This
year England is celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the death of
William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist in the English language. I think
that the celebration is twelve years too late. At the risk of losing what little
credibility the Weekly Bystander might possess, I confess that I am a
Shakespeare denier. I believe that the great plays and poems attributed to
William Shakespeare, the man of that name from Stratford on Avon, were not written by him,
but by an aristocratic contemporary, Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of
Oxford, one of the most prominent and notorious noblemen in Elizabethan
England.
In
other words, I am an advocate of the theory that the true identity of the
greatest writer in the English language has been hidden for more than 400
years. I am not alone. Great writers like Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Henry
James, as well as great Shakespearean actors like Orson Welles and Derek Jacobi
believed that the plays and poems were written by someone other than the simple
commoner from Stratford. Even Sigmund Freud agreed.
While
many names have been put forward as the true author, I believe that the
aristocratic background, unique education, and life experience of the Earl of
Oxford makes him the prime candidate for the true author of the Shakesperean
canon. When it comes to Shakespeare, I agree with those who are called by
scholars, with a certain degree of contempt, “Oxfordians”. These would include
the unfortunately named J. Thomas Looney an English high school teacher whose groundbreaking
1919 book, Shakespeare Identified in Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of
Oxford, has never received the attention it deserves.
Oddly
enough, it was on my first trip to Italy back in 1997 that I saw the light. My
wife and I attended a little symposium on the Renaissance held that year in
Gardone Riviera, a resort town on the coast of beautiful Lake Garda. We stayed
in an old pensione up the hill from Gardone that had a spectacular view of the
lake.
Before
the trip I had happened to read a book by Joseph Sobran* that also questioned
the authorship of the man from Stratford, and promoted the cause of the Earl of
Oxford, but I found it hard to believe given the overwhelming scholarly tradition.
Italy changed my mind. Many of the plays are set in Italy, and the playwright
seems to have a first hand knowledge of the customs, language, and geography of
the country.
The
man from Stratford never traveled outside of England. Scholars are reduced to saying
that he got his extensive knowledge of things Italian by listening to Italian
seamen in London pubs. On the other hand, shortly after he turned 21 and took
his seat in the House of Lords, the young Earl of Oxford left England to spend
a year and a half traveling on a kind of grand tour, most of which was spent in
Italy. Is it a coincidence that practically every town he visited in Italy is
featured or at least mentioned in the plays? Venice, Verona, and Padua come
immediately to mind. Places he did not visit, like Turin and Bologna, receive
no mention in the plays.
Moreover,
my own brief first visit to Italy convinced me that it would be impossible to
describe the beautiful countryside, and the fabled cities without having
actually seen them. Even today, after many subsequent visits, I find it almost
impossible to describe the breathtaking scene of the Tuscan countryside, or a
ride in a water taxi down Venice’s Grand Canal.
The
young Edward de Vere spent a fortune on his Italian journey and had to borrow
heavily to pay his enormous bills. He arrived back in England deeply in debt
and even stark naked, having been stripped of his clothes by pirates in the
English Channel, in the same manner as Prince Hamlet in the famous play. This
incident is just one of many where the life of the Earl of Oxford is mirrored
in the plays and poems of Shakespeare.**
Edward
de Vere was born in 1550, fourteen years before
the man from Avon. The de Vere’s
were one of England’s great aristocratic families, and could trace their
lineage back over 400 years. After the death of his father, when Edward was
only twelve, he was taken from his mother and made a ward of the Crown. His
property and wealth were managed by Queen Elizabeth’s favorite, Sir Robert
Dudley, and his education and upbringing were put into the hands of Sir Robert
Cecil the Queen’s chief minister, who even non-Oxfordians believe to be the
prototype of Polonius in Hamlet. Edward de Vere grew up in the highest circles
of English society, and studied under some of the greatest scholars of his
time.
On
the other hand, it would appear that the man from Stratford on Avon received no more than
the barest elementary education. His father was a butcher and his family was illiterate.
Scholars are hard pressed to find any evidence that he received even an
elementary education. He left no books or manuscripts behind but only a handful
of copies of his signature on legal documents that indicate that he could
hardly write his own name.
Throughout
his life Edward de Vere was associated with the theater. He sponsored and
promoted plays and companies of players. However, at the time it was considered
disgraceful for someone of his status to associate with plays and players. For
this reason Oxfordians believe that he used the name of the man from Avon to
cover his tracks. There is evidence that the young man from Avon was amply
compensated. After all, what’s in a name?
The
greatest objection to the authorship of de Vere is the fact that he died in
1604. Although it is difficult to date the plays, the traditional belief has
been that some, like the Tempest, were written between 1604 and 1616, the date
of the death of the man from Stratford. However, in recent years scholars have
reduced the number of post-1604 plays to one or two and even their dates are
questionable. One recent author has even argued that the whole “Shakespeare
project” seems to shut down after 1604.
The
other objection involves a kind of reverse snobbery. We live in the age of the
underdog and people like to believe that the greatest author in the English language
was a common man possessed with great natural genius. We do not like
aristocrats and shows like Downton Abbey make us aware of their follies and
weaknesses. Nevertheless, greatness in any field still requires education and
life experience. Every author writes himself. The plays of Shakespeare are all
about Kings, Queens, and other aristocrats. In those plays Edward de Vere wrote
about a world of which he was intimately acquainted and in which he played a
major role.
Written around 1604, Hamlet was one of the last plays. The dying words of Hamlet could well apply to Edward de Vere.
Written around 1604, Hamlet was one of the last plays. The dying words of Hamlet could well apply to Edward de Vere.
O God, Horatio, what a wounded name,###
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart
Absent thee from felicity a while,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story.
* Joseph Sobran, Alias Shakespeare, 1997.
**Mark Anderson, Shakespeare by Another Name, 2005, provides an exhaustive account of the similarities between the life of Edward de Vere and the characters in both the plays and poems of Shakespeare.
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