Essay 40 EMILIA BASSANO – A RELIGIOUS MODEL FOR EDWARD DE VERE By Charles Graves Emilia, author of Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum was, as a child, living with Peregrine Bertie who had married Mary de Vere, Edward’s sister. She was daughter of a Venetian, Baptista Bassano who was court musician in London, and an English woman called Margaret Johnson. Perhaps it was illegitimate since after Baptista’s death, Susan Bertie, Peregrine’s sister (or Mary de Vere Bertie) cared for her (c. 1576 when Emilia was seven years old). When Edward de Vere died (1604) Emilia would have been 33 years old and certainly he would have known her well. At about eighteen years old, she was mistress of old Lord Hunsden (well over sixty years old – died 1596) and in that capacity she came to know many at court. Lord Hunsden (Henry Carey) Queen’s chamberlain, was son of William Carey and Mary Boleyn (once a mistress of King Henry VIII whose sister Anne became Queen). Henry Carey was first cousin of Queen Elizabeth I and was himself brought up by Anne Boleyn. Edward de Vere’s ‘religion’ we might say was based upon his study of the classics which he began at Queens College, Cambridge where he was attending since age 8 – a College where the famous Erasmus once taught. Later, Edward was at St. John’s, Cambridge, where William Cecil, Lord Burghley (his patron from age 12), had sent him. Living at Cecil’s home on the Strand, he probably used the famous library there for his studies, while learning, and writing in French. Later, at an early age he received an honorary MA from Oxford. Edward’s wide knowledge of the Greek, Scythian, and Latin classics can be seen in the books attributed to William Shakespeare. Reading Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum of Emilia, the classical references although seemingly correct would never equal Edward’s knowledge of them. Although Peregrine Bertie’s mother, baroness Willoughby de Eresby, traveled widely with her children escaping Queen Mary’s catholic regime, any knowledge Peregrine and Susan may have attained did not seem to influence Emilia Bassano very much, and Emilia apparently began writing only after her ‘religious conversion’. When she was obliged to marry Alphonso Lanier (also a court musician), and not being happy in that marriage, consulted (1597) Simon Forman, a sort of psychiatrist of Elizabethan England, and a disciple of Dr. John Dee, mystic and numerologist. Forman’s writing about their relationship provides valuable information about Emilia after her ‘conversion’. A summary of Edward de Vere’s religion is not easy to elaborate. One element is Euphuism which he adopted from his professional relationship with his personal secretary John Lyly, author of two books on the Greek young man Euphues who wished to give value to women’s personalities beyond being sexual objects. Thomas Lodge, a colleague of Edward in writing plays, had dedicated his book on Rosalind to Euphues at a cave in Greece as old man, and when Edward wrote his play As You Like It, he apparently used the Euphues theme in his characters Rosaline (who, dressed as a man, solved every problem) and also Jacques, a monkish companion to the exiled king. The geopolitical background to the play was the origin of the Capetian dynasty of France where Duke Robert held lands in the upper Loire and tributaries as far upstream as Sancerre where Charlemagne had exiled thousands of conquered Saxons. The most interesting book in French Le Secret des Premiers Capetians by Marie Madeleine Martin - editions Reconquista 1979, 242 pp. It tells the true story of a well-educated person, Jacques, who was born and studied in Byzantium (leaving at the time of the controversy about icons), who arrived with his brother at an abbey in Bourges in central France, entered the abbey and later became a hermit at a Chapelle d’Angillon near Sancerre (whose lord was Duke Robert). He became St. Jacques - apparently a model for the two Jacques in As You Like It – the de Bois middle brother and the Jacques who was companion of the exiled king. As the latter, he laughed at all the lovers’ problems in the play, considering them only fleeting (as life is fleeting) but nevertheless helping to solve them, He also was trying to convince everyone that humans should care for the handicapped, e.g. like a wounded deer. If we compare this play with Timon of Athens and its underlying philosophy of renunciation of the world, we might find some religious concepts of Edward de Vere. Edward’s religion apparently included respect for those who were excluded and in a realistic way, if they were worthy, we should give them their due. And if his concept of ‘a muse’ in poetry is a religious symbol, Edward’s muse (as seen in the Sonnets) was Henry, Earl of Southampton and his love for him (not a normal element in anyone’s religion). In any case this love followed the Euphuistic ideal – finding worthy elements in a feminine-type love. We have found at least four examples of using Emilia as name for one of the Earl of Oxford’s characters: We shall explain each in turn and see what relevance they have in the play and then decide if their representation fits what we know of Emilia Bassano