WHO WERE "SHAKESPEARE"?

By Andrew Lyell

The contemporary references to Shakespeare as a poet or dramatist never connected him with Stratford on Avon or said that he was an actor. The life of the Stratford corn merchant, or of the London actor, simply cannot, as Emerson said, "be married to Shakespeare's works"¹ .

The life of the 17th Earl of Oxford could certainly be "married" to some of Shakespeare's works. He was born in 1550 and on his father's death in 1562 he became the Queen's ward under the tutelage of Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley. While at Cambridge the young Earl began to write poems, as his uncle the Earl of Surrey had done. Later he married Burghley's daughter Anne Cecil just after her 15th birthday. He soon left her and went on an extended tour of the Continent, travelling in great style and with a considerable retinue. This tour was so expensive that he had to sell six of his estates.

After his return from the Continent in 1576, he financed and managed his own company of actors, and he continued to do so for twenty-eight years. He had to sell another thirteen of his estates to provide for this company. In 1580 he leased the Blackfriars Theatre. More than once he appeared in Shakespearean plays privately performed before the Queen. Gabriel Harvey (a contemporary) referred to him as standing "supreme among his contemporary poets and dramatists." There exists an imagined portrait of "William Shakespeare" which was found to have been painted over a portrait of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford.

Francis Meres in Palladis Tamia, wrote, "The best for comedy among us be Edward Earl of Oxford." This suggests that Oxford was merely one of several authors of the works of Shakespeare ² . Prior to the First Folio of 1623, twenty of the Shakespeare plays including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Anthony and Cleopatra and Henry VIII had never been published, but this does not necessarily mean that none of them were in manuscript.

It is argued that Oxford must have written Romeo and Juliet because in about 1581 he became infatuated with one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, Anne Vavaseur, a cousin of the Howards. A report by Walsingham indicated that Oxford was the father of her son, born in 1581. Oxford fought a duel with her uncle Sir Thomas Knyvet and was wounded. Street fighting between the servants and followers of the two factions took place, after the manner of the Montagu and Capulet families, and one of Oxford's men was killed. Just after the birth of Anne Vavasour's illegitimate son the Queen had her incarcerated m the Tower. The scandal affected Oxford, as the reputed father, and the Queen banished him from the Court.

The Oxfordians also say that Oxford must have written Othello as on his return from the Continent in 1576 lies told to him by an agent of members of the Catholic faction, who were trying to persuade him to join them by breaking up his marriage to Burghley's daughter, led him to believe that she had been unfaithful to him while he was abroad.

For five years after his return he refused to see her although she wrote him many tearful letters pleading her innocence. These letters still exist. It should be observed that the author of Othello was writing more or less a true story about de Moro the Venetian governor of Cyprus. Oxford had in fact visited Venice and might have heard the Othello story there. De Moro was in fact a white man, but Shakespeare translated his name "the Moor". I think it too late to correct this now! The story still told in Othello's Tower in Famagusta is that de Moro strangled his wife in a wild fit of jealously.

I find that few people today can believe or understand that "Shakespeare" could have wished to remain anonymous. He says clearly in the 72nd, 76th and the 81st sonnets as well as in some of the plays that he must remain anonymous. There was a rigid convention which mad it 'infra dig' for a nobleman to write dramas for public presentation. Many of the characters in the plays could be recognized as the author's friends or enemies at Court, and many of the plays and sonnets were to some extent autobiographical. For example the longwinded wise old Lord Burghley was probably Polonius. Wolsey spoke with the voice of Francis Bacon. One could give many examples of this.

The immortal bard was clearly no single man. Shakespeare the Lawyer and Shakespeare the Philosopher were undoubtedly Francis Bacon. The Romantic Shakespeare was probably Oxford, and the Comedies were certainly written by him. There were almost certainly other Shakespeares. As Emerson said "Marry the man to his Works." The Oxfordians point out that there was a spear in the Earl of Oxford's coat of arms. The Baconians contend that the Spearshake was Pallas Athene the Goddess of Wisdom who was said to war with the spear of knowledge against the serpent of ignorance. Any dictionary of quotations will record the most famous of the sayings of Francis Bacon. One should study these and search for their like in the works of Shakespeare. I will mention here only a few of them:

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties."

"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea".

"I have often thought upon death, and I find it the least of all evils."

"Money is like muck, not good except it be spread."

"Be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others".

"He that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will."

"I have taken all knowledge to be my province."

