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Edward de Vere and William Shakespeare

The following eight messages, posted from February 28
to March 7, 2010, document my discovery of a subtext
in the play Romeo and Juliet, revealing Romeo as
alter ego of the playwright Edward de Vere, Juliet as
personified audience, and valiant Romeo as William
Shakespeare, director and main actor of the Globe.
Please try to ignore my intitial mistakes; those that are
crucial for my hypothesis will be corrected later on.

----------------
(message 1)

Proof that 'Shakespeare' was Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford

Romeo, in the play Romeo and Juliet, is mentioned
for the first time in a question

O, where is Romeo?

a question offering a pun

O, Vere is Romeo!

a pun providing an answer

  de Vere, Oxford

Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford who signed his early
works EO as in Romeo romEO, the pronounced English
initials E and O resembling Italian io meaning I, it's me.
The bard mentioned that his name is bound by one letter,
which is true for the name, the pun, and the answer

Edward de Vere    E...e    12 letters  (name)

  O, Vere is Romeo    O...o    12 letters  (pun)

  de Vere, Oxford    d...d    12 letters  (answer)

whereby the binding letters of the name E and pun O
yield the initials of the title

  Earl of Oxford    12 letters  (title)

Name, pun, answer and title contain 12 letters each,
accordingly Juliet in the orchard is awaiting Romeo's
message at twelve.

On a veiled level of the play, Romeo would symbolize
the playwright who was bound to hold back his name
and conceal his authorship; Juliet would symbolize
the adoring audience, rapt public, and loving Muse
who make the poetical torch burn bright; and Paris,
who claimed Juliet for his wife, beautiful Juliet, more
beautiful than all other girls of Verona including lively
Helena - Paris would symbolize William Shakespeare
from Statford on Avon who might secretly have been
given a modest but lifelong pension for pretending
to be the author of those plays and poems, granted
by de Vere's relationship, out of whatever sad reason,
so that a personal tragedy would underly the tragic
love story of the play and make it only the deeper:

  For never was a story of more woe
  Than this of Juliet and Romeo.

The last lines end on oe and eo respectively, eo
EO Earl of Oxford, so the bard signed his play,
if ever so clandestinely, and although Juliet had
argued most reasonably and beautifully:

  What's a name! that which we call a rose
  By any other name would smell as sweet;
  So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
  Retain that dear perfection which he owes
  Without that title:--Romeo, doff thy name;
  And for that name, which is no part of thee,
  Take all myself.

The bard's name doesn't count, important are
his plays and poems, and the public loves them,
is all for him to take.

Franz Gnaedinger, Zuerich, February 28, 2010

------------------
(message 2)

In the play 'Romeo and Juliet' a quarrelsome character
by the name of Tybalt seeks trouble, draws against
Romeo's friend Mercutio, this one also draws, a sword
fight ensues, Romeo intervenes, but in vain, he makes
it only worse, Mercutio falls, whereupon Romeo takes
revenge by killing Tybalt for having murdered his good
and funny friend. Romeo was not guilty under Verona's
law, however, his deed prolonged the feud that came
only to an end with the tragic double death of the 'star-
crossed' young couple. Edward de Vere, as a young
man, probably of Romeo's age, inadvertently killed
an inebriated seventeen-year-old by the name of
Thomas Brincknel. The judges considered his death
a suicide and spoke Edward free. The initials of the
young man who had died, T and B, return as the first
letters of the syllables Ty and Balt, insinuating further
parallels between life and play. Edward was declared
not being guilty, however, the fatal incident, perhaps
on top of other events, could have been a reason
for the strict obligation to hide behind a hired living
pseudonym (which he learned to accept in a playful
manner, calling himself Will personified, William,
Will I am, I am Will). While William Shakespeare
on the stage was applauded, Edward de Vere
attended his own play among the audience,
watching the onlookers, how they reacted to the
fancies of his mind, how the lovely young ladies
by his side laughed and weeped as his cunningly
crafted plot unfolded on the stage ... Reading
the sonnets I come to the conclusion that he
loved attending his own plays, and his observing
the reactions of the audience from close up would
explain the amazing psychological realism of his
plays, while his way of developing an act may be
gleaned from Hamlet who added a couple of lines
to a play and planned to observe the king for every
faint, obscured and concealed reaction. Romeo
the bard, Juliet his audience and beloved Muse.
When Edward de Vere was of Romeo's age he
may have found a real Muse among a crowded
audience, Romeo his Juliet, as it were, a young
lady who turned his rhiming into glorious poetry.
Act 1 Scene 5, Romeo speaking:

