CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: 1584
A Midsummer-Night's Dream—1. Revision of an Early
Masque. Lord Oxford and the Queen Intimately Concerned.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE:
1584
A Midsummer-Night's Dream—2. Alencon in Retrospect.
Conduct of the Virgin Queen. Bottom, "the Weaver." The Air
is Cleared. The "Little Changeling Boy." A Clue from the Dramatist.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX:
1583-84
Oxford and Anne. Her Epitaphs on the Death of their Son. Leicester and
Hatton. Leicester and Elizabeth. Revealing Documents of 1561. Sussex's
Warning. Lord Willoughby Goes to Elsinore. Improvement in Conditions
Affecting Actors. Elizabeth's Interest in the Theatre. Office of the
Revels. Lord Oxford's Expenditures. An Early Play. Tournament of 1584.
Assassination of William of Orange.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN:
1584
Troilus and Cressida.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT:
1583-85
Hamlet—1.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE:
1583-85
Hamlet—2.
CHAPTER FIFTY:
1583-85
Hamlet—3.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE:
1583-85
Hamlet—4.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO:
1585-87
Oxford's Boy Actors a Second Queen's Company. Financial Stress. Duties
as Lord Great Chamberlain. Mary Stuart and the Throgmorton Plot. Elizabeth
and Philip. Sturmius Writes the Queen. Lord Oxford's Military Ambitions
Frustrated. Privy Seal Grant to Oxford of 1000 pounds per annum.
Rigorous Control over Printing-presses. Propaganda Plays. The University
Wits. Oxford's Literary Eminence Celebrated by Contemporary Writers,
Ignored by Holinshed, though Sidney's Arcadia Praised.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE:
1584-85
The Throgmorton Plot. 1 Henry IV.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR:
1586
2 Henry IV, King Henry V. The Babington Plot. Sir Philip
Sidney. The Fair Youth as Page. Jonson's Satire.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE:
1585
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Its Genesis. Leicester Taunted
Again. Corroboration of Hamlet's Date.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX:
1586
Trial of Mary Queen of Scots. The Winter's Tale.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN:
1587-88
Execution of Mary Stuart. Elizabeth's Behavior. Death of Sir Philip
Sidney. Magnificent Funeral. Birth of Exaggerated Sidney Legend. 1
Henry VI. Burghley for the Record. Certain Estimates of Burghley.
A Guarded Protest to Oxford. The Earl and the Queen. The Invincible
Armada. Lord Oxford's Ship. Death of the Countess of Oxford. Bitterness
and Remorse.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT:
1588-91
Victory. Oxford's Distinguished Service to England. Bears Canopy over
Queen. Death of Lady Burghley. Burghley's Overt Slight to the Earl.
Settlement with the Court of Wards. Hatton's Final Coup. Elizabeth to
the Rescue. Death of Hatton. Oxford's Immense Losses: Burghley's Immense
Wealth. Retrenchment Imperative.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE:
1589-90
Macbeth.
CHAPTER SIXTY:
1589-90
Trouble with the Puritans. The Marprelate Controversy. Dissolution of
Oxford's and the Queen's Companies. His Friends Rally to Him. Spenser's
Sympathetic Verse. Irony of Burghley's Attitude. Lord Oxford's Retirement.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE:
1571-1609
The Fair Youth and the Sonnets—1. The "Book that in Gold Clasps
Locks in the Golden Story."
CHAPTER SIXTY
TWO
The Sonnets—2. Venus and Adonis. The Rape of Lucrece.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
The Sonnets—3.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
The Sonnets—4.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
The Sonnets—5. The Earl of Southampton.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX:
Early 1590's
Lord Oxford in Bohemia. The Wits Bemoan Loss of Support. Lyly, Greene,
Nashe. Mistress Penn and Mistress Quickly. Impasse with Burghley.
Remarriage. Alienation of Castle Hedingham to Burghley and his Daughters.
Efforts to Rehabilitate his Estate. Birth of a Son to the Earl and Countess.