At the Court of Elizabeth I, knowledge was far more important than martial prowess. Every courtier was expected to be able to write a sonnet inspired by his thoughts at the time. Sonnets and plays were not written for money but for the consolation of the author or of others, or to influence or instruct others, or to pay a compliment to the Queen, or just for the fun of writing them. The Sonnet form was a product of the Italian Renaissance. It was introduced into England by the Earl of Surrey during the reign of Henry VIII. Surrey was beheaded in 1546. His Sonnets were first published posthumously in 1557. After Elizabeth's accession in 1558 sonnet writing became very fashionable at Court.

In 1598 two plays, Richard II and Richard III, were published in London with the author's name given for the first time as "William Shakespeare." They had first been produced anonymously some years before then. The followers of Essex bribed the manager of the Lord Chamberlain's Company of Actors to produced Richard II shortly before Essex's rebellion. This play portrayed the deposition of Richard by Bolingbroke. The manager was, therefore, promptly arrested for treason, and the author was obviously in great danger. Some Baconians say that Essex had found either the Stratford man or the London actor and bribed him to claim the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. This I doubt. Certainly no contemporary would have been fooled. Both these men were incapable of writing anything, and were therefore quite safe from any charge of treason.

Before setting out Francis Bacon's story I will pause to emphasize that I am not in this thesis seeking to prove anything. The case for the Oxfordians has been set out very fully indeed in the two volumes of "Shakespeare Identified" by Thomas Looney, edited by Ruth Loyd Miller, and also by many other scholars. The case for the Baconians has been set out every bit as fully in Beaumont's Shakespear's Sonnet Diary and by Alfred Dodd's many learned works on this subject, and also by many other scholars. I accept both schools of thought, and I merely wish to add that neither appears to have accepted that several authors may have written the works of Shakespeare. My purpose in writing this is simply to assist in some small way anyone who may be searching for the truth with a completely open mind.

One of the sayings of Francis Bacon was: "Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider."

BACON AND HENRY VIII

In this play there is an intentional historical mistake. According to history, Henry sent two peers only, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk to demand the Great Seal from Wolsey and break it. James sent four to Francis Bacon The Lord Treasurer, the Duke of Lennox, and the Earls of Pembroke and Arundel. In Henry VIII the "author" makes four peers wait upon Wolsey instead of two. The presence of Surrey and the Lord Chamberlain is historically incorrect. Contemporaries would be aware that the Earl of Pembroke was the Lord Chamberlain, and the Earl of Arundel was also the Earl of Surrey.

Francis Bacon ended his will with these words,
"For my name and memory I leave to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, and the next ages, and to mine own countrymen after some time be past".
This was surely intended to make it quite clear to his contemporaries that he, Francis Bacon, was in fact the author and was referring to his own fall.

King James directed Sir Thomas Wilson on 10th February 1621 to supply Francis Bacon with any papers relating to Henry VIII that he might require. On the 21st February 1622 Francis Bacon wrote to Buckingham a letter which contains the following passage: "I beseech your Lordship to present my most humble duty to His Highness who will make me leave King Henry VIII and set me on etc." So before that date Bacon had already begun to prepare or write this play. It should be noted that the attack on Francis Bacon, mounted largely by Sir Edward Coke, began on the 1st March 1621, that on the 16th April 1621 the King commanded Francis Bacon to "desert his defence", making him certain promises, "so that the Throne may not be endangered or the Favourite imperilled," and that on the following day Bacon made a note of this interview with the King as follows: "I am to make an oblation of myself into His Majesty's hands .. and to submit wholly to his direction... " On the 1st May 1621 the four peers waited upon him to receive the Great Seal of England as he was "too ill to go to the Bar of the House of Lords to surrender it." This play was first published in March 1622. In 1623 the Great Folio, edited by Ben Jonson (who was at that time living with Bacon at Gorhambury), was published consisting of 36 plays many of which had never been heard of before.

Shaksper of Stratford died in 1616. It could scarcely be argued that he made a historical mistake which coincided exactly with what happened to Francis Bacon five years after his death.

Certain passages in this play were obviously taken from Cavendish's "Life of Wolsey" which was not published until 1641. Shakespeare must therefore, have seen the manuscript. Cavendish was one of Frances Bacon's literary friends and may have assisted him in assembling the facts before writing the play.

