1 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:11,700 'What's all this talk about the man who wrote Shakespeare? 2 00:00:11,700 --> 00:00:13,640 Wasn't Shakespeare, Shakespeare? 3 00:00:16,060 --> 00:00:18,300 The case, in fact, has never been stronger 4 00:00:18,300 --> 00:00:21,400 that the wrong man has been fitted with the Bard's crown.' 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:25,400 And I think the plays were written much earlier than we are told 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,880 and they were constantly being revised and reworked. 7 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:42,400 'We have been handed the greatest work of art in human history, 8 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:46,120 but it's also a map. It points us to, and it guides us through 9 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,600 the life of the author, but we've been looking at the wrong guy, 10 00:00:49,660 --> 00:00:51,800 we've been in the wrong city.' 11 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,440 'There's always been this great question about why Shakespeare, 12 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:00,280 who lived his entire life in England, 13 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:04,200 but we have ten plays that are set in Italy. 14 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,200 Why was Shakespeare so enamoured of Italy 15 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,400 and where did he get his material?' 16 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:16,200 'Once you re-orient yourself and once you relocate yourself to the city 17 00:01:16,260 --> 00:01:18,680 that the map is actually about, 18 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:21,440 not only is the map still a beautiful map 19 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,080 and a beautiful work of art unto itself, 20 00:01:24,140 --> 00:01:26,480 but that map then guides you. 21 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,280 Edward de Vere was an outstanding, ingenious 22 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:41,440 and sometimes abrasive Elizabethan Renaissance man. 23 00:01:41,500 --> 00:01:45,000 Scholar, spendthrift, courtier, wit, 24 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:48,200 adventurer, patron, prolific ghost-writer, 25 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:52,040 De Vere encompassed the character traits of many Shakespearian icons. 26 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:56,760 Among them, Hamlet, Romeo, Othello, Falstaff and King Lear.' 27 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,680 'What really grabbed my interest was, is there any connection 28 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,920 between Shakespeare's interest and Edward de Vere's interest?' 29 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,320 'De Vere lived in Venice during his 20s and visited the cities 30 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:12,080 in France and Italy that became the settings 31 00:02:12,140 --> 00:02:14,320 for more than a dozen plays.' 32 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:18,520 'The amount of scholarship that he uses in his works 33 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:23,840 indicates certainly a person of unique educational qualifications 34 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:28,800 and an extraordinary literary heritage that he was privy to.' 35 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,920 He was a very theatrical man. I suppose in today's parlance 36 00:02:32,980 --> 00:02:35,360 we'd say he was rather camp. 37 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:39,200 He loved dressing up, he loved showing off. 38 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,720 'We don't want our kids knowing about De Vere, he was bisexual 39 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,840 and maybe had an affair with Queen Elizabeth.' 40 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:49,120 'One finds an abundance of correlations between the life 41 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,680 of the courtier playwright Edward de Vere and Shakespeare.' 42 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,680 'The question itself has a great deal of appeal 43 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,320 to lawyers, physicians, scientists. 44 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:03,960 People who come from fact-based backgrounds will give you 45 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:07,040 the time of day and say, "What's your evidence?" 46 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:11,400 If you've spent all of your life doing a PhD and then focusing 47 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:15,200 your teaching on the Stratford story 48 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:20,240 then it must be very scary to have to think, 49 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:23,240 "Well, maybe this isn't true, after all."' 50 00:03:23,300 --> 00:03:26,560 'Every author's life tells a story. 51 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:29,920 The best place to begin is with the name itself. 52 00:03:29,980 --> 00:03:31,920 Shake-speare. 53 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,720 The hyphen is in many of the first publications of the plays and poems. 54 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,000 Hyphenated phrases in an author's name often suggested 55 00:03:39,060 --> 00:03:41,120 a concealed author 56 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,560 in an age rife with political and religious intrigue, when picking 57 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,240 the wrong alliance or offending the wrong official could mean 58 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:51,800 imprisonment, torture, forfeiture of one's property to the crown 59 00:03:51,860 --> 00:03:54,400 or a death sentence.' 60 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,320 'The evidence for Oxford to many people, 61 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:02,560 including a number of professors, appears to be much more convincing 62 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:07,960 than the evidence for the man from Stratford, Will Shakespeare. 63 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:11,920 That's the way his name was spelled in Stratford - Shakspeare. 64 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,040 The name on the plays - uniformly, Shakespeare. Two different names, 65 00:04:17,100 --> 00:04:19,520 two different people.' 66 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:03,080 'On April 12th, 1550, in the private apartments 67 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:06,560 of a British stonewall fortress, a lord and lady welcomed 68 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,400 their heir into the world. The child's father, John De Vere, 69 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,600 16th Earl of Oxford, could rest assured that when he died 70 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:17,480 his own son would carry forward the title of 17th Earl. 71 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:21,040 Lord Edward's nobility would place him among kings and queens 72 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:24,200 and the powerful men around them who ran the state. 73 00:05:24,280 --> 00:05:27,480 For 400 years, Edward de Vere's ancestors 74 00:05:27,540 --> 00:05:29,720 had played a leading role in the wars 75 00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:31,960 and politics in England. 76 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:36,240 In an uninterrupted succession from the Norman conquest on, De Veres 77 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:39,560 had served the crown as statesman and military commanders.' 78 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,800 'The De Veres were some of the most influential people 79 00:05:44,860 --> 00:05:47,280 because of the huge land holdings.' 80 00:05:47,340 --> 00:05:49,400 They owned the entire town 81 00:05:49,460 --> 00:05:51,480 and anyone who wanted 82 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,760 to do anything at all had to receive the permission 83 00:05:54,840 --> 00:05:57,280 of the lords of the manor and they were, 84 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:00,200 for over 600 years, the De Veres. 85 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:05,840 'But also, the fact that they were the hereditary 86 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:08,680 lord great chamberlains of England gave them 87 00:06:08,740 --> 00:06:11,120 direct access to the monarch. 88 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,680 Edward de Vere is one of the most interesting 89 00:06:14,740 --> 00:06:17,560 members of the family.' 90 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,040 He wasn't cast in the usual mould. 91 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:23,760 'As a toddler inside this ancient castle, 92 00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:27,160 Edward's formative years were probably lonely ones.' 93 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:30,040 As a young man, of course, he was, 94 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:33,400 before his father dies, his father had a troupe of players. 95 00:06:33,460 --> 00:06:36,520 He lived at Hedingham Castle, 96 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,880 he would see travelling groups of players 97 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:42,800 and his father's own group of players. 98 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:45,680 'Sometime, during Lord Edward's youth, 99 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:48,240 the child was moved out of Castle Hedingham 100 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:51,280 and into the household of Sir Thomas Smith. 101 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:55,880 Lord Edward, as his scholar, would have had access 102 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:58,720 to Smith's library of hundreds of books. 103 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:03,400 More than 400 titles in theology, civil law, history, 104 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:07,480 philosophy, mathematics, medicine, grammar and literature. 105 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:12,200 Works by Livy, Virgil, Plutarch, Plato, 106 00:07:12,260 --> 00:07:15,760 Pliny, Homer, Ovid, Aristophanes, 107 00:07:15,820 --> 00:07:18,840 Sophocles, Dante and Boccaccio 108 00:07:18,900 --> 00:07:21,160 lined Smith's bookshelves. 109 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:24,800 Edward de Vere's father died when young Edward was 12. 110 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:28,960 His mother remarried soon after burying her first husband.' 111 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:32,480 Then when his father died when he was 12 112 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:36,480 and he became a ward of court with Burghley, 113 00:07:36,540 --> 00:07:39,880 again, he was taken 114 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:43,080 to theatrical performances at court. 115 00:07:44,860 --> 00:07:48,400 'On Thursday, September 3rd, 1562, 116 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,440 the London diarist Henry Machyn recorded 117 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,400 that between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, 118 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:57,600 a 12-year-old Earl of Oxford came riding out of Essex 119 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,400 with seven score horse all in black through London 120 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:04,520 and Cheap and Ludgate and so to Temple Bar. 121 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:08,160 The child's parade was hundreds of feet long as it progressed 122 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,440 over the drawbridge and through the arches of London's Aldgate 123 00:08:11,500 --> 00:08:13,920 on the eastern side of the city. 124 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:18,160 With 140 horsemen bearing the colourless cast of mourning, 125 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:22,760 De Vere took his entrance onto the worldly stage as the boy in black.' 126 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:26,000 London wasn't a particularly large city. 127 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:29,080 I suppose it had a population of 100,000 at the most. 128 00:08:29,140 --> 00:08:33,160 It was run as a Stasi-type city 129 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:39,040 with informers, and it was a very dangerous place to live, 130 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:44,600 um, which, again, I think is why there is 131 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:47,480 such a confusion over the whole thing, 132 00:08:47,560 --> 00:08:51,760 because they, er, didn't have shredding machines, 133 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:55,240 but they had fires and I think a lot of evidence 134 00:08:55,300 --> 00:08:58,040 was destroyed. 135 00:09:00,500 --> 00:09:03,400 I'm the 18th Baron Burghley, 136 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:08,080 a grandson of the original Lord Burghley. 137 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,600 The population of England at the time, I think, was about 5 million 138 00:09:11,680 --> 00:09:16,280 and of those 5 million, not very many were well-educated. 139 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:20,000 'Lord Burghley's library was one of the most extensive 140 00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:22,440 in England at the time.' 141 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:27,320 The books, the writer of Shakespeare would have had to have had 142 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:30,400 connection with were in that library, 143 00:09:30,460 --> 00:09:33,000 mostly in the original languages. 144 00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:37,760 'The variety of books kept within Cecil House was truly astonishing 145 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,800 for those fortunate few who enjoyed access.' 146 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:45,280 A cousin of mine who was managing the house, Burghley House, 147 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:50,040 gave me a copy of Lord Burghley's precepts, 148 00:09:50,100 --> 00:09:53,840 which were written about 1582, 149 00:09:53,900 --> 00:09:56,360 '84, '85, somewhere in there. 150 00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:00,520 They kind of reflect what is in the play Hamlet. 151 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:04,000 These few precepts in thy memory. Look though Character. 152 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:08,640 Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 153 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,840 There is one, in particular, which fits very well 154 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:15,680 with the final statement by Polonius. 