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Edward de Vere
Earl of Oxford
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, unknown artist after lost original, 1575, National Portrait Gallery, London
Tenure	1550—1562
Born	12 April 1550 Castle Hedingham in Essex
Died	24 June 1604 (aged 54) Brooke House in Hackney
Nationality	English

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (12 April 1550–24 June 1604) was an Elizabethan courtier, playwright, lyric poet, sportsman and patron of the arts, who is today most noted as the strongest alternative candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works.

Oxford was one of the leading patrons of the Elizabethen age. Between 1564 and 1599, some 28 books were dedicated to him, including works by Edmund Spenser, Arthur Golding, and John Lyly. Known particularly for his comedies, his theatrical activities included owning the lease on the first Blackfriars Theatre, producing grand entertainments at Hampton Court, and sponsoring at least two acting companies and a company of musicians.

He was born to John de Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford and the former Margery Golding, probably at Castle Hedingham in Essex. As a royal ward raised by Secretary of State Sir William Cecil, Oxford enjoyed a broad education, including mastery of several languages. He travelled widely throughout Europe, and participated in military campaigns in the Northern Rebellion (1570) and at Flanders in the Anglo-Spanish War (1585), although in what capacity is unknown.

Shakespearean authorship question

In 1920 J. Thomas Looney, an English schoolteacher, proposed de Vere as a candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare's works. The Oxfordian theory gradually replaced the ascendency of Francis Bacon in the field and, since the 1920s, Oxford has been the most widely accepted anti-Stratfordian candidate.

Oxfordians point to the acclaim of Oxford's contemporaries regarding his talent as a poet and a playwright, his reputation as a concealed poet, and his personal connections to London theatre and the contemporary playwrights of Shakespeare's day. They also note his long term relationships with Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Southampton, his knowledge of Court life, his extensive and multilingual education, his academic and cultural achievements, and his wide-ranging travels through France and Italy to what would later become the locations of many of Shakespeare's plays.

The claim is rejected by all but a few historians and literary scholars, but is supported by a number of independent scholars, authors, Supreme Court justices, and prominent Shakespearean actors and directors

Early life

Baptised Edward, a name unique in the de Vere family, perhaps as a compliment to the then king Edward VI, de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, and raised in the Reformed Faith. His father, though never of consequence in the Tudor court, was a sportsman and hunter of note, and among his son's earliest accomplishments were mastery of riding, shooting and hawking. His father's circle included many distinguished scholars and poets, such as the statesman and Cambridge don Sir Thomas Smith, like Oxford's father a staunch Protestant, and the poets Baron Sheffield, Arthur Golding and the Earl of Surrey. He was one of the small number of noblemen who retained a company of actors. Edward de Vere, like most children of his class, was raised by surrogate parents. He matriculated as an impubes or immature fellow-commoner of Queen's College in November 1558, where he remained one year. He was apparently, tutored for three years by Thomas Fowle, a former fellow at St. John's, in the household, and under the supervision of, Sir Thomas Smith. An early taste for literature is evident from in his purchases of books by Chaucer, Plutarch (in French), Cicero, perhaps Francesco Guicciardini (in Italian) and Plato (probably in Latin) in 1570.

On the death of his father on 3 August 1562, the twelve-year-old Oxford became the 17th Earl of Oxford and Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2000, may have run as high as £3,500.

Because the 16th Earl held land from the Crown by knight service, Oxford became a royal ward, and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, the Secretary of State, a leading member of Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council, and one of her chief advisors. His wardship lasted until 1571, when he maintained his majority. Sometime before October 1563, Oxford's mother, Margery, married a Gentleman Pensioner named Charles Tyrrell, the sixth son of Sir Thomas Tyrrell of East Horndon. Oxford's mother died five years later, on 2 December 1568, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford's stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570, leaving in his will a bequest to Oxford of 'one great horse' which de Vere had formerly given him. Oxford never spoke of his step-father thereafter except contemptuously.

