Dramatis Personae: the Herbert Brothers, Susan Vere and Ben Jonson.

In this series:

• William, Lord Herbert, from Heir to Earl.
• Earl of Pembroke to the Earl Of Shrewsbury. October 16, 1604.
• The Herbert Brothers' Transition to Royal Favor.
• Dramatis Personae: the Herbert Brothers, Susan Vere and Ben Jonson.

We come to the next installment of the biography of William Herbert, the 3^rd Earl of Pembroke. From a bookish young man, warned by his advisers that he was too “Melancholy,” he developed himself into a courtier with skills of horsemanship and the tourney. Upon his father's death, in early 1600, he inherited the Earldom with all of it appurtenences and moved permanently to Baynard's Castle, the Earldom's huge residence in London. Impregnating Mary Fitton, favored Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth, he was exiled from Court.

Upon the ascension of James I to the throne, in March of 1602 (1603 N.S.) he became the king's main host, at Wilton House, where the Court waited for the Queen's funeral to pass and the plague to moderate. While fulfilling his responsibilites as host he was also negotiating marriage to Lady Mary Talbot, the daughter of the Earl of Salisbury.

We have also mentioned that William and his brother, Philip Herbert, constantly watched out for each other's interest. They were very close. A book-length poem written to celebrate the new King would be published in 1604, under the name William Harbert, entitled A prophesie of Cadvvallader, last king of the Britaines, with two gushing dedications to Philip. I provide the second:

TO THE WORTHY AND Honourable Gentleman Sir Philip Harbert, Knight of the most Noble Order of the Bathe.

THe second time doth my unworthy muse

Salute thy milde aspect thrise noble Knight,

Let gracious censure his defects peruse,

Whose Genius waites on thy heroicke spright,

Whose loue and life are bent to honour thee:

And whilest breath lasteth vse both them and mee.

These Poems which my infant labours send

As messengers of dutie to thine eares,

Are of small value, but if nature lend

Some perfect dayes to my unripened yeares,

My pen shall vse a more iudicious vaine,

And sing thy glory in a higher straine.

Your Honours

at commaund.

William Harbert.

No other William Herbert than the Earl of Pembroke fitting the bill ─ and he excellently well except for having published under his surname in contravention of the mores of the nobility ─ the author has historically been considered unknown. William Herbert did write poetry for private distribution among his friends. Some, at least, of those poems were published 30 years after his death.

The year 1604 was a particularly busy one for the Herberts. The King and his Court were abuzz with activity. There were grand conferences, seemingly endless ceremonies bestowing knighthoods, guided tours familiarizing the King with all the details of his Royal properties, and much more. The mornings were times to go a-hunting. As the days progressed, the Court was moved from Hampton to the London Tower to Whitehall where it would remain. Amongst all of this, it was important to be present to the royal pair. An Earl of Pembroke had the responsibility to petition for the members of his sprawling family. The name Herbert was everywhere around.

On January 8^th, Queen Anne put on the first masque of the reign of James I: Samuel Daniel's The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses at Hampton Court. The goddesses were portrayed by Anne's Ladies-in-Waiting, including Lady Susan de Vere¹, daughter of the Earl of Oxford. William and Philip played magical Eastern knights, exotically accoutred, in the first anti-masque, which was played on New Year's Night.² William quietly married Lady Mary in November of the year. Philip married Lady Susan de Vere in a lavish affair on December 27^th.

Philip and King James I had hunted together a great many mornings. It was their favorite and constant activity and the way to James's heart. The King showered affection upon his 20 year old companion and Lady Susan Vere, his bride, on their wedding day. He had already been showering the young second son of Pembroke with the wealth and position that only a monarch could provide and would continue to do so.

While 1605 may have been quieter it was still filled with incident. Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones presented their first Court masque: The Masque of Blackness. The Queen and her ladies danced it in black-face. It received mixed reviews among the letter writers of the day.

Sometime later in the year, Jonson found himself in prison. There was already grumbling at Court about the imperiousness of the Scottish retainers to the King and Queen. What would otherwise have been an amusing quip at the expense of those retainers, in Jonson and George Chapman's play Eastward Ho, had landed them there.

Ben was already an expert at ingratiating himself with the nobility of the realm. Among the letters he dispatched, calling upon the English nobles to save them, were one each to the Earls of Pembroke (William) and Montgomery (Philip). To Pembroke the following:

Most noble Earl,

Neither am I or my cause so much unknown to Your Lordship as it should drive me to seek a second means, or despair of this to your favour. You have ever been free and noble to me, and I doubt not the same proportion of your bounties, if I can but answer it with preservation of my virtue and innocence; when I fail of those, let me not only be abandoned of you, but of men. The anger of the King is death, saith the wise man, and in truth it is little less with me and my friend, for it hath buried us quick. And though we know it only the property of men guilty and worthy of punishment to invoke mercy, yet now it might relieve us, who have only our fortunes made our fault, and are indeed vexed for other men’s licence. Most honoured Earl, be hasty to our succour; and it shall be our care and study not to have you repent the timely benefit you do us: which we will ever gratefully receive and multiply in our acknowledgement.

Ben Jonson³

They would seem already to be considered particular allies, though others were contacted in longer letters and still more familiar-obeisant terms. The playwrights were released.

1   Law, Ernest. The History of Hampton Court Palace. (1898). II.24. Citing Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, January 15, 1604. Citing Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, January 15, 1604.

2   Law, Ernest. The Vision Of The Twelve Goddesses. Presented Upon Sunday Night Being the 8^th of January, 1604. (1880). 35. Citing Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, January 15, 1604. No text of the anti-masque is known to exist.

3   Jonson, Ben. Chapman, George. Eastward Ho! (1973, 1994). C. G. Petter, ed.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Young William, Lord Herbert, samples the pleasures. February 24, 2023. “...a bookish, melancholic young man, with an addiction to tobacco, only slightly less to the ladies...”

• Anthony Munday's  Mirrour of Mutabilitie: Dedicatory Poems to the Earl of Oxford. January 2, 2023. "Nothing vvee say that truer is then trueth, / It follie is against the streame to strive:...".

• 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.