Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship
Published on 22 Jan 2018
Click on this link to watch the video on the SOF site.
Tin was big business in early modern England. It was used in English pewter and was a lucrative commodity that English merchants exported throughout Europe. Several series of letters survive that deal with Oxford’s petition to Queen Elizabeth for the monopoly of tin that was mined in Cornwall. This presentation will look closely at the eight letters that are archived in the Ellesmere manuscripts in the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California, and the six letters in the Public Record Office, now the National Archives at Kew. William Plumer Fowler did not include Oxford’s tin letters in his book Shakespeare Revealed in Oxford’s Letters, and it has been generally thought that they are not as interesting as his more personal correspondence. Alan Nelson has furthered the impression that they were merely dull business letters, describing them as “utilitarian” and “dreary reading.” However, a closer look shows that there are many parallels between Oxford’s vocabulary and the Shakespeare canon. Moreover, the Shakespearean themes of deceit and false appearances occur regularly as Oxford tries to convince the Queen that she is being taken advantage of by unscrupulous merchants.
This talk was presented at the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship Conference in Chicago on October 14, 2017.
Bonner Cutting is a regular presenter at authorship conferences, having researched a variety of subjects dealing with the Shakespeare Authorship Question. Her work on the Last Will and Testament of William Shakspere of Stratford and her transcript of his will are published in the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition’s Shakespeare Beyond Doubt? Exposing an Industry in Denial. Additionally, she has lectured on Lady Anne Clifford’s Triptych, the Van Dyke portrait of Susan Vere at Wilton House, censorship and punishment in early modern England, Edward de Vere’s £1,000 annuity, and the 16th century feudal system known as wardship. Bonner holds a B.F.A. degree from Tulane University in New Orleans and a Masters of Music in piano performance from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
| 00:10 | I'm gonna talk on the tin letters is you | |
| 00:12 | so it seemed when I first started out on | |
| 00:10 | You know, know pretty simple topic | |
| 00:12 | so it seemed when I first started out on | |
| 00:14 | this study to give you an overview of | |
| 00:17 | about (too loud?) oh now I'm to health | |
| 00:20 | okay and too fast ah okay an overview of | |
| 00:25 | Oxford's letters he wrote -- we have extant | |
| 00:30 | seventy seven letters written by Edward | |
| 00:32 | de Vere. 28 of these letters are on the | |
| 00:35 | subject of his suit for the tin | |
| 00:37 | monopolies which means that over a third | |
| 00:40 | of his surviving letters are this -- the | |
| 00:43 | series that deal with this particular | |
| 00:45 | subject. 37 of his other letters have | |
| 00:48 | been studied by William Plumer Fowler | |
| 00:50 | we'll be talking about that in a minute | |
| 00:52 | which leaves 12 letters that have been | |
| 00:54 | looked at only by Alan Nelson something | |
| 00:56 | that I hope in the future to remedy. Of | |
| 00:59 | the ten letters thirteen of them are | |
| 01:02 | archived in the Cecil papers in Hatfield | |
| 01:04 | House one letter is in the British Museum | |
| 01:07 | in the Lansdowne collection, six letters | |
| 01:09 | are in the PRO now the National | |
| 01:12 | Archives at Kew and eight letters are in | |
| 01:15 | the Huntington Library in California in | |
| 01:18 | the Ellesmere collection. The letters are | |
| 01:21 | in Oxford's handwriting most are signed | |
| 01:24 | the CP and PRO letters are dated but | |
| 01:27 | the Ellesmere letters are not and this | |
| 01:30 | has been a little bit of a stumbling | |
| 01:31 | block for me here and there because I've | |
| 01:33 | been trying to figure out exactly how | |
| 01:35 | they fit into the big picture. | |
| 01:37 | Unsurprisingly most of the letters that | |
| 01:40 | are at Hatfield House in the National | |
| 01:41 | Archives were addressed were written to | |
| 01:44 | William Cecil Lord Burley, one letter | |
| 01:46 | was written to Burleigh's Secretary, | |
| 01:48 | Michael Hicks, one to Robert Cecil and | |
| 01:50 | one to the Queen herself. In the | |
| 01:53 | Ellesmere letters only one opens to is | |
| 01:57 | addressed to my very good lord but it is | |
| 02:00 | agreed after some people have studied | |
| 02:02 | this and my very good lord was Thomas | |
| 02:05 | Egerton who later became Lord Ellesmere | |
| 02:09 | however in this series are two letters | |
| 02:11 | that are clearly meant for the Queen | |
| 02:13 | herself and one of those letters is very | |
| 02:16 | very interesting so we'll be taking a | |
| 02:18 | little closer look at that | |
| 02:21 | I've been asked how did these letters | |
| 02:23 | get from England in the 16th century to | |
| 02:26 | the Huntington Library in the 20th century | |
| 02:28 | Well Henry Huntington who made his | |
| 02:30 | fortune in the railroad business as all | |
| 02:32 | many of you have been to the Huntington | |
| 02:34 | Library and you know he embarked on what | |
| 02:36 | he hoped would be and turned out to be a | |
| 02:37 | fabulous collection of books and | |
| 02:39 | manuscripts and in 1917 he purchased the | |
| 02:43 | Bridgewater House library pretty much | |
| 02:45 | lock stock and barrel. This collection | |
| 02:47 | had been begun by Thomas Egerton and | |
| 02:50 | added to by his descendants or Thomas | |
| 02:55 | Egerton became Queen Elizabeth's Lord | |
| 02:57 | keeper of the Great Seal and that's one | |
| 03:00 | of the reasons so but in 1596 so at that | |
| 03:03 | point forward he had her ear and that is | |
| 03:05 | really why I think Edward de Vere's | |
| 03:08 | addressing these letters to Lord Egerton | |
| 03:10 | (Lord Ellesmere) and later he was Lord | |
| 03:12 | Ellesmere The collection contains more | |
| 03:15 | than 4,000 books and over 13,000 | |
| 03:18 | manuscripts among the books is a Chaucer | |
| 03:21 | and Shakespeare first folio and | |
| 03:23 | according to one of the librarians at | |
| 03:26 | the Huntington "when one considers that | |
| 03:28 | the Bridgewater house library crossed | |
| 03:30 | the Atlantic during World War one when | |
| 03:33 | German U-boats were patrolling the ocean | |
