Clermont D'Ambois
Art Neuendorffer
http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/Newsletter/NewsletterMain.htm
http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/Ashbourne.htm
http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/Newsletter/Ashbourne-Part_II_Winter_200
2.pdf
_A Golden Book, bound richly up_
By Barbara Burris ©2001
In George Chapman's play, The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois, an
unsuccessful imitation of Hamlet published in 1613, the main character,
Clermont D'Ambois, describes with glowing praise a "famous Earle"
as he was seen traveling from Italy to Germany; ending with the words,
"And t'was the Earle of Oxford."
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The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois.
Clermont: .you make me remember
An accident of high and noble note,
And fits the subject of my late discourse,
Of holding on our free and proper way.
I over-took, coming from Italie,
In Germanie, a great and famous Earle
Of England; the most goodly fashion'd man
I ever saw: from head to foote in forme
Rare, and most absolute; hee had a face
Like one of the most ancient honour'd Romanes,
From whence his noblest Famillie was deriv'd
He was beside of spirit passing great,
Valiant, and learn'd, and liberall as the Sunne,
Spoke and writ sweetly, or of learned subjects,
Or of the discipline of publike weales;
And t'was the Earle of Oxford.
(lines 80-95, III, iv.)7
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Besides borrowing from the plot of
Hamlet, Chapman openly paraphrased
lines from Shake-speare's play. For example:
Clermont. (Like the ghost appearing to Hamlet)
My brother's spirit urging his revenge.
Guise. (Like Gertrude to Hamlet upon
the visitation of the ghost)
Standest thou still thus, and applyest thine
ears, and eyes to nothing?
Clermont. Saw you nothing there?
(lines100-105, V,i.)8
Clermont. (cf. Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech)
.this imperfect Bloud and flesh,
Shrincke at in spite of me; their solidst part
Melting like snow within me.
(lines 7-9, V.iv.)
...While this same sincke of sensualitie swels,
Who would live sinking in it? and not spring
Vp to the Starres, and leave this carrion here,
For Wolfes, and Vultures, and for Dogges to teare?
(lines 16-19, V.iv.)9
Noted Chapman commentator Thomas
Marc Parrott, supports a similar view of
Chapman's characterization of Clermont,
though not perceiving the Oxford
connection that Allen makes.
Parrott states that, "The connexion between
Hamlet and The Revenge of Bussy
D'Ambois is a commonplace of criticism;
but it does not seem to have been noticed
that this relation, except in certain details,
is not one of imitation. On the contrary, it
is one of deliberate and carefully planned
contrast."
This same play which praises and names
the Earl of Oxford, describes the high born
Poet's book, whose every detail fits exactly
the book in the Ashbourne portrait of Shakespeare,
which X-rays revealed beneath crude
over-painting to be the poet and playwright
Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. In the
portrait Oxford Shake-speare is holding
this richly bound book of his own verses as
described in the play. Here we have actual
physical evidence of the gold bound and
crimson stringed book in the painting that
is described in the play, which I will show
that there is reason to believe is Oxford's
own specially bound copy of the Sonnets.
As Parrott notes, parts of the passage
about the high born "foolish poet" in the
Revenge paraphrase a mocking poem of
the ancient Roman lyric poet Catullus. In
his poem Catullus attacked the poetry of
Alfenus Varus under the satirical name
Suffenus. Catullus writes that Suffenus is
"a charming fellow, and has wit .He also
makes many more verses than anyone else.
I suppose he has got 10,000 or more written
out in full.imperial paper, new rolls, new
bosses, red ties, parchment.wrappers; all
ruled with lead and smoothed with pumice.
When you come to read these, the fashionable
well-bred Suffenus I spoke of seems to
be nothing but any goatherd or ditcher.the
same man who was just now a dinner table
wit.is more clumsy than the clumsy country
whenever he touches poetry.and, at
the same time. he delights in himself
and admires himself so much."
In 1580 Gabriel Harvey used the words
"apish" and Ape to lampoon Oxford and the
French and Italianate dress and tendencies
that Oxford brought back from his travels
to the continent, in his satirical yet equally
admiring poem about the earl of Oxford,
Speculum Tuscanismi, which included the
following lines:
"...A little apish flat couched fast to the pate
like an oyster, French Camerick ruffs, deep
with a whiteness starched to the purpose..."
