Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (Wriothesley is pronounced "Risly") (6 October 1573 – 10 November 1624), one of
William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's
patronPatrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave, Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos...
s, was the second son of
Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton was an English noble.Henry was the only surviving son of the 1st Earl and his wife Jane Cheney. His godparents were Henry VIII, Princess Mary, Charles Brandon, and Henry Fitzalan.After his father's death, he lived with his mother, Jane...
, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the
1st Viscount MontaguAnthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu KG PC was an English peer during the Tudor period.He was the eldest son of Sir Anthony Browne...
.
Early life
He was born on 6 October 1573, in
Cowdray HouseCowdray House is constituted of the ruins of one of England's great houses, outside the West Sussex town of Midhurst, standing on the north bank of the River Rother...
,
SussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, England.
When his father died, he moved to the nearby town of
MidhurstMidhurst is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, with a population of 4,889 in 2001. The town is situated on the River Rother and is home to the ruin of the Tudor Cowdray House and the stately Victorian Cowdray Park...
, England, and inherited the Earldom in 1581, when he became a royal ward, under the immediate care of
Lord BurghleyWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG, was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign , twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572.-Early life:Cecil was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire in...
. He entered
St John's College, CambridgeSt John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college has fixed assets of £567,390,000, granting it the largest endowment per student of any Cambridge college...
, in 1585, graduating M.A. in 1589: and his name was entered at
Gray's InnThe Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known simply as Gray's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
before he left the university. At the age of seventeen he was presented at court, where he was soon counted among the friends of the
earl of EssexRobert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , was a military hero and royal favourite of Elizabeth I, but following a poor campaign against Irish rebels during the Nine Years' War in 1599, he failed in a coup d'état against the queen and was executed for treason.- Early life :Essex was born on 10 November...
, and was distinguished by extraordinary marks of the queen's favor. He became a munificent patron of poets:
NasheThomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Life and career:...
dedicated his romance of
Jack Willon to him, and
Gervase MarkhamGervase Markham was an English poet and writer, best known for his work The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman first published in London in 1615.-Life:Markham was the third son of Sir Robert Markham of Cotham, Nottinghamshire, and was...
his poem on
Sir Richard GrenvilleSir Richard Grenville was an Elizabethan sailor, explorer, and mercenary. He was the grandfather of Sir Richard Grenville, of English Civil War notoriety....
's last fight. His name is also associated with
Barnabe BarnesBarnabe Barnes , English poet, fourth son of Dr Richard Barnes, bishop of Durham, was born in Yorkshire, perhaps at Stonegrave, a living of his father's, in 1568 or 1569. In 1586 he was entered at Brasenose College, Oxford, where Giovanni Florio was his servitor, and in 1591 went to France with the...
's
Parthenophil and Parthenope, and with the
Worlde of Wordes of
John FlorioJohn Florio , known in Italian as Giovanni Florio, was an accomplished linguist and lexicographer, a royal language tutor at the Court of James I, a probable close friend and influence on William Shakespeare. He was also the translator of Montaigne.Born in London, he was of Anglo-Italian origin....
, who was for some years in his personal service as teacher of
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
.
Drama and association with Shakespeare
It is as a patron of the drama and especially of Shakespeare that he is best known. "My Lord Southampton and Lord Rutland," writes Rowland White to
Sir Robert SydneyRobert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester , second son of Sir Henry Sidney, was a statesman of Elizabethan and Jacobean England. He was also a patron of the arts and an interesting poet.-Career:...
in 1599, "come not to the court ... They pass away the time in London merely in going to plays every day" (Sydney Papers, ed. Collins, ii. 132).
Venus and AdonisVenus and Adonis is a poem by William Shakespeare, written in 1592-93, with a plot based on passages from Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is a complex, kaleidoscopic work, using constantly shifting tone and perspective to present contrasting views of the nature of love.-Publication:Venus and Adonis was...