155 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:19,880 This above all: to thine own self be true, 156 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:23,720 and it must follow, as the night the day, 157 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,360 though canst not then be false to any man. 158 00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:29,520 'The book was printed in non-book form, 159 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:33,640 1616, but before that, only family members 160 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:37,640 or close associates would have had a chance 161 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:41,320 to see those words, I would think. Certainly not Will. 162 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:46,600 'The players in Hamlet were strangely look-a-likes 163 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:50,640 to the English court and the people who were close to Edward 164 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:54,840 and, in fact, the way in which people died right and left 165 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,560 probably reflects his feeling of frustration 166 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:01,400 at finding himself in that setting.' 167 00:11:02,340 --> 00:11:04,440 'Now he is praying. 168 00:11:06,980 --> 00:11:09,320 And now I'll do't. 169 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:14,880 And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. 170 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:18,360 That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father; and for that, 171 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:21,640 I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.' 172 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:25,520 When Hamlet has an opportunity to murder Claudius 173 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:30,000 at his prayers, he kind of does a double take. 174 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:37,520 He says, "Well, if I kill him now, he's praying, he'll go to heaven." 175 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,560 he says, "This is not revenge, it's hire and salary." 176 00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:46,200 And in the process of this soliloquy, whilst he's watching 177 00:11:46,260 --> 00:11:48,840 Claudius at prayer he says,... 178 00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:51,880 He took my father grossly, full of bread. 179 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,480 That is the allusion to Ezekiel 16:49, 180 00:11:55,560 --> 00:12:01,480 one of the underlying verses in the Geneva Bible and one of the most 181 00:12:01,560 --> 00:12:06,480 significant proofs of Shakespeare's dependence 182 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:10,320 upon the Geneva translation of the Bible. 183 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:14,960 'Cecil recorded that in the first quarter of 1570, De Vere purchased 184 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:19,880 two unspecified Italian books as well as the Geneva Bible gilt, 185 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:24,720 a Chaucer, Plutarch's works in French, with other books and papers.' 186 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:28,320 'The Geneva Bible, it's lodged in the vaults 187 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:31,360 of the Folger library in Washington.' 188 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:36,080 It's the sort of connection between a man, 189 00:12:36,140 --> 00:12:38,360 a writer and the works 190 00:12:38,420 --> 00:12:42,360 that doesn't ever occur 191 00:12:42,420 --> 00:12:44,880 with the man from Stratford. 192 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:49,560 We have a record of him purchasing it in 1570, 193 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:54,400 and it is very expensively and handsomely bound 194 00:12:54,460 --> 00:12:57,160 with his heraldic devices on it. 195 00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:02,200 There are a number of little manicules in the margins 196 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:05,480 and a manicule is a tradition that originated 197 00:13:05,540 --> 00:13:08,080 with the medieval scribes. 198 00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:11,720 When they copied a manuscript, if there was a particular passage 199 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:16,080 that they felt was particularly important or edifying 200 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:19,760 they would draw one of these little manicules to literally point out 201 00:13:19,820 --> 00:13:22,400 the importance of that passage. 202 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:26,760 But of the some thousand or so verses marked in the De Vere Bible, 203 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:31,200 between two and three hundred plus of them 204 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:34,440 exhibit an influence of Shakespeare. 205 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:38,920 There is a close correlation between the level of interest Shakespeare 206 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,200 showed in specific biblical verses and the level of interest 207 00:13:42,260 --> 00:13:44,160 De Vere showed. 208 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:47,520 When Shakespeare echoed a biblical verse once, 209 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:51,840 only 13% of those verses are marked in the Bible. 210 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:56,120 The more times Shakespeare echoes a given Bible verse, 211 00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,560 the greater the likelihood that Edward de Vere marked 212 00:13:59,620 --> 00:14:02,000 that same verse in his bible. 213 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:05,440 So, there are some verses that are echoed six times 214 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:10,160 in the works of Shakespeare, 88% of those verses are marked 215 00:14:10,220 --> 00:14:12,360 in De Vere's bible, 88%. 216 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:15,960 The more interest Shakespeare showed, the more interest De Vere 217 00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:20,160 showed, it's almost a straight line. Roger has done landmark work, 218 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:23,600 extremely important work. I think it's the most important scholarly 219 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:27,040 work to make the case Edward de Vere did write the works of Shakespeare. 220 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:32,080 We can connect these annotations not only to Shakespeare, but to De Vere. 221 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:37,360 There is a group of about 140 marked verses. 222 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:42,280 All of these verses have some connection to the idea of economics. 223 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:47,520 Matthew 6:19 through 21 is a wonderful example. 224 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,160 These are the verses in which Jesus says, "Don't store up your money 225 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:54,120 on earth but store your treasure in heaven." 226 00:14:54,180 --> 00:14:57,800 This is more than consistent 227 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:00,760 with what we know about De Vere's biography. 228 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:06,760 He was, although born a man of great wealth and power, 229 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:10,200 was perhaps the most downwardly mobile person in the history 230 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:15,320 of the planet, he spent his whole life haemorrhaging land and money. 231 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,800 Allow not nature more than nature needs; 232 00:15:20,020 --> 00:15:22,400 man's life's as cheap as beast's. 233 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:37,320 He was greatly concerned with the honour of himself and his family. 234 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:42,520 But he suffered from all the ordinary human vices and weaknesses. 235 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:47,840 It's known that he was fond of the tavern, and it's also known, 236 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:52,560 of course, that he was, tended to be quick-tempered and quarrelsome. 237 00:15:52,620 --> 00:15:55,760 A plague on all cowards! 238 00:15:55,820 --> 00:15:57,840 What's up, Bob? 239 00:15:57,900 --> 00:15:59,880 Where have you been? 240 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:03,680 'But Edward de Vere was admired by many of his contemporaries, 241 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:08,240 and he was described as one of the best wits in England.' 242 00:16:08,300 --> 00:16:11,520 There are contemporary writings 243 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:15,280 that say there are certain courtiers 244 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,080 at Elizabeth's court who are wonderful writers, 245 00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:24,120 um, the best of whom is Edward de Vere, 246 00:16:24,180 --> 00:16:26,040 17th Earl of Oxford. 247 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:28,520 That has been written, that was written, 248 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:33,080 I think, in the 1590s by Francis Meres. 249 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:36,960 In 1575, Edward de Vere obtained permission 250 00:16:37,020 --> 00:16:39,640 from the Queen to travel overseas. 251 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:45,920 'De Vere's first stop, the French royal court of the Louvre, 252 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,080 would serve to remind de Vere just how staid and normal 253 00:16:49,140 --> 00:16:51,480 the English court actually was. 254 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:55,720 Henry III was a flamboyant monarch, equal parts Renne and Rois 255 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:59,760 and would regularly wear gowns, make-up, earrings and perfume. 256 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:03,640 Frequently seen with Sa Majeste were his minions, 257 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:07,120 young male favourites whom the King dressed as ladies of the night. 258 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:11,240 King Henry had recently been in Venice, and he had so fallen in love 259 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:14,800 with the comeddia dell'arte that he imported a venetian troupe 260 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,680 to perform at his wedding. And his coronation provided only the first 261 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:22,800 of a number of opportunities to drink in these amazing Italian comedies. 262 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:32,920 De Vere moved to Venice in the spring of 1575 263 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,200 and lived there, on and off, for the next year.' 264 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:46,440 'Shakespeare's focus on so many of the plays' 265 00:17:46,500 --> 00:17:49,600 on setting them in Italy, 266 00:17:49,660 --> 00:17:52,880 there's no suggestion whatsoever 267 00:17:52,940 --> 00:17:56,120 that the Shakespeare of Stratford 268 00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:00,160 ever travelled outside the southern part of England. 269 00:18:00,220 --> 00:18:03,200 'We do know that others did travel. 270 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:08,320 Certainly, Oxford travels very significantly, he had 18 months 271 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:11,200 to two years travelling in Europe and a lot of that 272 00:18:11,260 --> 00:18:13,320 was spent in Italy.' 273 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:17,760 Orthodox scholars try to explain this away as, 274 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:22,080 "Well, he had a great imagination, and he could have read books and he 275 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:25,720 could have taught to travellers." But when you look at the actual 276 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:31,600 material in the Italian plays, he evokes the location, 277 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,040 the language, the culture, the imagery. 278 00:18:34,120 --> 00:18:37,360 He brings it alive and makes it seem like 279 00:18:37,420 --> 00:18:40,360 he knows it intimately 280 00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:43,960 and he seems to have a strong emotional connection to Italy. 281 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:47,480 'What is interesting too, is where they are sent from. 282 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:52,720 Letters from Paris, letters from many places in Italy, 283 00:18:52,780 --> 00:18:57,280 all documentary proof.' 284 00:18:57,360 --> 00:19:02,240 Well, the Italian connection with De Vere is very important 285 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:05,640 because so many of the plays are set in Italy. 286 00:19:05,700 --> 00:19:09,880 And set at Italian courts 287 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:12,680 and again that is very important 288 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:17,520 because the majority of the plays are aristocratic, 289 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:20,600 they're slued towards the aristocracy 290 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:23,840 and the life of kings and courts and courtiers 291 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:27,680 and, as I say, many of them are set in Italy. 292 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:33,000 There's no question that Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers 293 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:37,720 of the English language and his plays are full, 294 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:43,280 not only of poetry and incredible dramaturgy, 295 00:19:43,340 --> 00:19:47,320 but personal expression 296 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,560 and power and political commentary. 297 00:19:50,620 --> 00:19:53,120 I mean, for me studying Shakespeare 298 00:19:53,180 --> 00:19:55,640 is studying the world. 299 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:05,880 Venice was, at that time, a very huge town, 300 00:20:05,940 --> 00:20:09,720 more than 180,000 inhabitants 301 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:13,960 so one of the most largest towns in Europe 302 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:17,840 and surely was a kind of a New York City 303 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:22,760 of the Renaissance, so different people coming from different places, 304 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:26,160 different cultures so a big exchange of culture 305 00:20:26,220 --> 00:20:30,480 and also the creation of fashion, 306 00:20:30,540 --> 00:20:32,920 you know, and everything. 307 00:20:32,980 --> 00:20:35,560 A kind of light for Europe. 308 00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:41,640 'Reaching the shore of the Venetian lagoon sometime in May 1575, 309 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:44,320 the Earl of Oxford had finally arrived. 