As a ward, under Sir William Cecil's supervision Oxford studied French, Latin, writing, drawing, cosmography, dancing, riding and shooting. At Cecil House he was tutored briefly by Laurence Nowell, one of the founding fathers of Anglo-Saxon studies. While de Vere was in Cambridge, Arthur Golding, who also lived at the time at Cecil House, published his Th’ Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius. Though originally intending it for the 16th Earl, he dedicated it to his young nephew, attributing to him an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. It reads:

"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."

During the Queen's visits to Cambridge and Oxford universities in 1564 and 1566, Oxford, who was part of her entourage, was granted, along with a dozen other visitors, an unearned M.A by the University of Cambridge on 10 August 1564 and an M.A from the University of Oxford on 6 September 1566. On 1 February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn.

In later years Burghley was to upbraid Oxford frequently for his prodigal extravagance. However he allowed de Vere to spend upwards of £1,000 per annum during the wardship: his tailor's bills alone, from the age of 12 to 16, totalled some £600.

On 23 July 1567, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an unarmed under-cook evidently in the Cecil household, while practising fencing with Edward Baynham, a Westminster tailor, in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand. The coroner's inquest, with 17 juryman, one of whom was Oxford's servant, and another Cecil's protégé the future historian Raphael Holinshed, made the following finding:

'Thomas Brynchnell, an under Cook, was hurt by the Erle of Oxford at Cecill-houss, whereof he dyed, and by a Verdict found felo de se, with running upon a Poynt of a Fence Sword of the said Erle.'

Brincknell was, the finding concluded, drunk at the time and instigated by the devil when he ran and fell upon de Vere's foil, and gave himself the fatal wound. Cecil later recalled that he attempted to have the jury find for Oxford as acting in self-defence rather than Brincknell committing suicide.

Maturity

After recovering from an illness, Oxford petitioned Cecil in 1569 for a foreign military posting, saying that he had always wanted to "see the wars and services in strange and foreign parts". A Catholic rebellion, the Revolt of the Northern Earls, had broken out that year, and after a delay (despite an interview with Oxford, Queen Elizabeth was hesitant to grant him leave), Cecil obtained a position for de Vere under the Earl of Sussex in the Scottish campaigns the following spring, although in what capacity is unknown.

Over 1570, Oxford according to several reports, became interested in occultism, and studied magic and conjuring, having made the acquaintance of John Dee that winter. On his coming of age on 12 April 1571, he was, technically, freed of Burghley's control, and entitled to an income of £666, though properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for over another decade (1582). One third of a titled ward's estate reverted to the Crown. In July, the Queen demanded a payment of £3,000 for his wardship and a further £4,000 for 'suing his livery'. Oxford signed an obligation to pay double the sum, if he failed to pay the £7,000 when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000.

He now took his seat in the House of Lords. The year saw him participating in the tilt, tourney and barrier before the Queen in May, and attending the French envoy, Paul de Foix, who had come to discuss the queen's projected marriage to the duc d'Anjou.

By an indenture of 1 July 1562, Oxford's father, the 16th Earl, had disposed that his son would have to choose, on his 18th birthday in April 1568, to marry one of the sisters, either Elizabeth or Mary, of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. The terms of the indenture had been allowed to lapse. In 1571, the most eligible bachelor in England, he declared an interest in Cecil's eldest daughter, Anne, aged 14, and received the queen's consent to a marriage. She had been pledged to Philip Sidney in August 1569, and others had apparently sought her hand. Cecil, who had risen to Baron Burghley by February, was displeased with the arrangement, apparently having entertained the idea of her marrying the earl of Rutland instead. But Oxford's rank trumped all else. The wedding was deferred until Anne's maturity and celebrated in the presence of the Queen, together with the marriage of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Lord Herbert, on 19 December 1571, tying two young English nobles into Protestant families, as England's Catholic enemies noted. Burghley gave Oxford a marriage settlement of £800 worth of land and a cash gift of £3,000, an amount equal to Oxford's livery fees and probably intended for such use, but the money vanished without trace.

