Anne Vavasour’s Echo and Queen Elizabeth I’s visit to Kenilworth Castle, July 10th of 1575.

All Oxfordians of any experience are aware of the famous Echo poem found in Rawlinson MS 85 and in other manuscripts. In Rawlinson it is entitled "Ann Vavasour's Echo". This would strongly suggest that it was written before 1581.

Sitting alone upon my thought in melancholy mood,

In sight of sea, and at my back an ancient hoary wood,

I saw a fair young lady come, her secret fears to wail,

Clad all in colour of a nun, and covered with a veil;

Yet (for the day was calm and clear) I might discern her face,

As one might see a damask rose hid under crystal glass.

Three times, with her soft hand, full hard on her left side she knocks,

And sigh'd so sore as might have mov'd some pity in the rocks;

From sighs and shedding amber tears into sweet song she brake,

When thus the echo answered her to every word she spake:

Oh heavens! who was the first that bred in me this fever? Vere

Who was the first that gave the wound whose fear I wear forever? Vere.

What tyrant, Cupid, to my harm usurps thy golden quiver? Vere.

What wight first caught this heart and can from bondage it deliver? Vere.

Yet who doth most adore this wight, oh hollow caves tell true? You.

What nymph deserves his liking best, yet doth in sorrow rue? You.

What makes him not reward good will with some reward or ruth? Youth.

What makes him show besides his birth, such pride and such untruth? Youth.

May I his favour match with love, if he my love will try? Ay.

May I requite his birth with faith? Then faithful will I die? Ay.

And I, that knew this lady well, Said, Lord how great a miracle,

To her how Echo told the truth, As true as Phoebus' oracle.[1]

Poetry encyclopedias and dictionaries tend to refer to Echo poems as conceits popular during the 16^th and 17^th century.

Barnaby Barnes did also write a fine echo poem that he published, in 1593, in his Parthenophil and Parthenophe. These opening lines by way of example:

ECho ! What shall I do to my Nymph, when I go to behold her?

Echo, Hold her!

So dare I not! lest She should think that I make her a prey then!

Echo, Pray then!

Yea, but at me, She will take scorn, proceeded of honour!

Echo, On her!

Me bear will She (with her, to deal so saucily) never!

Echo, Ever![2]

He was ten years old when Vere and Vavasour’s infamous scandal broke. But manuscript collections were still the common way for gentles’ poems to circulate. The poem and the scandal were still very much in the air as proven by the number of extant copies and by Jonson’s satire on Romeo and Juliet in his Poetaster.[3]

The religious poet George Herbert took over the echo poem for a religious conceit in a poem entitled “Heaven”.

O Who will show me those delights on high?

Echo: I.

Thou Echo, thou art mortall, all men know.

Echo: No.

Wert thou not born among the trees and leaves?

Echo: Leaves.

And are there any leaves, that still abide?

Echo: Bide.

What leaves are they? impart the matter wholly.

Echo: Holy.

Are holy leaves the Echo then of blisse?

Echo: Yes.[4]

Moreover, in volume two of George Herbert Palmer’s edition of the English Works of his forebear, we are informed of five other instances.

Echo-songs were common in the poetry before Herbert. Sidney has one in Book II of the Arcadia. Lord Herbert of Cherbury has four.[5]

Sidney’s, of course, would have to have been written around the same time as Vere’s.

Queen Elizabeth I’s visit to Kenilworth Castle, in July of 1575, was the occasion of what is credited to be the first Echo poem in the English language. On Sunday the 10^th of July of that year “there met her in the forest, as she came from hunting, one clad like a savage man, all in ivy,” who spoke his part in poetry.

Why, Echo, friend, where dwell'st thou now!

thou wont'st to harbour here.

(Echo answered.)

Echo. Here.

 

then tell thou me some news,

For else my heart would burst with grief,

of truth it cannot chuse.

Echo. Chuse.

 

Chuse ? why ? but thou me help:

I say my heart will break:

And therefore even of courtesy,

I pray thee Echo speak.

Echo, Speak.

 

I speak? yes, that I will,

unless thou be too coy,

Then tell me first what is the cause,

that all the people joy?

Echo. Joy.

 

Joy? surely that is so,

as may full well be seen:

But wherefore do they so rejoice?

is it for King or Queen?

Echo. Queen.

 

Queen? what, the Queen of Heaven?

they knew her long agone:

No sure some Queen on earth,

whose like was never none.

Echo. None.

 

O then, it seems the Queen

of England for to be,

Whose graces make the Gods to grudge:

methinks it should be she.

Echo. She.

Gascoigne was already a trend-setter in the English literary world.  With this he provoked Sidney’s and “Ann Vavasour's Echo” poems. With his play Supposes he would influence Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.  With his play Jocasta, he would influence Edward de Vere’s Ulysses and Agamemnon (the “old play” incorporated into Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida). “Ann Vavasour's Echo” would share a considerable number of lines with Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis.

The works themselves of George Gascoigne would echo through much of the greatest of English literature.

---

[1] Looney, J. Thomas. The Poems of Edward De Vere (1921). 2-3. ‘As Oxford's poem was not published in his day

''Shakespeare" mutt have known it in manuscript.’

[2] Barnes, Barnaby. Parthenophil and Parthenophe (1593). 471-4.

[3] See my Edward De Vere was Shake-speare: at long last, the proof (2013, 2017) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1543136257/ and my Capulet, Capulet & Parolles: Edward de Vere’s Biography in the Works of Shakespeare (2020). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LLDM91P on Jonson’s Poetaster and his outing of Shakespeare.

[4] Palmer, George Herbert. The English Works of George Herbert (1905). 273.

[5] Ibid. 274.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

• July 1571: Edward de Vere becomes engaged to Anne Cecil. July 9, 2022. “Philip’s father, Sir Henry Sidney, and mere Sir William Cecil had been negotiating for some two years in preparation for Anne reaching the marriageable age of 16.”
• Edward de Vere and Marlowe’s Dido of Carthage. July 5, 2022. “It was an historical effort and an historical two years for Elizabethan theater.”
• The Character Montano, in Hamlet, and Polonius’ Famous Advice. May 25, 2022. “The reader may recall that Polonius calls upon Reynaldo to suggest to Laertes’ friends that he is privy to minor misbehaviors, at which he winks,…”
• The Death of Sir Edward Vere, son of the 17th Earl of Oxford and Anne Vavasour. May 8, 2022. “Mr. Sedgwick wrote to me for a prayer for Sir Edward Vere.”
• How Shakespeare gave Ben Jonson the Infamous Purge. November 7, 2021. “Of course, De Vere could not openly accuse Jonson of having outed him as Shakespeare.”
• Check out the Shakespeare Authorship Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
• Check out the Letters Index: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.