| 03:35 | one must pause to reflect on the | |
| 03:39 | protection of divine providence because | |
| 03:42 | they would be without a Chaucer to First | |
| 03:44 | Folio as well as these letters but in | |
| 03:47 | the timeline of the ten letters is about | |
| 03:50 | five years it appears that Oxford was | |
| 03:53 | first trying to petition for the | |
| 03:54 | monopoly in March of 1594 however a year | |
| 03:58 | later he he renewed his suit and really | |
| 04:01 | pushed hard to try to get the monopoly | |
| 04:03 | and we have letters from March April and | |
| 04:05 | June of 1595 and these are the letters | |
| 04:08 | that are to Lord Burghley, Lord Burleigh | |
| 04:11 | wrote a harsh letter that we actually | |
| 04:12 | have on June 16th where he basically | |
| 04:15 | said "cease and desist you're not gonna | |
| 04:18 | get it. Give up". I'm paraphrasing a little | |
| 04:22 | bit it was just an amazingly ferocious | |
| 04:24 | letter that we assess the Lord Burghley | |
| 04:27 | wrote to Oxford but Oxford always | |
| 04:29 | irrepressible wrote one more letter in | |
| 04:32 | August of that year. It seems that it was | |
| 04:35 | about a year later now we're getting to | |
| 04:37 | the Ellesmere letters and Lord Ellesmere | |
| 04:38 | comes in or | |
| 04:40 | but Egerton as he’s—no, Sir—Egerton | |
| 04:42 | as he’s known at that point, and so Oxford is | |
| 04:45 | addressing this last series of eight | |
| 04:48 | letters which apparently began in 1596 | |
| 04:51 | and end in 1598. In October 1599, the | |
| 04:55 | Queen made her decision to award the tin | |
| 04:57 | monopoly to a mining engineer named | |
| 04:59 | Sir Bevis Bulmer—what an interesting | |
| 05:02 | name for those who are—who know about | |
| 05:04 | Ashland Arden—and then ultimately the | |
| 05:07 | tin monopoly went to Sir Walter | |
| 05:09 | Raleigh. I chose to study closely for the | |
| 05:14 | purposes of this talk the eight | |
| 05:15 | Ellesmere letters and the six PRO | |
| 05:17 | letters. The reason for this is that I | |
| 05:19 | had photocopies of these letters in | |
| 05:22 | Oxford's handwriting in the Miller file. | |
| 05:24 | Ruth Lloyd Miller is given credit—and I | |
| 05:27 | think I can say this—for actually | |
| 05:29 | discovering these eight letters | |
| 05:30 | among the 13,000 manuscripts in the | |
| 05:34 | Ellesmere collection. After she | |
| 05:36 | discovered them she contacted William | |
| 05:38 | Plumer Fowler up in New England who at | |
| 05:40 | that point was working on his book and | |
| 05:42 | she bought these letters to his | |
| 05:44 | attention. Now he did not include them in his | |
| 05:45 | absolutely fantastic book Shakespeare | |
| 05:48 | Revealed in Oxford's Letters. How many of | |
| 05:51 | you know about this book? Shakespeare—? | |
| 05:52 | Many of you know about it, many of you | |
| 05:54 | have it. Good good good. So it's—the study of | |
| 05:58 | letter—These letters aren't included in | |
| 05:59 | it, but he did work with ma—with mom, and | |
| 06:02 | I guess those of you know who my mother | |
| 06:05 | was—they work together to transcribe | |
| 06:07 | them. And I have the file where it's back | |
| 06:11 | and forth, where one or the other make | |
| 06:13 | corrections as they were going along. Now | |
| 06:16 | Allen Nelson in his monstrous book | |
| 06:19 | allocates three and a half pages to | |
| 06:24 | these letters. He calls them—needless to | |
| 06:27 | say he doesn't have much nice to say | |
| 06:28 | about—about them. He calls them dreary | |
| 06:30 | reading, utilitarian, and prosaic | |
| 06:34 | character. And if you want—but I urge you | |
| 06:39 | though to get them—to call up his | |
| 06:40 | website where he has transcribed them. | |
| 06:42 | Now he transcribed them in the original | |
| 06:44 | spelling and of course the Miller Fowler | |
| 06:47 | file I have them both in the original | |
| 06:49 | spelling and and modernized spelling | |
| 06:52 | but Nelson does some things that if you | |
| 06:55 | read them on his website it will make | |
| 06:56 | them rather difficult to follow. | |
| 06:58 | First of all Oxford uses a fossil thorn, | |
| 07:01 | often just called a thorn, which is a Y | |
| 07:03 | and the Y stands for th. Well Nelson | |
| 07:08 | takes that literally in translates every | |
| 07:10 | time you see this he translates | |
| 07:12 | transcribes yes for this and yet for | |
| 07:16 | that so you've got all this yes all over | |
| 07:19 | the place these letters appear to be | |
| 07:22 | very spontaneously written—Oxford and | |
| 07:25 | I'm going to show you later that Oxford | |
| 07:27 | is writing down words it appears to me as | |
| 07:29 | fast as he possibly can as fast as these | |
| 07:32 | words are coming into his head and so of | |
| 07:35 | course is we have today he has stricken | |
| 07:36 | out words—he’s going along he didn't | |
| 07:38 | like that word, strikes it out. | |
| 07:39 | Nelson adds back in the stricken- | |
| 07:42 | out words and he does put little brackets | |
| 07:45 | on it to show that these are added back | |
| 07:47 | in but it still makes the thoughts in | |
| 07:49 | that particular passage disjointed. Then | |
| 07:52 | he clarifies some words and again he | |
| 07:55 | does this little bracket and he puts the equal sign and then he drops in his own | |
| 07:57 | equal sign and then he drops in his own | |
| 07:59 | definition. But all of these things muddy | |
| 08:01 | the waters when you’re reading it with Alan | |
| 08:04 | Nelson’s transcription. Now this is one of | |
| 08:08 | the shortest of the letters. This is from | |
| 08:10 | the PRO series and I can't get my–I’m just | |
| 08:15 | gonna have my pointer working here let | |
| 08:17 | me see if I can do this because what I | |
| 08:19 | did when I first started out is I read | |
| 08:22 | through all of the Ellesmere and PRO | |
| 08:24 | letters and I used—I was reading them in | |
| 08:26 | Oxford's original for these photocopies | |
| 08:29 | and I used the the modern-day | |
| 08:31 | translation, the present-day English to | |
| 08:33 | be sure that I was getting the words | |
| 08:35 | right because I was trying to acclimate | |
| 08:36 | my eye to Oxford's handwriting. Just | |
| 08:39 | reading through it at this point I | |
| 08:40 | wasn't really making much of any notes | |
| 08:42 | but just reading through it when I got | |
| 08:43 | to this one there is something that hit | |
| 08:46 | me like a ton of bricks. And this is it. | |
| 08:54 | Oxford writes: "yet since I have engaged | |
