How those so inclined could collaborate to find key evidence of Oxford's identity behind the pen-name “Shakepeare"
CharlasThe Globe: Shakespeare, his Contemporaries, and Context
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1proximity1
Building a “Who’s who—when and where” of the important and often quite influential people that had some connection with Oxford
as part of a collaborative project in
Discovering the keys to the Earl of Oxford identity behind the pen-name “Shakepeare”
_______________________________________
How those so inclined could collaborate
If I and many others are correct in our view that Eward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the genius behind the pen-name “William Shakespeare”—and not least of other pen-names, that of “Robert Greene”—then there remains a great deal of work to do in searching for what may remain in manuscripts which could contain direct or indirect references to Oxford’s part as the author “Shakespeare.”
In this commentary, I set out an example of collaborative work which could help advance the project. Anyone with a sincere desire to help could contribute.
It ought to be obvious that the bulk of the work to be done in finding the data needed concerns a vast project in archival searches. There are so many that it would help if they could somehow be systematically narrowed to those which present the highest probability of containing clear and open or cryptic but decypherable references to Oxford as author.
As far as I am aware, there exists no complete database of the names of people and their locations and dates which, together, constitute a “who’s who—when and where” of the important and often quite influential people that had some connection with Oxford—knew him personally, knew him through letter corresponence which may survive, knew him second-hand through acquaintance with his family, friends and associates, etc., worked with him, for him, as scribe, printer, go-between, courrier, furnisher of essential materials and in other ways.
Today, useful tools such as graphic schemata of relationship networks, sometimes called “social network analysis,” offer extremely helpful advantages in this kind of assembly. They can display relationship networks graphically in a way which is visually easier to grasp, yielding images which are similar to the following example:
What is needed to build such a schemata are the entry-data (and, of course, access to regular routine use of such graphic software; your suggestions there are welcome)--names of people with their dates and the locations of travel to or residence in places where Oxford also then travelled or resided.
Ideally, to contribute, one needs some fairly good acquaintance with the basic background of the Oxfordian case.
A good place and way to gain this if one needs to do some preparatory reading is to refer to the articles at Stephanie Hopkins Hughes' Oxfordian website, Politicworm.com and use other histories available in books or online. For example, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, NEW YORK: PUTNAM, 1907–21, Edited by A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller. (NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2000) , especially their Volume V. : The Drama to 1642: Part I.
Both can be used as referernce manuals to the background of the Oxfordian case. (And, if you appreciate the tremendous work done by Stephanie Hughes, you're free to contribute a voluntary donation to her work.)
The database should hold all the names of people who are potentially important to discovering notes, papers, letters, diaries, journals, reciepts, transcripts, play notes, poetry or drama criticsims, personal reflections--concerning Oxford and his work, his life and his friends, associates and rivals and enemies.
We need to know, therefore, a full directory of all the important Italians who lived in London during Oxford's lifetime. There were extremely important and wealthy merchants--the Corsini family, for example, greatly important in textile import and export and in finance and international relations--they knew many of the "anybody who's anybody of importance"; there were musicians and musical instrument-makers, the Bassano (Bassani) family, for example, who have a very significant part in this history, were originally from the mountainous northern area surrounding Venice and, later, from Venice itself ( Monte Grappa ); there were translators, bankers, diplomats from foreign capitals, (remember, Italy in the 16th century is comprised of several city-states and duchies--Milano, Tuscana, Veneto, Venezia, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Sicily, etc. and these were sometimes ruled by far-flund potentates in other parts of Europe.
Because Oxford was a high-ranking noble, we need a full directory of all his living peers and their friends, families and associates, foreign and domestic to England; and, because Oxford knew French, Italian, Latin and Greek fluently, we need to know and include all those who were influential in the world of these languages' literature and other arts and sciences because it is very probable that many of them knew Oxford either personally or through correspondence. Germans, Danes, Flemmish and other Europeans should not be overlooked.
To build a narrowed field of Oxford's close, closer and closest confidants--the people to whom he'd most likely turn when it came to seeking to secure his literary work and other personal papers so that these survive to be found and studied by future generations--a larger, comprehensive social network has to be established and examined for the linkages, the associations which, without it, may be missed.
The indexes of important histories are rich sources of these people's names. We need to know their places and dates of birth and death and where they lived over the course of their lives. We need to pay attention to variations in names' -- for example, the multi-lingual translator, John Florio, who lived for a time in London but also at other times in Italian cities or in Switzerland, was also known as "Giovanni Florio" or its Latin Variant.
Of paramount importance is the source of the datum collected. It is not sufficient to merely collect and contribute names, dates and places; these must be sourced to some very credible document with its associated authorities--a publisher, a university, an institute, or the published or unpublished manuscript(s) and where it is held--or was held when the data was recorded before the original document was lost.