310 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,880 As the boatman guided the ferry towards its island destination 311 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:52,560 through the lagoon's shallow waters, a metropolis unlike any other 312 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:56,040 came into view. The earl would have had to present 313 00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:59,600 his papers of introduction from the Venetian ambassador in Paris 314 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:03,160 to the Duke or Doge and his court at Palazzo Ducale, 315 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:06,600 the city's central municipal building, one that was parliament, 316 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:10,720 Whitehall and Westminster all under one vast U-shaped roof. 317 00:21:12,060 --> 00:21:14,240 The Ducal palace state chambers 318 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,560 exceeded even the opulence of Elizabeth's court. 319 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:21,600 Allegorical statues, murals and paintings by the likes of Tintoretto 320 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:25,760 and Veronese covered every stair case, door jam and square foot 321 00:21:25,820 --> 00:21:28,200 of the ceiling of the Palazzo. 322 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,880 De Vere would have arrived in time for the annual theatrical season 323 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:39,400 which lasted until July. By the 1570s, Venice had become, 324 00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:42,840 perhaps, the most vibrant theatrical community in all of Europe. 325 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:47,360 Venetian entrepreneurs had recently constructed 326 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,680 the first two public theatres in the city. 327 00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:54,920 As the aristocratico Inglese settled into his new home town, he surely 328 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,960 also began attending plays that would be meting out ideas, plots, 329 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,320 characters and inspiration for the rest of his life. 330 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,440 If De Vere had seen Pantalone in action at Henry III's coronation, 331 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:09,960 he would have had ample opportunity to study the character 332 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,640 in greater detail after arriving in Venice where the Commedia literally 333 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:16,800 spilled out into the streets and piazzas. 334 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:21,560 Pantalone joined the cast of lovers, tricksters, heroes and villains 335 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,640 in improvised productions that survive today 336 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,800 primarily in the form of brief plot summaries. 337 00:22:27,860 --> 00:22:30,240 There was nothing like it in England. 338 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,880 The theatrical mixture of high and low, refined and proletariat, 339 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,840 comic and tragic that graced Venetian stages would present 340 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,760 an aesthetic philosophy that would later be developed 341 00:22:40,820 --> 00:22:43,840 into the works of Shakespeare.' 342 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,440 Othello is the perfect representation 343 00:22:51,500 --> 00:22:54,200 of the commedia dell'arte. 344 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:58,160 Commedia dell'arte, in a word, was satiric, street theatre, 345 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:01,880 stock characters but different situations 346 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:05,200 that they enact in an improvised way. 347 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:10,120 'Othello is the perfect embodiment of the Capitano, 348 00:23:10,180 --> 00:23:13,240 a bragger, soldier. 349 00:23:13,300 --> 00:23:17,360 Iago is the embodiment 350 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:20,160 of the Zanni and in commedia dell'arte' 351 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:25,800 the Zanni was the very clever schemer, 352 00:23:25,860 --> 00:23:29,360 a servant or an underling 353 00:23:29,420 --> 00:23:31,800 who drives the plot forward 354 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:36,200 at every point and in the end gets his comeuppance. 355 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,320 The maid in commedia dell'arte is invariably 356 00:23:41,380 --> 00:23:43,800 the outspoken truth-teller 357 00:23:43,860 --> 00:23:47,600 and, in Othello, the babe, 358 00:23:47,660 --> 00:23:50,640 Emelia, to Desdemona 359 00:23:50,700 --> 00:23:53,280 is clearly, unequivocally 360 00:23:53,360 --> 00:23:57,360 the outspoken truth-teller and what happens to her? 361 00:23:57,420 --> 00:23:59,680 Iago kills her. 362 00:24:00,980 --> 00:24:04,160 This is the tragic element 363 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,960 that Oxford brings into this bitter, black comedy 364 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,560 as if the playwright were saying, 365 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,120 "I'm gonna show you how foolish and misguided 366 00:24:15,180 --> 00:24:17,880 these people are." 367 00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:35,160 'Since De Vere was still a courtier, albeit in a foreign court, 368 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,960 he sought out lodgings close to the centre 369 00:24:38,020 --> 00:24:40,400 of the Venetian courtly universe. 370 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:44,040 One clue about the possible site of De Vere's Venetian household 371 00:24:44,100 --> 00:24:46,400 comes from the Shakespearian canon. 372 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:50,000 Othello reports that his house lies somewhere near a place 373 00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:53,800 he calls The Sagittary. The Sagittary is, arguably, 374 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,080 an anglophonic rendition of Vica Sagittarius. 375 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:02,200 Known more commonly as The Frezzaria, 376 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:05,360 this street was less than 50 metres from St Mark's 377 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,760 and was a prominent commercial venue that had derived its name 378 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:12,200 from the arrows that were originally sold in its shops. 379 00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:17,080 Orazio Cuoco, a venetian choir boy the Earl would hire as a page, 380 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:21,560 later reported he first me De Vere at the church of Santa Maria Formosa 381 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,880 and that De Vere himself worshipped at the church of the Greeks, 382 00:25:24,940 --> 00:25:27,200 Saint Giorgio dei Greci. 383 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,240 Both of these churches lie within a five-minute walk 384 00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,000 from the Ducal palace in St Mark's Square. 385 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,280 The Earl of Oxford, we know, was living in the neighbourhood 386 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:38,960 of the church of Santa Maria Formosa, 387 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:42,400 which is the same neighbourhood where the Murano money lender, 388 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:46,680 living in Venice in the 1570s by the name of Gaspar Ribeiro lived. 389 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:51,520 Ribeiro had an office back in that church, he was the gastaldo, 390 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,600 the protector of the sacred virgin. 391 00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,560 Brian Pullen, University of Manchester, for the last 30 years 392 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,800 has been publishing a series of articles pointing out 393 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,640 the incredible similarities between Shakespeare's Shylock and Ribeiro. 394 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:11,960 Ribeiro was involved in serious loans, he was a collector 395 00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:16,480 of precious stones, he had a daughter who escaped from the family 396 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,080 household and married a Christian. The trial that he went through, 397 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:24,040 which is really how we know so much about him, during the investigation 398 00:26:24,120 --> 00:26:27,800 by the Venetian inquisition into whether he was a Christian or a Jew 399 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:31,320 provides a lot of evidence that we can attach 400 00:26:31,380 --> 00:26:34,160 to Shylock's character as well. 401 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,360 He was known for his meanness, for his greediness, 402 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,680 for his obsessiveness and for his hostility, 403 00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:45,160 particularly towards his daughter and daughter-in-law. Jessica! 404 00:26:47,420 --> 00:26:49,240 Jessica! 405 00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:53,680 Shylock denounces Jessica, who had run off with the jewels 406 00:26:53,740 --> 00:26:56,360 and the ducets and married Lorenzo 407 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,560 and said that it would better that she were dead. 408 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,640 Ribeiro said of his own daughter-in-law 409 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:06,160 that he would rather give her a rope upon which to hang herself, 410 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,040 he was so angry at her, and she similarly had run off 411 00:27:09,100 --> 00:27:11,120 with a bunch of ducets. 412 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,760 The scenario is remarkably parallel. 413 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,080 So, definitely the Earl of Oxford would have been aware 414 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,800 of Ribeiro's existence and, no doubt, encountered him in church, 415 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,440 because we know Oxford went to the church of Santa Maria Formosa. 416 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:28,920 That's where he met Orazio Cuoco who became his page 417 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:33,280 and returned to England with him and spent a year under his care. 418 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,040 'If De Vere's house was indeed on the Frezzaria, 419 00:27:41,120 --> 00:27:44,600 the Rialto Bridge was also his gondolier's exit. 420 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,880 The Rialto Bridge and Piazza, known in The Merchant of Venice 421 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,840 as Shylock's main haunt, was mere minutes away from the Frezzaria. 422 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:59,320 De Vere probably visited the Rialto regularly 423 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,360 since it was one of Venice's main shopping centres 424 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,400 where Jews lent money to anyone with good credit 425 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:08,800 and vendors of all creeds sold anything from swords and lamps 426 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:12,040 to wine and meats for the banquet table.' 427 00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:15,520 When he returned from his 14 months in Europe, most of that time 428 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,040 spent in Italy, he brought back with him a so-called choirboy, 429 00:28:19,100 --> 00:28:22,000 actually a 16-year-old Italian 430 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:25,560 and the allegation was that this was for sexual purposes. 431 00:28:25,620 --> 00:28:27,720 Edward De Vere also had 432 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:30,680 well-documented heterosexual relationships. 433 00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:34,400 'When De Vere arrived in Venice in 1575, 434 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:37,400 he found a city unlike any other in Europe, 435 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,640 renowned for its appreciation of liberty and sensuality, 436 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:44,320 a frontier town where anything and everything was available. 437 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,040 The sexual attitudes and practices of Venetians in the late 16th century 438 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,320 would have a lasting impact on De Vere's life and work.' 439 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:56,280 There's always been a question about 440 00:28:56,340 --> 00:28:59,200 the writer's sexuality, 441 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,640 and I firmly believe that whoever it was 442 00:29:02,700 --> 00:29:05,480 had to be bi-sexual. 443 00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:09,800 The personality that comes across when you really 444 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,360 find out about De Vere, he was a swinger, 445 00:29:13,420 --> 00:29:15,480 you know, 446 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,280 and whoever wrote the plays had to be. 447 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,400 'De Vere's activities and wanderings were, of course, 448 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,240 not limited to Venice's south side. 449 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:28,800 One anecdote points to a portion of De Vere's life elsewhere in Venice. 450 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:34,200 Virginia Padoana lived in an apartment on the Campo San Geremia, 451 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,800 a square just off Venice's Grand Canal near its northern entrance. 452 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,520 As a cortesana, Padoana belonged to a distinguished tradition 453 00:29:41,580 --> 00:29:43,680 unknown to England. 454 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:47,360 In the words of one contemporary traveller, "Though wilt find 455 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:49,880 a Venetian courtesan a good rhetorician 456 00:29:49,940 --> 00:29:52,280 and a most elegant discourser." 457 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,520 Often schooled as poets, scholars and musicians, 458 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,680 courtesans in Venice carried out entire careers 459 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,600 true to the first syllable of their name. 460 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,480 In 1575, the courtesan Veronica Franco 461 00:30:04,540 --> 00:30:06,880 had published her Terza Rima, 462 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:10,920 an erudite poem that satirised traditional love lyrics. 