BL Lansdowne 14-84, ff. 185-6, Oxford to Burghley, September 22, 1572.[Click here for original spelling.]
My Lord,
I received your letters, when I rather
looked to have seen yourself here, than to have heard from you: but since it is
so, that your Lordship is otherwise affaired [=occupied] with the business of
the commonwealth than to be disposed to recreate yourself, and repose you among
your own, yet we do hope, after this you having had so great a care of the
Queen’s Majesty’s service, you will begin to have some respect of your own
health, and take a pleasure to dwell where you have taken pain to build[.] My
wife (whom I thought should have taken her leave of you, if your Lordship had
come, until you would have otherwise commanded, is departed unto the country
this day: myself, as fast as I can get me out of town, do follow. Where […] I
be any way employed, I am content and desirous […] whereby I may show myself
dutiful to her. [O]therwise if it were […]
that respect, I think there is more trouble than credit to be gotten in such
governments. [I]f there were any service
to be done abroad, I had rather serve there, than at home, where yet some
honor were to be got; if there be any setting forth to sea, to which service I
bear most affection, I shall desire your Lordship to give me and get me that
favor and credit, that I might make one. [W]hich if […] there by no such intention,
then I shall be most willing to be employed on the sea coasts, to be in readiness
with my countryman against any invasion.
Thus recommending myself to your good Lordship, I commit you to god.
(signed) Edward Oxenford (sec. f; 4+7)
Addressed (O): To singular good lord, Burghley, and lord treasurer of England give this at the court. [seal]
Endorsed: 22 September 1572; the Earl of oxf to my master
Second endorsement: […]; Desires his Lordship to procure him some employment in ye Queen’s service: but especially, which he chiefly bends to, at sea.
Third endorsement: 22 September 1572.
Edward de Vere having wheedled a commission through Queen Elizabeth’s Principal Secretary, William Cecil, to serve as an officer in the 1570 border wars with Scotland, we find him going the same route in hopes of another commission. Cecil had since been created 1st Baron of Burghley and had become father-in-law to Edward who had married his daughter, Anne.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Lady Southwell on the Final Days of Queen Elizabeth I. March 24, 2019. “her majesty told [Lady Scrope] (commanding her to conceal the same ) that she saw, one night, in her bed, her body exceeding lean, and fearful in a light of fire.”
- Hedingham Castle 1485-1562 with Virtual Tour Link. January 29, 2019. “Mr. Sheffeld told me that afore the old Erle of Oxford tyme, that cam yn with King Henry the vii., the Castelle of Hengham was yn much ruine,…”
- Why Shakespeare Appears on Title Pages from 1598. November 20, 2018. ‘These he finds unconvincing. The author’s name having appeared in a number of title pages after 1598, he continues, “it would seem foolish for publishers not to attach the Shakespeare brand to his previously unattributed plays—unless they had other reasons not to do so.”’
- The Battle Over Shakespeare's Early and Late Plays. September 24, 2018. “The answers to the post-Oxford dilemma, of course, are three.”
- Shakespeare on Gravity. August 26, 2018. “So carelessly does Shakespeare throw out such an extraordinary divination. His achievement in thus, as it were, rivalling Newton may seem in a certain sense even more extraordinary than Goethe's botanical and osteological discoveries;…”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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