Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Name: Loss of Good Name
Author: Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Biographical details

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Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550–1604), was an Elizabethan courtier, poet, and patron of the arts, renowned for his lyrical verse and complex personal life. His works, such as Love Compared to a Tennis-Play and Woman’s Changeableness, explore themes of love’s fragility, human contradiction, and the conflict between reason and emotion.

A prolific writer of sonnets and plays, his body of work reflects both courtly elegance and deep introspective sorrow. Though none of his plays have survived, his literary influence persists through dedications that praise his patronage and his ongoing significance as a key figure in discussions about Shakespeare’s authorship.

Quotes by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Labour and its Reward (1573)

“ Who worketh most to their share least doth fall,
With due desert reward will never be.
The swiftest hare unto the mastiff slow
Oft-times doth fall, to him as for a prey;
The greyhound thereby doth miss his game we know
For which he made such speedy haste away.
So he that takes the pain to pen the book,
Reaps not the gifts of goodly golden muse;
But those gain that, who on the work shall look,
And from the sour the sweet by skill doth choose,
For he that beats the bush the bird not gets,
But who sits still and holdeth fast the nets. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Love thy Choice

“ Who taught thy tongue the woeful words of plaint?
Who filled your eyes with tears of bitter smart?
Who gave thee grief and made thy joys to faint?
Who first did paint with colours pale thy face?
Who first did break thy sleeps of quiet rest?
Above the rest in court who gave thee grace?
Who made thee strive in honour to be best?
In constant truth to bide so firm and sure,
To scorn the world regarding but thy friends?
With patient mind each passion to endure,
In one desire to settle to the end? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Woman's Changeableness (|override_year)

“ If women could be fair and yet not fond,
Or that their love were firm not fickle, still,
I would not marvel that they make men bond,
By service long to purchase their good will;
But when I see how frail those creatures are,
I muse that men forget themselves so far. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Anne Vavasour's Echo (c/1581)

“ 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? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Love compared to a tennis-play

“ Whenas the heart at tennis plays, and men to gaming fall,
Love is the court, hope is the house, and favour serves the ball.
The ball itself is true desert; the line, which measure shows,
Is reason, whereon judgment looks how players win or lose. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, What Cunning can Express (1593)

“ A thousand Cupids fly
About her gentle eye.
From which each throws a dart,
That kindleth soft sweet fire:
Within my sighing heart,
Possessed by Desire.
No sweeter life I try,
Than in her love to die. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Love and Antagonism (1576)

“ The present pains perforce that Love aye seeks,
Bid me renew my cares without relief;
In woeful song, in dole display,
My pensive heart for to betray.
Betray thy grief, thy woeful heart with speed ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Winged with Desire (|override_year)

“ Making light show where I esteem most dear.
A malcontent, yet seem I pleased still,
Bragging of heaven, yet feeling pains of hell;
But time shall frame a time unto my will,
Whenas in sport this earnest will I tell ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Reason and Affection (1576)

“ My sighing seas shall flow with streams of tears;
Amidst disdains drive forth thy doleful chance,
A valiant mind no deadly danger fears;
Who loves aloft and sets his heart on high
Deserves no pain, though he do pine and die. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Come Hither Shepherd Swain (1589)

“ Doth company displease?
It doth in many one.
Where would Desire then choose to be?
He loves to muse alone.
What feedeth most thy sight?
To gaze on beauty still.
Whom find’st thou most thy foe?
Disdain of my good will.
Will ever age or death
Bring thee unto decay?
No, no, Desire both lives and dies
A thousand times a day.
Then, Fond Desire, farewell;
Thou art no mate for me;
I should be loath, methinks, to dwell
With such a one as thee.
This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, My Mind to me a Kingdom is (|override_year)

“ I laugh not at another's loss;
I grudge not at another's gain:
No worldly waves my mind can toss;
My state at one doth still remain.
I fear no foe, nor fawning friend;
I loathe not life, nor dread my end. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Love and Wit (1576)

“ My meaning is to work what wonders love hath wrought,
Wherewith I muse, why men of wit have love so dearly bought.
For love is worse than hate, and eke more harm hath done;
Record I take of those that rede of Paris, Priam’s son. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, The Forsaken Man (1576)

“ A crown of bays shall that man wear,
That triumphs over me;
For black and tawny will I wear,
Which mourning colours be.
The more I follow’d one,
The more she fled away,
As Daphne did full long agone
Apollo’s wishful prey.
The more my plaints I do resound
The less she pities me;
The more I sought the less I found,
Yet mine she meant to be.
Melpomene alas, with doleful tunes help than; [then]
And sing Bis, woe worth on me forsaken man. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Woman's Changeableness (|override_year)

“ I muse that men forget themselves so far.
To mark the choice they make, and how they change,
How oft from Phoebus do they flee to Pan,
Unsettled still like haggards wild they range,
These gentle birds that fly from man to man;
Who would not scorn and shake them from the fist
And let them fly fair fools which way they list.
Yet for disport we fawn and flatter both,
To pass the time when nothing else can please,
And train them to our lure with subtle oath,
Till, weary of their wiles, ourselves we ease ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, I do increase their wand'ring wits

“ To see how he sat taunting them, upon his royal seat.
O then I wisht I had been free, and cured were my wound;
Me-thought I could display his arms, and coward deeds expound.
But I perforce must stay my muse, full sore against my heart. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Care and Disappointment (1576)

“ The which betokeneth, forsaken is of me,
That with the careful culver climbs the worn and withered tree,
To entertain my thoughts, and there my hap to moan,
That never am less idle, lo! than when I am alone. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Loss of Good Name (1576)

“ Help Gods, help saints, help sprites and powers that in the heaven do dwell,
Help ye that are aye wont to wail, ye howling hounds of hell;
Help man, help beasts, help birds and worms, that on the earth do toil ”

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Biographical details

Quotes by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

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Works by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

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