  O, she doeth teach the torches to burn bright!
  Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
  Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;
  Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
  So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
  As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
  The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
  And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
  Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
  For I never saw true beauty till this night.

The veiled metaphorical tale of the bard's awakening
heightens the love story.

---------------
(message 3)

Peter Farey, himself supporting the Marlowe-
Shakespeare connection, gave me a fine advice:
to look out for combinations of Romeo and will.
The first such instance occurs at a signifcant place,
following Juliet's plea that Romeo doff his name
and instead take all of her, whereupon Romeo:

  I take thee at thy word;
  Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
  Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

In other words: I, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford,
cease being EO romEO Romeo, instead I'll be
new baptized in the name of thy love, my 'nome
de plume' will be Will, William Shakespeare, hired
living pseudonym who shall claim to have written
my plays and poems. I shall publish my works
under his name, he will get all the fame - if only
I can have your love, if only you keep word of
loving me and being all mine, dear Juliet, Muse,
audience

  Will will fulfil the treasure of thy love

(sonnet 136), as 'William Shakespeare' I will fulfil
the promise of my work on the wings of your love,
dear Juliet, inspiring Muse, beloved audience, as
'William Shakespeare' I will fill your heart with sweet
poetry, all the best I can muster as Master William
Shakespeare (while hiding my true identity from
now on, and only give a few well concealed hints
to the ones who can read between my lines).

-----------------
(message 4)

Ending lines of sonnet 83:

  There lives more life in one of your fair eyes
  Than both of your poets can in praise devise.

The bard is complementing his Muse, the audience
personified in Juliet, while her poets are Edward de
Vere, author of the plays, and William Shakespeare,
director of the Globe and main performer, both creating
a play, bringing it to life, making it in the original sense
of Greek poieo poiesis poietes. However, as lively
a play might be, it never can compete with the life
in the eye of a young lady watching the play, observed
by the bard among the attending crowd, obliged to keep
his silence about the true authorship of those lines and
scenes that make the lovely young lady laugh and weep ...

  This silence for my sin you did impute

The audience and general public was not able to respect
the Earl of Oxford in the same way as they loved the plays
and poems and worshiped William Shakespeare in the
role of his life, as the Sweet Swan of Avon (Ben Jonson),
alleged author of those moving plays, intricate plots, and
easy, nimble, sweet and lively lines. William Shakespeare,
main actor of the Globe, must have been brillant in this role
he played for all his life, beyond the life of the bard, and
even beyond his own life. Paris in the play Romeo and
Juliet, alias of William Shakespeare, is called valiant,
a flower; in faith, a real flower. We may infer that he eagerly
adopted the plays and made them 'bloom' on the stage.
Yet when it comes to Romeo, Juliet uses the image of
a sweet smelling rose, flower of all flowers, placing the
playwright above the actor. By choosing the name of Paris,
Prince of Troy, for William Shakespeare, director of the
Globe, and by calling Juliet more beautiful than all other
girls of Verona including lively Helena, the bard evokes
the Trojan war caused by Paris abducting Helena. The
war lasted long, then it was decided by a ruse of wily
Odysseus hiding in the Trojan horse. The bard gives
his own version of Odysseus in the poem Lucrece:

  But the mild glance that sly Odysseus lent
  Show'd deep regard and smiling government.

