Travels of Mary Sidney?

[ro...@theshakespearepapers.com]

This message was posted to the blog at MarySidney.blogspot.com by Remo
Mannarino, but I thought the question and my response might be better
posted on this site.

I am presently discussing in my Brazilian blog the Controversy of
Authorship in relation to the works attributed to William Shakspere.
It is my intention to mention in the near future the principal reasons
of your excellent "Sweet Swan of Avon - Did a Woman Write
Shakespeare?" to support the name of Mary Sidney Herbert.

In fact, some authors require that a possible author of Shakespeare´s
plays should have travelled throughout Europe, especially Italy and
France. I have not seen in your book any reference to Mary Sidney´s
travels. Could you kindly comment on this?
My blog address: http://ohomemhorizontal.blogspot.com

[ro...@theshakespearepapers.com]

Some people do insist that the author of the plays must have traveled
to Italy in particular, as well as France. I have several thoughts on
this.

1. Plays take place in Alexandria, Egypt; Ephesus, Turkey; ancient
Rome; Vienna, Austria; Bohemia; Denmark; Athens; Scotland; etc. But no
one insists the author had to actually visit these places in order to
write the plays.
Christopher Marlowe wrote "The Jew of Malta," but no one claims he
ever actually went to Malta. His "Doctor Faustus" takes place in
Wittenberg, but Marlovians don't insist Marlowe went to Wittenberg.
Yet they do insist he wrote all the plays from Italy.

2. I realize there are some details in a couple of the Italian plays
that supposedly indicate a personal familiarity, such as mentioning
the "traject," or traghetto, in Venice, or the Saggitary. But there
are also details that are wrong, indicating a second-hand knowledge.

It is well documented that Mary's brother Philip was the most widely
traveled Elizabethan, having spent more than three years on the
Continent at one point, and later returning for another year. He lived
in Venice, Verona, Padua, (which entailed going through Milan and
Mantua), Vienna, Prague (Bohemia), Hungary, Cracow, Paris. Mary's
younger brother Robert also traveled extensively in Europe. So it was
exceptionally easy for Mary Sidney to acquire details of these places,
yet still be unfamiliar with the actual terrain.

3. I find it interesting that Oxfordians and Marlovians insist that
the author had to have lived in Italy and/or France to get certain
details, but ignore the evidence of travel in other plays to places
where neither Oxford nor Marlowe is known to have gone. They want to
make a case for life in Italy because Oxford lived in Italy and so
it's one of the thin threads they cling to; Marlowe is believed by
some to have gone to Italy after his murder was supposedly faked.

4. There are accents written into the text for characters from Wales,
Ireland, Scotland, as well as words from particular English dialects,
and an entire conversation in excellent French. But there is not one
instance of an Italian accent. If this author spent so much time in
Italy, it seems a wee bit odd that there are no Italian accents in the
text.

5. The play of Cymbeline has some of the most detailed descriptions of
Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. The town is mentioned by name fifteen
times. The cave near Milford Haven is mentioned a dozen times. The
hills outside of town are described, and the Roman encampment
indicated. There *is* a cave right near Milford Haven, a large one,
and to reach it you have to walk down fifty-three steps inside the
family quarters of Pembroke Castle, owned of course by Mary Sidney.
This is clear evidence that the author knew this town and this cave,
yet neither Oxford nor Marlowe nor Bacon (nor Shakespeare, of course)
are known to have visited that far corner of Wales, so of course their
proponents don't bring up this destination because it doesn't behoove
their case.

* * *

Keep in mind that all authorship advocates (including those for Mary
Sidney!) naturally want to find specific details in the lives of their
candidates that could not have been in William Shakespeare's. The
Oxfordians in particular make a big deal about minor details in the
Italian-ate plays, but that doesn't PROVE the author had to have lived
there. It certainly does indicate that the author at least had lengthy
conversations or letters from someone who was there, which obviously
Mary Sidney, as sister to the most widely traveled of all
Elizabethans, is known to have had.

Robin