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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help
If Shakespeare intended this, it would have been a little risky
if this had been common knowledge at the time the play was
produced. The Earl of Essex, aka Viscount Hereford, was a
gentleman named Walter Devereaux. He was married to Lettice
Knollyes, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, and subsequently her
sworn enemy, when she secretly married the Queen's favorite, the
Earl of Leicester in 1579. This connection, in an era when
family connections were rigorously preserved and protected,
could not have been comfortable for QE. However, since Hamlet was published in
1601, this would have been old history, and perhaps people
weren't quite so concerned about offending the Queen.
Posted by Liz on April 09, 1997 at 21:22:10
In Reply to "Hamlet and the Earl of Essex" posted by Kara Nemeth on April 09, 1997 at 19:57:31
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help