A vulture's smelling, Ape's tasting, sight of an Eagle,
[Percy Allen] draws attention to a passage in
_A Lover's Complaint_ similar to the description
of the sonnets book in The Revenge
of Bussy D'Ambois:
...of folded schedulls had she many a one,
Which she perusd, sighed, tore, and gave the flud;
Crackt many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their Sepulchers in mud,
Found yet mo letters sadly pend in blood,
With sleided silke, feate and affectedly
Enswath'd and seald to curious secrecy.
The Dutch painter Cornelius Ketel,
whose initials Barrell found in the
painting through X-rays, was in England
from 1573 to 1581. Hatton introduced
Ketel as a painter to Elizabeth's Court in
1578. Van Mander notes Ketel painted a
portrait of Oxford. In 1580 Harvey mocked
Oxford's wearing of large French Camerick
ruffs. Barrell's X-ray examination revealed
a large circular ruff under the visible ruff.
Lord Russell's 1580 French ruff fits perfectly
over the outlines of this hidden ruff.
A 1578 Cornelius Ketel painting of Thomas Pead shows remarkable
similarities to the Ashbourne, particularly the skull sitting on a
partially-showing table, the sitter's black costume with white trim, and
a medium-brown background.
In a time when portraits often exhibited
the sitter's social position and occupation
which the painter depicted with physical
articles that were associated with or symbolized
these functions and states, the Dutch
painter Ketel was particularly prone to
include these articles in his paintings.
So it is not surprising to see Oxford, the
nobleman poet playwright and courtier,
holding a special book of his own poems in
one hand and a courtier's guantlet glove in
the other hand in the Ashbourne portrait of
Shakespeare. It is absurd however to claim
that this golden book of verses and the
courtier's gauntlet glove would define either
the Stratford grain dealer Shakspere
or the London haberdasher merchant
Hamersley, whom the Folger Shakespeare
Library now claims to be the Ashbourne
subject. This merchant Hamersley-who
did not have a coat of arms until 1614 and
did not become Lord Mayor of London
until 1627-would have been depicted with
articles commonly associated with his
haberdasher merchant's trade at the supposed
1611 date shown on this painting.
Cherrett notes in his letter that
Hamersley was "one of those shrewd and
hard-working Elizabethan merchants and
financiers who survived in a tempestuous
age and rose to considerable wealth, a title
and civic fame. He was closely associated
with the Haberdashers' Company.Clearly
he was a very powerful figure in the commercial
life of the capital."and ". was
also very active in public life.". Records
show "him a regular and dutiful attender at
meetings of his various companies and
civic bodies on which he served.
But his greatest interest was in the army.
He was first Colonel of the City's
forces.and President (1619-1633) of the
Hon. Artillery Company."34 Hardly the
man to commission a portrait of himself in
1611 holding an elaborately gilded book
with crimson tie strings in one hand and a
courtier's gauntlet glove in his other hand.
which connects the ring to the boar of the
Oxford's. Dr. Spielmann of the Encyclopedia
Britannica, who examined the
Ashbourne in 1910, pointed out that "it is
rare to find it (a thumb ring) in the portraits
of Englishmen not of exalted rank, and that
of John Fletcher is the only one I can recall."
Yet he goes on to say somewhat disingenuously
that there was no reason why
Shakspere from Stratford would not have
worn a thumb ring any more than he may
have worn an earring in the Chandos portrait.
Oxford's positioning in the portrait
indicates that the two remaining symbols in
the painting are closely connected together.
He is shown resting his right arm on the
cranium of a skull on the table next to him,
with the book "bound richly up and strung
with Crimson strings" in his right hand, his
index finger holding his place between the pages.
In a number of Queen Elizabeth's portraits
she is shown with books, including the
1590 portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts portraying
the Queen with her hand resting on
some books on a table.37 And the learned
Sir Thomas Smythe, who tutored the young
Edward de Vere, is shown in his burial
monument holding a book.38
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The REVEnge of Bussy D'Ambois.
Clermont: .you make me remember
An accident of high and noble note,
And fits the subject of my late discourse,
Of holding on our free and proper way.
I over-took, coming from Italie,
In Germanie, a great and famous Earle
Of England; the most goodly fashion'd man
I ever saw: from head to foote in forme
Rare, and most absolute; hee had a face
Like one of the most ancient honour'd Romanes,
From whence his noblest Famillie was deriv'd
He was beside of spirit passing great,
Valiant, and learn'd, and liberall as the Sunne,
Spoke and writ sweetly, or of learned subjects,
Or of the discipline of publike weales;
And t'was the Earle of Oxford.
(lines 80-95, III, iv.)7
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