Hamlet's Secrets Revealed: The Real Shakespeare: Volume Ii

By Marilyn Savage Gray

In the countless works about Shakespeare, no other book than this one has pinpointed in the play Hamlet everything shocking, amusing, or momentous in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I as well as the major events in the life of Edward de Vere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 18, 2001
• ISBN: 9781469735412

Marilyn Savage Gray

While at Stanford University, where she completed her degree, hearing from an English major that little was known about Shakespeare, Marilyn first felt her desire to find something new about him. Marilyn then enrolled at San Jose State College, receiving a General Secondary, then taught high school English, including Shakespeare.

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HAMLET’S SECRETS REVEALED

The Real Shakespeare: Volume II

Marilyn Savage Gray

Writers Club Press

San Jose New York Lincoln Shanghai

Hamlet’s Secrets Revealed

The Real Shakespeare:

Volume II

All Rights Reserved © 2001 by Marilyn S. Gray

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

Writers Club Press an imprint of iUniverse.com, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-1-4697-3541-2 (ebook)

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Contents

PREFACE

Hamlet’s Secrets Revealed

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

ACT SECOND

Scene I

Scene II

Hamlet, ACT THIRD

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

ACT FOURTH

ACT V

CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

—Hamlet’s Secrets Revealed

Welcome to volume two of The Real Hamlet. But, dear reader, if you have not yet read volume one, please pause, and read that book before beginning this one.

You will need to know the life of the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, for this book to make sense to you.

The problem exists with the complex composition of Hamlet, for its clues dips into his current history, past history, his own life, and the lives of illustrious ones and his friends and family. Nothing is sequential; but that is the way he wrote it. We read about a contracted with a brow of woe describing Elizabeth’s funeral near the beginning and near the end we read about forty thousand brothers who were the forty thousand who mutinied in the support of Queen Mary Tudor, years before Elizabeth even began her reign. I make no apologies. This is the way he wrote it.

In order to help the reader, there are four different fonts given. Information about the realm or Elizabeth is in Times New Roman, like this sentence. Place or name clues are distinguished by Courier New, 12 point font, like this. AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR, EDWARD DE VERE, THE SEVENTEENTH EARL OF OXFORD, IS GIVEN IN CARLETON 12

POINTS. The actual lines of the play, that the characters speak, are printed in Arial 13.

There is another problem. Every clue is given at least two times, which makes analytical reading repetitious. You will constantly feel, Yes, I read that before. Indeed you did, but he is stating the fact in a different way.

Though clues are given two times, there are more than two references to his sorry state throughout—deprived of name, and of property.

But, particularly if you are a Hamlet scholar, and willing to wade through repetitions, it will be well worth your time. Passages of Hamlet that never made sense before will suddenly gleam through with crystal clarity and you can say, Of course, of course.

Incidentally, I typed into the computer all the names in the indexes of four Oxford biographies, alphabetized them, and took out all who were only mentioned a few times and also eliminated those who were not his contemporaries. I was able to find hints in the play Hamlet identifying every one of Oxford’s friends and associates by name. Jackpot! Another powerful authorship clue! You will find, listed at the end of this book, all those names, identified by an incident or at times by the name itself, inserted incongruously within the play’s text, eg. safely Stowed.

So now begin your adventure, of sorts. The play as familiar as your garden will now blossom with different flowers—different meanings for the lines you thought you knew so well..

And you will be treated to a number of poetry selections written under the various pen names of de Vere; most of them of the same superb quality as the works we have known as Shakespearean.

When you finish, among your peers, you will be the Hamlet scholar and the only one able to explain the most difficult passages. Hope you will enjoy your coming adventure.

Hamlet’s Secrets Revealed

But what proof do we have that Oxford wrote the plays? The first confirmation is the fact that he was able to weave his name into Hamlet’s dialogue! His full title, listed in Ward’s Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, pages 80 & 199 and Ogburn’s Mysterious William Shakespeare, Myth and Reality, page 498 is Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, Viscount Bulbeck, Lord Sanford, Baron Scales and Badlesmere, Lord Great Chamberlain of England.

To sign his name openly, publicly claiming his work, may have been a death sentence because he had been branded an atheist in the State Papers according to page 120 of Ruth Loyd Miller’s Volume One of three volumes, called Shakespere Identified. He turned atheist, says Ward in the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, page 143. Charlton Ogburn in Mysterious William Shakespere, Myth and Reality, on page 461 declares, That crime could be subject to death. And whatever he wrote under his own name would be put on the index, a list of books that must be destroyed. He admits in V ii 15 On the supervise, not to stay the grinding of the ax, my head should be cut off.