| 08:56 | myself so far in her majesty service to | |
| 09:00 | bring the truth to light." | |
| 09:03 | My goodness! It’s bringing it to my mind “times | |
| 09:07 | glory,” that wonderful quote from Lucrece: | |
| 09:09 | “Times glory is to calm contending | |
| 09:12 | Kings, | |
| 09:13 | to unmask falsehood and bring truth to | |
| 09:17 | light.” Now if I had been reading it in | |
| 09:20 | Alan Nelson's transcript this is what I | |
| 09:23 | would have seen and—sorry I can't point— | |
| 09:25 | but “to bringe the trwithe too [=to] lyght.” I don't know if I’d’ve picked up on it | |
| 09:31 | know if I picked up on it. | |
| 09:32 | “Trwithe,” is that a nonsense word? What—what’s | |
| 09:35 | going on here and then Nelson clarifies— | |
| 09:37 | see the little clarification—he | |
| 09:38 | clarifies “too,” just to be sure we get it | |
| 09:42 | that t-o-o is t-o but he doesn't clarify | |
| 09:44 | the more odd and considerably possibly | |
| 09:48 | more important word. Now I do not want | |
| 09:51 | you to take my word for this and I | |
| 09:53 | didn't know if this would show up but— | |
| 09:56 | yes it does pretty well—it's in the | |
| 09:58 | third line from “My”—after “My good Lord ... to | |
| 10:00 | bringe the trwithe too lyghte.” T-r-w-i-t-h-e. Would | |
| 10:06 | anybody in this room have got it? Might not | |
| 10:08 | have thought about the quote from Lucrece | |
| 10:10 | and gotten the parallel—parallelism | |
| 10:14 | out of it. So that's what you would see. | |
| 10:18 | Now this is what you see in the letter | |
| 10:21 | and I blew it up really big so you can | |
| 10:24 | see this is Oxford's handwriting: to | |
| 10:26 | bring the t-r-w-t-h-e. Now there is no “i” in | |
| 10:32 | that word that is definitely a w, for t-r-w— | |
| 10:35 | that's a w-t-h-e. That’s a w but I defy | |
| 10:40 | you to find an i. There’s not even a | |
| 10:43 | somethin—This is important because this | |
| 10:45 | is really very misleading for him to put | |
| 10:48 | the i in it. Now what I wondered is: is | |
| 10:52 | this the way Oxford spelled “truth”? | |
| 10:55 | Did he frequently use w’s for u’s and | |
| 10:58 | the answer to that is yes, they're all | |
| 11:00 | over the place. | |
| 11:01 | Here’s just one passage and Roger | |
| 11:04 | Strittmatter notes that because he's | |
| 11:05 | looked at this for a long time, this hand | |
| 11:07 | writing. Thought t-h-o-w-g-h-t, “I thowght my | |
| 11:12 | good lord.” | |
| 11:13 | He always spelled “your’ almost always y- | |
| 11:15 | o-w- | |
| 11:16 | r-e and he almost invariably spelled you | |
| 11:19 | instead of y-o-u he spells it y-o-w, | |
| 11:21 | and these are all over the place. | |
| 11:23 | He used Ws for Us. This is not an | |
| 11:26 | idiosyncrasy to Oxford. Once I became | |
| 11:28 | aware of this, | |
| 11:29 | I started looking at other letters and | |
| 11:31 | paying more attention and none other | |
| 11:34 | than Sir Thomas Smith himself used | |
| 11:36 | w’s for u’s, so in one of his | |
| 11:38 | letters we've got y-o-w and “doubt” d-o-w- | |
| 11:41 | t-e instead of d-o-u-w-t [sic] and of course | |
| 11:44 | Thomas—Thomas Smith—this is the Sir | |
| 11:46 | Thomas Smith that directed the boyhood | |
| 11:48 | education of Edward de Vere, Other | |
| 11:51 | notables—as I said I started to notice a | |
| 11:53 | little bit—and other notables who use | |
| 11:55 | w’s for u’s are the Earl of | |
| 11:57 | Ormond, Dr. Richard Master, Sir Walter | |
| 12:00 | Mildmay who was the Chancellor of the | |
| 12:02 | Elizabethan Exchequer, Dr. Thomas Wilson | |
| 12:05 | who was the Secretary of state and the | |
| 12:08 | author of the Art of Rhetoric, so this is | |
| 12:11 | really not an uncommon idiosyncrasy as | |
| 12:14 | it might seem to us as we first look at | |
| 12:16 | it. Now when I began this project about a | |
| 12:22 | year ago, I thought I would do what I | |
| 12:26 | assumed | |
| 12:27 | William Plummer Fowler did in his | |
| 12:29 | phenomenal book where he basically got | |
| 12:32 | the Harvard concordance and just went | |
| 12:33 | back and forth looking up words in the | |
| 12:35 | letters and words in the concordance to | |
| 12:36 | compare them, but I noticed as I was | |
| 12:39 | going back through his book that he—he | |
| 12:41 | mostly focused on words that he thought | |
| 12:43 | were common words and he'd have a word | |
| 12:46 | in a phrase in the letter and then it | |
| 12:49 | would appear 28 times in Shakespeare's | |
| 12:51 | plays, and—and lots and lots of times and | |
| 12:54 | I decided, well if it's lots of times in | |
| 12:56 | the plays then it's bet—may—maybe lots | |
| 12:58 | of time out and about in the general | |
| 13:00 | population. So I decided that I would | |
| 13:03 | focus on rare words. If it was rare— | |
| 13:06 | here's a letter or not—here’s a | |
| 13:08 | word in a letter, here's the word in a | |
| 13:10 | play, and for my own working definition | |
| 13:13 | of a rare word I decided that it would | |
| 13:15 | be a rare word if it was used—if it | |
| 13:17 | popped up less than 10 times in the | |
| 13:20 | Shakespeare Canon. I had a game plan too, | |
| 13:25 | that I would use the Harvard concordance | |
| 13:27 | which everybody in this room knows about. | |
| 13:29 | For those of you who aren't an academic— | |
| 13:32 | in academia—you may not know about the | |
| 13:34 | historical thesaurus of the Oxford | |
| 13:39 | English Dictionary. I learned about this at | |
| 13:41 | the Rice University library where I go | |
| 13:44 | to study, and this is a—the blue is a | |
| 13:47 | fantastic resource for words. What you | |
| 13:50 | can get out of this is when a word came | |
| 13:53 | into the English language and what it | |
| 13:55 | meant, and it is phenomenal for tracing | |
| 13:59 | word origins and how they shifted around | |
| 14:02 | and evolved through time. However it does | |
| 14:05 | not give you who. For that you can go | |
| 14:09 | back into the Oxford English Dictionary | |
| 14:11 | but better than that I think the—your | |
| 14:14 | best bet that I found is—is EEBO Early | |
| 14:18 | English Books Online. Now the nice thing | |
| 14:20 | about EEBO is you can get—you—you can get | |
| 14:24 | everything that has been published in | |
| 14:26 | books and—and from—from that timeframe. | |
| 14:28 | That’s great. But I—in this study I'm | |
| 14:32 | comparing letters with literature. I have | |
| 14:36 | two different genres here and so I | |
| 14:39 | needed, I thought, to find out what letter | |