463 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:15,400 An English traveller, a dozen years later, would list Padoana as one who, 464 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:19,080 'Honoreth all our nation for my lord of Oxford's sake."' 465 00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:24,000 Courtesans is a very particular movement, 466 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:28,640 coming in Venice during the 16th century. 467 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,240 They were prostitutes but many of them 468 00:30:32,300 --> 00:30:35,240 open their houses 469 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:40,240 to the most famous poets, writers, musicians. 470 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:45,000 From a certain moment they can do what a girl of a noble family 471 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:49,720 of Venice cannot do - they can study, to talk, you know, 472 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,080 at one corner of the salon about astronomy 473 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:59,680 and crossing the salon, going and speaking of poetry. 474 00:30:59,740 --> 00:31:02,040 If Shakespeare would've been here, 475 00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:04,960 he would have visited also a place like that. 476 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:08,400 'I was always very alive to what was happening to the women 477 00:31:08,460 --> 00:31:10,480 in the plays.' 478 00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,640 What you see in the very early comedies is that the women 479 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:17,080 are either shrews or they're virgins on the pedestal, you know, 480 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,360 it's clearly a projection, a young man's projection. 481 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:24,040 In the middle plays, so many of the women tell the truth 482 00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,720 but they end up dead for telling the truth, but what happens 483 00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:31,160 in Romeo & Juliet is there is a huge change, 484 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:36,000 because Juliet is allowed her sexuality just as much as Romeo is. 485 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,480 'You suddenly get a portrait of a whole woman or a whole portrait 486 00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,240 of a woman that you don't get before.' 487 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:46,320 Therefore, stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone. 488 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:52,160 Let me ba ta'en, let me be put to death; 489 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:55,400 I am content, so thou wilt have it so. 490 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:58,200 'I guess one thing that struck me lately' 491 00:31:58,280 --> 00:32:01,720 is that the women, I think, are very remarkable in the plays 492 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:06,400 and very wonderful women and he seems to have had a lot 493 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:08,920 of difficulty and anger with women, Oxford. 494 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:14,160 So, I'd like to know more about how he wrote such wonderful parts 495 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:18,040 for women when he doesn't seem to have really thought much of women. 496 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,600 He seemed to have been more hurt by them and upset by them. 497 00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:27,320 When De Vere was 21, De Vere married William Cecil's daughter, 498 00:32:27,380 --> 00:32:30,040 Anne, who was then around 15. 499 00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:32,480 'One of the big themes in Shakespeare 500 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:35,960 and one of the big themes in De Vere's life when he was in Italy, 501 00:32:36,020 --> 00:32:38,600 was his wife delivering a daughter. 502 00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:42,040 He learned from his servant that his wife may have sought to terminate 503 00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:45,240 the pregnancy and didn't know if the child she bore was his. 504 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,360 It was a central event in De Vere's life and one that much 505 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,760 of the Shakespeare canon seems to be refracted through. 506 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:56,360 Now that he had established his base camp in Venice, Edward de Vere 507 00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,040 had three factors driving him onward. 508 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:03,200 The plague was becoming an ugly fact of life by mid-summer, 1575. 509 00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:07,120 Those letters of introduction from King Henry III to the Turkish court 510 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:10,920 were sitting on his desk unused, and the money he had brought with him 511 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,960 to Venice was burning a hole in his pocket. 512 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,960 Since De Vere would be travelling on a Venetian ship, 513 00:33:17,040 --> 00:33:20,440 under the Venetian flag, the Earl enjoyed ample opportunity to visit 514 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:24,040 the Ottoman-occupied lands to the east, including Greece.' 515 00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:27,040 'Everybody travels from Venice to Cyprus 516 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:31,440 because the Turks are believed that they are gonna invade and indeed, 517 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:34,720 it's a historical fact that they did invade Cyprus. 518 00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:38,400 However, they're at the other end of the island from Famagusta. 519 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,960 Famagusta's not mentioned in the play but it's the only port 520 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:46,960 in Cyprus so there are 12 instances 521 00:33:47,020 --> 00:33:50,280 in Othello that point directly 522 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:53,760 to this port of Famagusta and Cyprus. 523 00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:58,600 To think that the playwright who wrote Othello 524 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:03,400 would put in these 12 very specific passages, 525 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:07,720 why and how could a playwright put those in unless they'd been there? 526 00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:15,080 What is fascinating is that whoever wrote these, the plays, 527 00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:19,800 must have visited those cities, must have known those cities, 528 00:34:19,860 --> 00:34:23,840 because just by, not accident, 529 00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:27,560 but little things are just thrown in like the things 530 00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,680 in Romeo and Juliet about the sycamore grove. 531 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:35,560 Now, why talk about a sycamore grove in Verona? Why did he choose that? 532 00:34:35,620 --> 00:34:37,720 Is there a sycamore grove? 533 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:42,320 Well, Rowe's book says, "Yes, absolutely, it's there." 534 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:46,280 These little mentions of actual locations 535 00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:51,880 indicate that whoever wrote these plays 536 00:34:51,940 --> 00:34:56,760 put in little touches 537 00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:59,680 of local colour that he had seen. 538 00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:18,800 Once in Palermo, ruled by a prince who loved the equestrian sports, 539 00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,640 De Vere organised an impromptu tournament 540 00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:24,760 to joust for the honour of Her Highness Queen Elizabeth.' 541 00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:27,760 He challenged the whole of Palermo to a duel. 542 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:31,160 'Such valour would certainly have impressed the prince, Sessa. 543 00:35:31,240 --> 00:35:34,960 It may have even yielded De Vere letters of passage to the other 544 00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:38,720 Spanish kingdoms where records reveal he would later be travelling - 545 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:42,080 Naples and Milan. Sessa had, in fact, only returned 546 00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:45,600 recently from the Spanish garrison at Naples where the viceroy 547 00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:49,080 had become enamoured of a lame Spanish soldier who was gaining 548 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:53,200 notice as a first-rate poet - Miguel De Cervantes. 549 00:35:55,220 --> 00:35:57,520 The late summer of 1575 550 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:00,880 presents the Earl Of Oxford at perhaps his most quixotic. 551 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,640 Thumping his chest in the Palermo square, offering to tilt against 552 00:36:04,720 --> 00:36:09,360 any comer who might dare to challenge the virtues of his fair Dulcinea 553 00:36:09,420 --> 00:36:12,840 on the English throne. 554 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,280 And Cervantes was a notoriously good observer who would spend the rest 555 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,800 of his life transforming his youthful adventures into novels and plays. 556 00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:23,840 No one has ever considered De Vere as one of Cervantes' early character 557 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,920 inspirations, yet if De Vere's Sicilian exploits do ring 558 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,400 with the mock bravado of Falstaff, perhaps future scholars will find 559 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,280 in them snapshots of Don Quixote as well. 560 00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:39,320 De Vere's prodigal lifestyle had not abated since he crossed the Alps. 561 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:45,240 Over 14 months of travel, the Earl spent £4,561, 562 00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:48,680 some $1.2 million in today's currency. 563 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,040 In September, De Vere sent a letter to Burghley 564 00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,680 explaining why communication had been cut off during the grand tour. 565 00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:00,640 De Vere requested a loan he had taken out for 500 crowns 566 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:03,880 should be settled with the sale of his lands. 567 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,040 The fall of 1575 was a bad time to get sick in Venice. 568 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,160 The city was suffering an epidemic of the plague. 569 00:37:10,240 --> 00:37:14,400 Church spires were all too often aglow with lanterns of the dead, 570 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,840 an Italian funerary tradition that appears in Romeo and Juliet. 571 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:22,720 The plague of 1575-77 would ultimately claim the life 572 00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,480 of one of the most celebrated Venetians of his day, 573 00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:30,240 the artist Tiziano Vecellio, known today as Titian. 574 00:37:31,620 --> 00:37:33,600 In 1575, however, 575 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:38,240 this octogenarian great master was anything but ailing. 576 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:41,480 Titian's studio at the island's northern edge, Ca Grande, 577 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,960 was churning out complex works at the time such as the Allegory 578 00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:49,240 of the Battle of Lepanto and the Allegory of Religion. 579 00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:52,000 Both of these paintings were commissioned 580 00:37:52,060 --> 00:37:54,320 by King Phillip II of Spain 581 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:57,840 and would inspire literary tributes by the Spanish playwright, 582 00:37:57,900 --> 00:38:01,160 Lope de Vega. 583 00:38:01,240 --> 00:38:04,680 In 16thC Italy, Titian was an artistic celebrity 584 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,840 comparable to Picasso in the 20th century. 585 00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:11,400 Venetian society flocked to his bay-side home and noteworthy 586 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,520 foreign visitors frequently paid their respects. 587 00:38:14,580 --> 00:38:17,000 It is likely De Vere did as well. 588 00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:23,360 One painting alone, depicting a myth from Ovid's Metamorphosis 589 00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:27,640 would fire the Shakespearean imagination years later. 590 00:38:27,720 --> 00:38:31,760 Shakespeare's epic poem Venus and Adonis boldly revises 591 00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,040 the Ovidian myth in the same way that Titian does. 592 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:39,080 Whereas all classical sources of the Venus and Adonis fable depict 593 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,240 the couple's affair as mutually passionate, Titian's 594 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:45,600 Venus and Adonis portrays the former as a desperate vixen 595 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:48,360 and the latter as a disinterested boy. 596 00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:52,520 On Titian's canvas, a grasping goddess of love clings 597 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,560 to a wilful youth who appears bothered by the temptress 598 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:59,720 embracing him. Titian's Venus nearly falls over herself 599 00:38:59,780 --> 00:39:02,000 to restrain Adonis from leaving. 600 00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:05,440 There were at least four copies of Titian's Venus and Adonis elsewhere 601 00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:08,560 on the continent by 1575, most notably in the collection 602 00:39:08,620 --> 00:39:10,600 of the King of Spain. 603 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,840 But the copy remaining in Titian's studio was distinctive. 604 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:16,920 In Titian's copy and in Titian's copy only, 605 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:21,160 Adonis wears a stylised from of a man's hat known as a bonnet. 606 00:39:21,240 --> 00:39:24,720 The other copies of the painting feature a bare-headed Adonis. 607 00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:28,680 Shakespeare's Adonis wears a bonnet that hides his angry brow. 608 00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:36,360 On November 27th, the Earl wrote to his father-in-law from Padua 609 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:40,920 not to inhibit any sales of his family lands in order to stem 610 00:39:40,980 --> 00:39:43,200 a rising tide of debts. 