To prove Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford, wrote the Shakespeare canon, first study his life for parallels with the plays; his itinerary in Europe over a lifetime for his locations of plays; the progression of his early plays at court into the later re-named plots and plays shown to the public in the 1590′s; and the thousands of expressions in his extant writing that re-appear in the pages and poems of “Shake-Speare”, a nick-name which was associated with Oxford from at least 1579.

In one form or another, all remarks in favor of Oxford in this blog dealt with those categories, however briefly. The remarks in favor of Shakspere (or those thinking “Shakespeare” was an actual individual who wrote plays and poems) presented the minimum in fact and the maximum in defensive skills.

It was a good drill, and I continue to feel “the truth should live from age to age, As ’twere retailed to all posterity, Even to the general all-ending day.” It will live on with a little luck and perseverance.

Basse’s poem was published before the First Folio introduction, so as to allow Jonson to reply to it in the introduction and cut off further suggestions of the kind. It was not written as one would expect shortly after Shakspere’s demise. It was written in 1622, as an entree to the publication strategy. Occam’s razor is a principle that applies once you have the facts, not before.

So I have to take exception to the charge that I am believing what I will. Belief in this area develops from an examination of what actually happened, and one’s point of view changes in accordance with reliable additions to the known facts.

For instance in the dedications, Digges’s verses to the author posits posterity’s aversion to new writing “That is not Shake-speare’s every line,” This was specifically printed with a hyphen, a give-away to readers of the time that the name was pseudonymous as with ‘Venus and Adonis and ‘The Rape of Lucrece’. Oxford was referred to as the author of these works quite early and the Shake-speare moniker followed Sidney’s writing pointedly about Oxford’s “shaking of his staffe”. Gabriel Harvey had referred to “Thy countenance shakes a spear at ignorance,” when extolling Oxford ten years before.”

The referenced “well-known poem in English”, i.e., Jonson’s introductory verse to the First Folio, does nothing to support the authorship of the Shakespeare canon by Shakspere. Decoded with the Cardano Grille, it says something very different. There was a reason so cryptic a poem should introduce the greatest work of literature since Dante. If interested, refer to chapter one of a recent book, ‘Proving Shakespeare in Ben Jonson’s Own Words’ by David L. Roper. Both the poem and the Latin distich are cryptologically solved–the message given uniquely, consistently, and unambiguously.

Finally, the dismissal of my statement about the integrity of writer and work. If the reader does not see at least hints of the life and soul of a great author–not talking here of amusement literature–then he is not reading the work. Creator and creation are one. In this case, the two were separated at an early point, that the work could be perpetuated at all. As Roper once explained: “…Of course, this concealment has extended through the ages, proliferated over time, and become the inherited paradigm for every succeeding generation.”

Many have labored to correct the wrong and their scholarship is generally very good, far better than the doctrinal and evidence-less orthodoxy dominating this politically and economically explosive area of knowledge.

William Basse wrote a poem entitled “On Mr. Wm. Shakespeare, he died in April 1616″ (thus he was very clearly referring to the Stratford Shakespeare). Basse was suggesting that Shakespeare should have been buried in Westminster Abbey next to Chaucer, Beaumont, and Spenser (Chambers, II, 226)

So far, I’ve heard nothing that convinces me that Occam’s Razor should not apply to Oxfordian reasoning, and unexamined assumptions like “We cannot really appreciate a body of artistic work if at one and the same time we ignore its creator’s suffering and soul.” don’t impress me.

But, it’s a free country, so believe what you will.

The monument to Shakespeare in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford was in place at least by the time of the First Folio in 1623, since Leonard Digges refers to it in his poem in that volume (see below). On the front of the monument is a two-line Latin inscription:

This is followed by the well-known poem in English:

Stay passenger, why goest thou by so fast?
Read if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed,
With in this monument Shakspeare: with whom
Quick nature died: whose name doth deck the tomb,
Far more than cost: sith all, that he hath writ,
Leaves living art, but page, to serve his wit.

Obiit anno do. 1616
Aetatis 53 die 23 Apr.

Rather than go into this issue in detail, I recommend Chapter 8 of David L. Roper’s ‘Proving Shakespeare’: The First Folio’s Deceptive Tributes. He discusses it well.

As a brief argument explaining why Shakspere was strangely not honored within the literary community after his demise in 1616: it was known who he was and what his role was in English literature. towit compare that response with one occurring after his fellow townsman died. A few months before Shakspere’s death, Francis Beaumont, a far lesser light than “Shake-speare”, was profusely memorialized in London and buried in Westminster Abbey. He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This was about what you would expect. However, neither in Stratford nor in London, nor anywhere else, was Shakspere similarly noted when he died. That event passed without notice.

Nor was Oxford extensively honored by the literary community at his death, though there were considerable recondite tributes without mentioning the connection with his (pseudonymous) works. That would have called attention to someone deeply embarrassing and threatening to the Robert Cecil power base and have been an explicit danger to the writers. There were reasons of class as well to suppress the name of the actual author of such works as Richard the Third, a condemnation of Cecil.

Only indirectly, but unmistakably, was Oxford honored, when six months later a group of “Shakespeare” plays were played at James’s court. The gesture was repeated when his wife died. Such a tribute has never occurred either before or since for any other literary figure.

I know what you mean about “tributes to Shakespeare”, but the surface is not the truth in this case. Whether or not it sounds like “conspiracy thinking”, the contradictions are too great for a position supporting the attribution of the works of “Shakespeare” to the Stratford figure. The truth is elsewhere, and there are virtually no gaps in the circumstantial, linguistic, biographical, and stylistic theory supporting the earl of Oxford. To virtually every doubt I have supplied a reasonable response based on available sources and evidence. I recommend you give the inquiry some thought. We cannot really appreciate a body of artistic work if at one and the same time we ignore its creator’s suffering and soul. The correction of authorship may be embarrassing to certain political, educational, and economic powers, but at this point, we should be able to say, okay it was a mistake all along, so what.

http://shakespeareauthorship.com/eulogies.html

The bulk of Sidney’s writing came out after he died, produced by his sister Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, who was herself a major force in the English Renaissance. This was the protocol in the aristocracy–Henry Howard’s poetry for instance, the originator of free verse and, with Wyatt, the form that Oxford, Howard’s nephew, would make into what is called the Shakespearean sonnet. Mary Herbert later became related to Oxford, through Philip Herbert’s marriage to Oxford’s daughter Susan. Susan was a favorite of James I, who attended their wedding–where Midsummer Night’s Dream was performed–and he proclaimed the eight play gala of “Shakespearean” dramas to honor her father in 1605. There was another such tribute, in 1612, after Oxford’s wife died, fourteen Shakespearean plays. When Shakspere died was there a comparable tribute, or any at all? You already guessed that one.