So, some categories:
THE English NOBILITY of Elizabeth I's court in England (London)
The foreign nobility French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, German, Italian, Portuguese, etc.
All foreigners attending her at court--nobles, diplomatic envoys, servants, ministers of foreign states,
Elizabeth I's own diplomats posted (whether officially or unofficially, as and where possible in the political circumstances of the time) to Paris, Milan, Venice, Antwerp, Cologne, etc. (See, e.g.: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/proximity1&deepsearch=relazioni )
members of the London merchant class-- native-born English and immigrants and foreign residents, including bankers, merchant adventurer companies, ship owners,
Artisans in music, painting, jewelry, metal-working, architects, designers, scientists, writers, translators,
Clergy, academicians,
Explorers, inventors,
One data set would consist of the larger group from which a smaller, second set-- those with some actual documented relation to or acquaintance with Edward Oxford-- would be drawn.
Wikipedia has pages of births by year-- e.g. Category:1520 births
and biographical dictionaries
( The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography if you have access to it.
E.g. ( Entry on Sir Philip Sidney ) )
are other sources of this kind of data.
Bear in mind that in many cases, one will have large and influential families--nobility or not--which extended over centuries--indeed, Oxford's own family, the House of De Vere, is an example. So, with these, one can attend to compilations of these various "Houses" with all their contemporaneous members during Oxford's life and the generation or two before 1550 and the generation following 1605. That is because papers which might have been created and stored by a peer or acquaintance of Oxford's during his life, may have been passed down to heirs of this peer or acquaintance or have been part of the family's librarys. Often, great families built and preserved great libraries on their country or city estates.
Important English families include
The Howards, Dudleys, Seymours, Sidneys. Cecils, and many others:
Category:Barons in the Peerage of England
Category:People of the Elizabethan era
Category:People of the Tudor period
Category:16th-century English nobility
Company of Merchant Adventurers of London
Major English Renaissance authors
___________________________________
Please post, below, your thoughts, questions, criticisms, suggestions and links to useful sources you know which I have failed to mention here.
Thanks.
_____________________
NOTE : In my library listings are many titles indicated as not in "Your library" but in "Wishlist". Among these are (so far) 100 which are tagged "NIL". These are books, however important, to which I have no ready access either in some digital version on-line or in a printed, bound text. Thus, if you have access in one or another form to any of these books and can supply useful data from them, that would be very helpful. Be sure to cite the work and the page for any data mentioned.
as part of a collaborative project in
Discovering the keys to the Earl of Oxford identity behind the pen-name “Shakepeare”
_______________________________________
How those so inclined could collaborate
If I and many others are correct in our view that Eward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the genius behind the pen-name “William Shakespeare”—and not least of other pen-names, that of “Robert Greene”—then there remains a great deal of work to do in searching for what may remain in manuscripts which could contain direct or indirect references to Oxford’s part as the author “Shakespeare.”
In this commentary, I set out an example of collaborative work which could help advance the project. Anyone with a sincere desire to help could contribute.
It ought to be obvious that the bulk of the work to be done in finding the data needed concerns a vast project in archival searches. There are so many that it would help if they could somehow be systematically narrowed to those which present the highest probability of containing clear and open or cryptic but decypherable references to Oxford as author.
As far as I am aware, there exists no complete database of the names of people and their locations and dates which, together, constitute a “who’s who—when and where” of the important and often quite influential people that had some connection with Oxford—knew him personally, knew him through letter corresponence which may survive, knew him second-hand through acquaintance with his family, friends and associates, etc., worked with him, for him, as scribe, printer, go-between, courrier, furnisher of essential materials and in other ways.
Today, useful tools such as graphic schemata of relationship networks, sometimes called “social network analysis,” offer extremely helpful advantages in this kind of assembly. They can display relationship networks graphically in a way which is visually easier to grasp, yielding images which are similar to the following example:
What is needed to build such a schemata are the entry-data (and, of course, access to regular routine use of such graphic software; your suggestions there are welcome)--names of people with their dates and the locations of travel to or residence in places where Oxford also then travelled or resided.
Ideally, to contribute, one needs some fairly good acquaintance with the basic background of the Oxfordian case.
A good place and way to gain this if one needs to do some preparatory reading is to refer to the articles at Stephanie Hopkins Hughes' Oxfordian website, Politicworm.com and use other histories available in books or online. For example, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, NEW YORK: PUTNAM, 1907–21, Edited by A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller. (NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 2000) , especially their Volume V. : The Drama to 1642: Part I.