Fortunately for us he was able to conceal his signature. Let’s consider his first given name, Edward. He owned a ship, the Edward Buenaventure, a large one, weighing 300 tons, and he gave it his own first name. OG 703 He refers to it in the next speech, said about Hamlet by Polonius:

II   ii 172: See how the poor wretch comes reading. I shall board him.

III    II ii 126 while this machine is to him Hamlet

One of the meanings of machine given in Webster is a ship or other boat.

So now we have Edward. But where is the de for de Vere?

Notice the second syllable of the contraction for par Dieu (perdy),

IV   ii 315 If the King like not the comedy, why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. Said aloud, it sounds like the De in de Vere.

Several hundred words beginning with Ver in French have been worked into Hamlet and you will find them all in Book Three, The Vere Words, but he left us a Vere clue in English found in II ii 436 One fair daughter. Vere was pronounced in Renaissance times to rhyme with fair.

For the Seventeenth, Earl of Oxford, we have the sum of two numbers given by the clown: V i 190 A’will last you some eight year or nine year.

The spelling of Laertes in the 1604 first edition differed from the modern, conventional rendering as it is written in Homer. Originally, in the first Hamlet, that character was spelled Leartes! That intentional misspelling makes it easier to change the first syllable of this character’s name into Earl by simply transposing the L! Earl...tes!

A yoke of oxen means a pair of them fastened together by a wood harness. When they are unyoked (V i 60, Unyoke), each is just one single ox (OX is the first syllable for Oxford).

The second syllable of Oxford, ford is found in V i 253 fordo—The corpse they follow did with desperate hand fordo its own life. FORD!

But there is more! The word Bis, is a renaissance instruction to repeat the refrain, a second time, and sounds much like Vis in Viscount.

V i 94 My lord such a one that praised my lord such a one’s horse when he meant to beg it

Where is the title count? The scholar’s notes in the back of my copy of Hamlet define the word tell as count.

I ii 237 While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

For the first syllable of Bulbeck, which was his earliest, childhood, title, we have:

V i 129 They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that.

Beck, the second syllable of Bulbeck remains the same: : III i 129 More offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in Lord? Easy: III iv 95 Not the twentieth part the tithe of your precedent Lord. For Sandford II ii 55 Well, we shall sift him What is better sifted than sand?

We have another reference for the ford in his titles Sandford and Oxford. To Ford means to cross at a shallow place, which requires taking a measurement of the depth of the water (sounding). Say this quickly: III i 08 Forward to be Sounded The first word, slurred a little, could be ford, and the definition of that action follows. Or, if you prefer, use this passage for ford: I i 31 Let us once again assail your ears that are so fortified against our story.

Baron Scales? III ii 50 Will cause some barren spectators to laugh, too. Scales is the same word: IV v 159 Thy madness shall be paid with weight ‘till our scale turn the beam. I ii 13 In equal scale weighing delight and dole (Scale). So, giving two examples makes the word scale plural—scales!

Where is the Bad in Badlesmere? To define badness, he put in a whole line.

III i 125, "I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.

Le Mere is commonly known to mean the sea in French. V ii 13 My sea gown scarf about me in the dark. Badlesmere!

Where is his final title, Lord Great Chamberlain of England? First comes Lord: III ii 140 Nay ‘tis twice two months, my lord.

Next, we look for great. IV vi 222 Where the offense is, let the great axe fall. Chamber stays the same, V i 221 Get thee to my lady’s chamberV i 196 Lain This skull hath lain in the earth.

For the last word, we find II i 179: Thus set it down, he shall with speed to England.

Could all this be chance? Possibly, but not probably, since we can find all the syllables in his long title! In the line by line analysis of Hamlet you are about to read, all the major events of his century are hinted at (A Whole History III ii 318) and many passages appear which are obviously descriptions of events in the life of the Earl of Oxford. The entire weight of all the evidence simply cannot be explained away by coincidence!

He does include a whole history in these short and abstract chronicles of the time. He vaguely, laconically, in a word or short phrase, alludes to every dramatic event in his century; all that is shocking, frightening, amusing, flamboyant!

Consider who selected these vignettes. You are about to be taken under the wing of the man who wrote Shakespeare and, with him leading the way, you will be shown everything that was dramatic, or shocking, or delightfully amusing!. You and Shakespeare alone together, exploring his life and times, events he has selected himself.

