🚀 go-pugleaf

Seeing as the Oxfordians miss the connection between
Edward de Vere and Romeo, which, in my opinion,
is the key equation, I repeat my five messages from
February 28 till March 2 en bloc, as a demonstration
of my hermeneutic approach and how it works, relying
on intuition and what I call an organic knowledge
aquired by following my own interests and projects
(textbook wisdom alone won't do), a naive enthusiasm
and analytical skills as well, plus a good portion of
selfcriticism allowing to separate mere fancies from
valid ideas. A couple of initial errors are corrected
toward the end. Here a brief summary:

  O, where is Romeo?     O, Vere is Romeo!

  Romeo -- Edward de Vere, playwright

  Juliet -- audience personified, Muse

  Paris -- William Shakespeare of the Globe

Shakespeare acting as bard, in the role of his life,
de Vere hiding behind him, out of whatever reason

------------------------------------

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

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.

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).

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.


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  (and/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 afeared,
  Being in night, all this is but a dream,
  Too flattering-sweet to be so substantial.

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