To the Right Honorable my very good Lord Edward de Vere, Earle of Oxenford, Vicount Bulbecke, Lord of Escales, and Badlesmere, and Lord High Chamberlaine of England, all happinesse.
I left a bookmark in my studies of Watson several years ago. As is my custom, I've let the resurgence of his name remind me to return to them. As I read the Hekatompathia with a wider ranging eye I notice that Arber wonders out loud if sonnet LXVII (67) might have been associated with Vere.1 While most of the introductory paragraphs refer to “the Author” in the third person, the annotator who wrote the introductory paragraph to LXVII seems to be Watson himself referring to the product of a dear friend. Not a product of his own.
LXVII.
A man singuler for his learning, and magistrate of no small accoumpt, upon slight survey of this booke of passions, eyther for the liking he had to the Author, or for his owne private pleasure, or for some good he conceyved of the worke, voutchsafed with his own hand to set down certaine posies concerning the same: Amongst which, this was one, Love hath no leaden heeles. Whereat the Author glaunceth throughout al this Sonnet; which he purposely compyled at the presse, in remembrance of his worshipfull frend, and in honour of his golden posie.
WHen Cupid is content to keepe the skies,
He never takes delight in standing still,
But too and froe, and ev'ry where he flies,
And ev'ry God subdueth at his will,
As if his boaw were like to Fortunes wheele,
Him selfe like her, having no leaden heele.
When other whiles he passeth Lemnos Ile,
Unhappy boy he gybes the Clubfoote Smith,
Who threatens him, and bids him stay a while,
But laughing out he leaves him he forthwith,
And makes him selfe companion with the Winde
To shew, his heeles are of no leaden kinde.
But in my selfe I have too trewe a proofe
For when he first espyde my raunging Heart,
He Falcon like came sowsmg from aloofe.
His swiftly falling stroake encreast my smart
As yet my Heart the violence it feeles,
Which makes me say, Love hath no leaden heeles.
This poem would hardly be called Shakespearean. But, then, it was written sometime before 1582. Works belonging the Shakespeare canon do not begin to appear in records or text before 1589-90 thus are more mature. Add to that the fact that the younger Vere was more than occasionally lazy about writing poetry to order.
Moreover, Sonnet LXXI is addressed to a dear friend who is addressed as Titus and the author as Gysippus. These are the main characters of Boccaccio's Decameron (Day 10, Novella 8), as retold by Thomas Elyot, which was highly popular circa 1580. Oxford's secretary at the time, John Lyly, patterned much of his Euphues, the most popular novel of the late Tudor era, on the story. Gysippus favored Titus due to their close friendship. So much so that Gysippus surrendered his lover to his friend, who had fallen in love with her, as he seems to have done here.
In the original tale Gysippus is shunned for his act. In this, however, he finds another lover who pleases him even more. In LXVII, Watson's friend waxes philosophical about the whole affair.
While Arber does not mention it, LXVII fits quite well as a reply to LXXI. It fits the description the reader is given: “...voutchsafed with his own hand to set down certaine posies concerning the same [themes]: Amongst which, this was one, Love hath no leaden heeles.” We've already seen that Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 is a precise fit as a call-and-response answer to Watson's VII. It seems he, too, “voutchsafed with his own hand to set down [a] certaine posie”.
LXXI.
The Authour writeth this Sonnet unto his very friend, in excuse of his late change of study, manners, and delights, all happening through the default of Love. And here by examples he proveth unto him, (calling him by the name of Titus as if him selfe were Gysippus) that Love not onely worketh alteration in the mindes of men, but also in the very Gods them selves; and that so farre forth, as first to drawe them from their Celestiall seates and functions, and then to ensnare them with the unseemely desire of mortall creatures, a Passion ill befitting the majesty of their Godheads.
ALas deere Titus mine, my auncient frend,
What makes thee muse at this my prefent plight,
To see my woonted ioyes enioy their end
And how my Muse hath lost her old delight ?
„ This is the least effect of Cupids dart,
„ To change the minde by wounding of the heart.
Alcides fell in love as I have done,
And layd aside both club and Lions skinne:
Achilles too when he faire Bryses wunne.
To fall from warres to wooing did beginne.
Nay, if thou list, survey the heav'ns above,
And see how Gods them selves are chang'd by Love,
Jove steales from skies to lye by Loedaes side;
Areas descendes for faire Aglaurus sake,
And Sol, so soone as Daphne is espied,
To followe her his Chariot doth forsake :
No mervaile then although I change my minde,
Which am in love with one of heav'nly kinde.
The reader may recall that my Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof (2013, 2017) is actually a short biography for a projected Collected Poems of Shakespeare. Among the factors that have postponed the poems time and again is the success of my search through the dark corners of the digital facsimile world for previously unknown and/or obscure Shakespeare poems. For the moment, Hekatompathia LXVII goes in the “possible Shakespeare poem” category.
1 Arber, Edward. Thomas Watson Poems (1910). 9.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Rocco Bonetti's Blackfriars Fencing School and Lord Hunsdon's Water Pipe. August 12, 2023. “... the tenement late in the tenure of John Lyllie gentleman & nowe in the tenure of the said Rocho Bonetti...”
On Shakespeare's lameness and historical-fiction biography, etc. August 5, 2023. “Those who support Sogliardo of Stratford and other authorship candidates generally stop by from time to time to remark...”
- Shakespeare CSI: Sir Thomas More, Hand-D. April 22, 2023. “What a glory to have an actual hand-written manuscript from the greatest English writer of all time!”
- 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?”
- Check out the Shakespeare Authorship 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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