For de Vere admirers and others, here's my rejoinder, "[ ]", to a
lengthy article below, which even has "previous" and "next" pages for
your delectation. https://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/authorship/authorship_de_vere.htm
(quote)
The case for Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
Many Oxfordians believe that the true author of Shakespeare’s plays
was an aristocrat named Edward De Vere. The evidence for this
comprehensive, ranging from Edward de Vere’s aristocratic knowledge of
the upper classes through to his education and the structural
similarities between his poetry and Shakespeare’s. As regards
authorship of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, it has been suggested
that Edward wrote these under the pseudonym of Shakespeare, both to
avoid breaking a voluntary convention against aristocrats publishing
poetry and plays and to escape the consequences of the subject matter
he was writing about. George Puttenham's 1589 book, The Arte of
English Poesie explains this further.
Below are the major reasons Oxfordians claim Edward De Vere was well qualified to write 37 plays and 154 sonnets.
Edward De Vere and Elizabethan Theatre.
Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford is known to have composed, directed and
acted in plays around the same time as Shakespeare. Like Shakespeare
he was part of an acting troupe but unlike Shakespeare, Edward managed
his acting troupe called "Oxford’s Boys". Furthermore, Edward De Vere
was a leaseholder of the Blackfriars Theatre, a rival to The Globe.
[My view is that de Vere published under his own name, as did Queen Elizabeth and many peers of the realm; but anyway, why would he choose
the pseudonym "Shakespeare," when like Stratman he was a member of a
theatre company, and Stratman also published in his own name?
See the counter-argument at end, under Recent Studies.]
Edward De Vere’s poetry and its similarities to Shakespeare.
Whilst most academics agree that Edward De Vere’s poetry was better
than the Sir Francis Bacon’s (the other contender for replacing Shakespeare), few believe it is of a standard necessary to prove De
Vere wrote the 154 sonnets claimed to have been authored by
Shakespeare.
Similarities in Edward De Vere’s verse to Shakespeare’s suggest
however that such a leap in poetry composing was possible.
Specifically six-line pentameter stanzas in Venus and Adonis reoccur
only in Edward de Vere’s early poems and yet are not repeated by other poets of Shakespeare’s time. Both Joseph Sobran and J. Thomas (sic)
have noted the close similarities in form between Edward De Vere’s
work and that claimed to be Shakespeare’s.
["Similarities" is very lame leaping and doesn't really matter.
Statement admits de Vere did publish childish stuff.]
Edward De Vere’s knowledge of Elizabethan Courts and his superior education.
It is recognized by Oxfordians and Stratfordians alike that writing
about royal courts, Italy and law required a certain prerequisite
level of education. Edward De Vere fits the bill here since he is
known to have graduated from Cambridge University at age 14, becoming
master of arts at age of 16. Furthermore in view of plays like The
Merchant of Venice which discussed law, De Vere studied law at Gray's
Inn. Account books clearly showed that Edward De Vere had an extensive library underlining his qualifications to write as knowledgeably as Shakespeare.
[Where did he get his geography of Italy? Did de Vere really
understand Italy well? "It was fashionable, at one time, to say that Shakespeare knew nothing of Italian geography either: he has Prospero,
in The Tempest, sailing from Milan to the Adriatic Sea and Valentine,
in Two Gentleman of Verona, sailing to Milan from Verona." https://theshakespearecode.blog/2011/03/15/shakespeares-italian-mistakes/]
Underlining this argument is the fact that Venus and Adonis, derived
from Ovid's Metamorphoses, could only have been possible with Arthur Golding’s translation of this work. Arthur Golding was Edward De
Vere’s uncle and his translation was said to be dedicated to Edward De Vere.
[Not possible Stratman read Ovid at school or on his own? How about
his publisher friend, Richard Field, also from Stratford.]
To further prove that Edward De Vere was qualified to write settings ascribed to Shakespeare, Edward De Vere is known to have traveled to
Italy in the 1570s, putting him in an ideal position to write
knowledgeably about Venice (The Merchant of Venice / Othello).