| 14:42 | writers of the time were writing alike. | |
| 14:44 | What was their conversational types of | |
| 14:47 | vocabulary and how did they frame things, | |
| 14:49 | and you know and—when you’re—when you're | |
| 14:52 | in literature you're you're removed from | |
| 14:55 | this more immediate type of | |
| 14:57 | communication. And so I had—in the past I | |
| 15:00 | have gotten into a volume or two of the | |
| 15:03 | Cecil papers. I found a link and I've | |
| 15:07 | only found one they're bound to be more | |
| 15:09 | but I found one link that gets me into | |
| 15:11 | all seventeen volumes and so if you | |
| 15:13 | can't find it just shoot me an email and | |
| 15:16 | I’ll be glad to send you this link. | |
| 15:18 | This is a treasure trove needless to say. | |
| 15:21 | It spans—the volumes span the | |
| 15:24 | timeframes of about 1570 and run to 1605. | |
| 15:27 | There may be later volumes but for this— | |
| 15:30 | purposes of this link—this is what I got | |
| 15:32 | and this is what I needed so I was very | |
| 15:34 | happy about that. I guestimated that | |
| 15:38 | there are about 20,000 letters that you | |
| 15:41 | can access— | |
| 15:42 | oh and yes they're accessible on the | |
| 15:44 | internet of course—that you can get and | |
| 15:47 | each—each volume has a very nice index | |
| 15:49 | and each volume has a word search. Isn’t that wonderful! That I | |
| 15:56 | could get right in my own—my own little | |
| 15:59 | computer to start finding out what words | |
| 16:01 | and phrases other people were using and | |
| 16:04 | of course the nice thing is—this is the | |
| 16:06 | Ce— these are the Cecil papers and | |
| 16:08 | everybody who is anybody up and down the | |
| 16:10 | social spectrum were writing letters, | |
| 16:13 | had some reason to petition or | |
| 16:15 | send a —or communicate with William Cecil | |
| 16:17 | Lord Burghley or his son Robert Cecil. But | |
| 16:20 | another thing that I had not realized | |
| 16:22 | before is these volumes contain a lot of | |
| 16:26 | correspondence from other people to | |
| 16:29 | other people. It’s got quite a bit of | |
| 16:31 | correspondence from the Earl of Essex—to | |
| 16:33 | and from the Earl of Essex and | |
| 16:34 | other people, and how all of this became | |
| 16:37 | encompassed in the Cecil papers at Hatfield | |
| 16:40 | House I don't know, but they got their | |
| 16:42 | hands on a lot of other people's | |
| 16:44 | correspondence and then too, it's more than | |
| 16:46 | just letters, there’re reports and | |
| 16:48 | ambassadorial | |
| 16:49 | reports and a lot of information is in | |
| 16:52 | here, so it's just overall as I said, it's | |
| 16:55 | a treasure trove, but I was mostly | |
| 16:57 | interested in the language and who was | |
| 16:59 | saying what. Now getting finally to the | |
| 17:03 | tin letters after all this introduction. | |
| 17:05 | Uh, the tin letters—these 28 letters—do all | |
| 17:09 | deal with the business of tin, and the big | |
| 17:13 | money—this is something I really had to | |
| 17:15 | gnash my teeth over to kind of figure out— | |
| 17:17 | the big money in tin was in transporting | |
| 17:21 | tin—the transportation of tin out of the | |
| 17:23 | realm and Oxford refers to it as the realm | |
| 17:27 | and selling it other countries in Europe: | |
| 17:29 | France, Italy, | |
| 17:31 | Turkey's a big market but getting to | |
| 17:34 | other markets—um, one I learned and I can't | |
| 17:38 | really point but I'll just try to give | |
| 17:40 | you an idea at this bottom of—the bottom | |
| 17:42 | of the pile of course—I put it in this | |
| 17:44 | sort of pyramid—are the tin miners | |
| 17:46 | themselves called the pioners. They’re | |
| 17:47 | not doing very well, but the owners of | |
| 17:50 | the tin miners [sic]—from here on up—the owners of | |
| 17:52 | the—the owners of the tin mine, masters | |
| 17:54 | they’re called, they’re doing | |
| 17:55 | well. Where the real problems are at—well | |
| 17:59 | every one of these junctures is mischief. | |
| 18:01 | The queen is being cheated to use a | |
| 18:04 | pretty harsh word or deceit which is the | |
| 18:06 | word Oxford is—you'll find very soon | |
| 18:08 | he's usin. He’s losing money at this | |
| 18:12 | stage where the—where the coinage and | |
| 18:14 | the tin after it’s been mined has to be | |
| 18:16 | coined, it has to be put into blocks so | |
| 18:18 | that it can be shipped out of the | |
| 18:19 | country. Then the merchants get their | |
| 18:22 | hands on it and then the customers—the | |
| 18:23 | customs have to be paid and whatever—we | |
| 18:26 | might say duties or taxations to the | |
| 18:28 | Queen, but at the very top of the— | |
| 18:30 | actually the queen is not getting—for a | |
| 18:33 | number of reasons that you'll soon see— | |
| 18:35 | she's not really getting her fair share | |
| 18:37 | or what she—what she might want to | |
| 18:39 | think of the—of the profits from all of | |
| 18:42 | these goings-on, | |
| 18:44 | but the middlemen in the middle are | |
| 18:46 | doing extremely well. Now when I started, | |
| 18:51 | after I had grasped some of these basic | |
| 18:53 | things, by my strategy—my methodology was | |
| 18:57 | to list every word that I thought might | |
| 18:59 | hopefully have a chance to be a rare | |
| 19:01 | word and the very first word that I | |
| 19:04 | wrote down when I made the list was | |
| 19:06 | “tin.” “To the benefit of 500 poor people | |
| 19:10 | who shall be there set a work,” writes | |
| 19:13 | Oxford. Shakespeare only used “set a work” | |
| 19:17 | and he uses it exactly the same word “set | |
| 19:19 | a work” five times. “How earnestly are | |
| 19:22 | you set a work.” Very next paragraph | |
| 19:26 | Oxford describes the commodity of tin as | |
| 19:29 | “more richer.” Well, that caught my eye | |
| 19:32 | because as we know you're either more | |
| 19:33 | rich or you're richer, so I thought I'd | |
| 19:35 | look that up, and by golly, Shakespeare | |
| 19:38 | uses that phrase only two times. “Your | |
| 19:40 | wisdom should show itself more richer” in | |
| 19:43 | Hamlet and the wonderful and extremely | |
| 19:47 | important speech of Cordelia opening | |
| 19:49 | King Lear: “my love's more richer than my | |
| 19:54 | tongue.” Now at this point I thought, by | |
| 19:58 | golly, this can't be this easy. I've got | |
| 20:03 | two for two here! This must just be | |
| 20:06 | beginner's luck. | |
| 20:08 | So I've written a little bit further | |
| 20:11 | down the word “juggle,” never thinking that | |