(1593) was dedicated to Southampton in terms expressing respect, but no special intimacy; but in the dedication of
The Rape of LucreceThe Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...
(1594) the tone is very different. "The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end ... What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours."
Nicholas RoweNicholas Rowe , English dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer, was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715.-Life:...
, on the authority of
Sir William DavenantSir William Davenant , also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras, and who was active both before and after the English Civil...
, stated in his
Life of Shakespeare that Southampton on one occasion gave Shakespeare a present of £1000 to complete a purchase. There is no documentary evidence of this, however.
Nathan DrakeNathan Drake , English essayist and physician, son of Nathan Drake, an artist, was born at York.He was apprenticed to a doctor in York in 1780, and in 1786 proceeded to Edinburgh University, where he took his degree as M.D. in 1789. In 1790 he set up as a general practitioner at Sudbury, Suffolk,...
in his
Shakespeare and his Times (1819; vol. ii. pp. 62 seq.) first suggested that Lord Southampton was the person to whom the sonnets of Shakespeare were addressed. He set aside
Thomas ThorpeThomas Thorpe was an English publisher, most famous for publishing Shakespeare's sonnets and several works by Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. His publication of the sonnets has long been controversial...
's dedication to the "onlie begetter of these ensuing sonnets, Mr W.H.," by adopting the very unusual significance given by
George ChalmersGeorge Chalmers , was a Scottish antiquarian and political writer.-Biography:Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, in 1742. His father, James Chalmers, was a grandson of George Chalmers of Pittensear, a small estate in the parish of Lhanbryde, now St Andrews-Lhanbryde, in Moray, owned by the...
to the word begetter, which he takes as equivalent to procurer. Mr W. H. was thus to be considered only as the bookseller who obtained the manuscript. Other adherents of the Southampton theory suggest that the initials H. W. (Henry Wriothesley) were simply reversed for the sake of concealment by the publisher. It is possible in any case that too much stress has been laid on Thomas Thorpe's mystification.
The chief arguments in favor of the Southampton theory are the agreement of the sonnets with the tone of the dedication of
Lucrece, the friendly relations known to have existed between Southampton and the poet, and the correspondence, at best slight, between the energetic character of the earl and that of the young man of the sonnets. Mr Arthur Acheson (
Shakespeare and the Rival Poet, 1903) brings much evidence in favor of the theory, first propounded by
William MintoWilliam Minto , Scottish man of letters, was born at Auchintoul, Aberdeenshire.He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, and spent a year at Merton College, Oxford...
, that
George ChapmanGeorge Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
, whose style is parodied by Shakespeare in the 21st sonnet and in
Love's Labour's LostLove's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s, and first published in 1598.-Etymology:The name of the play comes from a poem written by the Greek Theognis:...
, was the rival poet of the 78th and following sonnets. Mr Acheson goes on to suppose that Chapman's erotic poems were written with a view to gaining Southampton's patronage, and that that nobleman had refused the dedication as the result of Shakespeare's expostulations. The obscurity surrounding the subject is hardly lightened by the dialogue between H. W. and W. S. in
Willobie his Avisa, a poem printed in 1594 as the work of
Henry WillobieHenry Willobie is the supposed author of a 1594 poem called Willobie his Avisa , whose main claim to fame is a possible connection with William Shakespeare's personal life....
. If the sonnets were indeed addressed to Southampton, the earlier ones urging marriage upon him must have been written before the beginning (1595) of his intrigue with Elizabeth Vernon, cousin of the Earl of Essex, which ended in 1598 with a hasty marriage that brought down
Queen ElizabethElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
's anger on both the contracting parties, who spent some time in the
Fleet prisonFleet Prison was a notorious London prison. It was built in 1197 and situated off what is now Farringdon Street, on the eastern bank of the Fleet River after which it was named...
in consequence.
