Good Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, these things are hardly carried, and these advantages are easily gotten, where some may say what they will against my Lord of Oxford, and have presence to utter their humours; and my Lord of Oxford is neither heard, nor hath presence either to complain or defend himself: and so long as he shall be subject to the disgrace of her Majesty (from which God deliver him), I see it apparently, that, how innocent soever he shall be, the advantages will fall out for his adversaries; and so I hear they do prognosticate.
It hath been also informed her Majesty that he hath had fifteen or sixteen pages in a livery going before him in Cheapside; but, if these tongues that uttered this were so much lessened by measure in their mouths as they have enlarged in their number, they would never be touched hereafter with making any verbal lie. Indeed I would he had less than he hath, and yet in all his house are, nor were at any time, but four: one of them waiteth upon his wife, my daughter; another in my house, upon his daughter Bess ; a third is a kind of a tumbling-boy; and the fourth is the son of a brother of Sir John Cutts, lately put to him. By this false, large, lying report, if her Majesty would cause it to be tried, she should find upon what roots these blasphemous branches do grow.
But I submit all these things to God's will, who knoweth
best why it pleaseth Him to afflict my Lord of Oxford in this sort, who hath, I
confess, forgotten his duty to God, and yet I hope he may be made a good
servant to her Majesty, if it please her of her clemency to remit her
displeasure; for his fall in her Court, which is now twice yeared, and he
punished as far or farther than any like crime hath been, first by her Majesty,
and then by the drab's friend in revenge to the peril of his life. And if his
own punishment past, and his humble seeking of forgiveness, cannot recover her
Majesty's favour, yet some, yea many, may think that the intercession of me and
my poor wife, so long and importunately continued, might have obtained some
spark of favour of her Majesty ; but hereof I will in nowise complain of too
much hardness, but to myself. I would I could not, in amaritudine animae,
lament my wife's oppressing of her heart for the opinion she imprinteth therein
of her misfortune, a matter not to be expressed without mistaking: and
therefore both I and she are determined to suffer and lament our misfortune,
that, when our son-in-law was in prosperity, he was cause of our adversity by
his unkind usage of us and ours; and now that he is ruined and in adversity, we
only are made partakers thereof, and by no means, no, not by bitter' tears of
my wife, can obtain a spark of favour for him, that hath satisfied his offence with
punishment, and seeketh mercy by submission; but contrariwise, whilst we seek
for favour, all crosses are laid against him, and by untruths sought to be kept
in disgrace.
But, good Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, pardon me herein, for my heart
too full to stay my pen, and yet I will end, because I will no further trouble
you with my troubles, which are ordained of God for myself; and so I will
patiently take them and lap them up to carry with me to the grave, where, when I
shall be, I am sure they shall not follow me. When I began to write, I neither
meant nor thought I could have scribbled thus much; but the matter hath
ministered me the cause, for I take no pleasure therein. God preserve her Majesty,
and grant her only to understand the true hearts of my poor wife and me, and
then I doubt not the sequel of her gracious favours in far greater matters than
we have required. We have not many years to live, perchance not many days, and
the fewer I am sure to find lack of her favours, of whom we seek to deserve
well by our daily services.
From my house in Westminster, this 12th of March 1582 [O.S.].
Yours assuredly, as you see, very bold, W. Burghley."
Source: Nicholas, Sir Harris. Memoirs of the Life and
Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (1847). 321-4.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- How Shakespeare gave Ben Jonson the Infamous Purge. November 7, 2021. “Of course, De Vere could not openly accuse Jonson of having outed him as Shakespeare.”
- More on Thomas North as Shakespeare and author of Arden of Feversham. June 14, 2021. “This is also the reason why the title pages included the address of the shop that was selling the book.”
- A 1572 Oxford Letter and the Player’s Speech in Hamlet. August 11, 2020. “The player’s speech has been a source of consternation among Shakespeare scholars for above 200 years. Why was Aeneas’ tale chosen as the subject?”
- Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not. No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”
- 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 Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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