| 20:13 | would be a rare—a rare word. Oxford | |
| 20:14 | right but what attracted me to this | |
| 20:16 | passage is the—the–such an interesting | |
| 20:18 | sentence. Oxford now, he's talking about | |
| 20:21 | the merchants and he's talking about the | |
| 20:22 | merchants getting that tin out of England. | |
| 20:24 | He says “they [the merchants] can carry it | |
| 20:27 | so cunningly that they will juggle it so | |
| 20:32 | clean out of Her Majesty's fingers and | |
| 20:35 | she shall never have any sense or | |
| 20:39 | feeling thereof.” Looked up “juggle.” | |
| 20:43 | Shakespeare only uses it one time. “The | |
| 20:46 | spells of France should juggle men into | |
| 20:49 | such strange mysteries.” And it is a | |
| 20:51 | word that Shakespeare clearly thinks is | |
| 20:54 | a very—is not a flattering word. It’s a | |
| 20:57 | pejorative word. I looked up some of the | |
| 20:59 | variants of it. “Jugglers,” Shakespeare only | |
| 21:01 | uses one time, “nimble jugglers can | |
| 21:04 | deceive the eye,” and “juggling” only five | |
| 21:07 | times: “be these juggling friends no more | |
| 21:10 | believed” in Macbeth. Next letter and I'm | |
| 21:16 | I'm going fast there's lots and lots of it in | |
| 21:19 | all of these letters that are really | |
| 21:20 | well worth talking about, but I'm just | |
| 21:22 | trying to pick things that I think will— | |
| 21:23 | not only give you a sense of the | |
| 21:25 | language but also a sense of what he—his | |
| 21:27 | point of view and things. This was a very | |
| 21:30 | striking paragraph. Oxford writes: | |
| 21:32 | “Secondly, there is a statute, I take it, in | |
| 21:36 | Edward the Third's time, that for such a | |
| 21:39 | quantity of Tin transported the Merchant | |
| 21:43 | ought to bring in another such—another | |
| 21:46 | quantity or proportion of gold Bullion | |
| 21:48 | and deliver it into the Tower; it is so | |
| 21:52 | long ago that I did peruse that statute, | |
| 21:56 | thinking this matter had no more to be | |
| 21:59 | revived, that till I look it over again, I | |
| 22:03 | cannot certainly set it down.” Now what I | |
| 22:08 | get from that is—we have been—several of | |
| 22:12 | us in this room have been taken to task | |
| 22:14 | by someone whose name I previously | |
| 22:16 | mentioned—won’t say it again— | |
| 22:17 | but just because the 17th Earl of | |
| 22:20 | Oxford's name was on a | |
| 22:20 | registry for Gray's Inn, which was the | |
| 22:22 | law school, that did not mean that he | |
| 22:24 | actually attended Gray's Inn. Okay but | |
| 22:29 | listen to this paragraph. Oxford writes— | |
| 22:31 | I think it's a good indicator that he | |
| 22:33 | did attend law school— “it is so long ago.” | |
| 22:35 | That would fit with the passage of | |
| 22:37 | several decades since Oxford had been at | |
| 22:39 | Gray’s Inn reading law and where else in | |
| 22:44 | the world but law school is someone | |
| 22:47 | going to read an arcane, an obsolete | |
| 22:51 | statute from the time of Edward the | |
| 22:53 | Third. [Applause]. Thank you, thank you. Okay. Thank you, thank you.We’ll have to | |
| 23:06 | remember that. He finishes this very | |
| 23:10 | paragraph with a—with a wonderful | |
| 23:13 | statement. “They”— he's still talking about | |
| 23:15 | the merchants—“have no doubt incurred the | |
| 23:18 | danger of this statute.” Now looked up | |
| 23:23 | “incurred.” He—Shakespeare only uses it four | |
| 23:26 | times—it’s a rare—four times—rare word. In | |
| 23:28 | fact, “incur” only seven times and one of | |
| 23:31 | these times is in the Merchant of Venice | |
| 23:33 | and by golly it's in the trial scene! Portia: | |
| 23:40 | “thou hast incurred the danger formerly by | |
| 23:44 | me rehearsed.” Is Portia referring to | |
| 23:47 | the laws of Venice, what was "formerly"? You | |
| 23:48 | look up a few lines and you get this. | |
| 23:50 | Shylock asks “Is that the law?” and Portia | |
| 23:54 | replies: “Thyself shall see the Act.” | |
| 24:00 | That’s a parallelism. | |
| 24:02 | It was so striking because to get a good | |
| 24:04 | parallelism I felt like I had to have | |
| 24:06 | two things. I had to have not just a | |
| 24:08 | similar language but I had to have exact | |
| 24:10 | words and then you also had—I had to | |
| 24:13 | nail down the context. I wanted both of | |
| 24:15 | these things so I went out to see how | |
| 24:18 | common this was in EEBO and I found that | |
| 24:21 | this phrase had been used four times | |
| 24:22 | before 1600. However three of those times | |
| 24:25 | was in a religious context, in fact it | |
| 24:28 | was incurred the danger of the Pope, | |
| 24:30 | which is not exactly quite the | |
| 24:33 | same context. | |
| 24:34 | Then I looked in the Cecil papers and | |
| 24:36 | this was one of the ones I went through | |
| 24:38 | all 17 of those volumes that I had | |
| 24:40 | showed you, and one little problem with | |
| 24:43 | the word search is that you have to pull | |
| 24:44 | up each volume separately. You don't get | |
| 24:46 | the word search on all of them so I | |
| 24:48 | didn’t—as times gone by I’d been looking up | |
| 24:51 | more and more words, but at any rate for | |
| 24:55 | this I looked up the word “danger” and | |
| 24:57 | there were lots of dangers out there but | |
| 24:58 | there was only one “incur the danger of | |
| 25:01 | the law” one time before 1600. I think | |
| 25:03 | that is a very rare rare phrase to occur | |
| 25:07 | both in the the letters and the play. Now | |
| 25:12 | later on in this very same letter is the | |
| 25:15 | word "obscurement," which Oxford writes of | |
| 25:18 | "small impositions" which "serve for an | |
| 25:21 | obscurement." According to the historical thesaurus | |
| 25:24 | it means "keeping from knowledge" and it | |
| 25:28 | came into the language in 1658, if that | |
| 25:32 | nice blue volume book is correct. But | |
| 25:36 | here it is in one of Oxford's letters | |
| 25:37 | more than 60 years earlier. Now | |
| 25:40 | Shakespeare does not pick up on the word | |
| 25:42 | "obscurement," but I think it—for one | |
| 25:45 | thing there I have several words that | |
| 25:46 | are really great words that Oxford uses | |
| 25:48 | and Shakespeare doesn't. But if anything, | |
| 25:50 | at a minimum, I believe it shows that Oxford— | |
| 25:52 | Oxford was quite interested in | |
| 25:54 | new—new words bringing them into the | |
| 25:56 | English language, and he was a wordsmith. | |
| 25:58 | This is something he cared about. However | |