[Where did he get his geography of Italy? Did de Vere really
understand Italy well? "It was fashionable, at one time, to say that Shakespeare knew nothing of Italian geography either: he has Prospero,
in The Tempest, sailing from Milan to the Adriatic Sea and Valentine,
in Two Gentleman of Verona, sailing to Milan from Verona." https://theshakespearecode.blog/2011/03/15/shakespeares-italian-mistakes/]
Similarities between Edward’s life and the character Hamlet.
Similarities between Edward De Vere’s life and Hamlet suggest that
Hamlet was almost an autobiographical play about the Earl’s life.
Notably Polonius’ line of "young men falling out at tennis" is
believed to refer autobiographically to Edward De Vere’s notorious
tennis court squabble with Sidney. Notably Edward De Vere’s
father-in-law, William Cecil, Lord Burghley is said to be have been
parodied as the character Polonius. Only a person intimately
knowledgeable of Lord Burghley’s life could parody this man
convincingly in Hamlet.
[Similarities again?]
Furthermore only Edward De Vere fits the historical assertion in
sonnet 125 that Shakespeare "bore the canopy" over Queen Elizabeth in
her victory celebration over the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
[Or was that a parody of de Vere by Stratman/]
The parallels continue between Edward De Vere’s life and subject
matter in Henry IV, Part One. It is known that in 1573 Edward De Vere
and company did routinely play practical jokes on ill-fated travelers
on the same stretch of road as Prince Hal does in the play.
[Now we have "parallels" and routine practical jokes?]
The similarities between life and sonnets, continues as Edward De
Vere’s poem "Anne Vavasor's Echo", composed for Anne Vavasor is likely
to have been the elusive "dark lady" of the Shakespeare’s sonnets. Furthermore, Anne Vavasor’s Echo has more than a passing resemblance
to the echo verses in Venus and Adonis.
["Echoes" of similarities and resemblances?]
Edward de Vere’s nickname resembles "Shakespeare".
At court, Edward De Vere was nicknamed "Spear-shaker" due to of his
ability both at tournaments and because his coat of arms featured a
lion brandishing a spear. Perhaps coincidentally, Edward De Vere lived
in the same area as Shakespeare, his Bilton Hall home being the Avon
River and the Forest of Arden on another.
[Not sure of de Vere as "Spear-shaker" at court. Sounds naughty to
me, especially since "Shakespeare" has been studied as "shake-peer" by detractors.]
Problems for Edward De Vere...
De Vere died too early to complete the later plays.
A large problem for Edward De Vere authoring Shakespeare’s work is the fact that he died in 1604. This was before roughly 12 plays ascribed
to Shakespeare were composed. However even Sir Edmund K. Chambers, a
noted Stratfordian, agrees that the standard dating of Shakespeare’s
play is sketchy at best.
[Now we have "sketchy" dating as evidence for de Vere's postmortem
plays?]
Tudor Aristocrats had no need to write under nom de plumes.
A standard line for why Edward De Vere used the nom de plume of
Shakespeare was to avoid breaking an aristocratic convention not to
write. Unfortunately we now know that aristocrats such as Edward De
Vere did publish and without fear of breaking convention. It appears
that this convention was weakly enforced and that aristocratic
publishing was frowned upon rather than punished, this convention
weakening entirely in Elizabethan times to which Edward De Vere
belonged.
[Apology sounds like making a positive statement out of negative
evidence and reasoning?]
Recent studies.
The recent Shakespeare Clinic, under the direction of Robert Valenza
and Ward Elliott (Claremont-McKenna College), found little match
between Edward De Vere’s poetry and William Shakespeare's.
(unquote)
Looks like Claremont-McKenna College and Concordia University are hubs
of conflict in the U.S.. In the UK it's Brunel University and
University of London. Several noted academics-become publishers have espoused the de Vere cause; not sure how successfully..
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