Oxford's marriage produced five children, a son and daughter who died young, and three daughters who survived infancy. The Earl's daughters all married into the peerage. Elizabeth, to whom the Queen stood godmother at her christening, married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Bridget married Francis Norris, 1st Earl of Berkshire. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, one of the “incomparable paire of brethren” to whom William Shakespeare's First Folio would be dedicated.

By May 1572 Oxford was described by Gilbert Talbot as one of the Queen's foremost favourites, and she called him her Turk. Her high regard lasted until revelations of his liaison with one of her maids of honour came to light in March 1581.

Abroad

Both abroad and in England Oxford was suspected of entertaining Roman Catholic sympathies, of being partial to Mary, Queen of Scots, and perhaps intent on a military mission. After obtaining royal permission, he left England, probably in early February 1575, to undertake a tour of France, Germany and Italy.

On his return across the English Channel in April 1576, Oxford's ship was hijacked by 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. His wife Anne had, in the meantime, given birth to their daughter Elizabeth, conceived in Hampton Court in October 1574, on July 2, 1575. The news reached Oxford in late September 1575, and he responded with a Latin poem to his wife, auguring that henceforth she would bear him a male heir. There is no hint of the suspicions about the conception that, after his return, were later to mar his relations with Anne. However, on returning from the Continent in April 1576, he refused to see the Cecil family who were waiting for him in Dover, and repudiated his daughter Elizabeth.

Gossip speculated that the child was not his, and Oxford complained that her father's handling of the birth date had made Ann become "the fable of the world". Thus he refused to live with her from 1576 until 1581.

That year Oxford fathered an illegitimate son by Anne Vavasour, Sir Edward Vere. and for this offence was imprisoned in the Tower of London for several months, and later placed under house arrest and banished from court. Around this time, after a five year separation, Oxford had reconciled with his wife, Anne Cecil. However his affair with Anne Vavasour led to a fray in the streets of London in March 1582 with her uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a courtier in favour with the Queen. Both men were 'hurt', Oxford 'more dangerously,' and Oxford's man 'Gerret' was slain. His pardon was engineered by Sir Walter Raleigh, and he returned to court after two years of disgrace in June of 1583, though he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.

Rivalry among nobles

According to Fulke Greville, in late August 1579 Oxford appeared on a tennis court where Sir Philip Sidney was playing and ordered him to leave. Oxford, when challenged, called Sidney a "puppy" before the French marriage-commissioners negotiating the Duke of Anjou's suit to marry the Queen. Sidney strode off and issued what became perhaps the most famous challenge to a duel in Elizabethan England.

Oxford had many friends among a close circle of Catholic courtiers and, in December 1580, Oxford accused three of them, Lord Henry Howard, Charles Arundel, and Francis Southwell, of engaging in a treasonous pro-Catholic conspiracy, and denounced them to the Queen, asking mercy for his own Catholicism, which he repudiated. Though these charged were initially dismissed, both Howard and Arundel, who had sought asylum with the Spanish ambassador, gave themselves up to the authorities, and in turn accused Oxford of many crimes, among them of plots to murder Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Leicester.

Later years

By the early 1580s Oxford had sold of most of his inherited lands, alienating his major source of income. Castle Hedingham itself, the seat of his earldom, was sold in 1592. In 1586 he petitioned the Queen for an annuity to restore his damaged finances, and was granted a crown pension, payable in four installments over each year, of £1,000. In 1585, Oxford was posted to serve at Flanders with Sir John Norreys, Sidney and Leicester, his erstwhile rivals, but appears to have quit his post and returned to England. He volunteered to serve against the Spanish Armada in 1588, but refused his post as commander of the port town of Harwich. His first wife Anne Cecil died in 1588 at the age of 32. By 1592 Oxford had sold off virtually every estate in his possession, and on December 27, 1591, married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, trading, in the eyes of one biographer, his title for the money of an heiress. On the 24th, of February 1593 the marriage produced his heir, Henry, Lord Vere, later the 18th Earl of Oxford.