Every clue—every incident and every name is referred to twice! In many cases, I have found the two references; but sometimes only one. Perhaps you will locate the other.

But first, so that you can know the source of each reference, you’ll find on the next couple of pages codes for the books whence this information comes and the pages. Some are self published and hard to buy, such as Ruth Loyd Miller’s trilogy, Shakespeare Identified, Oxfordian Vistas, and A Hundred Sundry Flowers available from Kennikat Press, Port Washington, New York 11050. Her address is P.O. Box 1309; Jennings, Louisiana 70546. Phone orders [phone]; or [phone]. Feldman’s Hamlet Himself comes from Mr. Owen Feldman, 7844 Montgomery Ave, Elkins Pk, PA 19117. Hue & Cry, is by Preston M. Fleet but has moved from his previous address. Shakespeare and the Tudor Rose by Elisabeth Sears should be available from bookstores very soon.

Codes and Source Books

Thanks to the Folger Shakespearean Library for the 1580 Paradise of Dainty Devices.

Thanks to the Library of Congress for copies of five 16th century dictionaries.

Thanks to the Huntington Memorial Library for a copy of one of the 16th century dictionaries.

The Tragedy of

HAMLET, PRINCE

OF DENMARK

ACT FlRST

Scene I

Elsinore. A Platform before the castle. Francisco at his post.

Name Clue: Francisco. Edward’s first cousin, son of his uncle Geoffrey, his father’s brother, was Francis Vere. In 1584 he was 24 years old, already Captain of the English Volunteers in the Netherlands. He and his younger brother Horace, called Horatio in this play and even in the government records, were known as the fighting Veres and were able to lead their British troops to defeat the infantry of Spain; which, up to now had been unconquerable. HIMSELF 49, WHOWAS 42.

Enter to him Bernardo. Bernard or Barnard is the sheep in the beast epic: Reynard the Fox. The nickname Elizabeth gave Hatton was her sheep. But Bernard is very close to Barnard which means a decoy for swindlers; a sharper. Hatton played this role in Oxford’s life until the Queen was so upset about it that she took Hatton to task!

Place name clue: Baynard Castle. This was the name of a tower on the Thames between Blackfriars and London Bridge and was owned by Lord Pembroke, into which family Oxford’s younger daughter, Susan, married. There at Baynard Castle in 1559 the Queen took to her boat and became in the April dusk, a center of a glittering water spectacle. ^Hundreds of boats and barges rowing about her and thousands of people thronged to the waterside. Trumpets blew, drums beat, flutes played, guns discharged and fireworks rose into the air." E&L 50

I i 1 Ber: Who’s there?

The eternal question of authorship are the first words spoken in the play. Who is there, behind these words, the farmer Shakspere or Edward de Vere. And, there is more than one person who’s there. In this play are allusions to over 100 friends, and close associates of the Earl of Oxford! That is who is there.

I i 2 Nay,   Whatever answer the unenlightened might give as to the question, who’s there? is the wrong one! Hence the answer Nay! William Shakespeare was not the author of the plays. And, the name of the true author is not the only answer for the query Who’s there but also there are hundreds of friends and associates of the Earl of Oxford whose identities are loosely concealed within the lines of the play.

I i 2 Stand and unfold yourself.

Stanley, the Earl of Derby, married Elizabeth Vere and found his unfolding in working with the plays alongside of Edward de Vere, only eleven years his senior.

I i 10 Fran. Not a mouse stirring.

Name Clue: Oxford’s uncle by marriage, Edmund, Baron Sheffield, husband of Edward’s father’s sister, died in the battle at Mousehold Heath, fighting for the Crown. Sheffield was only 28, gifted in music; and had written a book of sonnets in the Italian fashion

In 1549, for six weeks rebel Robert Kett held the city of Norwich. British aristocrats had enclosed the common lands, formerly open to all tenant farmers for grazing sheep. Those sheep, now being kept close, were unable to feed on grass, so they devoured the peasants’ vegetable gardens, even pulling down the cottage thatch to eat. Villages which had once housed a hundred laborers now held ten or less. Many communities were deserted, their roofless huts in ruins; their produce patches untended, and their land overrun by sheep.

