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Earl of Oxford (1550-1604) Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was born on 12 April, 1550, at Castle Hedingham in Essex. Throughout the 1580s, De Vere maintained a band of tumblers as well as two theater companies, Oxford's Boys and Oxford's Men. The former company played at the Blackfriars Theater in London. Evidence of De Vere's lifelong interest in learning were the numerous contemporary tributes to his patronage.
A biography of Edward de Vere was written in 1928 by Bernard M. Ward. In 1920 the Earl of Oxford was put forward as the true author of the works of William Shakespeare by J. Thomas Looney in his Shakespeare Identified in Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. In 1975, the Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition) commented that, "Edward de Vere became in the 20th century the strongest candidate proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's plays."
The original Globe opened in 1599. It burned down in 1613 and was immediately rebuilt. It was closed by the Puritans in 1642. Now, 200 yards from its original site, after almost 400 years, the Globe Theatre has been opened to the public again: the rebuilt playhouse was officially inaugurated by Her Majesty the Queen on Thursday 12 June 1997, its Opening Season ran from 29 May to 21 September 1997, and every summer it now offers performances of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries on the type of stage they were written for, many of them in authentic clothing.
Bard of Avon was a title given to William Shakespeare, who was born and buried in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. A bard is a poet.
Stratford-upon-Avon is situated in the heart of the English midlands. A market town dating back to medieval times, Stratford is today most famous as the birthplace of the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare.
Chamberlain's Men,
also called LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S MEN, a theatrical company with which Shakespeare was intimately connected for most of his professional career as a dramatist. It was the most important company of players in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