According to the Earl of Lincoln, Oxford suggested, as Elizabeth lay dying, that moves should be made to support Lord Hastings as heir to the throne. If true, nothing came of the proposal. After his accession to the throne, King James granted, on on 18 July 1603, Oxford's decades-long suit to be restored to the offices of steward of Waltham Forest and keeper of the King's house and park at Havering, augmenting his annual income by £20. On 2 August 1603 the King reconfirmed Oxford's annuity of £1000. Less than a year later, Oxford died on 24 June 1604 of unknown causes at Brooke House in Hackney, and was buried on 6 July at the Church of St John-at-Hackney.

Cultural life. Patronage, Literature and the Theatre

Patronage

In 1569 the scholar Thomas Underdown, in the dedication of his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus, praised the young de Vere, then 19, for his 'haughty courage' and 'sufficiency of learning'. Within two years, Oxford himself was to write a Latin preface to Bartholomew Clerke's translation of Baldassare Castiglione's Courtier (1571) into that language (De Curiali sive Aulico:1571)

Stephen May calls him “a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments” whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning.” The focus of his patronage was mainly literary, though it also extended to the astrologer and alchemist Nicholas Hill. 13 of the books presented to him were either original or translated works of world literature. In addition to Spenser and Golding, writers dedicating works to him include Thomas Watson, Robert Greene, John Lyly, Anthony Munday, and Thomas Churchyard, the latter having been employed by de Vere for various periods of time. Among works patronized by Oxford are John Lyly's second Euphues novel, Euphues and His England (1580); Thomas Watson's Hekatompathia (1582); John Soowthern's Pandora(1584), and Robert Greene's Gwydonius. The Carde of Fancie (1584). Angel Day dedicated his English Secretarie, (1586), the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, as did Munday with both his Palmerin. The Mirrour of Nobilitie (1588) and Primaleon, The First Booke (1595). The composers William Byrd and John Farmer, dedicated books to him: the latter, in his The First Set of English Madrigals (1599) noted both Oxford's love of music and his musical expertise. Oxford employed both Lyly and Munday as secretaries.

Poetry and comedy writing

Oxford was praised as a poet, playwright and patron of the arts in his own lifetime. Edmund Spenser, for example, lauded him in an epistolary sonnet to his Faerie Queene. Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia (1598) listed Oxford as a playwright, describing him as among "the best for comedy". In 1589 the author of the anonymously published Arte of English Poesie (1589), usually identified as George Puttenham, wrote:

"And in her Maiesties time that now is are sprong vp an other crew of Courtly makers Noble men and Gentlemen of her Maiesties owne seruauntes, who haue 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(,) Thomas Lord of Bukhurst, when he was young, Henry Lord Paget, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Walter Rawleigh, Master Edward Dyar, Maister Fulke Greuille, Gascon, Britton, Turberuille, and a great many other learned Gentlemen . But of them all particularly this is myne opinion, that Chaucer, with Gower, Lidgate and Harding for their antiquitie ought to have the first place. .”

Though Bernard M. Ward attributed 24 poems to Oxford in his 1928 edition of Sundrie Flowres, modern criticism now ascribes sixteen canonical poems to him. Another four that have mixed attribution may possibly be his. These mostly date to his heyday as a young courtier in the 1570s, and there is small reason to suppose he composed poetry later than the 1580s. Oxford uses 10 different stanza forms in these 16 poems, but he favoured the long-line couplets, iambic heptameters or "fourteeners" that dominated verse in mid-sixteenth century, rather than the hexameters of Shakespeare's age.

Among the courtier poets of the 1570s who drew inspiration from post-classical continental authors from Petrarch to the Pléiade, who cultivated a new vernacular representation of the poet's immediate experiences, Oxford has replaced Edward Dyer for the distinction of being the premier Elizabethan courtier poet for love lyrics. In the commendatory verses prefacing his friend Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Jerome Cardan's De consolatione libri tres, (Cardanus' Comfort), a self-consciously poetic temper is visible. But his greatest innovation occurs in the 8 poems published under his name three years later in The Paradise of Dainty Devices, which 'created a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time.' Several stand out in the anthology as the only genuine love songs, and were intended to be sung. In the range of his themes, and diversity of his analyses of the lover's state of mind, Oxford stands out, as an innovator, from his contemporary English poets of this period.

