward was facing the modern world in his everyday life. It evidently displeased him, and he didn’t know whether “to be or not to be”.
How William Shakespeare “inherited” the authorship of Edward’s writings is a mystery. It may be related, however, to the fact that Edward de Vere could not solve the problem about how to face the modern world. Perhaps William Shakespeare could do it for him and this may be what Edward de Vere told his daughters - his heirs –in his old age. We have understood from our research that William was his distant family relation (through the Trussel, line) and thus was a possible candidate as Edward de Vere’s ‘successor’.
The poet, the cultured man of the Renaissance, the adept of Italian comedy, possessed a personality impregnated by his profession. If Edward de Vere (in conjunction with his literary friends) could pen the ‘Shakespeare corpus’ then poetry-writing and play-writing inevitably molded his personality to some extent. He would, inevitably, look upon life from the standpoint of a normal man, but also from the standpoint of a writer.
The use of pseudo-names provides the writer a certain protection. But there is a real person behind a pseudo-name, a person who has lived before (or after) the adoption of that pseudo-name, and that person (in the case of Edward de Vere) can be better understood if enough research materials are available. It so happens that Edward de Vere’s persona is also to be found within the writings. This is inevitable. Thus, hypothesizing about Edward de Vere as the author of the Shakespeare ‘corpus’ is not ‘unscientific’. Historical research has a contribution to make in the determination of historical truth and it is a fact that a writer, whatever else he may be, remains an historical person.
Without knowledge of an author’s historical existence, how could anyone prove authorship? And if William Shakespeare’s historical existence does not indicate that he was the author of ‘his’ works, the field is open to speculate about the real author.
One method would be to compare the talents of Edward de Vere poet, courtier and lover of Italian comedy to Shakespeare’s life and literary possibilities, but another approach would be to investigate ‘genealogical’ proofs of Edward de Vere’s authorship. Who were the de Vere ancestors and do they appear in the History Plays ? Is Sir John Falstaff, or other stock characters in the Comedies, modeled upon real historical persons and how would such persons be related to Edward de Vere or his ancestors ? Do personal friends and acquaintances of Edward de Vere appear in ‘Shakespeare’s’ plays ? Do Edward de Vere’s apparent sexual propensities appear in the writings, as for example in the Sonnets? Can we compare Edward de Vere’s personality structure (indications taken from contemporaneous comments about him) and his own self-reflection (as seen in his correspondence) with what appears in the poems and plays ? In explanation of these important topics, we have introduced the following scheme of chapters:
Chapter I: Edward’s personality as it might be reflected in the Comedies and Tragedies . In particular we have been interested in his sexuality and his concepts of love.
Chapter II: We shall compare features of the Plays under certain headings such as health, military, finance, tournaments, court life etc. to find comparisons in them with what we know about Edward de Vere’s life.
Chapter III: We shall look at Edward de Vere as a poet, at his literary ‘friends’ and at his writing and play-producing career.
Chapter IV; We shall be concerned with the selection of parts of Holinshed’s Chronicles for the History Plays to see if such selection is a reflection of Edward de Vere and his interests. We shall consider other historical persons known to the Earls of Oxford and Edward de Vere e.g. Sir John Fastolf, the Scropes, the Pastons etc.
Chapter V: We compare personnages related to Edward de Vere who appear in ‘Shakespeare’s’ writings as for example in the Sonnets (the Queen, the Cecils, Henry of Southampton, Anne Vavasour) and we compare these personnages with William Shakespeare himself (Edward’s distant cousin). Here we shall present our research on the Trussels as a family link between Edward de Vere and William Shakespeare, especially the Trussel family of Billesley, Warwickshire.
Chapter VI: Finally, we shall delineate the de Vere genealogy itself to learn more about himself and his ancestors.
Photograph: Hedingham Castle, Essex, by Derek Voller