FREE ESSAY ON THE TRUE AUTHORSHIP OF THE WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

THE TRUE AUTHORSHIP OF THE WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

In 1564, a man was born by the name of William Shakespeare. He was born to a poor family,
was given little education, and had no interaction with sophisticated society.
Thirty-eight plays and over 150 sonnets are not attributed to this ignorant man. Those
who believe that Shakespeare was the author have no definitive proof but instead point to
Hamlet's declaration: "The play's the thing(Satchell 71)." The true author, however, lies
hidden behind he name of Shakespeare. Edward de Vere the premier Earl of Oxford is not
only considered a great poet in history, but he may also be the great playwright who
concocted the sonnets and plays which are now attributed to William Shakespeare of
Stratford, England.
Edward de Vere was the Lord Great Chamberlain and the seventeenth Earl of Oxford. He was
raised as a Royal Ward and from a very young age was educated in the sports and arts of
nobility. Although disgraceful for a nobleman to waste time writing frivolous plays,
Oxford as a young man wrote and staged the entertainment for the court. As an adult, he
became engrossed in theatrical performances and frittered away his fortunes in support of
several writers and actors (Friedman 13). During this time, De Vere also began writing
several poems and plays. Much like Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the name of Mark
Twain, Oxford adopted the pseudonym Shakespeare. Soon after plays appeared under the name
of "Shakespeare," poems by de Vere ceased (Russell 5). Coincidently, the coat of arms of
Lord Bulbeck, a third title of Edward de Vere, is a lion shaking a spear (Ogburn 10). De
Vere was also known by the people as the "spear-shaker" because of excellence at the
tilts and at jousting (Russell 5).
Many believe this pen name was for protection. Many of the plays said to have been
written by Shakespeare explicitly describe the corruption in court politics and contain
"thinly veiled satires and parodies of politicians and courtiers." In addition, public
theatres such as the Globe were laced with prostitutes, drunkards and criminals and
because of the scoundrel audiences, playwrights were held in low esteem. Moreover, many
scholars believe de Vere's reasons for his pseudonym may be linked to the homoerotic
threads in many of the Shakespearean sonnets and de Vere's possible homosexual affair
with his son-in-law. Using his identity would have been a dangerous game when such
affairs were a high crime (Satchell 71).
There are many allusions in Shakespeare's plays which de Vere would have been
particularly familiar with. As a child, de Vere was tutored by Arthur Golding, the
translator of Metamorphoses. This literary work was alluded to several times in
Shakespearean plays. De Vere also studied law and traveled across the continent, spending
a great deal of time in Italy (Tweedale 12). Many references to Italian art and
architecture are also alluded to in Shakespeare's plays. William Shakespeare of
Stratford, however, never left England (Friedman 10).
The author of the Shakespearean plays had to possess a rare knowledge in several
disciplines including physical sciences, medicine, he law, astronomy, and the Bible.
Shakes of Stratford received no formal education with the exception of grammar school
through the equivalent of third grade. De Vere, however, was taught by only the best
tutors (Satchell 71). The Shakespearean plays were also written by one who has had
interaction with the aristocracy and understood the workings of royalty from the inside
out (Friedman 10). Although there is no evidence that Shakespeare moved freely about this
society, de Vere was regarded as a "brilliant ornament of Elizabeth's court" (Sachmartino
13) and as such would have understood what it as like to live in the aristocracy.
De Vere's very life is in many ways represented in the plays attributed to Shakespeare of
Stratford. For example, in the play Hamlet, de Vere describes many of the details of his
life. Like the main character Hamlet, de Vere is virtually a prince and also of Danish
decent. De Vere's cousins, Horance and Francis are strikingly similar in name and action
to Hamlet's two friends, Horatio and Francisco. The anguish Hamlet felt due to his
mother's hasty remarriage after the murder of her husband was also similar to the
distress De Vere felt over his mother's swift remarriage after the murder of his father.
One of the greatest scenes in Hamlet is when Hamlet stabbed Polonius through the arras
and killed him. This is again remarkably comparable to de Vere, who in a fit of rage
stabbed an undercook through a curtain for spying on the young nobleman (Ogburn 173)
Hamlet is not the only literary work in which de Vere describes his life. De Vere's love
affair with Anne de Vavasour is portrayed in Measure for Measure, and his own childhood
is directly correspondent with Macbeth and Orthelo (Ogburn 11).
Oxford died in 1604. This year is also the same year that William Shakespeare retired
from writing his alleged plays. It has been said, "The mouthpiece had to withdraw when
the voice was gone (Friedman 11)." In other word, after de Vere died, his writing
stopped, and therefore William Shakespeare's career was complete and he thereupon
retired.
There are also many verbal parallels in the works accredited to Shakespeare and the
poetry of Edward de Vere. Contemporary authors will obviously have some phrases and
images in common. When hundreds of these similarities are present, however, it tends to
show that the authors either corroborated with each other, or that the authors are one in
the same. This is precisely the case with Edward de Vere and William Shakespeare. Because
we have only a small number of Oxford's acknowledged poetry, it is impossible to trace
each metaphor or image of Shakespeare's works to de Vere's poetry. According to Joseph
Sobran, an author for the Oxford Society, forty or so comparisons would be considered a
coincidence. Much more, which is present in the comparisons of Shakespeare and Oxford's
works, is "far beyond the possibility of coincidence (Sobran 1)."