In September 1621 Bacon wrote to the King "If I had pleased God as 1 had pleased you, it would have been better with me. " The following year Bacon wrote to Buckingham "Your Lordship knoweth as well as 1 what promises you made me... The pardon of my whole sentence, some help for my debts, and an annual pension." On the 1st December 1621 he appealed to the House of Lords: "I am old, weak, ruined, in want, a very subject of pity ... My only suit to your Lordships is... release me from my confinement in Gorhambury so that I may have conferences with my friends and creditors about my debts." Remember these facts while you are reading the play. Consider carefully the following passage from Act 3 Scene 2:

"Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: today he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory;
But far beyond my depth: my highblown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me
Weary and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
Vein pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye:
I feel my heart new opened. 0, how wretched

Is that poor man that hangs on Princes 'favours:
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears that wars or women have;
And when befalls he falls like Lucifer
Never to hope again. "
And at the end of that scene:
"There take an inventory of all I have,
To the last penny: 'tis the King's : my robe
And my integrity to heaven is all
I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell
Had I but serv 'd my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies. "

Can one any longer doubt that these lines were written by Francis Bacon and addressed to the King? The play was entitled The Life of King Henry VIII. It was in fact only about the fall of Cardinal Wolsey. It begins shortly before his fall and ends with a detailed description of the christening of Princess Elizabeth the author's real mother. Bacon obviously decided that he had criticized King James enough when referring to the wretchedness of "That poor man that hangs on Princes' favours," and so he wrote Cranmer's speech at the christening in which he prophesised that Elizabeth would remain a virgin all her life and would be succeeded by someone as great in fame as she had been. Surely no author other than Francis Bacon would have thought it desirable or necessary to include such an absurd speech at the christening. At the beginning of Act 2 Scene IV Shakespeare described with complete accuracy the procedure at the very rare ceremony of the opening of a Legatine Ecclesiastical Court. This reveals knowledge which probably only a Lord Chancellor would have had. (See The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon p. 153) The following words of Griffith in Act 4 Scene 2 are food for thought:

"Men 's evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water."

This makes one think not only of Keats but also of Julius Caesar Act 3 Scene 2:

"The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. "

Griffith also said of Wolsey:

"His overthrow heaped happiness upon him,
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little."

This may have been true of the philosopher Francis Bacon, but certainly was not true of Cardinal Wolsey. There is a delightful song at the beginning of Act 3 which can be used to assist in the identification of the Sonnets written by Francis Bacon.

I do not intend to say much more about the life of Francis Bacon, or this essay would become a book. All books which have challenged the orthodox story of William Shakespeare of Stratford on Avon have run into a wall of silence by the critics and the Press. They just do not want to know the truth. As I have said, my aim is merely to point the way to those people who have open minds and do wish to find the truth.

As all the plays of "Shakespeare" had been written anonymously, there was no reason why Francis Bacon should not have amended or enlarged any of them before their publication in the First Folio on 1623. We know that after his fall he was obsessed with his "wounded name". For example, Oxford may have written both Hamlet and Othello, and Bacon may have enlarged both of them to express his own thoughts.

Just as an art expert has no need of a signature to enable him to identify a great work of art, surely one should be able to identify the author of, for example, the following:
"Who steals my purse, steals trash; tis something, nothing; T'was mine, Tis his, and has been slave to thousands: But he that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. " ..... Othello.

"Oh good Horatio, what a wounded name shall live behind me. If thou did'st ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. " ....Hamlet.

"Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my King, He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies. .....Henry VIII.

''Naked" surely means not permitted to defend himself. This happened to Francis Bacon: it was entirely inappropriate to the fall of Cardinal Wolsey who fell because he opposed the King's divorce.

PART 2 THE SONNETS

I personally think that most of the Sonnets were written by that romantic philanderer Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. Sonnet 125 certainly was, as it was he, as the then premier Earl, who "bore the canopy" on State occasions.

But turn to Sonnet 74: "The coward conquest of a wretch's knife" was surely a reference to Lord Chief Justice Coke who through jealousy and malice contributed largely to Bacon's downfall. Or was Oxford referring to Sir Thomas Knyvet?

Then read Sonnets 18, 22, 25, 29, 37, 73, 74, 116, 121 and 146. Remember Bacon's advice that one should read "not to contradict and confute" but to "weigh and consider". Who but a lawyer would have written the fourth line of Sonnet 18:

"Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm 'd;
But they eternal Summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander 'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18

And consider also Sonnet 116:

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an everfixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not time 's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved".

And after reading Sonnets 18 and 116 ask yourself whether you really think they were written either by the illiterate Will Shaksper of Stratford on Avon, or by the semi-literate Will Shaksper of Blackfriars, or by the romantic philanderer the Earl of Oxford to Anne Vavaseur or another of his girlfriends, or by the greatest of all philosophers Francis Bacon who was devoted to his beautiful young wife? Compare them with the Sonnets which were obviously written by Oxford before you come to any conclusion.

