Anne Cecil, Elizabeth & Oxford

Anne Cecil, Elizabeth & Oxford
by Percy Allen

xi. 46 points of evidence connecting Hamlet with the year 1583, 18 connecting Loves Labors Lost with the year 1578

Dark lady is Elizabeth 1?
Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It
Hermia and Helen in Midsummer Nights Dream
Helena and Cressida in Troilus and Cressida
are the queen and Lady Oxford?

Pandarus and Troilus are Burghley and Oxford
Burghley is Lafeu in Alls Well that ends well

March 1575 Oxford and Elizabeth were intimate
Oxford and Anne Cecil were separated 1576-1581
then Oxford out of favor in 1581
1600, in Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels or the Fountain of Self Love
Oxford is Amorphous the Deformed

Iago in Othello and Lucio in Measure for Measure are Howard/Arundel

claims a son was born to Oxford and Elizabeth in 1574 who eventually became confused with Shakespeare
claims Hatton also a lover of the queen

Wivenhoe at the mouth of the Colne is the exile grange

Bottom in Midsummer Nights Dream , in the opening scene of Act IV addresses the fairies as Monsieur eleven consecutive times

similarities of line in Midsummer Nights Dream and Every Man Out of His Humour

Mary Queen of Scots to Elizabeth in 1584:
"I would be ashamed to lead anyone so young as the Earl of Oxford to church"

1577 Les Tragiques by Agrippa D'aubigny is source material for Macbeth and King Lear, in the cauldron scene, the ingredients from the catalog of charms used by Catherine De Medici .

page 124
from a Life of Sir Walter Raleigh by J.A. St.John:
"At the period of which we are speaking, he (Oxford) possessed 2 mysterious and dangerous books, one called the Book of Babies, the other, the Book of Prophecies. In the former, the author had probably collected all the rumours that circulated throughout the realm of Elizabeth's offspring by Leicester. The general belief appears to have been that when the queen found herself enceinte, she left London and went on a progress into the country, where secretly, in some remote castle, she gave birth to her child, which was spirited away, and brought up carefully, under the eyes of Leicester's friends.

Usages of the same names in different plays:

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Measure for Measure
Faulconbridge in King John and Merchant of Venice
Rosaline in Loves Labor Lost, As You Like It, and Romeo and Juliet
William in Merry Wives of Windsor and As You Like It
Claudio in Much Ado about Nothing and Measure for Measure

Elizabeth is Silvia, Portia, Olivia, Phoebe
Anne Cecil is Cressida, Hero and Hermione in the Winter's Tale

Claim that Oxford's land sales were a fraud commited by Burghley to Finance Alencon Perhaps Oxford was fooled into expecting some return from Alencon, who also bankrupted other supporters.

"boar-speare" used by Spencer

Anne Cecil "her reputation was disvalued in levity" Measure for Measure

Shakspere and Sir Walter Ralegh

Shakspere and Sir Walter Ralegh
by Henry Pemberton Jr in 1914

page 8-9
Stratford , in the time of Elizabeth, was a village of some 1200 to 1500
inhabitants...The inhabitants were in the main, grossly illiterate. In 1565 the aldermen and burgesses of the town had the occasion to execute a public document which is still extant. Six only of the nineteen signers, could sign their names, the other thirteen..made their marks. Among the thirteen who were unable to write even their names we find John Shakspere, the father of William.

page 22-23
There can not be produced any evidence based upon contemporary documents ... showing him to have moved in circles other than these (men of low birth and undignified employment... outraged truth and decency in
endeavors to secure heraldic badges of quality) There is not a letter from him, not even a line of his handwriting in existence ...of a host of other well-known writers, no contemporaneous personal allusion to Shakspere occurs...It is altogether improbable that the documents showing Shakspere's life in court circles should have wholly perished, while those that only relate to him as an actor should have been preserved.

page 37 Mr. White is not the only biographer to whom the facts of Shakspere's life are distateful. (suing in courts for small amounts) Ben Jonson refers to Burbage and Hemings(In the masque of Christmas...as being panders...the procuring of young boys for immoral purposes.

page 43
claims for Stratfordian authorship are based on seven things:

1. The publication in 1593 of Venus and Adonis and in 1594 of Lucrece, with dedications to Southampton signed by WIlliam Shakespere

2. In Palladis Tamia, published in 1598, by Francis Meres, those 2 poems, and certain sonnets and dramas are attributed to "Shakespeare".