Association with the 2nd Earl of Essex
In 1596 and 1597 Southampton was employed in Essex's expeditions to
CádizCádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Cádiz Province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
and to the
AzoresThe Azores is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about from Lisbon and about from the east coast of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands actually lie on the North American plate...
, in the latter of which he distinguished himself by his daring tactics. In 1598 he had a brawl at court with Ambrose Willoughby, and later in the same year he attended the queen's principal secretary,
Sir Robert CecilSir Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, KG, PC , son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and half-brother of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter....
, on an embassy to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
In 1599, during the Nine Years War (1595-1603), he went to
Ireland with EssexEssex in Ireland refers to the military campaign pursued in Ireland in 1599 by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, during the Nine Years War and the Anglo-Spanish War....
, who made him general of his horse, but the queen insisted that the appointment be cancelled. Southampton remained on in personal attendance upon the earl, rather than as an officer. During his time in the Irish wars, it was reported to Cecil that he saw most of his active service in bed with a captain Piers Edmunds - he would "
cole and hug" his captain in his arms, and "
play wantonly" with him. However, Southampton was active during the campaign, and prevented a defeat at the hands of the Irish rebels, when his cavalry drove off an attack at
ArklowArklow , also known as Inbhear Dé from the Avonmore river's older name Abhainn Dé, is a historic town located in County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland. Founded by the Vikings in the ninth century, Arklow was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the 1798 rebellion...
in
County WicklowCounty Wicklow is one of the traditional counties of Ireland and is located within the province of Leinster. It was named after the town of Wicklow ....
. He was deeply involved in Essex's conspiracy against the queen, and in February 1601 was sentenced to death. Cecil obtained the commutation of the penalty to imprisonment for life.
Life under King James I (and VI)
On the accession of
James IJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
Southampton resumed his place at court and received numerous honors from the new king. On the eve of the abortive rebellion of Essex he had induced the players at the
Globe TheatreThe Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642.A modern...
to revive
Richard IIKing Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
, and on his release from prison in 1603 he resumed his connection with the stage. In 1603 he entertained
Queen AnneAnne of Denmark was queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bore him three children who survived infancy, including the future Charles I...
with a performance of
Love's Labour's Lost by
BurbageRichard birdbidge was an actor and theatre owner. He was the younger brother of Cuthbert Burbage. They were both actors in drama....
and his company, to which Shakespeare belonged, at Southampton House.
He seems to have been a born fighter, and engaged in more than one serious quarrel at court, being imprisoned for a short time in 1603 following a heated argument with Lord Grey of Wilton in front of Queen Anne. Grey, an implacable opponent of the Essex faction, was later implicated in the
Main PlotThe Main Plot was a conspiracy by English Protestants, allegedly led by Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, to remove King James I of England from the English throne, replacing him by aid of Spain with his cousin Arabella Stuart.The plot involved Sir George Brooke...
and
Bye PlotThe Bye Plot was a conspiracy by a Catholic priest, William Watson, to kidnap King James I of England and force him to repeal anti-Catholic legislation...
. Southampton was in more serious disgrace in 1621 for his determined opposition to
BuckinghamGeorge Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England Despite a very patchy political and military record he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
. He was a volunteer on the Protestant side in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
in 1614, and in 1617 he proposed to fit out an expedition against the Barbary pirates.
Southampton was a leader among the Jacobean aristocrats who turned to modern investment practices — "in industry, in modernizing their estates and in overseas trade and colonization." He financed the first tinplate mill in the country, and founded an ironworks at
TitchfieldTitchfield is a village in southern Hampshire, by the River Meon. The village has a history stetching back to the 6th century. During the medieval period, the village operated a small port and market...
. He developed his properties in London, in
Bloomsbury-Places:*Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Virginia-Other:...
and
HolbornHolborn is an area of Central London, England. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running from St Giles's High Street as High Holborn to Gray's Inn Road to Holborn Viaduct, crossing the borders of the City of Westminster, London Borough of Camden and the City of...