611 00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:46,680 The Merchant of Venice describes the trip from Padua to Venice 612 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:50,200 by what Portia calls the tranect, the common ferry. 613 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:54,240 The river Brenta connected the inland university town 614 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,080 to the Venetian lagoon and the seven-hour journey 615 00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:00,880 by horse-drawn ferry was one of the most scenic river-rides in Italy, 616 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,920 passing riverside estates and numerous luxurious mansions. 617 00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:11,560 The Brenta was known to locals as the continuation of the Grand Canal. 618 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:15,040 Portia lives on the Brenta in an estate called Belmont. 619 00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:19,160 Belmont, she notes, is at a location ten miles from Venice 620 00:40:19,220 --> 00:40:21,720 and two miles from a monastery. 621 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,800 There is only one villa that meets these two geographic details - 622 00:40:25,860 --> 00:40:28,480 the luxurious Villa Foscari. 623 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:32,040 De Vere's ferry ride down the Brenta would have passed 624 00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:36,240 the classically-inspired Villa Foscari as the traghetto 625 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,480 slowed down to round a wide curve on the riverbank.' 626 00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,840 'There are certain things in The Merchant of Venice about 627 00:40:42,900 --> 00:40:46,880 Portia's journey from Belmont 628 00:40:46,940 --> 00:40:49,920 into the court 629 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,600 which are so accurate, so accurate 630 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,000 that whoever wrote them must have been there, must have been there. 631 00:40:57,060 --> 00:40:59,040 And we know Oxford was. 632 00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:03,800 'One of Italy's most celebrated college towns, Padua was home 633 00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:06,960 to a university that, thanks to its independence 634 00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:09,680 from the Catholic Church, drew scholars 635 00:41:09,740 --> 00:41:12,040 from the occident and orient. 636 00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:15,160 The university also housed a world-famous law school, 637 00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:18,360 an institution where Sir Thomas Smith had once trained. 638 00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:22,720 Its most celebrated professor in 1575 was a jurist named 639 00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,640 Ottonello Discalcio, a man who made regular trips to Venice to render 640 00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:30,160 his considered opinion in court cases that required 641 00:41:30,220 --> 00:41:32,480 outside consultation. 642 00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:36,320 Discalcio was the real-life inspiration 643 00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:39,160 for The Merchant of Venice's celebrated 644 00:41:39,240 --> 00:41:41,920 Padua university law professor, Bellario.' 645 00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:47,680 'The court shall hear Bellario's letter.' 646 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:50,080 In the instant that your messenger came, 647 00:41:50,140 --> 00:41:52,200 in loving visitation was with me 648 00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:55,080 a young doctor of Rome; his name is Balthasar. 649 00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:58,800 I acquainted him with the cause in controversy between the Jew 650 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,760 and Antonio the merchant: we turned o'er many books together: 651 00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:06,200 he is furnished with my opinion, which, bettered with his own 652 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:10,360 learning, comes with him, at my importunity, to fill up your grace's 653 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:14,120 request in my stead. You hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes: 654 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:17,800 And here, I take it, is the doctor come. 655 00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:21,680 'Just a day's journey from Padua was the city of Mantua where De Vere's 656 00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,760 idol, Baldassare Castiglione, had lived and worked. 657 00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:33,560 Castiglione was buried in the church of Santa Maria Delle Grazie, 658 00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:36,640 five mile outside Mantua's city walls. 659 00:42:36,700 --> 00:42:40,480 La Grazie was a popular sanctuary 660 00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,200 containing numerous life-size statues in coloured wax 661 00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,320 of local dignitaries and religious leaders. 662 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:51,200 Amid these effigies stands Castiglione's tomb. 663 00:42:52,720 --> 00:42:57,800 Atop the tomb, one finds a masterful sculpture of a risen Christ. 664 00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:00,760 The monument was designed and sculpted 665 00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,760 by Castiglione's friend, Giulio Romano. 666 00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:07,440 Romano is, in fact, mentioned by name in Shakespeare. 667 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:11,760 In The Winter's Tale a painted statue of wronged wife Hermione 668 00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:17,440 is compared to statuary by that rare Italian master, Giulio Romano. 669 00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:24,400 This sentence has often been cited by orthodox academics 670 00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:27,520 to disprove Shakespeare's knowledge of Italian art. 671 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:30,720 Romano is known today as a painter, not a sculptor. 672 00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:35,160 Visiting dignitaries such as an English earl would have been put up 673 00:43:35,240 --> 00:43:38,480 as a guest of the local duke, Guglielmo Gonzaga. 674 00:43:38,540 --> 00:43:41,160 The Gonzagas had, in 1575, 675 00:43:41,240 --> 00:43:45,160 reigned as dukes of Mantua for nearly 250 years. 676 00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:49,880 De Vere probably read tales from the family's own bookshelves about 677 00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:53,280 the strange and curious history of the Gonzaga dynasty. 678 00:43:53,360 --> 00:43:57,160 One Gonzaga, a cousin to Castiglione, had been accused of murdering 679 00:43:57,240 --> 00:44:00,680 the Duke of Urbino by pouring poison in his ear. 680 00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:06,720 This is the same story Hamlet tells 681 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:09,920 in his play within a play, The Mouse Trap. 682 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:15,040 The Gonzagas' monstrous, 500-room, 15-courtyard Palazzo Ducale 683 00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:18,400 contained a number of suites for distinguished guests. 684 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:21,280 In 1575, one of the main guest rooms 685 00:44:21,340 --> 00:44:24,400 was the Apartamento de Troya. 686 00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:28,560 The Apartamento contained frescoes of famous scenes from the Trojan War, 687 00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:32,240 painted and decorated by none other than Giulio Romano. 688 00:44:33,260 --> 00:44:35,440 The mural is one busy work of art. 689 00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:40,120 On the ceiling - Mount Olympus and battles between Greeks and Trojans. 690 00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:43,640 On the walls - Paris' judgement, the rape of Helen, 691 00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:46,720 Hecuba's dream, the forging of Achilles' arms, 692 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:50,240 the building of the Trojan horse and the deceitful Simon's ploy 693 00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:53,200 to induce his countrymen to receive the horse. 694 00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:57,040 Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece describes just such a painting, 695 00:44:57,100 --> 00:44:59,920 202 lines of poetic elaboration 696 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,760 upon a mural of epic proportions.' 697 00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:11,640 Aren't I right, Bob? Aren't I right? 698 00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,200 We have heard the chimes at midnight. 699 00:45:15,260 --> 00:45:17,880 That we have. That we have. 700 00:45:17,940 --> 00:45:21,080 In fact, Bob, we have. 701 00:45:21,780 --> 00:45:25,280 Jesus, the things we've seen. 702 00:45:26,200 --> 00:45:30,960 Well, the extraordinary thing about Shakespeare is that he was one man, 703 00:45:31,040 --> 00:45:35,760 but he could identify with every character in his play. 704 00:45:35,820 --> 00:45:39,160 The king, the pauper, 705 00:45:39,220 --> 00:45:41,680 the man, the woman, the lover 706 00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:46,800 and he's able to put himself into every psyche 707 00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:50,320 and the constellation of humanity and that crosses sexuality. 708 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:54,600 The Rape of Lucrece, ultimately, it's about a friend raping 709 00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:58,920 the man's wife, but the author, Shakespeare, dedicates this 710 00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:02,920 to Southampton and the dedication is very...considered 711 00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,720 by orthodox scholars as very homo-erotic. 712 00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:10,600 'The dedication begins, "The love I dedicate to your Lordship 713 00:46:10,660 --> 00:46:13,160 is without end," and it continues, 714 00:46:13,240 --> 00:46:16,680 "What I have done is yours, what I have to do is yours, 715 00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:20,120 being in part all I have devoted yours."' 716 00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:25,320 'Then some of the plays are more explicit, I believe, in terms of 717 00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:29,840 their relationship between the men, like in Merchant of Venice.' 718 00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:35,240 To You Antonio I owe the most money and in love, 719 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:39,080 and from your love I have a warranty to unburden 720 00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:44,680 all my plots and purposes how to get clear of all the debts I owe. 721 00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:48,480 I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; 722 00:46:50,620 --> 00:46:53,600 And if it stand, 723 00:46:55,860 --> 00:46:58,200 as you yourself still do, 724 00:46:58,260 --> 00:47:00,520 Within the eye of honour, 725 00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:04,240 be assured, My purse, my person, 726 00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:08,680 my extremest means, Lie all unlock'd to your occasions. 727 00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:11,640 And then when you look at the sonnets, 728 00:47:11,720 --> 00:47:14,640 you see all the homosexual allusions there. 729 00:47:14,720 --> 00:47:18,200 'Presuming that Southampton is the fair youth being addressed 730 00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:21,800 in the sonnets, as has often been argued by scholars 731 00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:25,520 of all persuasions, the meaning of these once enigmatic love poems 732 00:47:25,580 --> 00:47:27,720 becomes clear.' 733 00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:32,800 'It depends how you think of the sonnets, in particular, 734 00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:36,080 which were published after his death.' 735 00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:40,160 For me, this is why the whole thing is contentious 736 00:47:40,220 --> 00:47:42,640 as you've probably realised, 737 00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:46,680 the whole thing for me is they're lovebirds. 738 00:47:46,740 --> 00:47:49,800 They are poems of... 739 00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:53,000 an older man to a younger man. 740 00:47:53,080 --> 00:47:57,480 They are also love poems to a woman. 741 00:47:57,560 --> 00:48:02,080 Um, they are very varied which, again, 742 00:48:02,140 --> 00:48:05,720 suggest the bi-sexuality. 743 00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,840 'Characters, themes and plots in Shakespeare's plays and poetry 744 00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:13,240 reveal an author who is clearly interested in bi-sexuality, 745 00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:16,000 gender identity and human behaviour.' 746 00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:21,320 Diana's lip is not more smooth and rubious. 747 00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:24,640 Oh. Thy small pipe Is as a woman's organ, 748 00:48:24,720 --> 00:48:28,800 shrill and sound, And all is semblative a woman's part. 749 00:48:28,860 --> 00:48:31,280 Aah! 750 00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:35,120 Then we look at who the potential author is, who I think is Oxford, 751 00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:39,720 and look at his life and then I see a match. 752 00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:43,320 He was married, he had children, but he was really flamboyant, 753 00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:48,200 he was accused of sodomy, he wrote two, dedicated two poems 754 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:52,880 to Southampton who was considered by many, back then, also bi-sexual. 755 00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:57,120 I do believe that the author of Shakespeare's works was bi-sexual. 