Thousands of rebels broke down the hedges and fences enclosing the common lands and gathered in a great mob on Mousehold Heath. This territory was in the Duke of Norfolk’s (Oxford’s first cousin’s) jurisdiction. Robert Dudley’s father, John, arrived with twelve thousand men, including German mercenaries, to put down the uprising. Afterwards, three thousand—mostly peasants were left dead. (Not many rebels were stirring after that in Mousehold Heath. )

. OG 416, Duke 26, 66, First Liz 94, 95, ETC.

I i 12 Ber. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, the rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Name clue: The character Marcellus, sells us on the idea of name clues. His name for what indicatedare to be his spoken lines appears either high or low on the page as Mar. The Mar high, the Duke of Mar, was a close friend of King James the fifth of Scotland who became King James the first of England.

Name clue: Mar low-the Mar abbreviation appearing further down on the pages represents Marlowe, Christopher Marlowe, the poet-dramatist who was a close friend of Edward’s. It was only to two of his fellow dramatists that his indebtedness as a writer of either comedy or tragedy was material or emphatically defined (Lyly and Marlowe) RLM ID 268

Marlowe’s poem, Come live with me and be my Love is followed in England’s Helican by, Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd with the last verse declaring, But could youth last and love still breed, Had joys no date, nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move, To live with thee and be thy love. It’s signed IGNOTO, one of Oxford’s pennames.

I i 15 Is Horatio there? (Horace Vere was Edward’s cousin WHOWAS 42)

I i 19 A piece of him. In French, one of the meanings of piece is play. So this is a play about

Horatio Vere, and, indeed Hamlet seems to prefer Horatio to all other characters in the drama. The word piece is put in near the beginning of the work, I believe, to alert us to watch for clues in French.

I i 29 Hor: Tush, tush, ‘twill not appear (meaning the ghost).

Name clue: Tichfield Castle. In 1591, Elizabeth visited her seventeen-year old son, Southampton, at Tichfield Castle in the company of her Lord Treasurer, Burley, who wanted the boy to marry Elizabeth Vere, his granddaughter. Sears 52

I i 31 Let us once again assail your ears that are so fortified against our story. Fortified is a name clue as it begins with the second syllable of Oxford, who is trying to assail our ears that are closed against the possibility of his authorship.

I i 35 Bern. Last night of all, when yond same star that’s westward from the pole.... Name clue: John Dee, astrologer. Writing of Oxford it was asked, for who marketh better than he the seven turning flames of the sky? And such knowledge on Oxford’s part is probably due to his friendship with Dee. Besides the one star (Prince out of thy star) referring to Oxford’s family crest, seven times a star, or stars are mentioned in Hamlet. OG 474, 475

I i 54: Is not this something more than fantasy? (This is more than just a play, which is a fantasy. This contains authorship information.)

I i 62 : So frown’d he once, when in an angry parle, he smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. In July 1597, Paulus, an emissary from Poland appeared in London. Queen Elizabeth summoned her entire court to give him welcome and to hear what she thought was going to be a complimentary speech. He kissed her hand. Then, he stepped back, speaking in Latin, and he scolded the Queen for disrupting his King Sigismund’s commerce with Spain!

(Spain was still making war on England.) He made threats that his master would punish her if she did not behave. Instead of calling for her Lord Chancellor to answer, she leapt from her throne, and broke out in Latin, I looked for an Embassy, but you have brought a complaint! ...Never in my life have I heard such an oration! I marvel at so great and such unaccustomed boldness in a public assembly. Neither do I think, if your King were present that he would say so much. For your part, you seem to be. ..ignorant what is to be observed between Kings. But were it not for the place you hold, to have so public an imputation thrown upon our justice...we would answer this audacity of yours in another style. And for the particulars...we will appoint some of our council to confer with you...In the meantime, farewell and be quiet. The Ambassador retreated. Elizabeth broke into laughter and said,

God’s death my Lords, but I have been enforced this day to scour up my old Latin that hath lain long rusting. HIMSELF 113, SAYINGS 180 ESSEX 181&182.

I i 64 ‘Tis strange.

Name clue: Fernando Stanley, Lord Strange was the Earl of Derby before that title passed to his younger brother who was to become Oxford’s son in law after Fernando’s death. Shakespeare’s company was formed out of the members of Lord Strange’s company when he died. He had become the fifth Earl of Derby in 1593 OG 100 OG 731

I i 65.Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour

Name clue: Hopton Would a long jump be equal to a ton of hops? Ralph Hopton traveled in Europe with Oxford and his entourage. When Philip Sidney was at Strasbourg the same time Lord Oxford was, Ralph Hopton, son of the Lieutenant of the Tower, detached himself from Sidney’s retinue and joined that of Oxford. ID 192. Evidently he jumped at the chance.