; he revamped his country estates, participated in the efforts of the
East India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
and the New England Company, and backed
Henry HudsonHenry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. After several voyages on behalf of English merchants to explore a prospective Northeast Passage to India, Hudson explored the region around modern New York City while looking for a western route to the Orient under...
's search for the
Northwest PassageThe Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...
.
A significant artistic patron in the Jacobean as well as the Elizabethan era, Southampton promoted the work of
George ChapmanGeorge Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
,
Samuel DanielSamuel Daniel was an English poet and historian.-Biography:Daniel was born near Taunton in Somerset, the son of a music-master. He was the brother of John Daniel. Their sister Rosa was Edmund Spenser's model for Rosalind in his The Shepherd's Calendar; she eventually married John Florio...
,
Thomas HeywoodThomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...
, and the composer
Alfonso Ferrabosco the youngerAlfonso Ferrabosco the younger was an English composer and viol player of Italian descent. He straddles the line between the Renaissance and Baroque eras. He was the illegitimate son of the Italian composer Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder. His mother might have been Susanna Symons, whom Alfonso the...
. Heywood's popular, expansionist dramas were compatible with Southampton's maritime and colonial interests.
Virginia Company, colonization
Henry Wriothesley, whose name is included in the 1605 panel of the
New World TapestryThe New World Tapestry is the largest stitched embroidery in the world, larger than the Bayeux Tapestry. It depicts English colonisation attempts in Newfoundland, North America, the Guyanas and Bermuda between the years 1583 and 1642, when the English Civil War began.Work began on the tapestry in...
, took a considerable share in promoting the colonial enterprises of the time, and was an active member of the Virginia Company's governing council. Although profits proved elusive, his other visions for the Colony based at Jamestown were eventually accomplished. He was part of a faction within the company with Sir
Edwin SandysEdwin Sandys may refer to:*Edwin Sandys - Bishop of London, Worcester, Archbishop of York*Edwin Sandys - A founder of the colony of Virginia, son of the above...
, who eventually became the Treasurer, and worked tirelessly to support the struggling venture. In addition to profits, Southampton's faction sought a permanent colony which would enlarge British territory, relieve the nation's overpopulation, and expand the market for English goods. Although profits largely eluded the Virginia Company, and it was dissolved in 1624, the other goals were accomplished.
His name is thought by many to be the origin of the naming of the harbor of
Hampton RoadsHampton Roads is the name of both a body of water and the region of land areas which surround it in southeastern Virginia. Hampton Roads is notable for its year-round ice-free harbor, for United States Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, NASA, Marines, and Army facilities, shipyards, coal piers, and...
, and the
Hampton RiverThe Hampton River is a short tidal estuary which empties into Hampton Roads near its mouth. Hampton Roads in turn empties into the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia in the United States...
. Although named at later dates, similar attribution may involve the town (and later city) of
Hampton, VirginiaHampton is an independent city in Virginia, and therefore not part of any Virginia county. One of the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads, it is on the southeast end of the Virginia Peninsula, bordering on Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay....
, as well as
Southampton County, VirginiaSouthampton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 17,482. Its county seat is Courtland.-History:...
and
Northampton CountyNorthampton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 13,093. Its county seat is Eastville.Northampton and Accomack Counties comprise the Eastern Shore of Virginia....
. However, the name
SouthamptonSouthampton is the largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire, on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
was not uncommon in England, including an important port city and an entire region along the southern coast, which was originally part of
HampshireHampshire , sometimes historically Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, , or the County of Southampton, is a county on the south coast of England. The county borders , Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
. There are also variations applied in other areas of the English colonies which were not part of the Virginia Company of London's efforts, making the origin of the word and derivations of it as applied in Virginia even more debatable.
Later life and death
In 1624 he and his elder son enrolled themselves as volunteers for the United Provinces of the Netherlands against Spain. Immediately on landing they were attacked with fever, to which both succumbed, the father surviving until 10 November 1624.