| 26:02 | I got interested—became interested in | |
| 26:05 | "obscure." Oxford uses "obscured," and as I | |
| 26:09 | went through the historical thesaurus, | |
| 26:10 | "obscured" had a lot of subtle meanings | |
| 26:12 | to it at different time frames. Oxford | |
| 26:15 | writes "and all such as have obscured | |
| 26:17 | from your Majesty this matter. | |
| 26:20 | Shakespeare uses "obscured" only ten times: | |
| 26:23 | "and so the prince obscured his | |
| 26:27 | contemplation." And interestingly the | |
| 26:31 | Oxford English Dictionary credits | |
| 26:33 | Shakespeare with using this "obscured" in | |
| 26:36 | the past tense "to make obscure," as in | |
| 26:38 | "made obscure," and they gave—they give | |
| 26:41 | the date of 1590 for Comedy of Errors, | |
| 26:45 | and—and—and he is credited in the Oxford | |
| 26:48 | English Dictionary, such as it is, But | |
| 26:50 | Errors wasn't published until 1623. Who know— | |
| 26:54 | who knew? "Obscurity" has a number of | |
| 26:58 | subtle variations. Oxford writes: "this | |
| 27:01 | great matter is condemned to obscurity." | |
| 27:04 | Shakespeare uses this variant two times | |
| 27:07 | "so vast obscurity or misty veil" and "if | |
| 27:12 | thou destroy them not in dark | |
| 27:15 | obscurity." Here's another one that—you | |
| 27:17 | know, one of the things about tracing— | |
| 27:19 | tracing these rare words is words that | |
| 27:21 | seem really common to us today were rare | |
| 27:23 | back then, so I found only one use of | |
| 27:26 | "obscurity" in the Cecil papers and | |
| 27:27 | one use in EEBO prior to this time frame. | |
| 27:30 | Very interesting that it would pop up in | |
| 27:32 | a letter and a can—and a canon of work, | |
| 27:36 | body of work. Oxford ends this with a cute | |
| 27:40 | little note. He's ending on a little | |
| 27:43 | bit more of a chipper note, I guess you | |
| 27:44 | might say. | |
| 27:45 | "As for the caveat in the end I will say | |
| 27:48 | little but by it a starting hole is left | |
| 27:52 | for a good excuse, if ever hereafter the | |
| 27:55 | absurdity of yielding just so great a | |
| 27:58 | guile should come in question." | |
| 28:01 | Shakespeare uses "starting hole" only one | |
| 28:03 | time, in Henry the Fourth part 1 when | |
| 28:06 | Falstaff is trying to cover up his | |
| 28:08 | cowardly behavior and the prince will | |
| 28:11 | have none of it. Prince: "What a slave | |
| 28:14 | thou art to hack thy sword as | |
| 28:17 | thou hast done and then say it was in | |
| 28:20 | fight? What trick? What device? | |
| 28:22 | What starting hole? canst thou now find | |
| 28:26 | out to I hide thee from this open and | |
| 28:29 | apparent shame?" The next Ellesmere letter | |
| 28:35 | in the series—this had to be a whale of | |
| 28:38 | a scene! | |
| 28:39 | Now remember Oxford is now relating this | |
| 28:42 | scene which apparently happened with—he | |
| 28:45 | was with the Queen and Lord Burghley and | |
| 28:47 | the pewterers are there, which tells me | |
| 28:49 | that the Queen has apparently tried to | |
| 28:52 | look into this matter, and she's having a | |
| 28:53 | face-to-face meeting with the—with the | |
| 28:55 | pewterers, and he's relating this to | |
| 28:58 | Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, and he's | |
| 29:01 | really telling him—at this point he | |
| 29:02 | really knows—he's reconciled that he's | |
| 29:04 | not gonna get the—the preemption of tin, | |
| 29:07 | he's not going to get the monopoly, but | |
| 29:10 | he's telling her about this—he's telling | |
| 29:11 | Lord Ellesmere about this thing. He's | |
| 29:15 | been offered—he's offered the Queen | |
| 29:17 | £3,000 for the same amount of tin | |
| 29:21 | that she'd only been getting a thousand | |
| 29:23 | marks from the pewterers for. According to | |
| 29:26 | Oxford: "They seem to answer that sure I | |
| 29:29 | mistook it in writing, | |
| 29:31 | and for haste had missed the number of | |
| 29:34 | my ciphers, for I had written it 3,000 | |
| 29:38 | and they thought I meant but 300. | |
| 29:41 | Whereupon Her Majesty caused the Lord | |
| 29:45 | Treasurer to send unto me ... I affirmed the | |
| 29:49 | £3000." And now what we know is that at | |
| 29:53 | least Oxford's letter had gotten to the | |
| 29:55 | Queen, the Queen showing it to the | |
| 29:56 | pewterers, the pewterers are coming up with | |
| 29:58 | this rationale, and I have just—it's not | |
| 30:01 | explained, but how in the world did Lord | |
| 30:03 | Burghley send—the Lord Treasurer send to | |
| 30:05 | Oxford? Did he send a messenger from the | |
| 30:07 | court to wherever—to Oxford's home in | |
| 30:09 | Hackney at this point in time? Who knows? | |
| 30:11 | But at any rate I do believe that this | |
| 30:14 | made Oxford very very angry with the | |
| 30:18 | pewterers, that they're trying to misinform | |
| 30:20 | and misinterpret what he's done, and so | |
| 30:23 | the rest of this letter he is just | |
| 30:26 | thrashing away at the pewterers. He has | |
| 30:30 | apparently had information that he | |
| 30:32 | believes the pewterers are | |
| 30:33 | understating the weight of tin in order | |
| 30:36 | to invade [sic] they're called impositions (we | |
| 30:39 | would call them taxes) that should be | |
| 30:41 | paid by them to Her Majesty. | |
| 30:43 | Oxford writes: "the deceit lies where the | |
| 30:48 | tin is transported and when the blocks"— | |
| 30:52 | that's they have to be made into blocks | |
| 30:53 | of tin—"are underrated." Then Oxford goes on | |
| 30:58 | "Blocks ought to be 250 pounds apiece, but | |
| 31:02 | now they cast few under 400 pounds | |
| 31:05 | apiece and most at five, six, and seven | |
| 31:08 | hundred pounds." So | |
| 31:11 | this tin is leaving the country under the | |
| 31:13 | guise of being 250 pound blocks. He | |
| 31:19 | continues and he's going to close out | |
| 31:21 | this letter with this: "Now I thought my | |
| 31:23 | good lord, the case standing thus, that | |
| 31:25 | there was nothing so fit to be done as | |
| 31:27 | to acquaint your lordship with the whole | |
| 31:30 | cause. That you being fully possessed | |
| 31:33 | therewith by the knowledge of Her | |
| 31:35 | Majesty's right in law, the examination | |
| 31:38 | of what number of tin is transported, may | |
| 31:41 | easily and perfectly discern what the | |
| 31:44 | weight or lightness of the matter | |
| 31:46 | imports." And this had me think of the | |
| 31:49 | Hamlet "fine"—you know—"the fine pate full of fine | |
