Arthur Golding's Advice to his 14 Year Old Nephew, Edward de Vere.

Arthur Golding was a very busy man during the years he spent in Cecil House, on the Strand, in 1563-4, as receiver for young Edward de Vere, the minor 17^th Earl of Oxford. The young Earl's father had died the year before and Arthur, being his uncle, on his mother's side, was tasked with seeing him settled in and the associated financial paperwork put in proper order.

Thus we know the duration of his stay because Golding completed three translations during those years — The historie of Leonard Aretine (1563), the first four books of Ovid's Metamorphoses (1564), The Histories of Trogus Pompeius (1564) — the dedication to each dated from Cecil House. The Metamorphoses was actually published in 1565. The dedication to The eyght bookes of Caius Julius Caesar (1565), however, was signed from a Golding family property at “Powles Belchamp the .xxi. of October. Anno. 1565.”

The dedication of Trogus Pompeius was to Edward who he'd had plenty of time to get to know personally. The personal comments addressed to Vere give us a feel for the personality of the fourteen year old. We will attend only to those comments for present purposes.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABL and his singular good Lord and Mayster, Edward deVeer, Erle of Oxinford L. great Chamberlayne of England, Vicount Bulbeck, &c.Arthur Goldyng wisheth health and prosperitie with furtherance, in knowledge and encrease of Honor

RIght Honorable, I fynde in perusyng of auncient wryters, that it hath ben the custome of the greatest Estates and Princes in the worlde, when they have had intermission from the serious and weightie affayres of their Realmes, to bestowe their ydell tymes in revolvyng and perusyng stories.

This is general encouragement to read. Below we learn that Edward is already an unusually avid reader who takes from his books understanding beyond what is common for his age. He reads both histories and current affairs with avidity and insight. Golding stresses that he has been impressed with this trait in him from personal observation.

Now at such tyme as I had finished my translacion of thistories of Justine (who in so small roume and in so fewe wordes, comprehendeth so many and so notable thynges, that it is to be doubted, whether he be more brief of sentence, or copious of matter) as I stayed with my selfe (as it were to take breath at thend of my race) devisyng to whome I might specially dedicate the same: It came to my remembraunce, that sithens it had pleased Almighty God, to take to his mercy your Lordships noble father, (to whom I had long before vowed this my travell [travail]) there was not any, who eyther of dutie mighte more justly clayme the same. or for whose estate it semed more requisite and necessarie, or of whome I thought it should be more favorably accepted, then of your honor. For (to omit other things, wherof this tyme and matter serveth not to speake) it is not unknowen to others, and I have had experience therof myself, howe earnest a desire your honor hath naturally graffed in you, to read, peruse, and communicate with others, as well the Histories of auncient tyme, and thynges done long ago, as also of the present estate of thinges in oure dayes, and that not withoute a certayn pregnancie of witte and rypenesse of understandyng: The which do not only now reioyse the hartes of all such as beare faithfull affection to thonorable house of your auncestours, but also stirre up a greate hope and expectacion of such wysedom and experience in you in time to come, as is mete and besemyng for so noble a race.

There is a gentle avuncular reminder, however, that he has only begun on what is a long road. While he has shown merit and understanding, he is remains only 14 years of age with the normal limitations that implies. He does not yet have the necessary wisdom or experience, goals which he will only accomplish “in time to come”.

Let these and such other examples (where your L. shall fynde store in this worke) encourage youre tender yeres, runnyng in the [renowned] fotesteppes of your famous auncestours, to procede in learning and vertue (which are thonly ornamentes of nobilitie, or rather the very true nobilitie itself,) in such sort as you may be able to doe acceptable service to your Prince and your countrie, Your Prince and your countrie for your weldoyngs embrace you and esteme you as a Jewell, and Yourself thereby become equall to any of your worthye Predecessours in advauncyng thonor of your noble house: wherof as your greate forwardnesse geveth assured hope and expectacion, so I moste hartely beseche Almighty God to further, augment, establish, and confirmate the same in your L.with thabundaunce of his grace.

Here Golding both calls upon Edward to bring honor to his house and expects that his “forwardness” in this regard means that he will. Still, the tone is one of an adult exhorting rather than complimenting a youth. Given the recklessness (quite common in young noblemen) of Edward's younger days we may be forgiven for believing that an uncle is carefully complimenting him for those traits he wishes to instill.

Another of Golding's relationships is worth mentioning here. Of course, Shakespeare often went to Golding's translation of the Metamorphoses, and to Ovid's original, as inspiration for his own works. The same can be said for The eyght bookes of Caius Iulius Caesar, and to the Latin originals, to a lesser extent. Golding will publish his translation of De Beneficiis, from the Epistulae Morales of Seneca, in 1577, a work from which Shakespeare drew at length in his play The Merchant of Venice¹ and Edward de Vere, the 17^th Earl of Oxford, to a smaller extent in a late letter to King James I.²

1See my “Portia's Quality of Mercy.” https://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2020/06/portias-quality-of-mercy.html De Beneficiis and De Clementia are two of the twelve of Seneca's Epistolae.

2See my “Letters: Earl of Oxford to King James; January 30, 1603 [1604 N.S.].” https://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com/2021/03/letters-earl-of-oxford-to-king-james_14.html

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