Stylistic Matches Between the Poetry of Edward de Vere and Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.

A bit over a year ago, now, one of the Oxfrauds among us — Mark Johnson, as I recall — revived an old standby among his cohorts regarding a poem by Edward de Vere that appeared in the front matter of his one-time tutor's translation of Cardenas Comfort.

For hee that beates the bushe the byrde not gets.

But who sittes still, and holdeth fast the nets.

These are the final two lines of the poem Edward de Vere donated to the volume, first published in 1573.

This began in the comment thread to a post by group member Kerry Kirk comparing Vere's sometimes rampant alliteration to five lines from Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. I added that the early Shakespeare play Comedy of Errors is rife with fourteeners, Poulter's Measure and irregular couplets. 

You are on the right track, Kerry. Errors is almost certainly the earliest play in the accepted canon. Many lines in IV.ii. are written in fourteeners, the metrical line preferred by the young Edward de Vere and the similarity with his juvenal poems is striking.

It is by no means the only early play by Shakespeare or poem by Edward de Vere that include such matter.

I posted a reply shortly thereafter entitled “To D.W.R. In re the 'Frauds and Beating the Bush with Young Shakespeare” in which I pointed out two things:

1) The poem was a revision of an earlier poem by Vere, collected by Richard Edwards, master of the Children of the Royal Chapel, who died in 1566. Presumably, then, it was written when he was 16 years of age or younger. The original was written in the Poulter's Measure that was highly popular at the time. The 1573 version was converted into iambic pentameter. As in most such cases (and there are many), the conversion took something away from the quality of the verse.

2) That beating the bush and losing the bird was even then an old and highly popular proverb. My essay shows examples of its use in the writings of Rabelais and Edmund Spenser.

None of this received reply. In particular, Mr. Johnson continued as if neither Kerry nor I had so much as mentioned the Comedy of Errors.

My essay was posted again, recently, in the normal rotation at Edward de Vere Was Shakespeare Facebook Group. As always, in the comment thread, Johnson waxed glorious in his confidence that Shakespeare could not ever have written such a thing at any age.

Sing-song, immature, amateur verse, lacking in anyfigures of speech, cliched, full of excessive alliteration serving noaesthetic purpose (in the mid-century style he was accustomed to),clumsy scansion, simplistic language, etc. — hackneyed doggerel.

The collective 'Fraud yawp is that Shakespeare would never have written such doggerel and certainly not at 23 years of age. “Doggerel,” he triumphantly cried, “500, 1000 miles, a world away from Shakespeare.”

As it turns out, I am in-progress on my next book-length study, which will address at length, among other matters, the history and text of the Comedy of Errors. So then, I can justify taking precious time away for this particular post. For it is not time away.

The following swatch from Act III, Scene i, is a representative example for present purposes.

Ant. E. What art thou that keep'st me out from the house I owe?

Dro. S. [ Within.] The porter for this time, sir, and my name is Dromio.

Dro. E. O villain, thou hast stolen both mine office and my name!

The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame.

If thou hadst been Dromio to-day in my place,

Thou wouldst have changed thy face for a name, or thy name for a face.

Luce. [ Within.'] What a coil is there, Dromio? who are those at the gate?

Dro. E. Let my master in, Luce.

Luce.                             [ Within.] 'Faith no; he comes too late;

And so tell your master.

Dro. E.                         O Lord! I must laugh!

Have at you with a proverb;—Shall I set in my staff?

Luce. [ Within.] Have at you with another: that 's—When? can you tell?

Dro. S. [Within!] If thy name be called Luce, — Luce, thou hast answered him well.

Ant. E. Do you hear, you minion? you'll let us in, I trow?

Luce. [ Within.] I thought to have asked you.

Dro. S.                        [Within.] And you said, no.

Dro. E. So; come, help: well struck! there was blow for blow.

Ant. E. Thou baggage, let me in.

Luce.                          [ Within.] Can you tell for whose sake?

Dro. E. Master, knock the door hard.

Luce.                          [ Within.] Let him knock till it ache.

Ant. E. You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.

Luce. [ Within.] What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in the town?

Adr. [ Within!] Who is that at the door, that keeps all this noise?

Dro. S. [ Within.] By my troth, your town is troubled with unruly boys.

Ant. E. Are you there, wife? you might have come before.

Adr. [Within.] Your wife, sir knave? go get you from the door.

These lines are largely written in iambic hexameter, fourteeners and poulter's measure. Elsewhere in the play are prose and iambic pentameter lines apparently transformed from originals in poulter's measure and also described by scholars over the centuries as “doggerel”. Lines in each meter, throughout Errors, contain word inversions as does Edward's poem at the front of Cardenus Comfort.

Comedy of Errors is also strewn throughout with popular proverbs of the times many which presumably went back centuries. In the manner of “he who beats the bush” we find:

many a man hath more hair than wit.

Shall I set in my staff?

When? can you tell?

he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.

It seems that the early writings of Edward de Vere and of Shakespeare have a remarkable amount in common.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• Sonnet 130: Shakespeare's Reply to a 1580 Poem by Thomas Watson. September 7, 2024. “Interesting to see our Derek Hunter debating with Dennis McCarthy, at the North group,...”.
• 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!”
• 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.