Derbyite theory of Shakespeare authorship

[2]Fenner was disappointed that Derby was devoting himself to cultural pursuits rather than politics because his family were thought to be sympathetic to the Catholic cause and were possible claimants of the throne in the event of Queen Elizabeth's death.

He suggested that the comic scenes in Love's Labour's Lost were influenced by a pageant of the Nine Worthies only ever performed in Derby's home town of Chester.

Lefranc drew on the fact that Derby had spent some years travelling in Europe, during which time he may have witnessed events in the Court of Navarre that are reflected in the more serious portions of Love's Labour's Lost.

He insisted that the author must have had "virtually impeccable and absolutely amazing acquaintance with aspects France and Navarre of the period that could have been known only to a very limited number of people".

[6] Lefranc believed that Hamlet contained coded references to the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her first husband Lord Darnley.

[7] The Merry Wives of Windsor was based on events in Derby's life and the character of Malvolio in Twelfth Night was a parody of William ffarrington, a steward who worked for the Stanley family.

His older brother Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, had formed a group of players which evolved into Shakespeare's troupe The King's Men.

Stanley may have been deterred from publishing in his own name because of the sensitive content of the works and the aristocratic "stigma of print", which associated publication with vulgar commercialism.

His second volume of poems, Cynthia, with certain Sonnets, and the legend of Cassandra was dedicated to Derby in terms which imply close personal relations.

In 1925 Oscar J. Campbell approved his theory that Love's Labour's Lost was based on the 1578 events at the court of Navarre, arguing that it was a fact "quite beyond proof".

Honigmann agreed that the first production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was performed at Derby's wedding banquet, not to mention that the bride's father was none other than Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.

[17] In particular Titherley took up the widespread view that part of the manuscript of the play Sir Thomas More was written by the same person who wrote Shakespeare's published works.

[16] Titherley also attempted to disprove the claims of other alternative candidates, declaring that Francis Bacon and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, were both incapable of writing the plays.

Oxford's surviving poetry indicates that he was "usually clogged by personal feelings" and "knew not the magic of verbal enchantment, never soared into the infinite or plumbed philosophic depths, nor did he ever achieve Shakespeare's peculiar imagery".

Researchers have noted the distinctly "Shakespearean" ring of two inscriptions found on monuments to members of the Stanley family who died in 1632 and 1633, almost two decades after the death of the Stratford man.

The one in Chelsea Old Church on the tomb of Sir Robert Stanley, Derby's son, (modernised spelling) reads: To say a Stanley lies here, that alone were epitaph enough; no brass, no stone, no glorious tomb, no monumental hearse, no guilded trophy or lamp-laboured verse can dignify his grave or set it forth like the immortal fame of his own worth.

[19]Although not identified as the sole author of the canon, William Stanley is often mentioned as a leader or participant in the "group theory" of Shakespearean authorship, according to which several individuals contributed to the works.

In his biography of Oxford, B. M. Ward suggested that the two aristocrats collaborated, accepting aspects of both Lefranc's and Looney's views, arguing that Derby must have at least contributed to Love's Labour's Lost and other plays.

A. J. Evans in Shakespeare's Magic Circle (1956) argued that Derby was the principal author of the plays, with Oxford in a lesser role, and that both passed drafts to other leading men of the day, including Francis Bacon and Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland, for emendations and additions.

[22] In his place, the governor Jerome Angenouste condemned an individual called Claude Tonart to death for fornication, just as Claudio is in the play.