Oxford as a Patron of Players

Oxford was a theatrical patron, like many of his fellow nobles. The practice of keeping companies developed when a statute was passed in 1572 aimed against potential uprisings involving the many bands of liveried servants and retainers kept by nobles, and which once formed the core of their private armies. Actors in the service of a peer fell victim to the law, and appealed to the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley for protection, and a royal patent was secured allowing them to conduct their profession under aristocratic patronage. To retain a troupe of players was a mark of status. Oxford, like the Earl of Derby, was also described as a playwright, and Francis Meres judged him one of 'the best for Comedy among vs'. In 1580, the players of Leicester's brother Ambrose, Earl of Warwick shifted their allegiance to Oxford. These toured the provinces, and records refer to 'the Earl of Oxenford's lads', and a company consisting of 9 boys and a man. In 1583, in a poaching operation that also pillaged actors from Leicester's Men and Sussex's Men, Oxford lost one of his adult players, Lawrence Dutton, to the newly created Queen's Men company.

Oxford took over the lease of Blackfriars playhouse, the only indoor playhouse used by a boy's company, and transferred it to his secretary Lyly, and over the next 4 years, under Oxford's sponsorship, choristers from two troupes, the Queen's Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's played there, only the latter are certain to have been under Oxford's patronage. They performed Lyly's comedy Sapho and Phao at Court over the 1583-1584 holiday season, after which Lyly sold the lease to Lord Hunsdon. This is the last we hear of Oxford's boy company, and the episode was the high watermark of Oxford's theatrical patronage. He did form an apparently new adult company in 1585, active until 1590. Three notices exist of a troupe of Oxford's players exist for the years 1600-1602, the last regarding a notice that his company had joined with the Earl of Worcester's to play at the Boar's Head Inn.

Sample poems attributed to Oxford

Popular culture

• 1943 Leslie Howard's classic anti-Nazi film, Pimpernel Smith, features several speeches by the protagonist "Horatio" Smith, a professor of archaeology at Cambridge, concerning Oxford as the true writer of Shakespeare's plays. The movie plays on the well-documented Nazi-interest in Shakespeare; in the movie, the claim made by Smith counterparts the principal Nazi character's assertion that Shakespeare was in fact German.
• 2001 Oxford is one of the primary characters in Amy Freed's play The Beard of Avon.
• 2003 Oxford and the Shakespeare authorship question are central to the plot of Sarah Smith's novel Chasing Shakespeares, which she also adapted into a play.
• 2005 The YA novel Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach is centered on Oxford and the authorship question.
• 2007 The Oxfordian theory is present in Jennifer Lee Carrell's thriller Interred With Their Bones.
• 2010 In March, Roland Emmerich began filming Anonymous, starring Rhys Ifans and Vanessa Redgrave, which posits in cinematic terms how Edward de Vere's writings came to be attributed to William Shakespere of Stratford.