Admiral Thomas Seymour, uncle of young King Edward VI, had brought the fifteen year old Elizabeth to his home, since his wife, Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII, was the girl’s stepmother. Seymour started coming into Elizabeth’s bedroom very early in the morning before she was fully dressed. Asking how she was, he’d strike her upon the back or on the buttocks familiarly while she struggled, blushing, into her petticoat. Then he started coming even earlier, at the dead hour before dawn. He’d burst into the room, throw open the bedcurtains and jump at her. Kat Ashley (who slept in the room with her) bade him go away for shame. FIRST LIZ 69

I i 73 Why such daily cast of brazen cannon, and foreign mart for implements of war?

Place clue : Cannonberry. Queen Elizabeth had a house in Canonbury and in 1596 Oxford stayed with his son in law in Cannon Row OG 742.

Place clue: Warwick castle. This seems to be the only time the singular word war is mentioned. It is the first syllable for Warwick, wick or snuff, near the end of the play, being the second.

I i 75 Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task does not divide the Sunday from the week; what might be toward doth make the night joint-laborer with the day.

Name Clue: What might be toward from Sunday is, of course, Monday. Oxford’s friend, Anthony Munday, was sent as a spy to Italy to find out what might be toward or about to happen among the priests being trained there for a British invasion.

Edward received undercover evidence from his secretary Anthony Munday. OG 638

Before Elizabeth said farewell to her French Prince and fiancé, Alencon, at Canterbury, she took him to the dockyards at Chatham where so many ships being built astounded him and his train. Masts of completed ships shaded the quays like groves. and in the shipwrights were even then working on boats of new design. The French courtiers with Alencon exclaimed, Well might nations call Queen Elizabeth the Queen of the Sea! E&L 228 , J 249.

I i 76 That this sweaty haste...

Name clue: Lord Henry Hastings, Third Earl of Huntington, was the great great grandson of George Duke of Clarence (who had died in the Tower, drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.) Henry Hastings derived his Plantagenet descent from the brother of King Edward IV and from King Richard III. When Elizabeth was sick unto death with smallpox, Hastings was suggested as her successor.

Only one other Plantagenet had a nearer claim to the throne—if Elizabeth died without issue—and that was Edward Courtenay. His ancestor had been the daughter of Edward IV, the Princess Katherine Plantagenet.

But very soon into Elizabeth’s reign, Courtenay died mysteriously in Venice. E&L 23

Perhaps Hastings was sweating out such a possible end for himself when he said How far I have always been from conceiting any greatness of myself...how ready I have always been to shun applause both by my continual low sail and my carriage. E&L 101

Edward de Vere at age twelve was betrothed to Mary Hastings, the Earl of Huntington’s little sister. Henry Hastings and his wife, though married for years, had no children.

I i 80 Our last king whose image even but now appear’d to us, was as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, ... dared to the combat in which our valiant Hamlet For this side of our known world esteem’d him

Name clue: Fortinbras in French means strong in arms (but not in legs?) James had small, bent legs because of rickets acquired in childhood and one foot turned permanently outwards ETC(King James, Antonia Fraser, page 34)

Name clue: Our known world Ignoto or unknown had been one of Oxford’s pennames. After the information revealed in Hamlet he never need be unknown again. He will be KNOWN!

Drake’s sailing round the world made it known; but the Spanish called him Master Thief of the unknown world. OG 693, ETC.

I i 82 Who is ‘t that can inform me.

Name clue: Who’ll (Hoole) Hoole was arrested in the scandal of helping to try to rescue from the tower Oxford’s cousin, Thomas Howard, Earl of Norfolk. Of the three involved, Barney, Mather, and Hoole, the latter was the only one that was not executed. Letters 55

It is he who’ll tell Oxford what might happen to him because of his involvement in trying to rescue Norfolk.

I i 84 dared to the combat, in which our valiant Hamlet...did slay this Fortinbras, who by a seal’d compact, well ratified by law and heraldry, did forfeit, with his life, all those lands, which he stood seiz’d of to the conqueror: Against the which, a moiety competent was gaged by our king which had return’d to the inheritance of Fortinbras, had he been vanquisher, as by the same cov’nant and carriage of the article design’d, his fell to Hamlet.

Though Mary was not slain, (HID 639) Sussex weakened her power so much that it was 15 years later before she began plotting to depose Elizabeth again.

