Good Sir Robert Cecil,
Whereas my wife has showed me, a supplication exhibited to the lords of the Council, against her, I have longed both to yield you thanks for your courtesy, to her and myself in making her acquainted therewith, and also to advertise you, how [l]ewdly therein he behaves himself. For as for my wife he charges, with a matter whereto she was never acknowledging, as if you consider the date of his supplication, which signifies a five years ago, at what time I think she never knew the man, and much less had any dealings with him, as he cannot deny, and if I then were
married unto her it was all. Whereas he pretends I made over to her my pension with a condition to pay all former warrants granted by me, it is merely false, neither has he any ground to say it. Wherefore how presumptuously he does abuse her, you may easily judge, as that dares to make so impudently his complaint of her, being as she is: and to such personages of quality and state, as are the privy Council. I do not doubt therefore, but as you have begun with so honorable a proceeding, but you will let him have his deserts according to his presumption. And in the mean season for that a long letter may be troublesome unto you, which have matters in hand of more importance, I thought it fit, thus shortly to show the wrong done to her, and to refer the very ground and color of his complaint unto another schedule which I shall send you.
Wherein if he hath had any cause to have complained, it should then have bene against myself, as the same will explain. But his shifts
and knaveries are so gross and palpable, that doubting
to bring his parts and jugglings to light,
he does address his petition ^against^ her that is utterly ignorant of the cause.
Thus desiring yow to conceive how thankfully I take this honorable dealing with
my wife and friendly care to me, I will the less set forth in words what I the
more desire in deeds to show, if I were so happy as to find opportunity. This
11th of January 1597.
Your assured friend and Brother in
law
(signed) Edward Oxenford
Addressed (by Oxford): To the right
honorable and his very good friend Sir Robert Cecil one of her Majesty’s Privy
Council and Principle Secretary.
Endorsed: 12 January 1596. Earl of
Oxford to my Master. The controversy between him and Gurley.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Plague Dogs in 16th Century London. April 7, 2020. "In his account of the sources and effects of pestilences, from his enormously popular poem De Rerum Natura, the Roman author Titus Lucretius Carus noted that dogs caught pestilences as well."
- What About Edward de Vere’s Twelfth Night of 1600/01? January 28, 2020. “Leslie Hotson, who brought the Orsino-Orsino coincidence to the attention of the Nevillians seems to have made one particular mistake that is all to our point.”
- Who Saved Southampton from the Ax? September 2, 2019. “One of the popular mysteries of the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I is why the Queen executed her favorite, the Earl of Essex, for treason, and left his accomplice, the Earl of Southampton, to languish as a prisoner in The Tower until King James I ascended the throne.”
- A Most Curious Account of the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth I: April 28, 1603. April 28, 2019. “Once it was clear that James I would face no serious challenges, Cecil and the others could begin to give attention to the matter of the Queen’s funeral.”
- 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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