Footnotes

1. “Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford”, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 15th ed. Web site accessed 7 Oct 2010.
2. Matus 1994, p. 15
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8380000/8380564.stm
4. ^ Nelson 2004 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNelson2004 (help)
5. http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/shakes/beth.htm paragraph 42: Quote from Dictionary of National Biography: "Puttenham and Meres reckon him among 'the best for comedy' in his day; but, although he was a patron of players, no specimens of his dramatic productions survive."
6. "Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford". Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2007.
7. Satchell, Michael (24 July 2000). "Hunting for good Will: Will the real Shakespeare please stand up?". U.S. News. Retrieved 31 August 2007. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
8. McMichael, George and Edgar M. Glenn.Shakespeare and his Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy. Odyssey Press, 1962. p. 159.
9. Nelson 2004, p. 151 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNelson2004 (help)
10. Niederkorn, William S.William S.Niederkorn, The Shakespeare Code, and Other Fanciful Ideas From the Traditional Camp,,New York Times, 30 August 2005.;He or Didn’t He? That Is the Question,New York Timeshttp://doubtaboutwill.org/signatories/notable
11. Ward 1928, p. 9
12. Nelson 2003, p. 20
13. Nelson 2003, p. 33
14. Ward 1928, pp. 9–10
15. Nelson 2003, p. 34:'Oxford had lived with surrogate parents from a young age, including Cambridge dons at eight, and Sir Thomas Smith at nine.'
16. Nelson 2004 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNelson2004 (help): His name disappears from the college registers after 5 months, in March 1559, and he did not receive a BA with his classmates in 1562.Nelson 2003, p. 25
17. Nelson 2003, pp. 24–25
18. Nelson 2003, p. 53
19. Pearson 2005, p. 36
20. Paul 2006, pp. 91–112
21. Nelson 2003, p. 35
22. Nelson 2003, p. 41
23. ^ Nelson 2003, p. 49
24. Ward 1928, p. 30
25. Ward 1928, p. 20
26. Ward 1928, p. 20-1. Nowell wrote to Lord Burghley asked that he be allowed to work on a map of England, implying his services in tutoring Oxford were no longer required. Ward interprets this as evidence of a 'precocity quite out of the ordinary'.
27. Nelson 2003, p. 39:'Some eight months after young Oxford entered Cecil house, Lawrence Nowell wrote to Cecil:'I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required.' Perhaps Oxford surpassed Nowell's capacity to instruct him. More likely — since nothing indicates that Oxford was an enthusiastic scholar, and much indicates that he was not — Nowell found the youth intractable.'
28. Nelson 2003, p. 43
29. Ward 1928, pp. 23–24
30. Nelson 2003, pp. 42–45
31. Ward 1928, p. 27
32. Nelson 2003, p. 46
33. ^ Ward 1928, p. 31
34. Nelson 2003, p. 47
35. Ward 1928, p. 28
36. Nelson 2003, p. 48
37. Ward 1928, pp. 39–41, 48
38. Nelson 2003, pp. 52–53
39. Ward 1928, pp. 49–50
40. Nelson 2003, pp. 58–60
41. Nelson 2003, pp. 70–71:'Formal certification of his freedom was deferred until May 1572'.
42. Nelson 2003, p. 71