I i 86 Fortinbras, who by a seal’d compact, well ratified by law and heraldry did forfeit with his life all those lands which he stood seized of to the conqueror.

Name clue: Lyly The word Heraldry meaning the science of armorial bearings doesn’t quite belong here. That is because it is really a Name clue. The Fleur de Lis which means the flower of the lily is a heraldic symbol used both in France and Britain. Lyly was Oxford’s theater manager, who took credit for writing the plays. But when he betrayed Oxford by becoming Cecil’s spy, he was fired in 1592, the year that marked the end of his playwriting. He pleaded unsuccessfully with Cecil to intercede. He forfeited the payment he was getting for works really written by Oxford. Lyly was called the fiddlestick of Oxford. OG 728 Significantly after Edward switched to a different fiddlestick, the country lad Shaxpere, Lyly never wrote another play! HIMSELF 41

Having written nothing before his association with Oxford, Lyly, after its end wrote no more plays though he desperately needed the kind of income his writing had brought. OG628

I i 89 (This Fortinbras) did forfeit, with his life, all those lands which he stood seized of, to the conqueror, against the which, a moiety competent was gaged by our king which had return’d to the inheritance of Fortinbras had he been vanquisher, as, by the same covenant and carriage of the article designed, his fell to Hamlet.

An earlier Scottish King, James V, defeated in the battle of Solway Moss in 1542, lost lands that were later returned to England. (Encyclopedia of World History Page 370)

I i 96 ...Young Fortinbras, of unimproved metal hot and full hath in the skirts of Norway, shark’d up a list of lawless res-olutes..

Name clue: In the skirts of Norway. Elizabeth had many skirted ladies in waiting. One of England’s monarchs ladies in waiting was Elizabeth Trentham, who later became Edward’s second wife. An archaic meaning of trend is to pass along the border, to SKIRT! Skirts of Norway? Trend-ham!

In the skirts of Norway shifts its meaning to another woman by the time the reader reaches the words shark’d up a list of lawless resolutes. Elizabeth Trentham comes down in history as law-abiding and responsible.

This speech is about another woman contemporary to Elizabeth who was trying not only to equal but also to outdo the English Queen. Mary, Queen of Scots, great granddaughter of Henry VII, had declared herself the rightful Queen of England and wore the arms of Britain and the English Leopards on her robes and even engraved them on her dishes, though this was a lawless thing to do, usurping Elizabeth’s rights. In the Skirts of Norway, this helps identify her as she had declared she would follow her lover Bothwell anywhere in her white petticoat.

In 1569, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, grandson of King Henry’s Treasurer Norfolk, thrice widowed and now single, the highest ranking aristocrat in England with a patrimony extending back to King Edward the Confessor, predating the conquest, was approached through intermediaries by Mary, Queen of Scots, also widowed and single with a proposal. Marry me, and our children will rule England and Scotland forever! Norfolk, was sulking because he was being left out of governmental decisions with Cecil and Dudley, both of commoners, determining everything. Thomas couldn’t resist Mary’s lure and joined the conspiracy. With Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, he plotted to free Mary from her house arrest at Tutberry and bring thousands of volunteers and foreign troops into London.

THOMAS HOWARD WAS A FIRST COUSIN OF THE EARL OF OXFORD, BEING THE SON OF OXFORD’S FATHER’S SISTER FRANCIS WHO HAD MARRIED SURREY, EDWARD DE VERE SERVED IN COMBAT UNDER SUSSEX WHEN HE WAS NINETEEN YEARS OLD/ FIGHTING FOR THE CROWN, SINCE EDWARD CONSIDERED HIMSELF ENGAGED TO THE QUEEN THAT YEAR, ALL THE LANDS THAT WERE TABULATED TO BE RETURNED TO THE

CROWN WERE WHAT HE THOUGHT WOULD BE PART OF HIS TERRITORY WHEN HE WORE THE CROWN MATRIMONIAL

I i 95 Now, sir, (young Fortinbras) .. hath in the skirts of Norway here and there, shark’d up a list of lawless res-olutes for food and diet to some enterprise that hath a stomach in ‘t which is no other, as it doth well appear unto our state but to recover of us, by strong hand and terms com-pulsatory those foresaid lands so by his father lost and this, I take it, is the main motive of our preparations...