| 31:52 | dust." Oxford, or excuse me, Shakespeare, | |
| 31:54 | Shakespeare, whoever he is, uses words in | |
| 31:57 | different contexts. He spent this whole | |
| 31:58 | letter talking about the weight of the | |
| 32:01 | tin blocks and now he's speaking | |
| 32:03 | metaphorically as for the weight of the | |
| 32:06 | matter and the information that he is | |
| 32:08 | giving to Lord Ellesmere. He continues: | |
| 32:11 | "the sudden cannot give me opportunity to | |
| 32:14 | gather up so many remembrances as it's | |
| 32:18 | necessary to unfold a matter." And listen: | |
| 32:21 | "unfold a matter." Isn't that a modern sort | |
| 32:25 | of phrase that we would all use? "To | |
| 32:27 | unfold a matter so full of objections | |
| 32:31 | deceits, and false appearances." And by | |
| 32:35 | golly! What on earth are Shakespeare plays | |
| 32:37 | all about? Another thing just to take a | |
| 32:41 | look at: it's the word "sudden," here, as in | |
| 32:43 | short notice, is another indicator that | |
| 32:46 | these letters are really written spur of | |
| 32:48 | the moment, and as you're going to see in | |
| 32:51 | the next letter that I'm going to show | |
| 32:52 | you—I think it's what's on next—yes it | |
| 32:54 | is— | |
| 32:55 | is that Oxford is just writing, he's | |
| 32:58 | dashing these things off as fast as he | |
| 33:00 | can. Now this letter is Oxford's letter | |
| 33:05 | to the Queen, and to me a letter from a | |
| 33:09 | courtier, someone in her court. | |
| 33:10 | It's a long letter. There's a lot of | |
| 33:13 | words here, that this letter in and of | |
| 33:16 | itself should be looked at very closely. | |
| 33:17 | This is a courtier speaking to his | |
| 33:20 | monarch and it is archived as best I | |
| 33:23 | could tell under the words | |
| 33:24 | tin mining dash Cornwall. We need to know a | |
| 33:28 | little bit more about this letter. Now | |
| 33:30 | one of the things that I want to point | |
| 33:33 | out to you is—you can see when—can you?— | |
| 33:36 | when you—when he starts at the top—and | |
| 33:38 | this is true in a lot of his letters—the | |
| 33:41 | words are widely spaced. He has words but— | |
| 33:44 | lots of even—the handwriting is very | |
| 33:45 | neat and—and beautifully set out and | |
| 33:49 | there's space between the words and | |
| 33:51 | space between the lines and then as he | |
| 33:53 | goes down the page it starts to get more | |
| 33:55 | compressed and more and more cramped and | |
| 33:57 | usually by the time he's getting to the | |
| 33:59 | bottom of the pages—He starts on the | |
| 34:01 | second page very spacious and then he's | |
| 34:03 | cramming in the words to get as many on | |
| 34:05 | the page as he possibly can, as he's | |
| 34:07 | thinking more and more of all I've got | |
| 34:09 | to say this. You could just see him | |
| 34:10 | thinking as he's writing these letters. | |
| 34:12 | The third page especially, he starts nice | |
| 34:14 | and more a spacious—spaced out if it's a— | |
| 34:17 | spaced out, heh—kind of spaced at the top and | |
| 34:19 | then it gets more crammed at the bottom | |
| 34:21 | and finally, mercifully I suppose, he | |
| 34:24 | calls—comes to an end at the fourth | |
| 34:27 | page. What I want to call to your | |
| 34:30 | attention about this is actually the | |
| 34:33 | tone. A few little details—How are we | |
| 34:38 | doing, time? Oh we're doing pretty good, we | |
| 34:40 | got—we'll have to wrap, we'll close this— | |
| 34:42 | aha fine, | |
| 34:43 | thank you, John. Okay, I'm nearly there. At | |
| 34:47 | the tone. Oxford is strong in these—in | |
| 34:50 | his assertions that are in this letter, | |
| 34:51 | and sometimes he is really overbearing. I | |
| 34:55 | wrote "almost overbearing," but sometimes | |
| 34:56 | he really is, and he is not speaking to | |
| 34:59 | her in a manner that it's the least | |
| 35:01 | obsequious. Quite surprisingly, and now | |
| 35:04 | I'll show you what I mean by that. Here | |
| 35:06 | he is writing: "in granting to them"—and | |
| 35:08 | remember he's—I think he's still mad at | |
| 35:09 | the pewterers for trying to cheat him and | |
| 35:12 | trying to cheat the Queen, whatever—"in | |
| 35:14 | granting to them that they shall have | |
| 35:17 | the authority of setting the prices and | |
| 35:19 | that none should buy before them without | |
| 35:22 | their leave, in this you grant away for | |
| 35:25 | that commodity your preemption, which by | |
| 35:29 | prerogative"—and of course he knows that | |
| 35:31 | the Tudor monarchs love their | |
| 35:32 | prerogative—"which by prerogative without | |
| 35:35 | contradiction is your own. | |
| 35:38 | Whereby hereafter, when your majesty may | |
| 35:40 | be certainly informed how great a | |
| 35:42 | commodity you may make it unto you, then | |
| 35:46 | it will be too late, | |
| 35:48 | having barred and excluded yourself by | |
| 35:51 | this your grant to the pewterers to make | |
| 35:53 | any profits thereof"—and then it's almost | |
| 35:55 | as if he catches himself —"if so you | |
| 35:58 | should be disposed." And then another | |
| 36:03 | place: "to the intent when you see it | |
| 36:05 | plainly proved and set down, that it | |
| 36:07 | cannot be contradicted, then your majesty | |
| 36:10 | may proceed according to your pleasure." | |
| 36:13 | Just if he tries to soften it a little | |
| 36:15 | bit. A few more things here in this | |
| 36:20 | letter—and when I was first starting out | |
| 36:23 | I thought if I found three rare words in | |
| 36:25 | a single letter that I would be doing | |
| 36:26 | really very well, and of course I'm | |
| 36:29 | finding dozens all over the place in | |
| 36:30 | all of the letters, but in this | |
| 36:32 | particular letter I found three rare | |
| 36:33 | words in a single sentence. "And as for | |
| 36:38 | the Detriment"—and he capitalizes "the | |
| 36:41 | Detriment," he capitalizes important words | |
| 36:43 | that are important to him, with concepts | |
| 36:44 | that are important to him:—"and as for the | |
| 36:46 | Detriment which it importeth to your | |
| 36:48 | Majesty, it concerns your whole profit | |
| 36:51 | which is to redound unto you by this | |
| 36:54 | commodity." Shakespeare uses "detriment" one | |
| 36:58 | time: "brought by deep surmise of others' | |
| 37:00 | detriment." Shakespeare uses "importeth" | |
| 37:02 | two times—you'd think "importeth"—but | |
| 37:04 | "importeth" two times—would be used more, | |
| 37:06 | but that's it: "it importeth none here" | |