43. Ward 1928, pp. 56–61
44. Nelson 2003, pp. 68–70
45. Nelson 2003, pp. 71–72
46. Pearson 2005, pp. 28–29
47. Pearson 2005, pp. 28, 38
48. Nelson 2003, pp. 127–128
49. Pearson 2005, pp. 31, n.53:135, 150 n.5. Letter of May 11, 1572:'The Queen's Majesty delighteth more in his personnage and his valiantness than any other'.
50. ^ May 1991, p. 269
51. Nelson 2003, p. 119-120
52. Nelson 2003, pp. 117–121
53. Nelson 2003, p. 135
54. Nelson 2003, p. 117
55. Ward 1928, pp. 107–108
56. Ward 1928, p. 113
57. Pearson 2005, p. 106
58. Nelson 2003, pp. 214–216
59. Ward 1928, pp. 226–227, 232–233
60. Ward 1928, pp. 227–230
61. Nelson 2003, pp. 280–286. Oxford in a late letter to Lord Burghley(25 March 1595) mentions his lameness. Whether this is related to a wound suffered on this occasion, or from a knee injury on a Venetian galley during his Italian tour,Nelson 2003, p. 128, is not known
62. Ward 1928, p. 233
63. Peltonen 2003, p. 80
64. Peck 1978, p. 427 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPeck1978 (help)
65. Nelson 2003, p. 249
66. Ward 1928, pp. 207–214
67. Nelson 2003, pp. 250–255
68. Pearson 2005, p. 211
69. Nelson 2003, p. 300
70. Pearson 2005, p. 52
71. Nelson 2003, p. 297
72. Nelson 2003, pp. 317–319
73. Nelson 2003, pp. 336–337
74. Pearson 2005, p. 88
75. Nelson 2003, p. 343
76. Nelson 2003, pp. 409–417
77. Pearson 2005, pp. 148–149
78. Pearson 2005, p. 98 n.170
79. Nelson 2003, p. 423
80. Nelson 2003, pp. 425, 431. Two parish registers confirm his burial at Hackney, though his cousin Percival Golding much later misplaced the site as Westminster Abbey.
81. May 1980, pp. 5, 8
82. Nelson 2003, p. 62
83. Beebee 1999, p. 32
84. Nelson 2003, pp. 381–382
85. ^ Nelson 2003, p. 386
86. Nelson 2004, pp. 157, 387 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFNelson2004 (help)
87. May 1991, p. 270
88. May 2004, p. 301
89. Ward 1928 In 1934 Craig Hardin argued that this was 'Hamlet's Book' Hardin 1934
90. May 1991, pp. 52–53
91. May 1991, pp. 53–54
92. Matus 1994, pp. 221–223
93. Matus 1994, p. 221:'the earl of Derby was "busy penning comedies for the common players".' (June 30, 1599)
94. Nelson 2003, pp. 239, 245
95. Matus 1994, p. 223
96. Shapiro 2009, p. 132
97. Matus 1994, pp. 223–224
98. ^ Matus 1994, p. 225
99. Chambers 2009, p. 225
100. Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies' Library, Vol. IV, #19 (1872)
101. Steven W. May wrote in 2004: 'this whimsical love lyric may not be Oxford's at all. It is attributed to the Earl only in a Bodleian Library manuscript anthology that dates from the mid 1580s.' Neither Looney nor Grosart were aware, however, that another text of the poem is ascribed to an unidentified "R.W" in a British Library Manuscript that is contemporary with the Bodleian anthology but somewhat more dependable in oth texts and attributions to De Vere's poems. Oxford may have written, "If women could be fair", but the evidence is inconclusive' (May, 2004:223/299)
102. Hope & Holston 2009, p. 166
103. Burt 2005, pp. 442–445
104. Chasing Shakespeares. SarahSmith.com.
105. Shapiro & 2010 (2) harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShapiro2010_(2) (help)
106. Anonymous at the Internet Movie Database

