Whitehall Palace, 22 January 1581:
The Old Whitehall Palace by Hendrick Dankerts, 17th century. Before it was destroyed by fire in 1698, Whitehall was the largest palace in Europe, with more than 1,500 rooms.
A great crowd at the Whitehall Tiltyard watches 30-year-old Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, as he once again proves himself a master showman. The spectators gasp as he emerges from his magnificent Tent beside a glittering Bay-tree, appearing as the Knight of the Tree of the Sunne. His boy-page approaches Queen Elizabeth and, facing her, delivers a “Sweet Speech” written, no doubt, by the earl himself. Now, after an exchange with his delighted Queen, he mounts his horse and rides to defend his title against the challenger. At the end he is still champion of the tilt; and members of the cheering, frenzied crowd race to tear the Tent and Tree into pieces …
Contemporary drawing of a tournament in the Tiltyard of Whitehall Palace during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, where Edward de Vere was champion of the “solemn joust at the tilt, tournay and barriers” on both occasions when he participated, in May 1571 and January 1581.
This dramatic episode of the Elizabethan reign will be described nine years later, in 1592, in a book published by Cuthbert Burby ( who will also issue three quartos of the “Shakespeare” plays including The Most Excellent and lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet in 1599, advertised as “newly corrected, augmented and amended” by the author). The description of Oxford’s 1581 production (rendered in more modern English) in the tiltyard (without the page’s Sweet Speech) follows here:
The long rectangle at left-middle is the Tiltyard opposite Whitehall Palace, where Edward de Vere Earl of Oxford was the victor of both tournaments in which he participated
“By the tilt stood a stately Tent of Orange tawny Taffeta, curiously embroidered with Silver & pendants on the Pinnacles very slightly to behold. From forth this Tent came the noble Earl of Oxenford in rich gilt Armor, and sat down under a great high Bay-tree, the whole stock, branches and leaves whereof were all gilded over, that nothing but Gold could be discerned.
A Bay-Tree, this one with a spiral stem. Bay-trees can grow much larger.
“By the Tree stood twelve tilting staves, all which likewise were gilded clean over. After a solemn sound of most sweet Music, he mounted on his Courser, very richly caparisoned, when his page ascending the stairs where her Highness stood in the window, delivered to her by speech this Oration:
“[A SWEET SPEECH SPOKEN AT THE TRYUMPH BEFORE THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE, BY THE PAGE TO THE RIGHT NOBLE CHAMPION, THE EARL OF OXENFORD]
“The speech being ended, with great honor he ran, and valiantly broke all the twelve staves.
“And after the finishing of the sports: both the rich Bay-tree, and the beautiful Tent, were by the standers-by torn and rent in more pieces than can be numbered.”
When J.T. Looney published his landmark book identifying Edward de Vere as “Shakespeare” in 1920, he was apparently unaware of this “show” that Oxford produced and directed and in which he played the starring role. But let us imagine Looney making observations and gathering evidence, which would come together as an initial Oxfordian theory of Shakespearean authorship, and coming upon the above account of an event in Oxford’s life when he was not yet thirty-one in 1581.
Isn’t this extravaganza just the kind of thing he might have expected to find?
Oxford steps into the arena, in front of the crowd, wearing the “rich gilt Armor” of “The Knight of the Tree of the Sunne,” within a stage set that includes a shimmering “Tent of Orange tawny Taffeta, curiously embroidered with Silver & pendants,” and a “great high Bay-tree.” In addition to this visual feast, the Queen and the crowd are treated to the sound of “most sweet Music.”
Perhaps Oxford’s page looked like this Elizabethan boy…
And then, before the dangerous and dramatic real-life action of the tournament begins, Oxford’s page faces Elizabeth and speaks aloud the written oration.
The crowd gazes upon the sight of what appears to be a family threesome: the Earl and the Queen and the Boy…
In virtually every respect, here is a most wondrous dramatic play, produced by Oxford a dozen years before the name “Shakespeare” will appear in print.
Next we’ll get into the Sweet Speech itself; meanwhile, this piece of evidence is No. 52 – Part One of 100 Reasons to believe Oxford wrote the great works attributed to William Shakespeare.
Hank Whittemore's Shakespeare Blog 
Pretty amazing, Eh.Knew about this one from Dan Wright. Combined with the one before it sure gives one pause that Oxford did not have the dramatic chops to write Shakespeare. And all that nonsense about early poetry.
Ken
[…] it’s his coat, his livery. Orange-tawny was the livery color of the Earls of Oxford. (See Hank Whittmore’s Reason 52) Metaphor is clerk to the earl of Oxford, Preamble, and wears his livery […]
[…] it’s his coat, his livery. Orange-tawny was the livery color of the Earls of Oxford. (See Hank Whittmore’s Reason 52) Metaphor is clerk to the earl of Oxford, Preamble, and wears his livery […]