Issue
In 1598 Henry Wriothesley married
Elizabeth VernonElizabeth Wriothesley , Countess of Southampton 11 January, 1572 – 23 November, 1655) was the chief lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England.- Family :...
, the daughter of John Vernon of Hodnet by his wife Elizabeth Devereux. Elizabeth Devereux's grandfathers were the Viscount Hereford and the Earl of Huntingdon; on her father John's side, Elizabeth's family were more obscure.
Henry and Elizabeth married while "...she was already highly pregnant".
Henry and Elizabeth had several children including:
- Penelope Wriothesley who married William Spencer, 2nd Baron Spencer
William Spencer, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton MP was an English peer.William Spencer was born to Robert Spencer, 1st Baron Spencer of Wormleighton and his wife, Margaret Willoughby, and was baptised on 4 January 1591 at Brington, Northamptonshire...
of Wormleighton;
- James Wriothesley b 1605 who died shortly before his father in the Netherlands;
- Thomas Wriothesley
Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton KG , styled Lord Wriothesley before 1624, was a 17th century English statesman, a staunch supporter of Charles II who would rise to the position of Lord High Treasurer after the English Restoration...
b 1608 who became the 4th Earl Southampton;
- Anne Wriothesley who married Robert Wallop of Farley Wallop.
Images
There exist numerous portraits of Southampton, in which he is depicted with dark auburn hair and blue eyes, compatible with Shakespeare's description of "a man right fair." Sir John Beaumont wrote a well-known elegy in his praise, and Gervase Markham wrote of him in a tract entitled
Honor in his Perfection, or a Treatise in Commendation of ... Henry, Earl of Oxenford, Henry, Earle of Southampton, Robert, Earl of Essex (1624).
In 2002 Alec Cobbe claimed that a portrait owned by his family was not of a woman as previously thought, but rather
a portrait of Southampton.
In April 2008, a rare portrait, believed to be of Southampton has been discovered using X-ray technology. Art historians from Bristol University have found what they believe is a picture of Henry Wriothesley which was painted over in the 16th Century. To the naked eye, it is a portrait of his wife Elizabeth Vernon, dressed in black and wearing ruby ear-rings. The hidden picture was uncovered when the work was X-rayed in preparation for an exhibition in Somerset.
Further reading
For further information see
Memoirs of Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton, in
BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for his biography of Samuel Johnson...
's
Shakespeare (1821), xx. 427 sqq., where many of the elegies on Southampton are printed; also Nathan Drake,
Shakespeare and his Times (1817), ii. 120;
Sidney LeeSir Sidney Lee was an English biographer and critic.He was born Solomon Lazarus Lee at 12 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London and educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history in 1882. In the next year he became assistant-editor of the...
,
Life of William Shakespeare (1898);
Gerald MasseyGerald Massey was an English poet and self-taught Egyptologist. He was born near Tring, Hertfordshire in England.-Biography:...
,
The Secret Drama of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1888); Samuel Butler,
Shakespeare's Sonnets Reconsidered (1899), where there is some distinctive criticism of the Southampton theory (ch. v.vii); an article by
William ArcherWilliam Archer may refer to:* William S. Archer , U.S. Senator and Representative from Virginia* William Archer , Scottish dramatic critic and translator of Ibsen* William Reynolds Archer, Jr., U.S...
,
Shakespeare's Sonnets. The Case against Southampton, in the
Fortnightly Review (Dec. 1897); and Sidney Lee's article on Southampton in the
Dict. Nat. Biog.The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
, arguing in favor of his identity with the hero of the sonnets.
P Alvor in
Das neue Shakespeare Evangelium (Munich, 1906), brings forward a theory that Southampton and
RutlandRoger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland was the son of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland.He married Elizabeth Sidney , on 5 March 1599....
were the authors of the Shakespeare tragedies and comedies respectively, and borrowed William Shakespeare's name to secure themselves from Elizabeth's suspicion.