References

• Beebee, Thomas O. (1999), ShakespeareEpistolary fiction in Europe, 1500-1850, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521622752
• Burt, Richard (2005), "Shakespeare Goes Heil-lywood", in Hodgdon, Barbara; Worthen, William B. (eds.), A companion to Shakespeare and performance theatre, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 442–45, ISBN 978-1-405-11104-1
• Carroll, D. Allen (2004), "Reading the 1592 Groatsworth attack on Shakespeare", Tennessee Law Review, 72, Tennessee Law Review Association: 277–294
• Chambers, E. K. (2009) , The Elizabethan Stage, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-199-56749-2
• Elliott, Ward E. Y.; Valenza, Robert J. (2004), "Oxford by the Numbers: What Are the Odds That the Earl of Oxford Could Have Written Shakespeare's Poems and Plays?" (PDF), The Tennessee Law Review, 72, Tennessee Law Review Association: 323–452
• "Edward deVere", Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974
• Hardin, Craig (1934), "Hamlet's Book", The Huntington Library Bulletin (6), Huntington Library: 17–34 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Hope, Warren; Holston, Kim R. (2009), , The Shakespeare controversy: an analysis of the authorship theories, McFarland, ISBN 978-0-786-43917-1 {{citation}}: |chapter-url= missing title (help); Check |chapter-url= value (help); Missing pipe in: |chapter-url= (help)
• Matus, Irvin L. (1994), Shakespeare, in fact, Continuum Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8264-0624-8}}
• May, Steven W. (1980), "The Poems of Edward DeVere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford and of Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex", Studies in Philology, vol. 77, no. 5, University of North Carolina Press {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• May, Steven W. (1991), The Elizabethan courtier poets: the poems and their contexts, University of Missouri Press, ISBN 978-0-826-20749-4
• May, Steven W. (2004), "The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford as poet and playwright", Tennessee Law Review, 72, Tennessee Law Review Association: 221–254
• Nelson, Alan H (2003), Monstrous Adversary: the life of Edward de Vere,17th Earl of Oxford, Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-0-85323-678-8
• Nelson, Alan H. (2004), "Stratford Si! Essex No!", Tennessee Law Review, 72 (1), University of Tennessee: 149–171
• Nelson, Alan H (2004), "Edward deVere", Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
• Niederkorn, William S. (10 February 2001), "A Historic Whodunit: If Shakespeare Didn't, Who Did?", New York Times Times, New York Times
• Paul, Christopher (2006), "A Crisis of Scholarship: Misreading the Earl of Oxford", The Oxfordian, 91: 91–112
• Pearson, Daphne (2005), Edward de Vere (1550-1604): The Crisis and Consequences of Wardship, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., ISBN 978-0-75465-088-1
• Peck, Dwight (1978), "Raleigh, Sidney, Oxford, and the Catholics, 1579", Notes and Queries(new Series), 23 (nos.5-6): 427–431 {{citation}}: |issue= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Peltonen, Markku (2003), The duel in early modern England: civility, politeness, and honour, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-82062-2
• Schoenbaum, S. (1991), Shakespeare’s Lives, 2nd ed., Clarendon, ISBN 978-0-198-18618-2
• Shapiro, James (2010), Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?, UK edition: Faber and Faber (US edition: Simon & Schuster), ISBN 978-0-571-23576-6 (978-1-4165-4162-2) {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Shapiro, James (2010 (2)). "Alas, poor Shakespeare: Conspiracy theories about the authorship of his plays have gone mainstream". Los Angeles Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |day= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
• Shapiro, Michael (2009), "Early (Pre-1590) Boy Companies and their Acting Venues", in Dutton, Richard (ed.), The Oxford handbook of early modern theatre, Oxford University Press, pp. 120–135, ISBN 978-0-199-28724-6
• Ward, Bernard M (1928), The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604: From Contemporary Documents., John Murray

External links

• De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site
• Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner
• Elizabethan Authors—Poems and Lyrics of Edward de Vere

v t e Shakespeare authorship question
A series on alternative authorship theories for the works of William Shakespeare
Overview	History of the Shakespeare authorship question Shakespeare attribution studies Is Shakespeare Dead? Declaration of Reasonable Doubt
Theories	Baconian Crollalanza Derbyite Florio Lanier Marlovian Nevillean Oxfordian Prince Tudor Shaykh Zubayr
Candidates	List of Shakespeare authorship candidates Francis Bacon Emilia Lanier Christopher Marlowe Henry Neville William Stanley Edward de Vere
Proponents	Joseph Adler Mark Anderson Babette Babich Delia Bacon Ros Barber Charles Wisner Barrell Charles Beauclerk Alden Brooks Charles Champlin Jeffery Donaldson Ignatius L. Donnelly Bert Fields George Greenwood Joseph C. Hart Calvin Hoffman Derek Jacobi Richard Kennedy Abel Lefranc J. Thomas Looney Sandra Day O'Connor Charlton Ogburn Charlton Greenwood Ogburn John Orloff Orville Ward Owen John Denham Parsons Prince Philip Michael Rubbo William Rubinstein Mark Rylance Henry Seymour Joseph Sobran John Paul Stevens Roger Stritmatter Mark Twain Bernard Mordaunt Ward Alexander Waugh Walt Whitman James Wilde Robin Williams (writer)

Template:Persondata

• Use dmy dates from October 2010
• English poets
• People of the Tudor period
• Lord Great Chamberlains
• Earls in the Peerage of England
• Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
• Oxfordian theory of Shakespearean authorship
• English dramatists and playwrights
• British poets
• British writers
• 1550 births
• 1604 deaths
• Prisoners in the Tower of London