756 00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:01,320 I've been working mostly with the sonnets where there is the implicit 757 00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:06,640 bi-sexuality of 28 love poems that are heterosexual and 126 love poems 758 00:49:06,720 --> 00:49:10,960 that are homosexual and some, in a very explicit way, 759 00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:15,560 there is the phrase, "Nature hath pricked thee 760 00:49:15,620 --> 00:49:18,360 out for a woman's pleasure" 761 00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:21,840 and the word prick meant the same thing then it means now. 762 00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:24,880 That alone really disqualifies the man from Stratford 763 00:49:24,940 --> 00:49:26,960 from having written this. 764 00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:30,760 If they're being written to an earl, how in the world could a commoner 765 00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:34,840 have written something so crude to an earl? 766 00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:38,360 I think, particularly the sonnets, I cannot imagine 767 00:49:38,420 --> 00:49:41,480 that whoever wrote the sonnets, 768 00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:44,000 I cannot imagine that the man from Stratford 769 00:49:44,060 --> 00:49:48,720 would write, in those terms, 770 00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:52,160 in those intimate terms of a lover, 771 00:49:52,240 --> 00:49:55,600 to an earl whom he didn't know. 772 00:49:55,660 --> 00:49:58,640 There is no evidence 773 00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:02,160 that he ever met, certainly never got any money from him. 774 00:50:02,240 --> 00:50:05,160 It couldn't have been the man from Stratford. 775 00:50:05,240 --> 00:50:08,640 There's another great example, by the way, another Renaissance poet 776 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:12,120 was Michelangelo. He's known more as a painter and sculptor, 777 00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,680 but he wrote poems, he wrote sonnets and he wrote poems 778 00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:19,160 to a young man and those weren't published 779 00:50:19,240 --> 00:50:22,400 until, I believe it was his great nephew published them, 780 00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:25,600 but, changed the wording to hide the homo-erotic quality 781 00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:28,920 of those sonnets, too, so there's really 782 00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:34,960 very interesting precedent for a bi-sexual Renaissance poet 783 00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:38,760 to have had the bi-sexual nature of his poetry concealed 784 00:50:38,820 --> 00:50:40,960 for a century or centuries. 785 00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:44,920 We came out of the Victorian age, and we started putting up 786 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:50,040 these, you know, these kinds of barriers, if I can put it like that. 787 00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:54,640 I think the great majority of men slept with whoever was to hand. 788 00:50:54,700 --> 00:50:56,680 (LAUGHS) 789 00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:02,400 And so I think Shakespeare was probably the same. 790 00:51:02,460 --> 00:51:06,120 I don't think that academia 791 00:51:06,180 --> 00:51:10,960 would go along with the idea 792 00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:15,000 that his bi-sexuality is in any way 793 00:51:15,060 --> 00:51:17,720 a hindrance to believing 794 00:51:17,780 --> 00:51:20,000 that De Vere wrote the plays, 795 00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:23,160 not in this day and age, no, no, no. 796 00:51:23,240 --> 00:51:27,760 I don't think that's... maybe in the past, 797 00:51:27,820 --> 00:51:30,720 in the Victorian age, 798 00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:34,480 when all the myth of the Stratford man began. 799 00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:39,320 The Victorian biographies of Shakespeare 800 00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:43,800 all started the myth of the man. 801 00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:47,280 They could put him on the map in the middle of the 18th century 802 00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:51,720 by locating him in Stratford-on-Avon. 803 00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:57,120 'One final trip into the heart of Italy remained. 804 00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:00,320 De Vere and his train pointed their horses and carts south 805 00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:03,720 towards Florence on December 12th. First, they had to pass through 806 00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:07,280 the Duchy of Ferrara. One of its famous sons, Giraldi Cinthio, 807 00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:10,080 had published a collection of short stories, 808 00:52:10,140 --> 00:52:12,120 Gli Hecatommithi, 1566. 809 00:52:12,180 --> 00:52:14,760 It would've been spiritual balm 810 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,680 to a husband pondering his wife's sexual duplicity. 811 00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:21,200 The Hecatommithi recites the tale of a jealous Moor and a wife he accuses 812 00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:25,120 of infidelity, a fair young wench named Desdemona.' 813 00:52:27,020 --> 00:52:29,120 (EXHALES SHARPLY) 814 00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:33,160 (HISSES) My life upon her faith! 815 00:52:41,640 --> 00:52:48,440 'De Vere had arrived in Siena at a time of revelry. 816 00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:52,360 in Italy outside of Venice and the period from Christmas to 12th night, 817 00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:56,120 January 5th, was filled with celebrations, parties and plays. 818 00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:01,240 Upon arriving in Siena, De Vere would have likely met the man who stood 819 00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:04,880 at the centre of the Sienese theatrical world in 1576. 820 00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:08,360 The 67-year-old Alessandro Piccolomini 821 00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:11,600 was a Sienese philosopher/playwright widely hailed 822 00:53:11,660 --> 00:53:14,560 as the prince of comic writers. 823 00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:18,120 Piccolomini's academy observed a decades-long Sienese tradition 824 00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:21,040 of performing his comedy The Deceived on 12th night. 825 00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:26,760 The plot of The Deceived concerns a brother/sister set of twins. 826 00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:29,560 The sister falls madly in love with a nobleman, 827 00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:32,520 who's wasting his affections on someone else. 828 00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:35,960 The sister then disguises herself as a male servant who ferries 829 00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:39,560 love letters between the noble and his elusive paramour. 830 00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:43,160 The twin brother, supposedly dead, arrives and straightens out 831 00:53:43,240 --> 00:53:46,360 the mess by falling in love with the nobleman's paramour, 832 00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:49,680 while the twin sister snatches the noble for herself. 833 00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:53,000 This is also the plot of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. 834 00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:58,040 The cathedral in Siena was, like the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, 835 00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:00,720 a unique piece of architecture and design, 836 00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:04,000 situated on the highest prominence in this hilly town. 837 00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:08,640 One peculiar piece of art inside Sienna's Duomo is a circular mosaic 838 00:54:08,720 --> 00:54:11,880 representing the proverbial seven ages of man. 839 00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:15,760 As You like It's world traveller, Jaques, a melancholic 840 00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:18,560 who sold his land to see other men's, 841 00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:22,280 describes these same seven ages in a speech that famously begins, 842 00:54:22,340 --> 00:54:25,120 "All the world's a stage."' 843 00:54:25,180 --> 00:54:27,480 All the world's a stage, 844 00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:31,440 And all the men and women merely players. 845 00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:34,800 They have their exits and their entrances; 846 00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:38,600 And one man in his time plays many parts, 847 00:54:38,660 --> 00:54:42,840 His acts being seven ages. 848 00:54:43,880 --> 00:54:47,320 'After the drizzly January voyage from Siena back to De Vere's 849 00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:50,640 Venetian home, a new kind of commedia dell'arte awaited him - 850 00:54:50,700 --> 00:54:52,840 Venice's carnival season.' 851 00:54:52,920 --> 00:54:55,400 From December 26th to the beginning of Lent 852 00:54:55,480 --> 00:54:58,520 represented the city's other great annual period 853 00:54:58,580 --> 00:55:00,760 of theatrical and comic activity. 854 00:55:03,240 --> 00:55:06,840 Venetians from the highest born grandees to the lowest vagabonds 855 00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:09,880 donned masks and performed with one another 856 00:55:09,940 --> 00:55:12,320 in carnival skits and masquerades. 857 00:55:13,200 --> 00:55:16,240 The Venetian carnival mask was a social equaliser 858 00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,200 unlike anything De Vere would ever see again, 859 00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:22,600 an opportunity for an English blue blood to interact with all 860 00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:25,840 walks of life without the burdens of his high caste.' 861 00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:32,120 So, for six months a year, about, 862 00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:35,480 you could go around masked in this town. 863 00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:39,760 Try to think what this means in a century like the 16th 864 00:55:39,820 --> 00:55:42,720 in the Renaissance. 865 00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:46,480 This was masque, I think, for a foreigner, you know? 866 00:55:46,560 --> 00:55:49,680 I think this, Shakespeare would have loved. 867 00:55:50,740 --> 00:55:54,120 He left us a brilliant image 868 00:55:54,180 --> 00:55:56,520 of a Renaissance awareness. 869 00:55:56,600 --> 00:56:01,200 He was surely one of the most important knowers of Venice 870 00:56:01,260 --> 00:56:04,480 in England. 871 00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:08,680 'On the day before Fat Tuesday, March 5th, 1576, 872 00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:12,480 De Vere and his train packed their bags and bade farewell to the city 873 00:56:12,560 --> 00:56:15,160 that yielded up so many of its riches 874 00:56:15,240 --> 00:56:18,520 and unburdened the Earl of Oxford to so many of his. 875 00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:22,160 Perhaps to beat the post-carnival rush, De Vere and his servants 876 00:56:22,240 --> 00:56:25,560 boarded the tranect, the common ferry, and watched as Venice 877 00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:28,120 floated away like an unmoored ship. 878 00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:33,160 As De Vere was returning home on his way north toward Paris, 879 00:56:33,240 --> 00:56:36,680 the entire country was bracing itself for bloody hostilities. 880 00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:41,760 In early 1576, the King of France's younger brother Alencon, 881 00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:45,320 had forged a secret alliance with protestant forces in France, 882 00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:49,800 Germany and England and had secretly begun to advocate for a coup d'etat. 883 00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:54,000 A cavalry division led by the German duke Jan Casimir, 884 00:56:54,080 --> 00:56:58,040 had invaded the eastern provinces to assist Alencon in the uprising. 885 00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:01,520 De Vere's train came across Casimir's forces, who were then based 886 00:57:01,580 --> 00:57:04,280 in the eastern region of Lyon. 887 00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:07,720 The Earl's encounter with the invading German prince survives 888 00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:11,400 in a peculiar form - an extended encomium to De Vere 889 00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:15,320 that appears in a play by the Jacobean dramatist, George Chapman. 890 00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:20,600 Chapman's stoic hero is a French noble named Clermont D'Amboise, 891 00:57:20,680 --> 00:57:23,480 who claims to have been present at the meeting 892 00:57:23,540 --> 00:57:25,760 between De Vere and Duke Casimir. 893 00:57:27,520 --> 00:57:32,480 Hamlet's final soliloquy is inspired by the puzzlement mixed with envy 894 00:57:32,540 --> 00:57:34,760 he has upon seeing his rival 895 00:57:34,840 --> 00:57:37,280 Fortinbras's troops march before him.' 896 00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:43,400 How all occasions do inform against me 897 00:57:43,460 --> 00:57:47,000 and spur my dull revenge! 898 00:57:50,500 --> 00:57:52,840 What is a man, 899 00:57:55,000 --> 00:58:00,320 If his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed? 900 00:58:00,380 --> 00:58:03,000 A beast, no more. 901 00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:07,560 Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 902 00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:12,200 Looking before and after, gave us not that capability 903 00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:16,280 and god-like reason To fust in us unused. 904 00:58:17,360 --> 00:58:20,720 'De Vere's meeting with Duke Casimir's army was soon followed 905 00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:23,600 by a channel crossing intercepted by pirates. 906 00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:27,640 As the poet, Nathaniel Baxter, who was part of De Vere's entourage, 907 00:58:27,720 --> 00:58:31,000 wrote of the episode in a book of poetry from 1606 - 908 00:58:31,080 --> 00:58:35,080 "Naked we landed out of Italy, Inthralled by pirates, 909 00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:38,760 men of no regard; Horror and death assailed nobility, 910 00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:41,760 If princes might with cruelty be scarred. 911 00:58:41,840 --> 00:58:44,840 Lo! Thus are excellent beginnings hard." 912 00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:50,400 De Vere was left naked, stripped to his shirt, treated miserably, 913 00:58:50,480 --> 00:58:54,120 his life in danger if he hadn't been recognised by a Scotsman. 914 00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:58,320 Landing at Dover on a vessel stripped by sea-faring bandits, 915 00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:01,360 De Vere had stepped ashore into a swarm of questions 916 00:59:01,420 --> 00:59:03,800 about Anne's daughters' paternity. 917 00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:09,360 Rumours about the unknown father of Elizabeth De Vere 918 00:59:09,440 --> 00:59:12,120 had spread beyond the Queen's presence chamber 919 00:59:12,200 --> 00:59:14,960 and the lord treasurer's privy chamber. 