3. Publications of quarto editions of the plays in and after 1598 with title pages ...they were written by "William Shakespeare" or "Shake-speare" as well as the 1609 publication of "Shake-speare's Sonnets"

4. The allusion to Shakespeare as a dramatist, and especially as a poet, in a number of published works that appeared during the actor's lifetime

and after Shakspere's death:

5. The first folio, published in 1623

6. The Stratford monument

7. Ben Jonson's eulogy of Shakespear in his "discoveries"

page 49-50
Bathyllus was the name of an inferior verse-maker ... during the reign of Augustus ... tells us that the reputed author was only a man-of-straw
It is probable that in many cases the real author who employed the Bathyllus as his factotum or amanuensis occupied the position of patron or benefactor to the man in question. The Bathyllys may, in some instances, have been a writer of more or less ability, or , on the other hand, he may have been the man of little ability described by Greene.

page 56-57
Ben Jonson's Epigram on Poet Ape
"Buy the reversion of old plays...makes each man's wit his own...He marks not whose 'twas first, and after times may judge it to be his...

page 81
Capell and others conjectured that Shakspere was literally lame.

page 137
(Lord Henry) Howard (later earl of Northampton) hated Ralegh with a virulence not easily explicable...

page 189 Histrio in Jonson's Poetaster:

Histrio is an actor
He is referred to as a base, unworthy groom
He is a member of the Globe company of actors
He is a shareholder in that theatre
He is a man of importance in his company, having power to retain a playwright by giving earnerst-money
He is also empowered to hire boy actors to act in the Globe theatre
He is growing rich and purchasing
He is a usurer, as shown by Jonson's statement in the 1616 edition and by his addressing Histrio as "twenty i' the hundred" in the 1602 edition
Some of these players, and inferentially Shakspere himself " are suspected to have some wit, as well as your poets, both at drinking and breaking of jests, and are companions for gallants" This statement appears in the 1616 edition, but not in that of 1602.

page 190-1
The person brought on stage was one of six actors ... the shares of that theatre were held exclusively by the following six men: Richard Burbage, Cuthbert Burbage, William Shakspere, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, John Hemmings.

The seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604

The seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550-1604, from contemporary documents by B.M. Ward 1928

Page 90: "In May we hear of three of Lord Oxford's men holding up two of their former associates on Gad's Hill, near Rochester. The latter submitted a complaint, which is sufficiently curious to warrant inclusion "to the Right Honourable the Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England" and endorsed "Fawnt and Wotton, May 1573 from Gravesend

page 116-117 "Lord Henry Howard was the second son of the poet earl of Surrey, and therefore Oxford's first cousin...Howard and Lumley...shared...the disctinction of being the most learned nobleman of his day...His relations with Lord Oxford are less easy to define> Their mutual love of literature and learning generally would cause them to gravitate together. Its seems probable that prior to 1576 they had been fairly close friends. But any sympathy Oxford may have had for Lord Harry in the past was turned to hatred and disgust when he heard of the latter's vile lies and insinuations about the Countess. His opinion of him after this particularly foul behavior is terse and to the point. We are told he was wont to "affirm to divers that the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard the worst villain in this earth". There is little doubt that in Lord Henry Howard we have found the Iago of the piece. But Burghley at the time evidently believed Lord Henry, for he continued to puzzle it all out.

page 216
May 9th 1583, the burial of the Earl of Oxenford's first son, six years of separation between the Earl and Anne Cecil were over, 2 years out of favor also.
by December Charles Arundel, and Charles Paget and Lord Paget were out of England. In June 1584 the ambassador in Paris "made a formal demand in the name of Queen Elizabeth for the surrender of Lord Paget, Charles Arundel, Thomas Throckmorton, and Thomas Morgan, on the ground that they had conspired against the life of the English queen."

