The de Vere Society is a registered charity promoting knowledge of the life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, a Tudor playwright praised by Queen Elizabeth I for his ‘outstanding mind and virtue’ and hailed by King James I as ‘Great Oxford’. His contemporaries awarded the ‘highest prize’ to his works, but what has become of them? If you are interested in the proposition that de Vere’s ‘lost’ plays are those which now bear the name ‘William Shakespeare’, please join us, participate, investigate and celebrate – new members and enquirers are very welcome! – Alexander Waugh, Chairman
“For all your Writers do consent, that ipse is he:
now you are not ipse, for I am he.”
Touchstone to William in As You Like It, V. i.
“How curious and interesting is the parallel – as far as poverty of biographical details is concerned – between Satan and Shakespeare … They are the best-known unknown persons that have ever drawn breath upon the planet.”
“I no longer believe that … the actor from Stratford was the author of the works that have been ascribed to him … I am almost convinced that the assumed name conceals the personality of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford … The man of Stratford seems to have nothing at all to justify his claim, whereas Oxford has almost everything.”
“I am sort of haunted by the conviction that the divine William is the biggest and most successful fraud ever practiced on a patient world.”
“… he was a jovial actor and manager. I cannot marry this fact to his verse … but that this man of men, he who gave to the science of mind a new and larger subject than had ever existed … that he should not be wise for himself;—it must even go into the world’s history that the best poet led an obscure and profane life, using his genius for the public amusement.”
“The King James translation of the Bible is considered the greatest piece of literature in English … They say that from 1604 to 1611, King James got poets to translate, to write the Bible. Well, if Shakespeare existed, he was then the top poet around. But Shakespeare is nowhere reported connected with the Bible. If he existed, why didn’t King James use him?”
“I think Oxford wrote Shakespeare. If you don’t, there are some awfully funny coincidences to explain away …”
“ … only one of the ‘wolfish earls’ so plenteous in the plays themselves, or some born descendant and knower, might seem to be the true author of those amazing works — works in some respects greater than anything else in recorded history … I am firm against Shaksper. I mean the Avon man, the actor.”
(Letter dated 4th January 1956): “Are you interested in the opening up of Walsingham’s tomb, to look for Shakespeare’s MS? I wish they would find something, if only to irritate the Stratford people!”
“Where did this Shakespeare come from? Where did all that knowledge and eloquence and truth come from? ... I believe Edward de Vere and not William Shakespeare [of Stratford] wrote Richard II and, in fact, all the plays attributed to the man from Stratford.”
“Any friend of ‘Shakespeare’ is a friend of ours! In signing the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt along with over 4,500 others to date, we merely want to set the record straight about why some of us have our doubts.”
“I'm falling in love with this idea that the real Shakespeare was Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford ... It is astonishing what the Edward de Vere camp has turned up in the way of research to explain all kinds of mysteries of the plays and the life of the so-called Shakespeare. Very, very interesting stuff.”
“You think about William Shakespeare, you think a man basically with a second grade education wrote some of the greatest poetry of all times? I think maybe not.”
“I’ve always wanted to know since I was growing up who really wrote the plays of Shakespeare. So I want to be there at that moment when ‘Shakespeare’ – because I don’t think it was William Shakespeare, I’m an Edward de Vere-ian, so the Earl of Oxford – so I’d like to be there 1600’s … ‘Shakespeare’ writing Hamlet.”
