Our common ancestors - Herbert - Contents

Connections with Shakespeare

The Herbert family had a number of connections with William Shakespeare.

• It is reputed that Shakespeare and his players first performed As You Like It (1600) and perhaps Twelfth Night (prob. 1601) at Wilton House. (Though nearby Salisbury town, Wiltshire, also claims a particular spot as the place where As You Like It was first performed.)

• Shakespeare's sonnets were dedicated to "Mr. W. H." in 1609.
  This has been identified with William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
  See the short story The Portrait of Mr. W. H. in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde.

• Some people have suggested that the 3rd Earl of Pembroke is the model for the "Fair Youth" in Shakespeare's sonnets, and that his lover Mary Fitton is the "Dark Lady".

• The First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays (published posthumously 1623) is dedicated to the 3rd and 4th Earls of Pembroke.

Connections with the Earl of Oxford

The Herbert family also had a number of connections with Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
Some fringe people have claimed Oxford is the real Shakespeare. (Most professional historians and academics reject this theory.)
But it is interesting that the Herberts have links to both.

• De Vere's unhappy wife Anne Cecil had once been intended for Lady Pembroke's brother Sir Philip Sidney.
  Anne married de Vere in 1571, and he treated her badly.
  Sidney (still then unmarried) and de Vere had a famous quarrel in 1579.

• In 1597 it was proposed that William Herbert (the future 3rd Earl of Pembroke) would marry de Vere's daughter Bridget. Terms were not acceptable to Herbert and he withdrew. He married another in Nov 1604.

• The 4th Earl of Pembroke married de Vere's daughter Susan in Dec 1604.

The First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays (published posthumously 1623) is dedicated to the 3rd and 4th Earls of Pembroke.
From here. See also p.2.
See many more images.