If you do not accept that Oxford was a philanderer, read Sonnet 142 which was, I think, written by him:

"Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving;
O, but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shaft find it merits not reproving;
Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profan 'd their scarlet ornaments,
And seal 'd false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents."
Sonnet 142

Note particularly the seventh line.

Then turn to Sonnet 138 which, I think, was written by the elderly Francis Bacon to, or of, his young wife:

"When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her, though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor 'd youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
Although she knows my days are past the best,
Simply I credit her falsespeaking truth supprest.
And wherefore say not I that I am old?
O, life's best habit is in seeming trust,
And age in love loves not to have years told:
Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be".
Sonnet 138

Oxford was only 54 when he died in 1604, and to me 54 is mature youth. Bacon attained the age of 65. But quite apart from this, surely these two Sonnets, 142 and 138, were written by different people? The former is in my view typical of Oxford's romantic style, whereas the latter speaks with the voice of a philosopher.

Construe the Sonnets as a lawyer would construe a legal document. Do not assume that any part of them makes nonsense. They were written with great care and skill. Because they were works of art they were preserved so that they were ultimately collected and assembled by "Mr W.H." Free your mind of all prejudices and long-held opinions and seek the truth for yourself. Because the truth will turn apparent nonsense into music. As Bacon said in an essay on "Truth", "No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth."

Polonius says in Hamlet, "This above all, to thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

Do you still believe that these immortal words were written by one of the two Will Shakspers found by Betterton? ³.

"Orthodox" Shakespearean historians never attempt to support by facts or arguments the claims on behalf of Will Shaksper of Stratford on Avon and/or Blackfriars, but content themselves by seeking errors in the cases of the Oxfordian and Baconian Societies. I suggest that these two Societies should collaborate or amalgamate. Only then can the case for Will Shaksper be utterly demolished in the minds of all thinking people. Scholars would surely occupy their time more profitably by researching who wrote which of Shakespeare's Works. They should cease to be partisan, and they should never ignore any facts just because those facts do not fit in with their existing ideas.

A few years ago I corresponded with an American who told me that he was founder and president of the Shakespeare Marlowe Society and was then on a lecture tour of Europe. I believe his name was Calvin and that he has since died. His contention was that he was himself a poet and that he was therefore able and qualified to identify Marlowe as the author of all Shakespeare's works. I formed the opinion that his mind was quite closed on the subject, and I was unable to agree with him. I might have said to him that I was a barrister and was therefore qualified to say that only a trained and brilliant advocate could have written the speech of Anthony which begins:

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar."
Julius Caesar Act III Scene 2

This speech is today still a model for a banister's speech to a jury, winning them over bit by bit. But I did not say this to Mr. Calvin as this would have led to interminable argument until the inevitable, and perhaps unpopular, conclusion might have been reached that there must have been more than one Shakespeare.

It would seem incredible that any one man should have found time to write all the Works of Shakespeare. But one man could perhaps have supervised the writing of all these works, though this I personally doubt.

I will end this Essay by inviting the reader to embark on the new line of research which I have suggested by deciding for himself who wrote Sonnet 81 and whether he thinks it was written to the Queen. The Baconians naturally say that it was written by Francis Bacon to his mother the Queen. This seems to fit, though the line "You still shall live (such virtue hath my pen)" seems a bit presumptuous. The Oxfordians say that it was written by the Earl of Oxford to the Earl of Southampton, and that it was referring to the long poems Venus and Adonis and Lucrece which had been written by Oxford and dedicated to the Earl of Southampton.

"Or I shall live your epitaph to make,
Or you survive when I in earth am rotten;
From hence your memory death cannot take,
Although in me each part will be forgotten,
Your name from hence immortal life shall have,
Though I, once gone, to all the world must die:
The earth can yield me but a common grave
When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie.
Your monument shall be my gentle verse,
Which eyes not yet created shall o 'erread;
And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse,
When all the breathers of this world are dead;
You still shall live (such virtue hath my pen)
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men. "
Sonnet 81

Remember that in 1593 the Earl of Oxford was aged 43 and was the Premier Earl of England. Do you think he would have written this Sonnet to the Earl of Southampton? Why the emphasis on a "common grave"? Before you make up your mind turn to Venus and Adonis to see if it sounds like the work of Oxford. You will note the extreme modesty exhibited in the following passage in the dedication thereof:

"I know not how I shall offend in dedicating my unpolished lines to your Lordship, nor how the world will censure me for choosing so strong a prop to support so weak a burden... But if the first heir of my invention prove deformed, I shall be sorry it had so noble a godfather...." Can one believe that Oxford wrote that very humble dedication to Southampton? And even though Francis Bacon was then aged only 32, it is surely hard to believe that he would have written so humbly.