This may be how Edward de Vere, sly and a master
hider himself, directed his own plays, attending probes
in the Globe, pretending to be a big fan of the bard and
knowing this one's mind better than William Shakespeare
himself, everybody thinking William the bard (de Vere's
Trojan horse, as it were), showing deep regard for the
questions raised by the play, for the actors as well,
encouraging them with mild glances and smiles when
they found the right way of presenting a scene, and thus
'directing' his play and 'governing' the Globe although
having been obliged to keep silent about the true
authorship of his plays --- a comic tragedy or tragic
comedy, as in a play by 'Shakespeare' one might say.

-----------------
(message 5)

I let my text stand, with all mistakes a beginner can make,
for example counting letters in a modern edition. Edward
de Vere signed his poems

  Earle of Oxenforde   or   E.O.

so that his title has sixteen instead of twelve letters.
The all deciding question in the First Folio

  O where is _Romeo_?

yields an even more expressive pun of 12 letters

  O Vere is _Romeo_!

I find the name always written in the same form
of 12 letters

  Edward de Vere

The comment on the binding letter is not by the bard,
as I wrongly said, but by John Marston in a poem
from 1598

  Far, far fly thy fame,
  Most, most of me beloved, whose silent name
  One letter bounds.

We have then the name and pun

  Edward de Vere    E...e    12 letters

  O Vere is _Romeo_    O...o    12 letters

The twelve letters of the name evoke the 12 hours
of a day belonging to the various occupations of
the earl, and the 12 letters of the equation of Vere
and Romeo the 12 hours of the night belonging to
the bard and the dreamworld of his plays

  O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard,
  Being in night, all this is but a dream,
  Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

  How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
  Like softest music to attending ears!

------------------
(message 6)

One more message, for Melanie Sands who bravely
defends her beloved William Shakespeare

Paris, in the play Romeo and Juliet, is introduced as

  valiant Paris

offering the alliteration

  valiant William

William Shakespeare, director of the Globe and main
actor

  a flower; in faith, a real flower

In sonnet 83, addressing the Muse, Edward de Vere
speaks of

  both your poets

placing the actor on the same level as the playwright,
for both are making the play, in the sense of Greek
poieo poiesis poietes. From "valiant Paris" read as
valiant William we may infer that William Shakespeare
was a congenial director and actor, easily adopting
the plays and acting out all intentions. He also may have
stood the ground and ensured the performances under
the pressure mentioned in sonnet 66

  And Art made tongue-tied by authority

while other directors yielded to the pressure, consider
Peter Quince in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream,
the shape of the fruit evoked by his name suggesting
puffed cheeks and a small brain. Quince's actor Bottom,
in order not to freighten the ladies of the court among
the audience, and risking that all the actors be hung,
proposes to make his lion roar like a nightingale -
taking all strentgth out of the play, that is. Happened
also to de Vere's plays, but not when valiant William
was around. Paris, the prince of Troy, was rather
a coward, or, one may say, he understood how to keep
out of trouble, which may be a further characterization
of William Shakespeare - valiant by being gentle

  good gentle youth

  By heaven, I love thee better than myself

The cooperation between the two congenial collaborators
was far from being free of conflicts, however, the bard
confesses his sin - whatever the reason was that obliged
him to keep silent about his authorship in the plays -, and
de Vere solved the conflict in the way of the mild, gentle
and sly Ulysses in his poem Lucrece (as explained earlier).
The final and fatal conflict of the play must be a metaphor
on the rivalry between playwright and actor, won in the
end by the former whose lines live on while the equally
ingenious performing is forgotten when the actor passed
away. Paris provokes Romeo, this one shows him,
Paris dies, and Romeo exclaims

  Noble County Paris!

the Earl of Oxford elevating William Shakespeare of
humble origin into the rank of an earl or count

  I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave

namely in his work - the bard honors the actor, telling
us that valiant William, a real flower, a gentle youth,
his equal as poet in the original sense of the Greek
word, contributed as much to their common work as
he did himself, so that a next edition of the plays may
justly be called: The Complete Works of Edward de Vere
and William Shakespeare ... While conceiving and writing
a play, Edward de Vere may have had William on his
mind, and thus the play wrote itself on its own, carried,
and carried far, by the spirit of the young collaborator,
so that also William Shakespeare is present in the
written form of the plays, way beyond his playacting.
And Juliet? She symbolizes the audience that also
contributed to the plays, in the way explained earlier.
She is first mentioned in a call

  What, Juliet!

offering another pun

  Watch, Juliet!

