CD REVIEW: MY LORD OF OXENFORD'S MASKE: Edward de Vere and his circle

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Selected by Cleveland classical radio station WCLV as a Choice CD of the month, April, 2007.
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CD REVIEW: MY LORD OF OXENFORD’S MASKE published in the Winter 2007 issue of Shakespeare Matters Say It With Music
by Bonner Miller Cutting

When Dartmouth Professor Dr. Louis P. Benezet first became interested in the case for Edward de Vere’s authorship of the Shakespeare Canon, he was chided by his colleagues in the English Department. Dr. Benezet, an early convert to the Oxfordian case as presented by John Thomas Looney, was drawn to the similarities of Oxford’s extant early poems and the works of Shakespeare. As noted by Ogburn in his Mysterious William Shakespeare, Benezet was puzzled why professors of Elizabethan literature could not see the "common origin" in the two sets of verses. Benezet’s test of literary discernment -- in which he seamlessly interspersed lines from both Oxfordian and Shakespearean poetry, then challenged the doubtful to tell them apart without a concordance – has driven the Stratfordian faithful to distraction. Nevertheless, the "good enough" critique remains a Stratfordian mantra, and the good Dr. Benezet’s test has drifted into undeserved neglect.

Scholars on both sides of the issue have upped-the-ante with the advent of information-age technology. Computer driven stylometric tests have been devised to bring objective measurement (theoretically speaking) to what is ultimately a subjective element of the debate. For a thorough examination of the present state-of-the-argument, the article by John M. Shahan and Richard E. Whalen, published in the most recent issue of the Oxfordian, should be gratefully referenced.

Entering into this battle of words and computer programs, there has appeared yet another Stratfordian adversary. Oxfordian impresario Dr. Earl Showerman has produced a CD of Renaissance music which lifts the sights -- not to mention the sounds -- of the "good enough" debate to a new level. And one that is laden with elegance. The happy result, entitled "My Lord of Oxenford’s Maske," is a logical progression of Showerman’s recent work on the anonymous play Horestes, which he has convincingly demonstrated to be a work of Oxford’s youth.

Rarely do Stratfordians and Oxfordians agree on an element in the authorship debate. Therefore, it is of striking significance that both Stephen May and Robert Brazil, Stratfordian and Oxfordian adherents respectively, concur that a substantial portion of Oxford’s early poems were song lyrics. Yet the Stratfordian partisans of the stylometric exercises insist upon utilizing them in direct comparison with Shakespearean poetry. The "apples to oranges" comparison causes a genre problem, rendering unreliable test results. The purpose of the present realization of Oxford ’s music -- aside from making a beautiful CD -- is to bridge the stylistic chasm, presenting the song lyrics in their proper musical context.

The Renaissance ensemble Mignarda, a collaboration of Renaissance specialists led by the husband/wife team of lutenist Ron Andrico and mezzo soprano Donna Stewart, selected and arranged songs, ayres, ballads, and dances that are connected historically to the 17th Earl of Oxford. Several of the twenty-eight pieces in this recording even bear his name, most notably the Earl of Oxford’s Galliard. Andrico has given it here its first recording on the lute. Also impressively brought to the attention of the listener is the song "When Griping Griefs," which appeared first as poetry in the 1576 Paradise of Dainty Devices, and was later incorporated into Romeo and Juliet. The Renassance harmonies take on a surprisingly modern feel in Stewart’s rendition of the epic ballad of Helen of Troy from Horestes, and her languid Willow Song, Desdemona’s famous lament from Othello, pulls at the heart strings -- as it surely was intended to do centuries ago.

For musicologists, it should not matter that this CD is a radiant display of the poetry and music of a 16th century English nobleman. Like most things Shakespearean, it is "not for an age but for all time," and this ambient, fresh take on the ancient Renaissance art forms will find a comfy home in your car's CD changer. It should justly find a place, too, in music libraries throughout the country.

Oxfordians can enjoy bedeviling the orthodox establishment with the luminous presence of Oxford’s music, provided here through the courtesy of Dr. Showerman. It is an adventure in sound made all the more bewitching through the talents of Renaissance past-master Andrico and enchantress Stewart. In fact, the Mignarda recording is so good that it invites the criticism (always close on the heels of any Oxfordian achievement) that the success of the music is more a function of the consummate skill set of the musicians.

But all composer/lyricists deserve the recording artists who can best make manifest their style. Certainly audiences will forever recall Burt Bacharach’s songs sparkling in the dynamic brilliance of Dionne Warwick. Does not the music of Irving Berlin still deserve to bask in the warm glow of Bing Crosby? It is only fitting that posterity place at the disposal of the beleaguered Earl of Oxford the musicians that fully understand him. He’s been waiting a long time.