How were lands lost by the Duke of Norfolk’s father? His father, Earl of Surrey, had boasted that if anything happened to Henry VIII, his own father, Treasurer Norfolk should stand for the King. Yet Surrey was put to death for his presumption in wearing his royal arms in the wrong quarter. Surrey’s oldest son, Oxford’s first cousin, the Fourth Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, was specifically debarred from claiming the properties which had been decreed forfeit to the Crown upon his father’s execution. He wanted them back!

He corresponded with Mary Queen of Scots who wanted to marry him and she proposed that the two of them, backed by Catholics in England and an invasion from Spanish troops would rule Britain.

When Cecil in 1569 discovered the plot, Northumberland and Westmoreland were ordered to come to Court. Alarmed by the discovery, they prematurely called up their revolt and ordered their tenants in the North to rise. In a few days, they headed up 5,000 men, but the Catholic Midlands did not rise as had been expected. Elizabeth appointed the Earl of Sussex to lead the defence and he marched against the rebels. After six weeks, in triumph, Sussex hanged as an example some 750 rebels, all men who had no property. The wealthy, the landowners, were spared so that their property could be forfeit to the Queen and moieties—(property dollar amounts) were drawn up as to how much from each would be given to the crown. HID 637, 639, DUKE 29,11,16-20 WARD 35, VIRTUE 169,170 DUKE 170, 175 etc.

The word Now, in this Hamlet passage, according to scholar Eva Turner Clark, moves the action forward from the rebellion of 1569 to the conspiracy of 1583, date of the writing of Hamlet. Crown Prince James was around 18 years old and was being worked on by his mother Mary’s relatives, the French Guises. Young James shook off the influence of the English and went over into the camp of the Scottish Catholics. Mary told Elizabeth that any promises she might have made to the Queen of England at an earlier time were now withdrawn and void unless she was liberated at once.

The Guises sent an envoy to the Pope, who promised to finance four thousand Spanish soldiers for their cause to land in Lancanshire. Scots from the border would come down and join the English Catholics and the troops from Spain. HID 640, CECIL 380

The term Enterprise was the generic word for the forcible re-conversion of England to Catholicism 2Q 194 Mary of Scots was said to be Marvelous stout in her determination to claim England for herself, hence the line I i 100 has a stomach in it. 2Q 86-98

Looking backward fourteen years, from the present 1583 back to 1569, it was in the Duke of Lennox’s pursuing lands lost by his father the events came about that ultimately resulted in the birth of King James of Scotland, later to be King of England. Before Mary Queen of Scots took her second husband, Darnley; before little King-to-be James was ever born, Darnley’s father the Duke of Lennox had asked permission of Queen Elizabeth to go to Scotland to try to recover lands lost by his father in Henry’s wars. His wife, Margaret, was a cousin to Elizabeth since she was the daughter of the sister of Henry VII.

Margaret and Lennox had a son of marriageable age, Henry Lord Darney. The Earl of Lennox had been living in England, exiled from his home in Scotland since the mid 1540’s. Trying to do him a favor, in 1563, Elizabeth wrote Mary Queen of Scots urging that permission be given to Lennox to come home and set his long neglected affairs in order. But Elizabeth insisted that Lady Lennox remain as a sort of hostage for his good behavior. Lennox took his son with him. The young man fell sick with smallpox in Scotland, and Mary, now a young widow, nursed him back to health. Doing that kindly service, she fell in love with him, and made up her mind to marry him. They both had a claim to the English throne as they were both grandchildren of Henry VIII’s sister Margaret. After marrying Darnley, Mary’s claim to the English throne would be strengthened.

When Elizabeth heard of the coming wedding, she ordered Lennox and his son to come back home to England immediately, but she was ignored. Lady Lennox was sent to the tower.

Elizabeth sent her disapproval the day of the marriage and Mary answered, The greatest princes in the world have consented and she knew of no good reason who Elizabeth should not like it. And how about releasing the Countess of Lennox from the Tower! Tamworth, Elizabeth’s envoy described Mary as being Marvelous stout. 2Q 8698 Stomach in’t is an Elizabethan phrase for courage.

I i 104 And this, I take it, is the main motive of our preparations, the source of this our watch and the chief head of this post haste and romage in the land.

EDWARD DE VERE WAS ALSO STlLL TRYING TO GET BACK PROPERTlES LOST AT THE TIME OF HIS FATHER’S DEATH IN THE SPURIOUS WlLL, AND IN THE RoMAGE oF THis PLAY HE HoPEs ALso To BE ABLE TO SALVAGE HIS OWN IDENTlFY AND ESTABLISH HIS AUTHORSHlP,

I i 113: A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye, in the high and palmy state of Rome.