Both can be used as referernce manuals to the background of the Oxfordian case. (And, if you appreciate the tremendous work done by Stephanie Hughes, you're free to contribute a voluntary donation to her work.)
The database should hold all the names of people who are potentially important to discovering notes, papers, letters, diaries, journals, reciepts, transcripts, play notes, poetry or drama criticsims, personal reflections--concerning Oxford and his work, his life and his friends, associates and rivals and enemies.
We need to know, therefore, a full directory of all the important Italians who lived in London during Oxford's lifetime. There were extremely important and wealthy merchants--the Corsini family, for example, greatly important in textile import and export and in finance and international relations--they knew many of the "anybody who's anybody of importance"; there were musicians and musical instrument-makers, the Bassano (Bassani) family, for example, who have a very significant part in this history, were originally from the mountainous northern area surrounding Venice and, later, from Venice itself ( Monte Grappa ); there were translators, bankers, diplomats from foreign capitals, (remember, Italy in the 16th century is comprised of several city-states and duchies--Milano, Tuscana, Veneto, Venezia, the Papal States, the Kingdom of Sicily, etc. and these were sometimes ruled by far-flund potentates in other parts of Europe.
Because Oxford was a high-ranking noble, we need a full directory of all his living peers and their friends, families and associates, foreign and domestic to England; and, because Oxford knew French, Italian, Latin and Greek fluently, we need to know and include all those who were influential in the world of these languages' literature and other arts and sciences because it is very probable that many of them knew Oxford either personally or through correspondence. Germans, Danes, Flemmish and other Europeans should not be overlooked.
To build a narrowed field of Oxford's close, closer and closest confidants--the people to whom he'd most likely turn when it came to seeking to secure his literary work and other personal papers so that these survive to be found and studied by future generations--a larger, comprehensive social network has to be established and examined for the linkages, the associations which, without it, may be missed.
The indexes of important histories are rich sources of these people's names. We need to know their places and dates of birth and death and where they lived over the course of their lives. We need to pay attention to variations in names' -- for example, the multi-lingual translator, John Florio, who lived for a time in London but also at other times in Italian cities or in Switzerland, was also known as "Giovanni Florio" or its Latin Variant.
Of paramount importance is the source of the datum collected. It is not sufficient to merely collect and contribute names, dates and places; these must be sourced to some very credible document with its associated authorities--a publisher, a university, an institute, or the published or unpublished manuscript(s) and where it is held--or was held when the data was recorded before the original document was lost.
So, some categories:
THE English NOBILITY of Elizabeth I's court in England (London)
The foreign nobility French, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, German, Italian, Portuguese, etc.
All foreigners attending her at court--nobles, diplomatic envoys, servants, ministers of foreign states,
Elizabeth I's own diplomats posted (whether officially or unofficially, as and where possible in the political circumstances of the time) to Paris, Milan, Venice, Antwerp, Cologne, etc. (See, e.g.: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/proximity1&deepsearch=relazioni )
members of the London merchant class-- native-born English and immigrants and foreign residents, including bankers, merchant adventurer companies, ship owners,
Artisans in music, painting, jewelry, metal-working, architects, designers, scientists, writers, translators,
Clergy, academicians,
Explorers, inventors,
One data set would consist of the larger group from which a smaller, second set-- those with some actual documented relation to or acquaintance with Edward Oxford-- would be drawn.
Wikipedia has pages of births by year-- e.g. Category:1520 births
and biographical dictionaries
( The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography if you have access to it.
E.g. ( Entry on Sir Philip Sidney ) )
are other sources of this kind of data.
Bear in mind that in many cases, one will have large and influential families--nobility or not--which extended over centuries--indeed, Oxford's own family, the House of De Vere, is an example. So, with these, one can attend to compilations of these various "Houses" with all their contemporaneous members during Oxford's life and the generation or two before 1550 and the generation following 1605. That is because papers which might have been created and stored by a peer or acquaintance of Oxford's during his life, may have been passed down to heirs of this peer or acquaintance or have been part of the family's librarys. Often, great families built and preserved great libraries on their country or city estates.
Important English families include
The Howards, Dudleys, Seymours, Sidneys. Cecils, and many others:
Category:Barons in the Peerage of England
Category:People of the Elizabethan era
Category:People of the Tudor period
Category:16th-century English nobility
Company of Merchant Adventurers of London
Major English Renaissance authors
___________________________________
Please post, below, your thoughts, questions, criticisms, suggestions and links to useful sources you know which I have failed to mention here.
Thanks.
_____________________
NOTE : In my library listings are many titles indicated as not in "Your library" but in "Wishlist". Among these are (so far) 100 which are tagged "NIL". These are books, however important, to which I have no ready access either in some digital version on-line or in a printed, bound text. Thus, if you have access in one or another form to any of these books and can supply useful data from them, that would be very helpful. Be sure to cite the work and the page for any data mentioned.