Plague of l592. Thomas Nashe. Greene's Groatsworth of Wit.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN:
1593-94
The Nom de plume. Harvey's Allegorical Comment. Venus and
Adonis. The Rape of Lucrece. Willobie His Avisa. The Ashbourne Portrait.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT:
1593
Nashe's Epistle Dedicatorie and Summer's Last Will and Testament.
Chapman's A Humorous Day's Mirth.
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE:
1590-1601
Final Revision of Timon, Pericles, Cymbeline, Coriolanus.
CHAPTER SEVENTY:
The 1590's
The Symphony of the Dramas. Final Revision of The Two Gentlemen of
Verona.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE:
1595-1602
Marriage of Elizabeth Vere to the Earl of Derby. Literary Association
of the Two Earls. Oxford's Company Combined with Lord Worcester's. Petition
in re. the Boar's Head. The Dream Again. Enter William
Shaksper. Every Man Out of His Humour.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO:
Closing Years of the Century.
Introduction of William Shaksper into the Plays of Oxford and Others.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE:
1594-98
"Master Launcelot." "A Night of Errors" at Gray's
New Place, Hackney. The Isle of Dogs Scandal. Death of Burghley.
Robert Cecil Follows the Tradition. Troilus and Cressida Revised
for the Poetomachia. "A nEver writer to an E.Ver reader."
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR:
1598
Palladis Tamia. Fiat of Anonymity. The Satire of Every
Man Out of His Humour. Barnefield's Innuendo. Marston's Scourge
of Villanie. Gabriel Harvey's Notes on "Axiophilus." John
Farmer's Dedication to Lord Oxford. Spielmann's Analysis of the Ashbourne
Portrait. The Spear-shaker.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE:
The Turn of the Century
Satiromastix. Dekker Takes Jonson to Task.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX:
1601
Jonson's Revenge. Policy of Deliberate Confusion. The Poetaster—1.
Epigrams. Jonson Panders to Robert Cecil.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN:
1601
The Poetaster—2. Venom and High Praise. The Strange
Paradox.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT:
1602
The Cause Celebre. Parnassus Trilogy. Southampton and
the Shakspers of Stratford.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE:
Beginning of the Seventeenth Century
Lord Oxford the Source of Elizabethan Dramatic Writing. His Treatment
at the Hands of the Philistines. Cryptic Allusions Continue. John Davies
of Hereford. Tribute from Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels. Southampton
in the Tower. Execution of Essex. The Famous Anecdote. Lord Oxford Appeals
to Sir Robert Cecil.
CHAPTER EIGHTY:
1602
History Repeats Itself. Final Revision of King Richard III.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE:
1589-1603
King Lear—1.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO:
1589-1603
King Lear—2.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE:
1589-1603
King Lear—3.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR:
1601-03
Antony and Cleopatra, Final Version. The Phoenix and
the Turtle. King Henry VIII. Death of Queen Elizabeth.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE:
1603-04
James's Accession. Oxford's Grief for the Death of the Queen. "Truth
is Truth, though Never so Old." James Releases Southampton. Renews
the Secret Service Grant. Significant Additions to 2 Henry IV.
Death of the Earl of Oxford. Discreet Tribute. Lady Oxford's Will. Record
of Removal of the Earl's Remains to Westminster Abbey.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX:
1603-1623
Cryptic Allusions to the "Golden Story." King James Honors
Southampton. The Earl's Public Career. Eighteenth Earl of Oxford. The
Virginia Colony. Testimony of Henry Peacham, Master of Arts. Death of
the Countess of Oxford. Ben Jonson's Activities. The First Folio. Lady
Mary Pembroke and the "Grand Possessors." The Contrivers of
the Great Hoax. Ben Jonson Speaks the Last Word. The Double Intention
of the First Folio. Jonson's Final Tribute to the "Star of Poets."
William Shaksper
of Stratford-on-Avon: 1564-1616
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