920 00:59:15,040 --> 00:59:18,160 Perhaps there was a misunderstanding at the root of it. 921 00:59:18,240 --> 00:59:21,080 Ales and sweet wines flowed liberally in an age 922 00:59:21,140 --> 00:59:23,360 when clean water was a luxury. 923 00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:26,480 A night of drunken marital sex in the autumn of 1574 924 00:59:26,540 --> 00:59:28,720 was not out of the question. 925 00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:32,680 Now that he'd returned, however, De Vere undoubtedly wanted 926 00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:36,200 to resolve the controversy with minimal fanfare. 927 00:59:36,280 --> 00:59:40,200 Burghley's insistence on an immediate and public display of affection 928 00:59:40,280 --> 00:59:43,360 might have been designed to make that impossible. 929 00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:46,160 It was, at best, surprisingly undiplomatic, 930 00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:48,720 a sort of banner by the quayside proclaiming, 931 00:59:48,780 --> 00:59:50,920 "Welcome home, dear cuckold." 932 00:59:52,760 --> 00:59:56,240 De Vere's trusted servant, Roland Yorke, offered an alternative 933 00:59:56,320 --> 00:59:59,720 that provided what must have seemed the most neutral space available 934 00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:03,160 on such short notice. Roland's older brother, Edward, kept a house 935 01:00:03,240 --> 01:00:05,640 in London on Walbrook, near London Stone. 936 01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:08,920 Burghley later logged in his diary that De Vere was enticed 937 01:00:09,000 --> 01:00:13,000 by certain lewd persons to be a stranger to his wife.' 938 01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:17,280 The way in which he handled his wife, 939 01:00:17,340 --> 01:00:20,480 my relative, 940 01:00:20,540 --> 01:00:23,640 was very unkind. 941 01:00:23,700 --> 01:00:26,160 He was brilliant and 942 01:00:27,620 --> 01:00:30,120 inspiring to people on the one hand 943 01:00:30,180 --> 01:00:34,000 and quite dark and difficult 944 01:00:34,080 --> 01:00:38,120 and unkind in this other phase. 945 01:00:39,920 --> 01:00:44,160 'If Othello's blindness to the dishonesty of his honest Iago 946 01:00:44,220 --> 01:00:46,640 is in any way autobiographical, 947 01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:49,560 De Vere and Yorke must have made a pitiful team 948 01:00:49,640 --> 01:00:52,720 of verbally poisoned and verbal poisoner.' 949 01:00:52,780 --> 01:00:55,680 Dost thou say so? 950 01:00:55,760 --> 01:00:59,200 She did deceive her father, marrying you; And when she seem'd to shake 951 01:00:59,280 --> 01:01:02,000 and fear your looks, She loved them most. And so she did. 952 01:01:02,060 --> 01:01:04,400 Why, go to, then. 953 01:01:06,500 --> 01:01:10,160 But I am much to blame. 954 01:01:10,240 --> 01:01:12,800 I humbly do beseech you of your pardon 955 01:01:12,860 --> 01:01:15,360 for too much loving you. 956 01:01:15,420 --> 01:01:17,600 I am bound to thee for ever. 957 01:01:17,680 --> 01:01:21,040 'Roland Yorke remains not only the likely immediate instigator 958 01:01:21,120 --> 01:01:24,920 of De Vere's crisis but also, if rumours of De Vere's bi-sexuality 959 01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:27,320 are to be believed, a possible channel 960 01:01:27,380 --> 01:01:29,880 for De Vere's sexual frustrations. 961 01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:32,880 As De Vere's marriage withered and shrivelled, 962 01:01:32,940 --> 01:01:35,240 Yorke remained at his master's side. 963 01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:39,040 It is possible that some closer relationship, be it sexually charged 964 01:01:39,120 --> 01:01:42,720 or sexually sublimated, existed between the two men. 965 01:01:42,800 --> 01:01:47,760 Numerous modern scholars find Othello and Iago's deadly dance of lies 966 01:01:47,840 --> 01:01:51,440 and misplaced trust resonating with homosexual overtones. 967 01:01:56,800 --> 01:02:00,160 De Vere would spend the rest of his life writing about the dramatic 968 01:02:00,240 --> 01:02:03,240 and traumatic events of his 26th year. 969 01:02:03,320 --> 01:02:06,680 Setting aside the history plays, De Vere's 26th year of life enters 970 01:02:06,760 --> 01:02:10,360 into slightly less than half of the canonical works of Shakespeare.' 971 01:02:12,160 --> 01:02:15,680 There is no doubt that the Earl of Oxford is the leading candidate 972 01:02:15,760 --> 01:02:19,080 and has been ever since he was first proposed in 1920 973 01:02:19,140 --> 01:02:21,200 by J Thomas Looney. 974 01:02:21,280 --> 01:02:24,280 'He seems to have put himself in his plays 975 01:02:24,340 --> 01:02:26,960 to a remarkable extent. 976 01:02:27,040 --> 01:02:30,360 I mean, we see this most clearly in a play like Hamlet 977 01:02:30,440 --> 01:02:33,760 which is often thought to be his most autobiographical work, 978 01:02:33,820 --> 01:02:35,800 but it isn't just Hamlet. 979 01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:40,000 You see this is in the character of Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost. 980 01:02:40,080 --> 01:02:42,960 The married, mad-cap Lord Berowne. 981 01:02:43,040 --> 01:02:46,680 I mean, Oxford was known as a wild, crazy guy. 982 01:02:46,740 --> 01:02:49,160 'The same is true of Prince Hal. 983 01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:54,240 Prince Hal is very much about the development 984 01:02:54,320 --> 01:02:59,400 of a future king and what he was like as a young man. 985 01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:03,000 And Edward de Vere was described as hanging around with all sorts 986 01:03:03,060 --> 01:03:05,560 of strange characters 987 01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:08,200 as Prince Hal did at the Boar's Head.' 988 01:03:08,280 --> 01:03:11,920 This is not just about imagination. Genius is about much more 989 01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:16,520 than imagination and authors of works 990 01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:19,000 do put themselves in their works. 991 01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:23,320 'Throughout the summer of 1576, De Vere continued to feud 992 01:03:23,400 --> 01:03:26,280 with his in-laws and live apart from his wife. 993 01:03:26,360 --> 01:03:29,520 On July 13th, De Vere wrote another letter to Burghley 994 01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:32,760 from his lodging at Charing Cross in Westminster. 995 01:03:32,820 --> 01:03:35,000 York House, near Charing Cross, 996 01:03:35,080 --> 01:03:38,080 appears to have been where De Vere now called home. 997 01:03:38,160 --> 01:03:41,760 As De Vere lamented the life he had returned to, his laments 998 01:03:41,840 --> 01:03:44,760 of years past had only just appeared in print. 999 01:03:44,840 --> 01:03:49,480 Edward's 1576 verse anthology The Paradise of Daynty Devices 1000 01:03:49,560 --> 01:03:52,880 was a bestseller. It would go through at least eight editions 1001 01:03:52,940 --> 01:03:55,480 into the 17th century. 1002 01:03:55,560 --> 01:03:59,240 All but two of De Vere's verses in The Paradise belonged to the genre 1003 01:03:59,320 --> 01:04:02,640 known as 'The Complaint', a form he would ultimately master 1004 01:04:02,720 --> 01:04:06,040 in the Shakespearean poem A Lover's Complaint. 1005 01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:09,200 Here is one early experiment in the form. 1006 01:04:09,260 --> 01:04:11,360 "I am not as I seem to be, 1007 01:04:11,420 --> 01:04:13,640 Nor when I smile I am not glad, 1008 01:04:13,700 --> 01:04:16,040 A thrall, although you count me free, 1009 01:04:16,100 --> 01:04:19,360 I, most in mirth, most pensive sad." 1010 01:04:19,440 --> 01:04:24,000 The teenager had, nevertheless, set down the first hints 1011 01:04:24,080 --> 01:04:27,960 of character sketches that later mature into Othello, Hamlet, 1012 01:04:28,020 --> 01:04:30,520 Prince Hal, Bertram and Romeo. 1013 01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:34,120 Taking his cue from what he'd witnessed in Venice and Siena, 1014 01:04:34,200 --> 01:04:37,560 he'd begin to stage his complaints in the form of commedia dell'arte, 1015 01:04:37,640 --> 01:04:40,880 transformed and translated for English audiences. 1016 01:04:40,960 --> 01:04:44,360 On a field north of the Bishops gate entrance of the City of London, 1017 01:04:44,440 --> 01:04:47,520 a team of entrepreneurs was just opening up the first 1018 01:04:47,580 --> 01:04:49,760 custom-built playhouse in England. 1019 01:04:49,840 --> 01:04:53,480 Two brothers-in-law named James Burbage and John Brayne had erected 1020 01:04:53,560 --> 01:04:57,760 an open-air building they called simply The Theatre. 1021 01:04:57,840 --> 01:05:01,120 The dramatic troupe that De Vere enjoyed closest access to 1022 01:05:01,200 --> 01:05:05,000 was the children's company of choirboys from St Paul's Cathedral. 1023 01:05:05,080 --> 01:05:08,480 On the evening of New Year's Day 1577, Westcott 1024 01:05:08,560 --> 01:05:11,880 led his troupe in a play titled The History of Error. 1025 01:05:13,520 --> 01:05:17,560 Here, one suspects, is a prototype of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. 1026 01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:22,640 De Vere was probably inviting controversy by dramatising 1027 01:05:22,720 --> 01:05:25,400 his own imbroglio with the house of Cecil. 1028 01:05:25,480 --> 01:05:28,680 The crux of the comedy, and one suspects, History of Errors, 1029 01:05:28,760 --> 01:05:32,280 is married into a powerful family, the chief error of the title 1030 01:05:32,340 --> 01:05:34,640 that never should have been.' 1031 01:05:37,480 --> 01:05:41,040 Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell? Sleeping or waking? 1032 01:05:41,120 --> 01:05:44,800 Mad or well-advised? Known unto these, and to myself disguised! 1033 01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:47,200 I'll say as they say and persever so, 1034 01:05:47,280 --> 01:05:50,720 And in this mist at all adventures go. 1035 01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:54,880 'De Vere, the misunderstood husband, becomes Antipholus of Ephesus, 1036 01:05:54,960 --> 01:05:58,520 married to a fond fool of an impatient wife, Adriana. 1037 01:05:58,600 --> 01:06:03,120 The twist that turns this melodrama into a comedy is that Antipholus 1038 01:06:03,200 --> 01:06:06,360 has a twin brother who he doesn't know exists. 1039 01:06:06,440 --> 01:06:09,960 Almost every element of the Comedy of Errors' plot is stolen from 1040 01:06:10,040 --> 01:06:13,280 commedia dell'arte scenarios of mistaken identity. 1041 01:06:13,360 --> 01:06:17,160 The author performed an experiment he'd repeat many times in his career. 1042 01:06:17,240 --> 01:06:20,920 He has splintered himself into more than one character. 1043 01:06:21,000 --> 01:06:24,360 The Comedy of Errors was the author's first attempt at broaching the topic 1044 01:06:24,440 --> 01:06:27,080 of his, at times, pathological behaviour 1045 01:06:27,160 --> 01:06:30,520 towards his wife and her family. It's comedy in denial, 1046 01:06:30,600 --> 01:06:33,000 oblivious to its own predispositions. 1047 01:06:33,080 --> 01:06:35,960 An appropriate subtitle is "What? Me? Jealous?"' 1048 01:06:36,040 --> 01:06:39,920 That's why those works have endured and that's why we read Shakespeare 1049 01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:43,800 today and we don't read Jonson, we don't read Fletcher, we don't read 1050 01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:47,640 Beaumont, we don't read works of his contemporaries that do not have 1051 01:06:47,720 --> 01:06:51,440 that autobiographical element in them and those are strictly works 1052 01:06:51,520 --> 01:06:54,640 of fiction that are more tied to their times. 1053 01:06:54,720 --> 01:06:58,080 But Shakespeare was doing something new, he was experimenting with 1054 01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:01,600 new forms of drama, and I think he was experimenting with something 1055 01:07:01,680 --> 01:07:05,320 even more profound - putting his own story into his works. 1056 01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:09,440 Psychologically, Shakespeare's very accurate about what it means to be 1057 01:07:09,520 --> 01:07:12,880 a human being and what these family relationships are about and then 1058 01:07:12,960 --> 01:07:15,480 on a larger level what the political, 1059 01:07:15,540 --> 01:07:17,960 social relationships are about, 1060 01:07:18,040 --> 01:07:21,400 what it feels like to have a bad government, what it feels like 1061 01:07:21,480 --> 01:07:25,960 to have, you know, people who can, who have economic power over you. 1062 01:07:29,920 --> 01:07:35,560 The evening of New Year's Day, 1577, 1063 01:07:35,640 --> 01:07:38,600 the talents of her temperamental courtier. 1064 01:07:39,280 --> 01:07:42,160 A year in Italy had transformed De Vere, 1065 01:07:42,240 --> 01:07:46,680 26-year-old chronic pain in the arse, into a chronic pain in the arse 1066 01:07:46,760 --> 01:07:50,120 with an astonishing capacity for court comedy.' 1067 01:07:50,180 --> 01:07:53,520 She is spherical, like a globe. 1068 01:07:53,580 --> 01:07:56,080 I could find out countries in her. 1069 01:07:56,160 --> 01:07:59,480 In what part of her body stands Ireland? 1070 01:07:59,560 --> 01:08:03,200 Marry, sir, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs. 1071 01:08:03,260 --> 01:08:05,160 Where, England? 1072 01:08:05,240 --> 01:08:08,600 I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them; 1073 01:08:08,660 --> 01:08:10,920 but I guess it stood in her chin, 1074 01:08:11,000 --> 01:08:14,000 by the salt rheum that ran between France and it. 1075 01:08:14,080 --> 01:08:17,240 Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands? (CHUCKLES) 1076 01:08:17,300 --> 01:08:21,040 Oh, sir, I did not look so low. 1077 01:08:22,000 --> 01:08:25,040 'At Whitehall palace on shrove Tuesday, February 19th, 1078 01:08:25,120 --> 01:08:29,400 Westcott's boys cap the season with an encore performance for the court. 1079 01:08:29,480 --> 01:08:33,040 The Queen's account books list the title of Westcott's masque as, 1080 01:08:33,120 --> 01:08:37,360 'The history of Titus and Gisippus - an Ancient Story of Friendship.' 1081 01:08:37,440 --> 01:08:41,200 It is also known to be one of the two principal source texts 1082 01:08:41,280 --> 01:08:44,160 for Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona.' 1083 01:08:45,500 --> 01:08:48,480 Who by repentance is not satisfied 1084 01:08:48,560 --> 01:08:53,480 Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these are pleased. 1085 01:08:53,560 --> 01:08:57,360 By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased: 1086 01:08:58,220 --> 01:09:00,720 And, that my love 1087 01:09:00,780 --> 01:09:04,040 may appear plain and free, 1088 01:09:06,180 --> 01:09:08,200 All that was mine in Silvia 1089 01:09:09,140 --> 01:09:11,360 I give thee. 1090 01:09:13,560 --> 01:09:17,120 It's always been my impression that people in the theatre are forced, 1091 01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:20,520 for some reason or other, to express themselves behind the mask 1092 01:09:20,600 --> 01:09:24,080 of pretending to be someone else, whether you're an actor or a writer 1093 01:09:24,160 --> 01:09:27,960 because, due to shyness or some other reason. Perhaps because of 1094 01:09:28,040 --> 01:09:32,920 nobility or other social strictures in Shakespeare's time, 1095 01:09:33,000 --> 01:09:36,480 they're not able to express themselves in the more natural ways 1096 01:09:36,560 --> 01:09:40,320 that other people do. That obviously applies for De Vere. 1097 01:09:40,400 --> 01:09:45,120 There are example after example after example of complex 1098 01:09:45,200 --> 01:09:48,720 personal motivations overlapping with current cultural conventions 1099 01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:52,280 about whether someone signs their name to something. 