Lanier. In each case it seemingly fits, and besides, we can learn from this more about Edward’s religion. For Edward, the name Emilia as applied to Emilia Bassano meant ‘Light’ in contrast to the writer A.L. Rowse who edited a book on Emilia Lanier called ‘The Poems of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady’ (1). The first two plays show ‘Emilia’ as a defender of women who have been bullied or misunderstood by men. In A Winter’s Night, Emilia is the closest companion of Queen Hermione whose husband King Leontes has accused her of having had a child with king Polixenes of Bohemia, on a prolonged visit to her husband’s palace.. After the child’s birth it is Emilia who, in a few verses, tells the king’s emissary about the pregnancy and birth of tis child, assuring him that the child’s father was Leontes the king not Polixenes. In Othello, Emilia is Desdemona’s companion - well aware of her husband Iago’s plot to stir up Othello’s jealousy concerning Desdemona’s friendship in Cyprus with Cassio and totally supportive of Desdemona’s faithfulness to Othello, her husband. One wonders, in both these uses of an Emilia to criticize a jealous husband if Emilia Lanier had helped Edward (much later than his Italy trips in the 1570s - she was only born 1569) to see what wrong he had done in suspecting his wife Ann Cecil having had a lover while he was in Italy (which led to their separation). Perhaps Othello was written for compensation to Anne Cecil’s memory. In these early examples of use of Emilia, the character represented ‘Light’ i.e. truth about Desdemona’s relations with a man not her husband and Hermione’s faithfulness to her husband the king. ‘Emilia’ became something else for Edward, this time as a saviour of family life, as seen in Comedy of Errors. Her name was given to an Abbess, mother in a shipwrecked Sicilian family, when the rescued mother, one twin son and his servant lived in Ephesus, and the father, a twin son and his servant ended up in Syracuse, their home. When the Syracuse father, son and servant travelled to Ephesus on business, the locals took them for the Ephesus twin and servant who had become citizens of that place, and many problems arose because the Ephesus man, although married, had the usual mistresses and they or their representatives saw the newcoming Sicilians as their own Ephesians – both the twin male and his (twin) servant, and the Syracusans experienced a strange welcoming as if they were Ephesians. Moreover, the Sicilian father was arrested because Ephesians had a law to execute any visiting Syracusans. He was awaiting execution. But after many catastrophic misrepresentations the abbess-mother of this shipwrecked and divided family. stepped in and saved her husband as well as clarifying the issues caused by the misrepresentations. She saved a ‘comedy of errors’ and reunited a family which once had engaged upon a boat trip. One might see, in using Emilia as the name of the abbess, Edward de Vere’s appreciation of Emilia Lanier as a motherly, religious person (which the real Emilia Lanier really was, with religious conviction and a family to raise (the children of baron Huntsden). Emilia Lanier after the death of her husband lived a long life in London and was a schoolteacher. In contrast, Edward’s life was torn apart upon the Sixteenth Earl of Oxford’s death and Edward’s mother Marjorie Golding marrying Christopher Tyrell. Edward had only his sister Mary de Vere and her husband Peregrine Bertie (those who housed Emilia Bassano who was living at an early age in Edward’s shadow). It appears that this Emilia’s concepts constituted Edward’s ideal for a happy married life with contented family all around. In fact, it appears from scholars of Edward’s Italian trip, that he knew the Bassano family in or near Venice (there is a Bassano town near Venice and the Italian GIRO bicycle race passes there). The fourth use of ‘Emilia’ by Edward de Vere is in Two Noble Kinsmen. Here Emilia is sister of Hyppolyta, the ‘Amazon’ wife of Duke Theseus of Athens, who lives with her sister as a royal family member, and is loved by both of ‘two noble kinsmen’ enemies of Theseus’ rival state in Thebes who were imprisoned in Athens. They have both seen her walking in a garden under the prison, and both wanted to marry her (which divided them as ‘kinsmen’). The king could not convince Emilia his wife’s sister to make a choice of one or the other, and finally he decided that the two kinsmen would be obliged to settle the affair of Emilia’s marriage by a combat between them. The loser would be executed. The two kinsmen were called Palamon (probably modeled upon Greek classical Palamides (opponent of Ulysses, wrongly accused of treason and stoned to death) and Arcite (probably modeled upon Greek classical Arctos (‘Little Bear’ constellation, also associated with Callisto whom Zeus has turned into a she-bear and whose son Arctos had pursued her (as a bear) in a chase). It appears de Vere’s Emilia was not modeled upon any particular classical personality, On the eve of the combat each of the persons concerned in this combat worshipped at the altar of their deity. Arcite prayed at the altar of Mars, god of war. Palamon prayed at the altar of