Edward de Vere 17th earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere Oxford, 17th earl of 1550-1604, English poet, b. Castle Heddingham, Essex, educated at Queens' and St. John's colleges, Cambridge. He traveled in Italy, acted in and produced plays, and was one of the court circle of writers. On the theory that he wrote Shakespeare's plays, see studies by E. T. Clark (1937) and L. P. Bénézet (1958).

Bibliography: See his poems (ed. by J. T. Looney, 1921).

Oxford, Edward De Vere, 17th earl of (1550–1604), married Lord Burleigh's daughter, and high hopes were placed on him as a courtier and patron, but they were dissipated by his capricious and quarrelsome temperament. His most famous quarrel was with Sidney, whom, according to Greville, he addressed as ‘puppy’ in a dispute at the tennis court in 1579. One of the 15 or so surviving poems attributed to him is entitled ‘Love compared to a tennis playe’. T. J. Looney identified him in 1920 as the author of Shakespeare's plays, and a sizeable body of ‘Oxfordians’ have since built on this claim.