Candidates for Shakespeare

William Stanley

William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (1561-1642) was 81 when he died, and he had lived through the “Shakespeare period”. He was well connected with players and theatre, at first through his brother Ferdinando’s company (the Lord Strange’s Men) which became his own, after the death of the 5th Earl, his brother. Yet the 6th Earl’s interest with players and theatre is believed from his youth, and was strengthened with involvement with the family Company on his return to this country in 1587 when 26.

At 38, the Earl was reportedly “busied only in penning commodities for the common players”, which might explain why he apparently did not join the military campaigns in Ireland and the Low Countries, though nominated to participate, with Rutland and Southampton.

This explanation, dependent on comments in one letter, is apparently supported by another venture. At 38, although having retired to administer the family estates in Lancashire, Derby is reportedly financially behind the revival of the young players “Company of the Children of St Paul’s”, London.

With the barrister-satirist John Marston and Lyly as playmakers, the venture was a success – the ‘children’ referred to would have been trained and of exceptional talents. (Several plays were written by the Earl of Newcastle, Lord William Percy, were performed by the young players at that time: another nobleman not hiding from identification as author – though in manuscript).

From the age of 21, the young Derby’s travels took him abroad for five years, with tutor Richard Lloyd. It is supposed that he “must” have passed through, and attended the royal Court of Navarre, which features in “Love’s Labour’s Lost”. That attendance at the Court is supposition, unlike Anthony Bacon who WAS a guest among the courtiers there.

Derby’s worldly experiences expanded with his travels through France, Spain, Italy, the Mediterranean countries, and further afield, aided both tutor and a familiarity with several languages. He had a University education at Oxford, some ten years before travelling, and legal studies which began when he was 33. He was knowledgeable particularly on the sea, seamanship and navigation.

William Stanley’s experience at the Elizabethan Court was plentiful: his aristocratic birth, connected to royalty, his “permission” by royalty to travel, his marriage in 1595 in the presence of Her Majesty – and the assertion that a Shakespeare play was performed at the celebrations, with Elizabeth’s permission, undoubtedly.

In 1601 aged 40 he became a Knight of the Garter, in 1603 a member of the Privy Council, in 1607 Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire, and he received King James at Lathom House in 1617.

In 1617, William Stanley disbanded his family’s acting company. The man Shakspere/ the poet-playwright Shakespeare had died the year before. Is Derby’s relinquishing of a long-held theatrical association for any reason notable, or is the death merely a co-incidence?

Derby was in his middle fifties – had pressure of his duties of Court and State led to abandonment of what had been a passion? He retired into private life, in 1627 aged 66.

When the facts of his life are examined, the possibility that the Earl, William Stanley, was Shakespeare, or involved in any conspiracy over authorship, is believed “plausible on many levels”. The evidence is not conclusive, particularly as not a poem or play has come down the years to us.

Despite his interest in theatre and players, there are only the two reports connecting him with theatre, but they are enough to engender support for the claim, particularly as its followers are “scholarly and dignified” and there is much circumstantial evidence available.

Additional notable points

• The Earl left no poetry and plays proving literary skills. One explanation is that after his death in 1642 and in the Civil War, Cromwell’s soldiers besieged and burnt down Lathom House, Lancashire, the seat of the Stanley family
   
• A family lawsuit over property began in 1594, involved the Earl and his brother’s widow and lasted many years. And the legal go-between was ... Francis Bacon
   
• In that same year, 1594, the Earl then 33, married Elizabeth de Vere who was 19 and daughter of ... Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford
   
• The marriage took place before Elizabeth at Greenwich Palace, and it is contended that, as the afternoon start-of-celebrations, a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was staged (if so, no mean irony – author celebrated at his wedding by his own, anonymous, play!)
   
• In “Love’s Labour’s Lost”, the King of Navarre is named Ferdinand (Derby’s elder brother was Ferdinando); and the King’s Lords at Court are Biron (the live personage at Court was le Baron de Biron), Longaville (le duc de Longueville), and Dumain (le duc du Maine)
   
• The playmaker ‘Shakespeare’ was “better informed on what occurred in the Court of Navarre than any outsider could have been” – and a (possible) presence in Navarre strengthens the image of Derby as Shakespeare, goes the claim. (It is unfortunate that Anthony Bacon, as competing source of ‘background’ to Navarre, is lodged in different authorial camp AND has a group passport with those names in, too - it is in the British Museum)