Venus, goddess of love. Emilia, caught in the web, prayed at the altar of Diana, goddess of Light or of the moon. When the actual combat took place, Arcite won, and Palamon thus was to be executed. But Arcite, celebrating his victory, went out riding on his horse, which stumbled, throwing Arcite to the ground injured, and he died soon afterwards. After that, Emilia was married to Palamon. During the time the two were out of prison awaiting the trial, Palamon was walking in the woods and met a girl who fell in love with him. She was daughter of the prison keeper, and there was consternation what to do about her love for him. They called in a ‘doctor’ (Dr. John Dee type) whose job was to convince her that a common man presented to her was her beloved Palamon, and she believed it and agreed to marry him. Such was the reputation of John Dee in the time of Edward de Vere, and though Simon Forman, whom Emilia Lanier consulted, was Dee’s disciple, Edward is never shown as such. In the play, Emilia goes to Diana’s altar and she no doubt asks for Diana’s light to guide her. We shall see below how ‘light’ plays its role in Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum which completely discounts Rowse’s attribution to Emilia of being the ‘dark lady’. Besides, that Palamon prayed at the altar of Venus is typically de Vere; Venus was the subject of his poem, with Adonis as co-character in the poem dedicated to Henry Wriothesely, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Only by making love to Venus could Adonis save himself from dying by a wild boar, but Adonis does not take the advice and dies in that very way. Palamon, on the other hand, worships at the temple of Venus and, although losing a combat, lives and marries. And Emilia in the play receives her reward for depending on Diana, goddess of light. That Emilia Lanier depends upon the light of God to guide her after difficult years with old lord Hunsden - as she remakes her life - she is rewarded by Edward de Vere’s pen in Two Noble Kinsmen as a ‘light-inspired’ lady, perhaps as an inspiration for him to be more ‘religious’ in turn. What can we say about Emilia Lanier’s religion from a close reading of Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum? The poem and its prefaces takes up a hundred pages in Rowse’s introductory book, the first third of which are dedications in poetry to the most eminent women of England in 1611 (the date of publication). These dedicatees were all encouraged to live by a Christan life style where their best accomplishments would be inspired by the Christian religion. That a woman inspired by such means could lead English cultural life was the aim of Emilia Lanier, and having been acquainted with them because of her earlier liaison with Henry Carey, Lord Chamberlain, she could apply her own conversion appropriately to each of them. These dedicatees were, in the order of the complete poem, as follows; the Queen Anne (of James I); Lady Elisabeth Grey (daughter of James I); All Virtuous Ladies in General ; Lady Arabella (Scottish royal family); Susan, Countess Dowager of Kent (sister of Peregrine Bertie); ‘Author’s Dream’ dedicated to Mary Sydney, Countess Dowager of Pembroke (famous writer of the Elizabethan era); Lady Lucy, Countess of Bedford; Lady Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland (with whom Emilia lived at Cookham for a time); the Lady Katherine, Countess of Suffolk (baronne Willoughby de Eresby - mother of Peregrine Bertie and Susan of Kent his sister (above) who had cared for Emilia as child); Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset (with whom and her mother Lady Margaret of Cumberland, Emilia has lived happily at Cookham). Following the end of Save Deus Rex Judaeorum several pages in Rowse’s book are devoted to a separate poem about Cookham and Emilia’s sadness that she had to leave it. The main religious poem itself traces Jesus’ life from his pre-crucifixion stay with his disciples in the Garden of Gesthemane (Jerusalem) up to his death on the cross allowed by Pontius Pilate. Each separate element in this chain of events is described in iambic pentameter including poems on all the women and men involved among the Romans, religious and secular Jews and Herodians. Along with some of the verses, Emilia singles out Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland with whom she had lived for a time, in special dedication. It is evident that Margaret had been aware of Emilia’s life with Lord Hunsden and was a resource for Emilia becoming a virtuous lady. In fact, ’virtue’ was the leading motif set forth for all the dedicatees of Emilia’s poem. However much any woman in Emilia’s day was victim of discrimination really upset Emilia, herself largely victimized by her relations as a teenager with lord Hunsden, 40 years her senior. But somehow – perhaps through Margaret Clifford (Protestant-leaning) - she became a Christian believer. She became inspired to write poetry for court ladies and others who would want to live positive, ‘virtuous’ lives of benefit to society. Apparently, this change was noticed by the Earl of Oxford before his death in 1604 and Emilia (once ward of his sister Mary de Vere) no doubt spoke with