What about that mural found at St. Albans? ⁴ . Remember that Ben Jonson went to live with Francis Bacon at Gorhambury in 1621 and remained with him for three or four years during the time of the compilation of the Great Folio : Ben Jonson was the Editor.

Is it possible that Ben Jonson (1574-1637) was the author of both the long poems of Shakespeare, and that he at some earlier date visited Francis Bacon at Gorhambury and stayed at the White Hart in St. Albans and there inspired that mural? He would have been only 19 years of age in 1593 : this would fit in with the words, "The first heir of my invention", and young men may have been modest in those days. The reason why he did not claim them as his own work may have been that in 1623 he wished to become part of Shakespeare.

Compare these poems with lines known to have been written by Ben Jonson: "Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace. Robes loosly flowing, hair as free; Such sweet neglect more taketh me, Than all the adulteries of art; They strike mine eyes, but not my heart. " The Silent Woman Act 1 Scene 1. "Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup, And I'll not look for wine - To Celia. "Underneath this stone doth lie As much beauty as could die; Which in life did harbour give To more virtue than doth live - Epitaph on Elizabeth.

I do not presume to give the answer to this question. I leave further research to scholars wiser than I.

Perhaps I should add that Ben Jonson is believed to have begun his literary career in 1595 by writing for the stage. He became the Poet Laureate in 1623. He showed his contempt for the actor Shaksper but he showed profound love and respect for "Shakespeare" the author. He wrote somewhere of the "Swan of Avon" : orthodox Shakespearian scholars regard this as a reference to Shaksper of Stratford on Avon. But why call him a swan when a swan is mute? This suggests to me that the "Swan of Avon" was not going to say who he was or who they were. I regard Lord Oxford as the first, and perhaps the foremost, of the Shakespeares, and he certainly held property on the Warwickshire Avon. Wilton House stands on a tributary of the Wiltshire Avon. The 1623 Shakespeare Folio was dedicated to William Herbert Earl of Pembroke and to the Earl of Montgomery. But I now think the Oxfordian explanation is the correct one ⁵ .

_________________________________________________________________________

1. Editor's note: the author refers to Charlton Ogburn's conclusion that the historical records show evidence of a Shakspere of Stratford on Avon who was a prosperous corn merchant, and a London actor called Shakspere. The argument is that there is no proof these were even the same man, nor that either was the poet William Shakespeare. The situation is more complex than Stratfordians or anti-Stratfordians normally allow, and will form the theme of a future edition of Baconiana.

2. (See Shakespeare Identified Vol. 1 page 559)
The Arte of English Poesie, 1589, by Lord Lumley. "Now also of such among the Nobility or Gentry... in the making of Poesie, it is come to pass that they have no courage to write and, if they have, yet are they loath to be known of their skill. I know very many notable Gentlemen of the Court that have written commendably and suppressed it or else suffered it to be published without their own names to it: as if it were a discredit for a Gentleman to seem learned and to show himself amorous of any good Arte."

"And in Her Majesty's time that now is are sprung up another crew of Courtly Noblemen and Gentlemen who have written excellently well as it would appear if their doings could be found out and make public with the rest, of which number is first that noble Gentleman Edward Earl of Oxford."

Lord Lumley was himself a victim of this social prohibition: the Arte of English Poesie was printed by Richard Field without an author's name. This leads me to regard Edward de Vere 17th Earl of Oxford as the first and foremost of all the authors who together were Shakespeare.

3. Editor's note: i.e. the corn merchant of Stratford upon Avon and/or the London actor.

4. The London Standard of the 6th November 1985 reported that Benskins Brewery, when extending the White Hart Hotel at Holywell Hill, St. Albans, parts of which, painted on a wall behind some panelling which had been taken down. This mural was identified by Dr. Rouse (Consultant to the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments) as portraying the death of Adonis and was dated as having been painted no later than 1600. In 1593 a poem had been published. 'Venus and Adonis' by Shakespeare.

5. The De Vere Society Newsletter of April 1988 presented a strong case for seeing Mary Sidney Herbert, The Countess of Pembroke, as the Sweet Swan of Avon referred to by Ben Jonson in the First Folio. She was the premier patron of Elizabethan poets, including Jonson, lived on the Avon, and her sons the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery and chief dedicatees of Jonson's dedication.