Oxford in Italy
From Mr Brian Hicks Sir: The accuracy of Shakespeare's descrip- tions of Italian topography, culture and customs (Books, 29 April) has been known at least since 1918 with the publication of Sir Edward Sullivan's paper on Shake- speare and Italy. For Stratfordians this is an embarrassment since there is no more documentary evidence that Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon ever visited Italy than there is evidence that he received even a day's education during the whole of his life. If Jonathan Keates can produce docu- mentary evidence which proves conclusive- ly otherwise, many people would like to know of it.
Instead of trying to explain away Shake- speare's Italian knowledge as second-hand information gleaned from John Florio and Lombardy merchants in London taverns, researchers should look elsewhere for the author of the plays. The Elizabethan courtier poet and playwright Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, spent a large part of 1575-76 visiting Italy, as his letters to his father-in-law Lord Burghley show. His visit included Padua, Venice, Verona,
LETTERS
Florence, Siena, Mantua, Naples and Sicily. The influence of the commedia dell'arte on Shakespeare's plays may well have come about through this time spent in Italy, which would have been fascinating for a young man with his own acting company and a passion for the theatre.
We do not know that Edward de Vere was Shakespeare but neither do we know that he wasn't. Three hundred years of research into the Stratford man have uncovered not a single unambiguous piece of evidence that he was the playwright, and it really is time that objective, impartial research was concentrated on other possi- bilities. The Italian connection seems a good starting place.
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