Edward about their vocations of being poets and humanists. They certainly shared Euphuistic ideals. As for Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford (born 1581) she had become a lady of the bedchamber for Queen Anne, and performed in the Queen’s masques (Wikipedia). She was 11 years younger than Emilia, and perhaps Emilia had special concern for her life at court as a woman. Emilia wrote only four stanzas dedicated to her but perhaps these were the most illustrative of her desire to convert ladies to a ‘life of virtue’. He that descended from celestial glory, To taste of our infirmities and sorrowes, Whose heavenly wisdom read the earthly storie Of fraile humanity, which his godhead borrows: Loe here he coms all stucke with pale death’s arrows: In whose most precious wounds your soul may reade Salvation, while the dying Lord doth bleed You whose clear Judgement farre exceeds my skil, Vouchsafe to entertain this dying lover, The Ocean of true graces, whose streams do fill All those with joy that can his love recover; About his blessed Ark bright Angels hover: Where your faire soul may sure and safely rest, When he is sweetly seated in your breast. There may your thoughts as servants to your heart, Give true attendance on this lovely guest, While he doth in that blessed bowre impart Flowrs of fresh comforts, decke that bed of rest, With such rich beauties as make it blest: And you in whom all rarity is found, May be with eternal glory crowned. One poet on her list of Countesses, Ladies, etc. was Mary Sydney and her brother Philip (the only male really notable in her dedications). She treated them very delicately in a ‘Dream’ filled with nymphs and classical forest settings emphasizing the glory they held as Elizabethan poets, without entering much into their Christian ‘virtues’. In any case, for Mary, she should ‘see our Saviour in shepherd’s clothes’, and ‘all our sins are purged by His divinity’. Regarding the Queen Anne, it was evident Emilia should praise her and praise her daughter Princess Elizabeth as well, who in childhood had lived with the Harrington family (Wikipedia). Elizabeth had been highly educated and Emilia notes this in her poem comparing her own lack of education and her sufferings which were fully compensated for when she looked upon Princess Elizabeth And she that is the pattern of all Beautie, The very model of Your Majestie, Whose rarest parts enforceth Love and Duty The perfect pattern of all Pietie: O let my booke by her fair eyes be blest In whose pure thoughts all innocency rests And two stanzas later Emilia writes about herself in comparison: In the confines of all cares do dwell, whose grieved eyes no pleasure ever view’th But in Christ’s suffrings, such sweet taste they have, As makes me praise pale sorrow and the Grave Any lovers Lucy might have would certainly not compare with Jesus who would bring her all that Emilia had found in him. So, upon the arrival of the new Queen and her daughter as royal family, Emilia is encouraged to change her life, receive education, and depend upon divine assistance while choosing to follow her muse in making poetry. That muse is her new lover - an incarnated but resurrected man Jesus who lives both in heaven and in her heart. Since Edward’s muse was his beloved Henry Earl of Southampton, the two poets had similar destinies and similar muses – a divine one who was human for Emilia and a human beloved who was divine for Edward. These were two Renaissance humanists, no doubt interacting one upon the other. (1) Rowse does no justice to Emilia in trying to prove her relationships to Henry, Earl of Southampton (Venus and Adonis poem) or to William Shakespeare (Sonnets) basing his speculations on common residences in Blackfriars. He asserts that Shakespeare knew Emilia, slept with her and considered her ‘the dark lady’ of his sonnets. Rowse apparently did not notice her appearances often as characters in ‘Shakespeare’s’ writings where the name as character was always bringing light and truth into the plot. Moreover, he denigrated Emilia as a religious hypocrite in his interpretation of Simon Forman’s experiences with her, that she eventually (according to Simon) agreed to sleep with him. Rowse attributes this to the fact that Emilia was, herself, illegitimate and might, in spite of so-called religious awareness and proclamations to ladies of high standing (in poems) to be ‘virtuous’, herself would inevitably remain ‘of easy virtue’. We should thank Prof. Rouse for publishing Emilia’s rare poem, however taking care not to fall into his one-sided interpretation of her character. In no case was she the ‘dark lady’ of Edward de Vere, but on the contrary a ‘light’ for his darkness. Anne Vavasour was his dark lady, with whom he had his illegitimate child Edward Vere. The child’s conception in Edward’s mind was treasonous to the love he held for the Earl of Southampton. Anne, the ‘dark lady’, had enticed him away from his true love. He was enticed, wanting to show others he was a ‘true man’ but he learned as a Euphuist that this was completely unnecessary. Euphuism in that sense became a moral imperative, an aspect of something religious in Edward de Vere. Charles Graves 30 May 2024 |