2Muscogulus
I anticipate an elaborate exercise in confirmation bias. It’s clear that organizers are doing nothing to guard against it. On the contrary, they encourage only Oxfordian interpretations of hypothetical social connections. If the underlying assumptions are weak and based on cherry-picked evidence, well, the gee-whiz factor of interactive imagery should suffice to distract from that.
Knock yourselves out, De Vere heads. It’s not as if Shakespeare’s reputation were threatened by these warmed-over Victorian speculations.
You should check your spelling more carefully before starting new Oxfordian threads. See the thread title. This time you dropped the second S from “Shakespeare.” But kudos for resisting the impulse to insert a hyphen between “shake” and “speare.”
Knock yourselves out, De Vere heads. It’s not as if Shakespeare’s reputation were threatened by these warmed-over Victorian speculations.
You should check your spelling more carefully before starting new Oxfordian threads. See the thread title. This time you dropped the second S from “Shakespeare.” But kudos for resisting the impulse to insert a hyphen between “shake” and “speare.”
3Podras.
>2 Muscogulus: Do you really think that he believes that any others of his ilk hang out here? He seems to be shouting in the wilderness. Perhaps if someone does show up, they can puzzle this article out and seek the secret messages hidden in Oxenforde's writing.
4proximity1
To continue this thread, I think I'll comment on a dismal fact of research—and alas, as concerns this fact, “Oxfordians” are really no exception if my experience is any guide:
Researchers don’t, as far as my experience indicates, help each other and they often won’t even reply to a polite query. Now, it’s true that I have known a case of this latter; but it’s also true that that is extremely exceptional.
Just from the pathetically few (and bullshit) replies already found here in this thread, one can tell that, if any Oxfordians are reading it, they’re not responding at all—not here and not in private messages. Oxfordians do basically “fuck all” to really help each other.
They don’t
• effectively and methodically organize, solicit and distribute even so much as practical aid and advice to independent researchers on the indispensable job of finding research grants
• do anything of an organized and institutional sort to raise and distribute grant-money to independent researchers in any but truly risible sums. In a world so replete with wealth that multi-billionaires are going to what are simply obscenely foolish extremes to spend their wealth, serious research aimed at finding the documentation which would at last lead to the rightful author of the pen-named works of “William Shakespeare” having his due credit.
No doubt this heartens Stratfordians who are happy to look on as Oxfordians cannot get out their own damned way.
For people who are supposedly a good deal more astute than their Stratfordian rivals, Oxfordians show no greater propensity, by the evidence that I can see, to avoid the pitfalls of selfish, parochial and cloistered habits which are the clichéd stuff of some academic researchers’ lives—paranoid suspicion of colleagues who might steal a march on one’s precious findings—LOL!
It’s a damned disgrace. Oxfordian research is going to continue to creep along like a paraplegic beggar as long as this idiotically-blinkered behavior is the norm.
Researchers don’t, as far as my experience indicates, help each other and they often won’t even reply to a polite query. Now, it’s true that I have known a case of this latter; but it’s also true that that is extremely exceptional.
Just from the pathetically few (and bullshit) replies already found here in this thread, one can tell that, if any Oxfordians are reading it, they’re not responding at all—not here and not in private messages. Oxfordians do basically “fuck all” to really help each other.
They don’t
• effectively and methodically organize, solicit and distribute even so much as practical aid and advice to independent researchers on the indispensable job of finding research grants
• do anything of an organized and institutional sort to raise and distribute grant-money to independent researchers in any but truly risible sums. In a world so replete with wealth that multi-billionaires are going to what are simply obscenely foolish extremes to spend their wealth, serious research aimed at finding the documentation which would at last lead to the rightful author of the pen-named works of “William Shakespeare” having his due credit.
No doubt this heartens Stratfordians who are happy to look on as Oxfordians cannot get out their own damned way.
For people who are supposedly a good deal more astute than their Stratfordian rivals, Oxfordians show no greater propensity, by the evidence that I can see, to avoid the pitfalls of selfish, parochial and cloistered habits which are the clichéd stuff of some academic researchers’ lives—paranoid suspicion of colleagues who might steal a march on one’s precious findings—LOL!
It’s a damned disgrace. Oxfordian research is going to continue to creep along like a paraplegic beggar as long as this idiotically-blinkered behavior is the norm.
5Podras.
Actually, there are cooperative efforts--totally fruitless after decades of trying--to "prove" that anyone at all other than that guy from Stratford was the "real" author; not just Oxenforde. They just don't hang out here. Try a little harder to find them.