| 37:08 | and "what else more serious importeth thee | |
| 37:11 | to know." And he uses "redound" one—one time | |
| 37:14 | and even picks up the whole phrase as "all | |
| 37:16 | things should redound unto your good." | |
| 37:23 | Um. We're almost—I guess we need to—I have a | |
| 37:25 | few more things but I think we can—oh I | |
| 37:27 | just wanted to run this one thing by you, | |
| 37:29 | and then we're gonna put—call—call an | |
| 37:31 | end to it. In one of the sonnets, and it | |
| 37:33 | already been mentioned, Oxford—oh excuse | |
| 37:36 | me, Shakespeare—writes "so all my best is | |
| 37:39 | dressing old words new." And as I tracked | |
| 37:42 | so many words through that historical | |
| 37:45 | thesaurus that I showed you, it is | |
| 37:47 | amazing how up to date both Oxford and | |
| 37:51 | Shakespeare—Oxford in this letter, | |
| 37:52 | Shakespeare in the canon—are using the | |
| 37:54 | most recent word usage. The word itself | |
| 37:57 | may be old but its most recent evolution | |
| 38:00 | is what they both pick up on, and here's | |
| 38:03 | just an example. Oxford points out the | |
| 38:04 | plight of the tin miners: "they pretend it | |
| 38:06 | should nourish 3,000 poor people I went | |
| 38:09 | to the word nourish and after | |
| 38:12 | Shakespeare they that show contain and | |
| 38:15 | nourish all the worlds the word nourish | |
| 38:17 | had had was an old word and it meant a | |
| 38:21 | lot of other things but by 1560 it took | |
| 38:23 | on a broader context of main maintenance | |
| 38:25 | supplying the general needs and wants of | |
| 38:28 | people which I believe is what Oxford | |
| 38:30 | and Shakespeare using here and then he | |
| 38:32 | it's an interesting sentence because at | |
| 38:34 | the bottom if she's seen read for | |
| 38:36 | whereas they pretend it should nourish | |
| 38:38 | £3,000 poor people I can assure your | |
| 38:40 | majesty it is but the work of threescore | |
| 38:43 | persons which the company uses in | |
| 38:45 | several places as in some 20 and others | |
| 38:48 | 10 and 15." So here he is again, pointing | |
| 38:51 | out the deceit that's going on all over | |
| 38:52 | the place in her tin—in the matter of tin. | |
| 38:56 | I will—There—occasionally there is a | |
| 39:00 | beautiful line here and there, and this | |
| 39:02 | is one of them that I think's very | |
| 39:03 | musical: "But thus it is, and so must be, if | |
| 39:06 | she let her gift proceed." And now I want | |
| 39:12 | to ask you if you think these letters | |
| 39:14 | were "utilitarian," "dreary," "prosaic," and to | |
| 39:19 | this end I prepared a rant and calling | |
| 39:25 | it the tin rant, I used the words and | |
| 39:27 | phrases sent and passages from the | |
| 39:29 | letters and put them together and sent | |
| 39:31 | them to Michael delahoy because I've | |
| 39:33 | heard for those of you who've heard his | |
| 39:34 | Shakespeare rant you know he does I | |
| 39:36 | mean rant and he has graciously agreed | |
| 39:38 | to give us the tin rant | |
| 39:48 | [Applause] | |
| 39:57 | through the pretense of the small Matt | |
| 39:59 | of the commodity would be wholly | |
| 40:00 | frustrated by people who carry so | |
| 40:02 | cunningly that might keep this secret | |
| 40:04 | again the merchants have divided the | |
| 40:06 | great departs to shatter the profit and | |
| 40:08 | quench the heat thereof they've obscured | |
| 40:09 | from her majesty the stock which might | |
| 40:12 | have redeemed to herself it is a | |
| 40:13 | disgrace and the Queen should not suffer | |
| 40:16 | by the cunning authority of subtle means | |
| 40:17 | to be suppressed the others under | |
| 40:19 | devised pretenses may steal away Her | |
| 40:20 | Majesty's profit this foul abuse has | |
| 40:23 | been cunningly plotted in your lordship | |
| 40:25 | must know how unfit it is that our | |
| 40:26 | Majesty should deal into this matter | |
| 40:27 | this man has run a double course and I | |
| 40:29 | do the less regardest treachery and the | |
| 40:31 | war trust to the truth of mine actions | |
| 40:34 | you vows manifest in intolerable | |
| 40:37 | untruths and for that I will they open | |
| 40:39 | his evil and corrupt service it is no | |
| 40:40 | small Bridal to insulate an obstinate | |
| 40:41 | people who was so great a guile have | |
| 40:43 | done so much uh turley MAME the great | |
| 40:45 | mater the pewter errs pewter errs suit | |
| 40:49 | is a suit so blemished and that truth is | |
| 40:51 | smothered up by false appearances it | |
| 40:53 | will be a ruin and manifest lost to Her | |
| 40:56 | Majesty if she let her gift proceed to | |
| 40:58 | this usurped and encroached Authority | |
| 40:59 | there and they speak ignorantly and many | |
| 41:01 | abuses creep in with counterfeit | |
| 41:02 | objections this great matter is | |
| 41:04 | condemned to obscurity and former trusts | |
| 41:06 | are now in the instruments of Her | |
| 41:07 | Majesty's infinite loss herein is the | |
| 41:10 | deceit under such collar colorable shows | |
| 41:13 | these inferior suits are masked and | |
| 41:15 | visored the Queen should not be | |
| 41:17 | negligent in this behalf or she will | |
| 41:19 | only enrich others and defraud herself | |
| 41:21 | and I would be loath that Her Majesty | |
| 41:22 | being drawn on with frivolous devices | |
| 41:25 | should have her profit pulled out as it | |
| 41:27 | were from her purse you know maybe | |
| 41:29 | that's enough but I sure would like to | |
| 41:31 | say that each of these pewter errs our | |
| 41:35 | swag belly jugglers Scots knaves Rascals | |
| 41:38 | each is an eater have broken me a bass | |
| 41:40 | proud shallow beggarly three suited 100 | |
| 41:42 | pound filthy worsted stockings little | |
| 41:43 | Guilford action taking horse and grass | |
| 41:45 | gazing super surface will pinnacle one | |
| 41:47 | drunken Hackney Road one that should be | |
| 41:50 | a bought in the way of good service and | |
| 41:52 | nothing but the composition of a knave | |
| 41:54 | beggar coward pander and the horse and | |
| 41:56 | son of a mongrel bitch a blazing face | |
| 41:58 | varlet slave a Cullen Lee barber Mart | |
| 42:01 | hmm but man is a patched fool if he | |
| 42:04 | speaks such truth but that last part to | |
| 42:09 | make it the more richer I'll put in a | |
| 42:11 | play | |
| 42:14 | [Applause] English (auto-generated) Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship Published on 22 Jan 2018 |
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