Here’s are the lines of poetry I listed in Part One, but this time with their attributions to “Shakespeare” or Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford:
Who taught thee how to make me love thee more
The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 150, lines 9-10
In constant truth to bide so firm and sure
= Oxford, Rawlinson MS, “Earl of Oxenforde”
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 152, line 10
In true plain words by thy true telling friend
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 82, line 12
To scorn the world regarding but thy friends
Who taught thee first to sigh, alas, my heart?
Who taught thy tongue the woeful words of plaint?
= Oxford, Rawlinson MS, “Earl of Oxenforde”
If women would be fair, and yet not fond
Or that their love were firm and not fickle still
= Oxford, Britton’s Bower of Delights
For if I should despair, I should go mad
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 140, line 9
And shall I live on th’earth to be her thrall?
= Oxford, Paradise of Dainty Devices, “E.O.”, 1576
A torment thrice threefold thus to be crossed
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 133, line 8
And since my mind, my wit, my head, my voice, and tongue are weak
= Oxford, Paradise of Dainty Devices, “E.O.”, 1576
My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 102, line 1
If care or skill could conquer vain desire
Or reason’s reins my strong affection stay
= Oxford, Paradise of Dainty Devices, “E.O.” in 1577 edition
Past cure I am, now reason is past care
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 147, line 9
My death delayed to keep from life the harm of hapless days
= Oxford, Paradise of Dainty Devices, “E.O.”, 1576
Desire is death, which physic did except
= Shakespeare, Sonnet 147, line 8
I saw a fair young lady come, her secret fears to wail
= Oxford, “Verses made by the Earle of Oxforde,” Rawlinson MS
A plaintful story from a sistering vale
= Shakespeare, A Lover’s Complaint, line 2
I have many notes indicating similarities between the writings attributed to Oxford and “Shakespeare” — for example —
Here are the first two lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 66:
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry:
As, to behold desert a beggar born
And Oxford, whose motto was “Nothing Truer than Truth,” wrote this line:
Experience of my youth, made think humble truth
In deserts born
Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 89:
As I’ll myself disgrace; knowing thy will,
I will acquaintance and look strange,
Be absent from thy walks, and in my tongue
Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell.
And Oxford wrote:
Thus farewell, friend: I will continue strange,
Thou shalt not hear by word or writing aught.
Let it suffice, my vow shall never change;
As for the rest, I leave it to thy thought.
Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 114:
And my great mind most kingly drinks it up
And Oxford wrote:
My mind to me a kingdom is
I could cite hundreds of such examples of similar words or themes.
Question: What is it that blocks the scholars and teachers of Shakespeare from delving into this material and exploring its riches? Even if they cannot bring themselves to allow for even the possibility that Oxford and Shakespeare were the same man, what stops them from trying to find the links from one (Oxford in the 1560’s, 1570’s and 1580’s) to the other (Shakespeare in the 1590’s onward)?
Answer: Consciously or unconsciously, they are afraid to run smack into a nasty paradigm shift, in which case the Shakespearean world they have known will look entirely different in the morning….
Hank Whittemore's Shakespeare Blog 