page 234
July 14th 1583 Lord Willoughby sailed from Hull, landed at Elsinore on the 22nd, the Kind of Denmark beging given the garter to attempt to smooth over matters with the Muscovy company in regards to paying tolls to Denmark.

page 248
In 1586 Lord Oxford receive a large annuity from the queen ...
Lord Oxford at this time was a lessee of th Blackfriars Theatre, where his private secretary and actor manager . John Lyly was producing his court comedies. In the winter these comedies were presented before the queen by the Earl's company of boy actors.

page 261
He did not hold, openly at least, any official appointment; He was not a privy concillor; and after 1585 he never left England on any foreign diplomatic mission. Moreovrer, if the 1000 pounds a year was for some secret service in connexion with Home affairs we should expect to find him constantly at court, having audience with the queen or her confidential advisors. But in point of fact, absolutely the reverse is true. From 1586 until his death in 1604 ... his absence from the court is most remarkable. He only attended the House of Lords on 14 occasions, mostly at the opening and proroguing of Parliament. There is no record of his ever having an official audience with the queen, nor is there the slightest indication that he corresponded or conferred with her ministers, in spite of the fact that most of the time he was living at Stoke Newington and Hackney, a stone's throw from Westminster.

page 269
Blackfriars... Lord Oxford, who in turn passed it on to his secretary and actor manager John Lyly ... Lyly subsequently sold the lease to Signor Roco Boneti, the fashionable fencing master. It was here that the latter established his famous shcool ... students of Shakespeare will remember that the Italian's fanatic fencing terms are ridiculed in Romeo and Juliet.

page 272-3
Lyly ... is spoken of as "servant to the Right Honoourable the Earl of Oxford" in a legal document dated may 10, 1587 and in 1589 Gabriel Harvey calls him "the minion secretary"... Not one of Lyly's bigraphers has hitherto succeeded in explaining how he could have been Her Majesty's servant and Lord Oxford's private secretary at one and the same time.

page 275-6
knowledge of Sicily in a Lyly play written, acted and printed while Lyly was Oxford's private secretary ... collaboration of some kind between the two men ... lyrics which are to be found in Lyly's plays ... were not published until ... 1632

page 279
Gabriel Harvey ... reference to Lyly: "Never troubled with any substance of wit, or circumstance of honesty, sometime the fiddlestick of Oxford, now the very babble of London."

page 281-2
Letter from Oxford to Robert Cecil
"But if her majesty, in regard of my youth, time and fortune spent in her court, and her favours and promises which drew me on without any mistrust the more to presume in mine own expenses ..."
his foreign tour had cost him about 5000 pounds, and he must have lost neqrly as much in the Frobisher speculations.

page 287
The countess of Oxford did not long survive the birth of her youngest daughter, for on June 5th 1588 she died of a fever in the Royal Palace at Greenwich ... The chief mourner was the Countess of Lincoln, supported by the Lords Windsor and Darcy, and her train born by the lady Stafford ... among other mourners ... the ladies Russel, Elizabeth Vere, Willoughby sister to the Earl of Oxford, Cobham, Lumley, Hunsdon, Cecil, wife to Sir Thomas Cecil. Six bannerets were borne by Michael Stanhope, Edward Wotton, Anthony Cooke, William Cecil, John Vere and Richard Cecil ...absence of any mention of her husband's name.

page 292ff

at the time of the Armada he was made governor of Harwich. One Sunday Nov.24th, the Queen, accompanied byu the Earl of Oxford and the rest of the nobility went in a procession to St. Paul's, to give thanks for the great victory ... Oxford and Shrewsbury carried the Golden Canopy ...

page 307
1591 Oxford marries Elizabeth Trentham, a maid of honor, evidently sanctioned by the queen.