Watching a play is what an audience does - listen and
watch.

-----------------
(message 7)

The serious play Romeo and Juliet was followed
by a poetical farce, A Midsummer Night's Dream,
where Romeo turned into jealous Oberon, and Juliet
into proud Titania, king and queen of the fairies,
Titania symbolizing the general audience that prefers
popular plays of a mechanical sort Edward de Vere
apparently despised, and so he gives a parody of
that sort of playwrighting and acting: the mechanicals
Peter Quince and his actors stage a classical tragedy,
interfere unknowingly with the fairies, turn things upside
down, doing harm and well at the same time, bringing
one true couple of lovers apart, another together,
and, to the big delight of Oberon, his wife Titania falls
in love with an ass, Peter Qunice's main actor Bottom
wearing the head of an ass, of which Titania will soon
be ashamed and return to her husband Oberon, as
audience personified realizing that those popular
mechanical plays are not the real thing. Edward de
Vere gives the audience a pedagogical lesson in form
of a funny, highly poetical and phantastic play, without
any pedagogy at all.

-----------------------
(message 8)


A fable

Young Edward de Vere, in care of Queen Elizabeth
at her court, fell madly in love with a beautiful young
girl, the queen's new maid of honor, and finally
summoned the courage to write her a poem:
From my lips ..., and she, a saucy girl, replied:
Back to thyne ... More poems were exchanged,
a meeting in the queen's orchard was arranged,
and a secret night in the maiden's chamber spent
- alas, the queen found one of the poems, the one
wherein Edward asked her maid of honor to marry
him, she would make him feel like a king, and would
become his queen, for isn't Elizabeth herself the
daughter of a maid of honor, Ann Bullen Anne Boleyn?
The queen got angry and ordered the impertinent son
of the late Earl of Oxford to an audience, telling him:
Young Edward, I have enough of your transgressions
at my court, now you are even seducing my maid of
honor, I really can't stand your behaving anymore,
the poor girl will be sent away, and you will never
again offend my court, neither in spoken nor in
written words ... The two birds were separated,
Edward lost his first big love who had awoken
his poetical vein and been his first audience. Later
on, when he began writing serious plays that mirrored
life at the court in one way or another, he seeked
permission from the queen to publish them under
his own name, reminding her that she was now
a beloved authority, secure in her position, but she
was adamant: Never, Earl of Oxford! Publish under
a pseudonym, put a safe distance between your
plays and my court. You are working together with
a hopeful and promising young actor from the
countryside, well, ask him to play the author of
your plays, hide behind him, and I shall grant you
both an annuity of one thousand pounds each
for your discretion, a most generous offer
considering all your many transgressions already
as a stud in my care ... Edward accepted, William
Shakespeare from Stratford on Avon acted as
author of Edward's plays, and the queen kept her
promise but also tabs on him via her spies at
the Globe. The poet and playwright hid behind
his valiant friend who gathered all the fame now.
Edward had never forgotten the queen's maid
of honor, his first big love, and found her sweet
memory revived in many a young lady among
the audience watching his plays unfold on the
stage, and when he observed them his mind flew,
words arranging themselves to lively, nimble and
easy lines, weaving a memorial to a young love
that had to end all too early - the memorial of
his amazing plays and poems, written between
1590 and 1604, some of them published
posthumously, for example the sonnets whom
the publisher devoted to the memory of
OVR EVER-LIVING POET.