Palmy has two meanings.

One Palm Sunday, in her sister, Queen Mary Tudor’s reign, Elizabeth found herself escorted by Winchester and Sussex on a barge proceeding toward downriver London Bridge. The Queen had advised the people to keep to the church and carry their palms, so no one could see what was happening to her sister. Twenty year old Elizabeth, passenger on the boat, was horrified to discover she was being taken to the tower. Once on land, she sat down in the rain. Chided not to go inside, since she might catch cold, she declared, It was better sitting here, than in a worse place, for God knows, I know not whither you will bring me. FIRST LIZ 127

Palmy also means an outstretched hand expecting a bribe. To gain an audience with Queen Elizabeth, the Lord Chamberlain or any other official, the suitor had to present ‘gifts’ of money or valuables. FIRST LIZ 350. Bribes paid (Elizabeth’s) servants were indirect taxes, freely offered, and welcome. Some posts were lucrative enough to merit a large bribe.

For example, the Earl of Essex made discreet inquiries as to the amount of income the Master of Wards could expect and was shown a list of nine official payments to Cecil totaling nine hundred and six pounds. But with that official list went a secret estimate of the gratuities that Cecil had received from those to whom he had granted those nine wardships and they totaled three thousand and sixteen pounds. To prevent men offering and receiving gratuities for favors rendered would have required increasing official salaries to levels the Queen simply could not afford. ESSEX 28, 29

...Men would bid up to 400 pounds to secure apparently worthless positions like the Clerkship of the Court of Wards, nominally valued at ten pounds a year but worth some thousands of pounds to him, who after his death, would go immediately to heaven; twice as much to him who would go to purgatory and nobody knows what to him who would adventure to go to hell’ Cited in Hurtsfield, J., The Queen’s Wards, Wardship and Marriages under Elizabeth I (London 1958) p. 343 per ESSEX p. 28

Though Cecil claimed he was the poorest aristocrat in the Kingdom when he was knighted and made Lord Burghley, at his death his estate included 300 landed estates. ID 214

I i 115.A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

In an act much like the assassination of Julius Caesar; in 1588, Henry III of France secretly ordered the Duke of Guise to be assassinated. The French King had given no hint he was displeased with the Duke. Guise, who had been attending a meeting Council Chamber was asked to go immediately to the King’s apartments to meet with the monarch. On the way he was attacked by the Forty-five, members of Henry III’s trusted bodyguard. Some of them held his arms to keep him from being able to draw his sword while the others stabbed him to death with their daggers. VIRTUE 296 A few years earlier, this same Henry, then Crown Prince Anjou, gave his requirements for marrying Elizabeth. They had included being crowned King of England, becoming joint ruler with her over the British Isles, and being given 60,000 pounds a year for life. He demanded the privilege of ruling Britain by himself if the queen should die before him. J 175

By contrast, when English Queen Mary Tudor married Philip of Spain, he agreed before the wedding to have no hand in the government of the country and in case of Mary’s death he did not expect to succeed her as ruler of England. ETC Encyclopedia World History P. 372

Some years before the assassination of the Duke of Guise there had been a great procession through Paris headed by the Bishop, with then King Francis, behind him, followed by his sons, and the clergy behind the bishop and the royal family. Each one of them carried a torch to light the fires under the heretics bound to the stakes. Francis said every Protestant in Paris would be burned alive! HARRY 268

It was to prevent the marriage with Anjou, who later became King Henry the Third of France, that Edward got the Queen with child.

Under English law, a woman’s property, titles, and incomes passed to her husband. If an English Queen died, her husband would become King. HARRY 148

I i 115 The graves stood tenantless,

On July 6, 1553, a storm came and the summer day was black as night. King Henry VIII’s young son King Edward was heard by his doctor praying, Lord Thou knowest how happy I shall be may I live with thee forever, yet would I might live and be well for thine elect’s sake. But that very evening he died. The weather suddenly turned furious with thunder and lightning, darkness and wind. It was said that in the worst of the storm, the grave of Henry VIII had opened and old King Harry had risen at this crossing of his will. J 39 Rumor was that his son, King Edward, had been poisoned. Spitting blood, ulcers on his feverish body, his belly swollen and his limbs shrunken, his head swollen to the shape of a melon, the boy had died a strange death FIRST LIZ 103 His hair and nails were falling out, with eruptions