page 312
"I found sundry abuses, whereby her Majesty and myself were, in my office greatly hindered"

page 313ff
birth of Henry, later the 18th earl, on Feb 24, ? 1593 ?, christened March 31, the name Henry coming either from the earl of Southampton or Norhtumberland. Southampton refused to marry Lady Elizabeth Vere and had to pay 5000 pounds, she wouldn't marry Northumberland, and in 1594 she married William Stanley, a second son who succeeded to his brother's title as 6th earl of Derby. Ferdinando held the title only seven months, when he died at the age of 34, most likely of poison, as he was descended through the Clifford's from Mary sister of Henry 8th. In 1593 a jesuit plot had been disclosed which had its object the dethroning of Elizabeth and placing Ferdinando on the throne. Their engagement was announced three weeks later. ... confused with a renegade (catholic) adventurer Sir William Stanley. who, when governor of Deventer in 1587, betrayed it to the spaniards. The marriage was delayed since the widowed countess of Derby was pregnant, but the child was a girl, so they married on Jan 26, ? 1595 ? in the presence of the Queen and the court ... Midsummer Night's Dream was probably written for this wedding ... 5th earl of Derby had been the commpany's patron until his death.

p 327f
Friendly relations between Oxford and his son in law Derby:
In 1595, 1596, and 1599 we find them visiting each other ... established by documentary evidence
In 1598 Oxford is described as "the best for comedy", in 1599 Lord Derby "is busied only in penning comedies for the common players" and described by Lady Derby as "taking delight in the players"
Not a single play has come down to us which can definitely be ascribed to them ...
They probably worked either anonymously or pseudonymously becuase of the total absence of any play bearing their names, and because Lord Oxford almost certainly worked in this way in the 80s when he was collaborating with John Lyly in the eight court comedies.

For two main reasons I have refrained from comment on what the conservative element asmong literary critics is wont to stigmatise as a "fantastic theory". In the first place, adequate space could not be afforded to the subject without devoting many chapters to its consideration, and in the second place, the treatment of controversial matters that cannot be definitely settled by contemporary documents and evidence is outside the scope of this biography.

p 340ff
Friendly relations with the Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil discussed, renewal of the grant of 1000 a year by King James, Oxford died at Hackney on June 24th, 1604 ... 18th earl died of a fever in 1625 at the early age of 34. He had no children, the earldom passed to his cousin Robert. the title of Lord Great Chamberlain descended to Robert Bertie ... who was created earl of Lindsey in 1626.

p 348
anonymous epitaph
"Edward de Vere, only son of John, born the 12th day of April 1550, Earl of Oxenford, High Chamberlain, Lord Bolbec, Sandford, and Badlesmere, Steward of the Forest in Essex, and of the Privy Council to the King's Majesty that now is. Of whom I will only speak what all men's voices confirm: he was a man in mind and body absolutely accomplished with hounourable endowments"


Appendix p 351f
House of Lords, in 1582 his name was omitted from the list of commisioners for the dissolution of Parliament. This was the only occasion that it was ommitted, and is perhaps attributable to his having fallen under the Queen's disfavor at this period.
In 1601, Lord Oxford's health having begun to decline about this time, he was unable to attend the House. He therefore appointed his friend, Lord Admiral Howard (Earl of Nottingham), to act as his "proxy" during the Session.

p356
The annuity grnated to Oxford is larger than any granted to anyone in the last years of Elizabeth's reign, except for those granted to King James, and to Sir John Stanhope, Master of the posts, granted 1200 pounds a year "for ordinary charges"

p360f
"Willy" is a frequent pastoral name for a shepherd, and was applied promiscuously to many poets at this time. Discussion of poets of the time, in relation to Spencer's use of the term "Willy".

Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton

Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton
by GPV Akrigg

"we shall often lack evidence and be forced back upon conjecture...Probably...There is no proof..If...probably...lost years...speculated...we have no evidence...only conjectures...could be...Probably, it was on some such excursion that William Shakespeare and the young Earl of Southampton first saw eachother."

page 126

"For while the Earl and the counsel were pleading, my lords guzzled as if they had not eaten for a fortnight, smoking also plenty of tobacco. Then they went into a room to give their voices, and there, stupid with eating, and drunk with smoking, they condemned the two earls" M. de Boissise, french ambassador writing home to Henri4 about the trial of Essex and Southampton

June 24, 1604, the same day as the death of the 17th earl of Oxford, the 3rd Earl of Southampton arrested for unknown reasons, his papers seized and scrutinized, and he was interrogated. No documentation survives, we only know of it from embassy reports.

18th earl of Oxford mentioned more in this book than the 17th Earl of Oxford