In both Shakespeare and de Vere's poetry, there are similar images and phrases. For
example, fertility, harvest, and the lazy drones robbing honey were used by both authors.
To capture pity, images such as weeping lovers or floods of tears were also used (Sobran
2). Similar phrases can also be found in the poetry of Oxford and the sonnets of
Shakespeare. In "Love They Choice," Oxford writes, "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my
heart," "Who filled your eyes with tears of bitter smart," and "Colours pale they face."
These three phrases were also used in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. For example, "Who
taught thee how to make me love thee more?" is found in sonnet 150 written under the
alias of Shakespeare. Also written under the alias of Shakespeare is Titus Andronicus and
The Rape of Lucrece which states, "And for these bitter tears, which no you see…"
and "The colours of thy face, that even for anger, makes the lily pale" respectively
(Sobran 3).
Common allusions used by both authors include Caesar, Hannibal and Pompey, Venus' beauty,
blind Cupid with his bow, and countless more from Greek mythology, wish cupid often being
referred to as "blind boy" or "wanton" (Sobran 1).
Certain factors for comparison are also used often in the writings of both Shakespeare
and de Vere. For instance, the use of sweet versus sour, joy versus woe, ebb versus flow,
flowers versus weeds, and heaven versus hell are all commonly found in the works of both
authors. As Oxford writes "He pulls a flower, he plucks but weeds," in "Labour and it's
Rewards," Shakespeare echoes this metaphor and similarly writes, "They bid thee crop a
week, thou pluck'st a flower (Sobran 3)."
What is more revealing is that both authors have similar rhythm and sentence structure
(Sobran 2). In a couplet, Oxford writes:
Ev'n as the wax both melt, or dew consume away
Before the sun, I behold, careful thoughts decay.
Shakespeare also uses the same image with comparable sentence structure and rhythm.
The morning's silver melding do as soon as done
And decayed, against the golden splendor of the sun (Sobran 
3).
The similar syntax, images, and comparisons of the writings of these two authors show
that de Vere not only was a great writer in history, but he was also the author of the
works attributed to William Shakespeare.
Perhaps the greatest evidence for the true authorship of the Shakespearean sonnets and
plays is the ciphered messages which can be found in the text of the sonnets and plays.
Ciphers are codes of uniform length which bear a uniform relationship to the units of the
plain text (Friedman, 15). In several of Shakespeare's sonnets, de Vere's signature can
be found. For instance:
The order of the dumme shewes E D
And Musickes before every Acte E V E R E
These signatures can be found various places in the sonnets and plays attributed to
William Shakespeare of Stratford. There are also several signatures of the object of his
love affair, Mary Pembroke, and also one "I love you Mary Pembroke" (Huston 132)
There are also several examples of acoustic patterns found in Shakespeare's sonnets. For
example, in the sonnets 37 through 42, there are twenty-one signatures spelling out de
Vere. These signatures are arranged to form six letters: O X F O R D, in consecutive
order (Huston 161). Considering each sonnet is fourteen lines long, and there are six
sonnets, and assuming there are 43 characters per line, the probability that these
signatures would spell Oxford is nearly 55,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to one
(Huston 162). In Sonnets 25 through 46, de Vere also spelled out in 22 letter patterns W
SHAKESPEARE-OXFORD-VERE (Huston 170). The odds of this happening are even greater than
that of the aforementioned probability. Using poetic license, de Vere of Oxford utilized
codes and ciphers to spell out his name and other such messages.
Edward de Vere of Oxford lived from 1550 to 1604. In the duration of that time, he was a
young nobleman, a poet, and a lover of the theatre, but was also probably a great
playwright who has yet to receive full credit for the plays he composed. De Vere
witnessed first hand the inner workings of nobility. He traveled throughout Europe,
completed his education at Cambridge University, studied the law at Gray's Inn, and had
abundant knowledge of historical occurrences and literary works (Russell 4). These are
not only elements in the works attributed to William Shakespeare, but also are things
which William Shakespeare of Stratford England knew nothing of. Who wrote the
Shakespearean sonnets and plays? There is only one answer to this pivotal question -
Edward de Vere of Oxford England.
Bibliography
Friedman, William. The Shakespeare Ciphers Examined. Cambridge: 
University Press, 1958.
Huston, Craig. The Shakespeare Authorship Question. Philadelphia: 
Dorance and Company, 1971.
Ogburn, Dorothy and Charlton. Shakespeare, The Man Behind the Name. 
New York: William Morrow and Company 1962.
Ogburn, Charlton. This Star of England. New York: Cowaer- McCann Inc., 
1952.
Russell, Bertrand. "The Case Against William Shakspere of Stratford 
and The Case for Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford." The De Vere 
Society. URL: http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/littleton/ 
gm2_dvs.htm (5 November 2000).
Sachmartino, Peter. The Man Who Was Shakespeare. New York: Cornwall 
Books, 1990.
Satchell, Michael. "Hunting for Good Will." U.S. News & World Report 
v. 129 i4 (July 24, 2000): 71
Sobran, Joseph. "Shakespeare Revealed in Oxford's Poetry." De Vere 
Society Newsletter, Jan. 1996.
Tweedale, Ralph. Wasn't Shakespeare Someone Else? Oxford: The 
Shakespearean Oxford Society, 1966.