Edward de Vere (1550-1604) as “William Shakespeare”

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was born 14 years before “William Shaksper” of
Stratford and has since become the strongest candidate in the Shakespeare authorship debate,
above Bacon, Marlowe, and Derby. A patron of the arts, poet, and dramatist in his own right,
Edward de Vere inherited the title of 17th Earl of Oxford when his father died under
mysterious circumstances in 1562. Despite receiving a privileged education from Cambridge
and from the best private tutors in England when he was growing up as a ward of the Queen,
De Vere was bad with money and found himself in financial straits by the early 1580s –
which led to Queen Elizabeth granting him an annuity of £1,000. It is suggested that De
Vere spent the latter part of his life producing literary works but disguised his authorship to
uphold his reputation in court and to conceal his political critique behind a pseudonym. De
Vere officially died in 1604 in Middlesex, 12 years before Shaksper’s death in Stratford-
upon-Avon. It is conventionally accepted that 14 of Shakespeare’s plays were written after
1604, the year of de Vere’s death, but there is no hard evidence for this. Also, there are many
inconsistencies about de Vere’s official death, suggesting that it may have been staged so he
could retire and continue to work in peace, until 1609, the actual year of his death.
The theory that de Vere was really the author of Shakespeare’s plays, the so-called
“Oxford Theory”, was first proposed by J. Thomas Looney in 1920. Since then the theory has
gained momentum and has received support from some high-profile figures including Freud,
Orson Wells, Sir John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, etc. Although much of the evidence is
circumstantial, it is none-the-less compelling if not downright conclusive.

The key points in the case for de Vere are as follows:

• “Thy countenance shakes spears” is how de Vere was once described in royal court.
In print, Shakespeare’s name appeared as “Shake-speare” creating a pun with his first
name: “will shake speare”
• Many of the plays parallel events from de Vere’s life. In particular, Hamlet is a deeply
autobiographical play containing a remarkable amount of references to de Vere’s life.
• De Vere had the right education and social standing to write in detail about such
subjects as the court, law, fencing, hunting, and war. William Shaksper, a grain and
wool merchant from Stratford-upon-Avon, would simply have been unqualified
socially and educationally to write about such things. No writing in Shaksper’s hand
has ever been discovered except for 5 very unconfident and irregular signatures on
legal documents. Also, after his death he had no books in his possession and neither
his children nor his parents could read or write. All this proves that he was illiterate.
• Some of de Vere’s early poetry appeared in print under his own name. However, this
stopped soon after texts were printed under “Shake-speare’s” name. So, it has been
suggested that de Vere took on his pseudonym when “Shake-speare’s” earliest works
were first published: The Rape of Lucrece (1593) and Venus and Adonis (1594). Both
poems were dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, who was
considering marrying De Vere’s daughter.
• De Vere was well-traveled and spent most of 1575 in Italy. 14 of “Shake-speare’s
plays have Italian settings so detailed that only someone well acquainted with the
country could have known. The Stratford man never travelled outside England.
• Shakespeare was heavily influenced by Arthur Golding’s translation of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses. There is some evidence to suggest Golding lived in the same
household as de Vere at this time.
 Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Edward de Vere’s Life
In 1609, a volume of 154 poems was published under the title SHAKE-SPEARE’S SONNETS.
Oxfordians believe that this title indicates a completed body of work, with no further sonnets
expected. Joseph Sobran questions why Shaksper (who lived until 1616), if he was the real
author, failed to publish a corrected and authorized edition, as well as why the sonnets fail to
match Shaksper’s known life story in any way. As with the plays, the themes and personal
circumstances expounded by the author of the Sonnets are remarkably similar to Oxford’s
biography.

The Fair Youth, the Dark Lady, and the Rival Poet

The focus of the 154 sonnet series appears to narrate the author’s relationships with three
characters: the “Fair Youth”, the “Dark Lady”, and the “Rival Poet”. Most Oxfordians
believe that the Fair Youth referred to in the early sonnets corresponds to Henry Wriothesley,
3rd Earl of Southampton, Oxford’s peer, prospective son-in-law. The Dark Lady is believed
by some Oxfordians to be Anne Vavasour, Oxford’s mistress who bore him a son out of
wedlock. The Rival Poet is assumed to be Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and good friend of
Wriothesley.

Sobran suggests that the so-called “procreation” or “marriage sonnets” represent attempts to
persuade Southampton to marry Oxford’s daughter, Elizabeth de Vere, and says that it seems
impossible that Shaksper would know the parties involved or presume to give advice to the
nobility. Oxfordians also assert that the tone of the poems is that of a nobleman addressing an
equal rather than that of a poet merely addressing his patron

Age and lameness

Oxford was born in 1550, and was between 40 and 53 years old when he presumably wrote
the sonnets. Shaksper was born in 1564. Even though the average life expectancy of
Elizabethans was short, being between 26 and 39 was not considered old. In spite of this, age
and growing older are recurring themes in the Sonnets, for example. In his later years, Oxford
described himself as “lame” as a result of being wounded during a failed assassination
attempt; the author of the sonnets also describes himself as lame (e.g. sonnets 37 and 89).

Public disgrace

Sobran also believes “scholars have largely ignored one of the chief themes of the Sonnets:
the poet’s sense of disgrace. “There can be no doubt that the poet is referring to something
real that he expects his friends to know about; in fact, he makes clear that a wide public
knows about it. Once again the poet’s situation matches Oxford’s. He has been a topic of
scandal on several occasions, and his contemporaries saw the course of his life as one of
decline from great wealth, honor, and promise to disgrace and ruin.”

Lost fame

Sobran argues that, although William Shakespeare’s name was famous by the time The Rape
of Lucrece (1594) was published, “The author of the Sonnets expects to be forgotten, while
he is confident that his poetry will immortalize his young friend, not himself.”