1100 01:09:52,360 --> 01:09:56,280 One theory about why, even in 1623, 1101 01:09:56,360 --> 01:09:59,560 almost 20 years after the death of Edward de Vere, 1102 01:09:59,640 --> 01:10:02,680 they still could not attach his name to the works, 1103 01:10:02,760 --> 01:10:06,240 one theory is that the Earl of Southampton then had enough power 1104 01:10:06,320 --> 01:10:09,360 that he didn't want his early liaison 1105 01:10:09,440 --> 01:10:13,120 with Edward de Vere to become public. 1106 01:10:13,180 --> 01:10:17,160 I just find it, um, interesting, 1107 01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:21,040 the first time that the name Shakespeare appeared 1108 01:10:21,120 --> 01:10:23,840 it was hyphened, it was Shake-Speare 1109 01:10:23,900 --> 01:10:28,040 and it looked like a pseudonym. 1110 01:10:28,120 --> 01:10:32,600 This whole business is trying to find out the man, 1111 01:10:32,680 --> 01:10:35,120 the person, the living, breathing, 1112 01:10:35,200 --> 01:10:38,600 writing, person behind the name, 1113 01:10:38,660 --> 01:10:41,280 um, 1114 01:10:41,360 --> 01:10:45,360 and the journey is fraught and long. 1115 01:10:45,440 --> 01:10:50,360 De Vere himself is a threatening individual. 1116 01:10:50,440 --> 01:10:54,280 Shakespeare is intimidating to begin with but it's wonderful to have 1117 01:10:54,340 --> 01:10:56,680 a Shakespeare who wasn't anybody, 1118 01:10:56,760 --> 01:11:01,160 because that sort of makes him a little bit less intimidating, 1119 01:11:01,240 --> 01:11:05,520 he's a little bit less real, he was just a genius. 1120 01:11:05,600 --> 01:11:10,600 You, too, can do it, young man, or young lady, if you're a genius. 1121 01:11:10,680 --> 01:11:14,200 You don't have to have any special advantage, you don't have to have 1122 01:11:14,280 --> 01:11:17,680 good tutors, you don't have to read the best books. 1123 01:11:17,760 --> 01:11:20,840 When you replace that with this very troubled, 1124 01:11:20,900 --> 01:11:25,120 charismatic, angry, 1125 01:11:25,200 --> 01:11:28,200 deeply conflicted real human being, 1126 01:11:28,260 --> 01:11:30,680 that's a lot more difficult. 1127 01:11:30,760 --> 01:11:33,520 What I love about Shakespeare's plays 1128 01:11:33,600 --> 01:11:38,400 are the window into the psyche of a character or the soul, 1129 01:11:38,460 --> 01:11:42,120 let's say, in Macbeth, you know. 1130 01:11:42,200 --> 01:11:45,560 He's committed the murder and then he gets to have a soliloquy about, 1131 01:11:45,640 --> 01:11:49,600 you know, seeing the dagger floating in front of his eyes. 1132 01:11:49,680 --> 01:11:52,600 To me those are like great operatic moments. 1133 01:11:52,660 --> 01:11:55,320 'It is the poetic, theatrical, 1134 01:11:55,380 --> 01:11:57,600 heightened expression 1135 01:11:57,660 --> 01:12:00,200 that we all go to the theatre for.' 1136 01:12:00,280 --> 01:12:04,000 Is this a dagger which I see before me? 1137 01:12:06,060 --> 01:12:08,640 The handle toward my hand? 1138 01:12:10,740 --> 01:12:13,120 Come, 1139 01:12:13,180 --> 01:12:15,520 let me clutch thee. 1140 01:12:15,600 --> 01:12:19,960 His plays have these gems of psyche 1141 01:12:20,020 --> 01:12:22,440 and worlds and characters, 1142 01:12:22,520 --> 01:12:26,800 and that Shakespeare can live in our modern culture not just his texts 1143 01:12:26,880 --> 01:12:30,640 in books or his plays done as written but the inspiration 1144 01:12:30,720 --> 01:12:34,240 of Shakespeare is felt in our modern culture. 1145 01:12:34,320 --> 01:12:38,880 I think the plays are full of politics, of political satire, 1146 01:12:38,940 --> 01:12:41,720 of propaganda, 1147 01:12:41,780 --> 01:12:45,120 um, and it makes them richer 1148 01:12:45,180 --> 01:12:48,960 that they are not just plays 1149 01:12:49,020 --> 01:12:53,840 to enthral and to entertain 1150 01:12:53,900 --> 01:12:58,240 and to amuse and to excite 1151 01:12:58,300 --> 01:13:01,080 and to stir and to thrill, 1152 01:13:01,140 --> 01:13:04,280 they are also commentary 1153 01:13:04,340 --> 01:13:07,480 on life as it was being lived. 1154 01:13:07,560 --> 01:13:10,960 We invent it every time, we, you know, each... 1155 01:13:11,020 --> 01:13:13,720 there is artifice. 1156 01:13:13,800 --> 01:13:17,280 I mean, the paradox is that you hopefully see 1157 01:13:17,360 --> 01:13:19,800 authenticity in the human experience 1158 01:13:19,880 --> 01:13:22,600 through the artifice of the theatrical form, 1159 01:13:22,680 --> 01:13:27,040 'which I think is key to what Edward de Vere 1160 01:13:27,120 --> 01:13:30,360 as the author of the plays was wanting to get to, 1161 01:13:30,420 --> 01:13:33,920 was the journey of artifice 1162 01:13:34,000 --> 01:13:36,800 to authenticity with his characters, 1163 01:13:36,880 --> 01:13:40,280 with himself as a human being in his circumstances, 1164 01:13:40,340 --> 01:13:42,640 in his time, in is world 1165 01:13:42,720 --> 01:13:45,400 as a young man and as he grew older.' 1166 01:13:45,480 --> 01:13:48,800 I think that was the core of the author's work and that's why 1167 01:13:48,880 --> 01:13:53,240 it's important to know definitively it's De Vere that wrote the plays. 1168 01:13:53,320 --> 01:13:57,040 Unwrapping the plays from a protective kind of duvet 1169 01:13:57,120 --> 01:14:00,560 and like a piano cover that the Stratford case has put around them 1170 01:14:00,640 --> 01:14:03,000 to make them this cuddly little harmless, 1171 01:14:03,060 --> 01:14:05,040 provincial kind of fantasy, 1172 01:14:05,120 --> 01:14:08,600 taking that off and seeing that they are really, really painful plays 1173 01:14:08,680 --> 01:14:12,560 and they are attacking and disturbing 1174 01:14:12,640 --> 01:14:16,120 and confused at times and raging. 1175 01:14:16,180 --> 01:14:19,240 The public desire to know 1176 01:14:19,300 --> 01:14:21,800 about this man, 1177 01:14:21,880 --> 01:14:26,040 which is wholly understandable, is so great. 1178 01:14:26,120 --> 01:14:31,520 'Orthodox Shakespeareans must insist that it is impossible 1179 01:14:31,580 --> 01:14:35,520 to understand a connection 1180 01:14:35,600 --> 01:14:39,800 between the life of the author and the works themselves. 1181 01:14:39,880 --> 01:14:43,120 Their only real recourse is to say, 1182 01:14:43,200 --> 01:14:45,920 "It's impossible, you can't do it, 1183 01:14:46,000 --> 01:14:49,160 don't try to do it, forget your curiosity, 1184 01:14:49,220 --> 01:14:51,520 he wasn't a person like us. 1185 01:14:52,660 --> 01:14:55,600 He was a primitive Elizabethan, 1186 01:14:55,680 --> 01:14:59,160 and they didn't understand very much about psychology 1187 01:15:00,480 --> 01:15:04,320 and nothing that they did was ever autobiographical." 1188 01:15:04,380 --> 01:15:07,520 He was very much part of 1189 01:15:07,580 --> 01:15:09,880 the court theatrical programme, 1190 01:15:09,960 --> 01:15:14,440 writing for it, I believe acting in it, 1191 01:15:14,520 --> 01:15:17,960 because the plays do show a tremendous amount 1192 01:15:18,040 --> 01:15:20,640 of theatrical knowledge and I believe 1193 01:15:20,720 --> 01:15:23,600 that was picked up, initially 1194 01:15:23,660 --> 01:15:26,480 in court performances 1195 01:15:26,540 --> 01:15:29,760 and I know that the plays 1196 01:15:29,840 --> 01:15:35,280 were presented, some of the plays were presented at court before, 1197 01:15:35,360 --> 01:15:37,720 long before the public ever saw them. 1198 01:15:37,800 --> 01:15:41,080 One of the reasons why Stratfordians, as they're called, 1199 01:15:41,160 --> 01:15:44,080 bang on and say, "William Shakespeare was from 1200 01:15:44,160 --> 01:15:48,000 Stratford-upon-Avon" is because in a poem in 1623, 1201 01:15:48,080 --> 01:15:51,080 Ben Jonson writes, "Sweet Swan of Avon! 1202 01:15:51,160 --> 01:15:54,840 What a sight it were, To see thee in our waters yet appeare, 1203 01:15:54,920 --> 01:15:58,360 And make those flights upon the banks of Thames 1204 01:15:58,440 --> 01:16:01,280 That so did take Eliza, and our James!" 1205 01:16:01,360 --> 01:16:05,120 Now, where on the banks of the Thames did Queen Elizabeth 1206 01:16:05,200 --> 01:16:08,640 and King James enjoy watching Shakespeare's plays? 1207 01:16:08,720 --> 01:16:11,640 The King and the Queen never went to a public theatre, 1208 01:16:11,700 --> 01:16:13,680 they enjoyed them at court. 1209 01:16:13,760 --> 01:16:16,800 And the most famous, the grandest and biggest theatre 1210 01:16:16,880 --> 01:16:20,200 where the Shakespeare plays were played in front of King James, 1211 01:16:20,280 --> 01:16:23,640 of Elizabeth, right on the banks of the Thanes was Hampton Court 1212 01:16:23,720 --> 01:16:27,800 and guess what, the original name for Hampton Court was Avon, 1213 01:16:27,880 --> 01:16:31,200 so "Sweet swan of Avon" does not mean that he came 1214 01:16:31,280 --> 01:16:34,800 from Stratford-upon-Avon where one of seven rivers exist called Avon. 1215 01:16:34,880 --> 01:16:39,240 It means he's a courtier poet, that his plays are on at Hampton Court. 1216 01:16:39,320 --> 01:16:44,840 Theatre was part of his blood right from...right from childhood, 1217 01:16:44,920 --> 01:16:49,480 um, and performing and there are indications 1218 01:16:49,560 --> 01:16:53,800 in the works and particularly the sonnets 1219 01:16:53,880 --> 01:16:58,080 that the writer had first-hand knowledge 1220 01:16:58,160 --> 01:17:01,680 of actually getting up on a stage, putting on a costume 1221 01:17:01,760 --> 01:17:05,040 and speaking lines and entertaining people. 1222 01:17:05,120 --> 01:17:10,040 'The Shakespeare ruse enabled De Vere to write to the end of his days 1223 01:17:10,120 --> 01:17:14,680 in 1604. However, the bargain was a Faustian one, 1224 01:17:14,760 --> 01:17:17,720 depriving De Vere of the immortality due him 1225 01:17:17,800 --> 01:17:21,400 for his literary accomplishments and foisting upon the world 1226 01:17:21,460 --> 01:17:24,360 a monumental myth.' 1227 01:17:24,440 --> 01:17:29,200 We've been praising the wrong man for 400 years. 1228 01:17:29,260 --> 01:17:32,480 If you accept the bottom line 1229 01:17:32,560 --> 01:17:35,160 that a writer writes primarily 1230 01:17:35,220 --> 01:17:38,880 about his own experiences, 1231 01:17:38,940 --> 01:17:43,760 his life, what motivates him, 1232 01:17:43,840 --> 01:17:46,400 then all that we know about De Vere 1233 01:17:46,460 --> 01:17:49,520 fits wonderfully, then suddenly 1234 01:17:49,580 --> 01:17:52,320 a person comes into focus. 1235 01:18:15,040 --> 01:18:18,720 'Edward de Vere died in Hackney in 1604 1236 01:18:18,800 --> 01:18:22,600 and was buried, as far as we know, in an unmarked grave.' 1237 01:18:22,680 --> 01:18:26,040 Percival Golding, who's the first cousin of Edward de Vere, 1238 01:18:26,120 --> 01:18:29,200 writes about him in 1619 and says, 1239 01:18:29,280 --> 01:18:32,280 "Edward de Vere, my wonderful, clever, noble cousin 1240 01:18:32,360 --> 01:18:35,320 died in Hackney and now lies buried at Westminster." 1241 01:18:35,400 --> 01:18:38,880 Where is Edward de Vere actually buried? 1242 01:18:38,960 --> 01:18:42,360 He should be here, he should be in Westminster Abbey. 1243 01:18:42,800 --> 01:18:48,320 Behind me here we have his wife's grave, Anne Cecil, 1244 01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:51,800 Countess of Oxford, his father-in-law just to the side, 1245 01:18:51,880 --> 01:18:54,720 we've got his cousins, Francis Vere, Horace Vere, 1246 01:18:54,800 --> 01:18:58,080 his son, the 18th Earl of Oxford, is buried in Westminster Abbey. 1247 01:18:58,160 --> 01:19:01,400 His daughters are buried here. Where is Edward de Vere? 1248 01:19:01,480 --> 01:19:04,840 Why isn't he here? This book is called Antiquities of Warwickshire, 1249 01:19:04,920 --> 01:19:08,280 By William Dugdale, who was a great antiquarian. 1250 01:19:08,340 --> 01:19:10,880 It was published in 1656. 1251 01:19:10,960 --> 01:19:15,080 It has the first published picture of Shakespeare's monument 1252 01:19:15,160 --> 01:19:18,880 in Stratford-upon-Avon and what is very extraordinary about this 1253 01:19:18,960 --> 01:19:23,480 is what we actually see is a man clutching a woolpack. 1254 01:19:23,560 --> 01:19:26,960 Actually, a lot of recent research has gone into discover 1255 01:19:27,040 --> 01:19:31,040 that Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, was a big wool dealer 1256 01:19:31,120 --> 01:19:34,920 and that Shakespeare probably came to London for the first time - 1257 01:19:35,000 --> 01:19:38,440 William Shakspear of Stratford - came to London as a wool broker. 1258 01:19:38,520 --> 01:19:42,680 This picture of a wool dealer is endorsed by Shakspear's descendants. 1259 01:19:42,760 --> 01:19:46,360 Since then, someone has come along and said, "Ooh, hang on, isn't he 1260 01:19:46,440 --> 01:19:50,520 supposed to be a famous writer?" and shoved a quill and a piece of paper 1261 01:19:50,600 --> 01:19:54,000 in his hand. The epitaph on this monument has not been understood 1262 01:19:54,060 --> 01:19:56,200 by anybody for 400 years. 1263 01:19:56,280 --> 01:20:01,160 The English says, "Stay, passenger, why goest thou by so fast? 1264 01:20:01,240 --> 01:20:06,000 Read, if thou canst, whom envious death hath placed 1265 01:20:06,060 --> 01:20:08,840 Within this monument: Shakspear." 1266 01:20:08,920 --> 01:20:12,160 So, to put it very, very simply, it's asking you a question - 1267 01:20:12,220 --> 01:20:15,120 who is Shakespeare buried with? 1268 01:20:15,200 --> 01:20:18,560 Just above it are two lines of Latin and at the beginning of the second 1269 01:20:18,640 --> 01:20:23,040 line it says, "Terra Tegit". That means, "The Earth Covers". 1270 01:20:23,120 --> 01:20:26,480 Then along the top line we've got three names, three Latin names - 1271 01:20:26,540 --> 01:20:29,480 Udicio Pilium, 1272 01:20:29,540 --> 01:20:32,480 Genio Socratem, Arte Maronem. 1273 01:20:32,560 --> 01:20:36,720 This means, "Pilius with his judgement, 1274 01:20:36,780 --> 01:20:39,920 Socrates, with his genius, 1275 01:20:40,000 --> 01:20:42,400 Marow, (who is Virgil), with his art." 1276 01:20:42,480 --> 01:20:46,120 We actually have three allusions to three other people 1277 01:20:46,180 --> 01:20:48,400 whom Shakespeare is buried with, 1278 01:20:48,460 --> 01:20:50,680 and those people are: 1279 01:20:50,760 --> 01:20:54,040 Virgil is an allusion to Edmund Spenser. 1280 01:20:54,120 --> 01:20:57,200 Edmund Spenser was known as our English Virgil, 1281 01:20:57,280 --> 01:21:00,920 he was the English poet most connected to Virgil. 1282 01:21:01,000 --> 01:21:05,800 Next to him we have Genio Socratem, the genius of Socrates. 1283 01:21:06,680 --> 01:21:10,520 Chaucer, who is buried next to Spenser in Westminster Abbey, 1284 01:21:10,600 --> 01:21:13,320 is associated with the genius of Socrates. 1285 01:21:13,400 --> 01:21:18,080 It said on his tomb - now gone - "You have the genius of Socrates." 1286 01:21:18,160 --> 01:21:21,280 Next to Chaucer is buried Francis Beaumont 1287 01:21:21,360 --> 01:21:24,400 and Beaumont was known as Judicious Beaumont. 1288 01:21:24,480 --> 01:21:28,280 Who is Shakespeare buried with? It's sitting above us all that time, 1289 01:21:28,360 --> 01:21:31,040 nobody's noticed it, three clear allusions 1290 01:21:31,100 --> 01:21:34,960 to Beaumont, Chaucer and Spenser, 1291 01:21:35,040 --> 01:21:39,600 who are buried in exactly that line-up at Westminster Abbey. 1292 01:21:39,680 --> 01:21:43,080 Everything's pointing to the fact that Shakespeare is buried here, 1293 01:21:43,140 --> 01:21:44,960 at Westminster Abbey. 1294 01:21:45,040 --> 01:21:49,760 Now, he may be under that statue behind me, I may be standing on him. 1295 01:21:49,840 --> 01:21:53,200 He's here somewhere, it's all pointing in that direction, 1296 01:21:53,280 --> 01:21:56,720 so I think the next thing is for the Abbey to take this seriously 1297 01:21:56,780 --> 01:21:59,280 and we can start hunting for him, 1298 01:21:59,360 --> 01:22:02,720 because he's somewhere under our feet, here.